Below are excerpts from the diary of SS Doctor Johann Kremer, concerning his time at Auschwitz. See _The Good Old Days_, by Ernst Klee, W. Dressen, and V. Riess, The Free Press, New York, 1988, p. 256. 2 September 1942 Attended my first Sonderaktion, outside, at 3:00 AM. Dante's Inferno seems to me almost a comedy compared to this. They don't call Auschwitz the extermination camp for nothing! [Note 1: "Sonderaktion," literally "special action," refers to a mass gassing operation. Note 2: some editions of the diary omit the word "outside," and some Holocaust-deniers, led by Faurisson, make much of this. They claim that because Kremer was outside, that therefore "Sonderaktion" must not refer to a gassing operation, but rather to some other special action (they don't suggest what that might be). As Greg Raven writes: "Clearly, mass homicidal gassings are not outdoor events." This reasoning might possibly make sense if the gassings were performed at one of the Krematoria, which housed gas chambers inside larger buildings. In that case, observers might be stationed inside the building, in a different room. However, we know that this gassing took place in one of the two Auschwitz "provisional bunkers," because the first Krematorium was taken out of use in July 1942, and the next was not ready until March 1943. Also, Kremer refers to the bunker on October 12th (see below). These bunkers were simply cottages with minor changes: bricked-up windows and so on. At these makeshift installations, the Nazis stood outside the building, and inserted the poison through wall vents. The only people inside were those being killed by gas. Dr. Kremer's reason for being present was to watch for and treat any accidental poisoning of the SS personnel. So in this case, the mass gassing was indeed an outdoor event -- except for the victims, of course. And it would be naive to think that Faurisson, Raven, and other "revisionists" are not aware of this. Note 3: "Extermination camp" is in German "das Lager der Vernichtung." Literally it would be "the camp of annihilation."] 5 September 1942 In the morning attended a Sonderaktion from the women's concentration camp (Muslims); the most dreadful of horrors. Hschf. Thilo -- army doctor -- was right when he said to me this is the "anus mundi." In the evening towards 8:00, attended another Sonderaktion from Holland. [Note 4: "Muslims" does not mean "practicing Islam"; this is the way the SS and inmates referred to people so emaciated, sick, and despairing as to be "walking dead." Nobody knows the origin of the term. Note 5: "anus mundi" is Latin, literally "anus of the world."] 10 October 1942 Extracted and fixed fresh live material from liver, spleen and pancreas... 11 October 1942 Today, Sunday, there was roast hare for lunch -- a real fat leg -- with dumplings and red cabbage for 1.25 RM. 12 October 1942 Second inoculation against typhus, later on in the evening severe generalized reaction (fever). Despite this in the night attended a further Sonderaktion from Holland (1,600 persons). Ghastly scenes in front of the last bunker! That was the 10th Sonderaktion. 13 November 1942 Extracted fresh live material (liver, spleen and pancreas) from a previously photographed, severely atrophied Jewish prisoner aged eighteen. Fixed as always, liver and spleen in Carnoy and pancreas in Zenker (Prisoner No. 68,030). Below is an excerpt from Kremer's testimony regarding his diary. See Klee et al., op. cit., p. 258. I remember I once took part in the gassing of one of these groups of women [from the women's camp in Auschwitz]. I cannot say how big the group was. When I got close to the bunker I saw them sitting on the ground. They were still clothed. As they were wearing worn-out camp clothing they were not left in the undressing hut but made to undress in the open air. I concluded from the behavior of these women that they had no doubt what fate awaited them, as they begged and sobbed to the SS men to spare them their lives. However, they were herded into the gas chambers and gassed. As an anatomist I have seen a lot of terrible things: I had had a lot of experience with dead bodies, and yet what I saw that day was like nothing I had ever seen before. Still completely shocked by what I had seen I wrote on my diary on 5 September 1942: "The most dreadful of horrors. Hauptscharfuehrer Thilo was right when he said to me today that this is the 'anus mundi,' the anal orifice of the world". I used this image because I could not imagine anything more disgusting and horrific.
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