Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz.
Olga Lengyel
[back] Eye Witnesses
See: Crematoriums
Quotes
Lagacé was referred to page 17 of Did Six Million Really Die? where Harwood
stated:
"Although Reitlinger's 6,000 a day would mean a total by October 1944 of
over 5 million, all such estimates pale before the wild fantasies of Olga
Lengyel in her book Five Chimneys (London, 1959). Claiming to be a former inmate
of Auschwitz, she asserts that the camp cremated no less than "720 per hour, or
17,280 corpses per twenty-four hour shift." She also alleges that, in addition,
8,000 people were burned every day in the "death-pits", and that therefore "In
round numbers, about 24,000 corpses were handled every day" (p. 80- 1). This, of
course, would mean a yearly rate of over 8-1/2 million. Thus between March 1942
and October 1944 Auschwitz would finally have disposed of over 21 million
people, six million more than the entire world Jewish population. Comment is
superfluous."
Lagacé testified that from his own experience in
cremating approximately 1,000 bodies, the figures cited by Reitlinger and
Lengyel were not realistic. The person citing such figures, he said, was,
"irresponsible... with his facts because this doesn't even begin to enter
reality at all. It's just physically unrealistic." Lagacé said that even with
present disaster plans, which provide for massive mobilization and the handling
of large numbers of human remains, it would be "unimaginable" to cremate such
numbers. (27-7447)
Lagacé referred to the 1985 issue of a statistical
sheet compiled yearly by the Cremation Association of North America, showing the
numbers of retorts located on the continent and the number of cremations done
annually. The statistics indicated that in 1985, there were a total of 338,370
bodies cremated in 931 crematories in North America. In Canada alone, a total of
49,216 cremations were performed in 94 crematories. (27-7432, 7433, 7434)
[Ivan Lagacé]
The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988
Quotes by Lengyel
‘After June, 1943, the gas chamber was reserved exclusively
for Jews and Gypsies.. Three hundred and sixty corpses every half-hour, which
was all the time it took to reduce human flesh to ashes, made 720 per hour, or
17,280 corpses per twenty-four hour shift. And the ovens, with murderous
efficiency, functioned day and night. However, one must also reckon the death
pits, which could destroy another 8,000 cadavers a day. In round numbers, about
24,000 corpses were handled each day. An admirable production record, one that
speaks well for German industry.’ (Paperback edition, pp80-81).
No trace of any remains of or in ‘death pits’ has been found.
Book
Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz.
