Did Six Million Really Die?
Testimony of
Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.
Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. was the twenty-first witness in the great Zundel trial.MAJDANEK
At Majdanek concentration camp, Leuchter examined a combination crematory and gas chamber facility, and a building known as "Bath and Disinfection no. 1" which was alleged to have contained two experimental gas chambers and one conventional gas chamber. (32-9105, 9144; Plan of Majdanek indicating location of new crematorium and alleged gas chamber and Bath & Disinfection Building no. 1 entered as Exhibit 143)
Combination Crematory and Gas Chamber
Information supplied by the Majdanek Museum indicated that at the end of or just shortly before the end of the war, this entire facility was levelled, with the exception of the cremation ovens. It was not explained how. After the war, the facility was rebuilt from plans that the museum officials said existed but which they no longer had and no longer knew the location of. (32-9105, 9106)
This building was made of precast concrete with reinforced steel rods and bars and covered with wood to make it look like the original. An extremely small area inside designated as the gas chamber contained two non-sealable doors and a non-sealable window that led directly into the crematory area. In Leuchter's opinion, if the room had been utilized as a gas chamber, an explosion would have resulted from gas leaking from the chamber into the crematory area. (32- 9106)
At this point, Judge Thomas directed defence counsel to stop further questioning about this building since it was a reconstruction and he would not have evidence in the court about "tourist attraction[s]." (32-9107)
Bath & Disinfection Building No. 1: Delousing Chamber
The interior of the first alleged gas chamber was mortar with an unpainted stucco surface, covering an underlining of red brick. There were two holes in the ceiling through which it was alleged the Zyklon B had been dropped into the chamber. These vents went through the roof but had no stacks. There was simply a 6-inch collar around the top where a cover fitted, much like the vents at Krema I. (32-9110; Drawing of Delousing Chamber, Bath & Disinfection Building no. 1 entered as Exhibit 140)
Two ducts were located on one wall approximately two feet apart, each being under one foot in diameter. Leuchter noted that for an air circulation system, the ducts were in very strange locations. Normally, an intake duct would be located at one end of the room and an exhaust duct at the other end of the room, one located high and the other low, to guarantee complete air circulation. These two ducts were placed much too close together to give proper air circulation. The ducts vented into a sealed area of the building which Leuchter was unable to enter. (32-9112)
The room contained 7,657 cubic feet of volume and 806 square feet of area. Venting of the room would have required about one week. (32-9113)
In Leuchter's opinion, the room could not have been used as a gas chamber. It had improper venting capability. It was not coated with any tar or pitch. The room was cold and damp and had no capability of circulating gas in the room. (32-9113)
Experimental Gas Chambers
The building also contained two allegedly experimental gas chambers. (32-9114; Drawing of Experimental Gas Chambers (Delousing) Bath & Disinfection Building no. 1 entered as Exhibit 140B)
The four doors in Chamber 1 were essentially the same. Each was made of heavy steel and was mounted on a steel frame containing a rabbet: a groove that was cut circularly around the aperture and would normally be used to hold a gasket. The doors had peep holes which were gasketed and made of heavy glass. Two doors had a chemical test cylinder which contained a chemical-test material. This material would have changed colour, depending upon the gas level in the facility. (32-9115, 9116, 9180; Photographs of large steel doors entered as part of Exhibit 151) The walls showed characteristic blue staining which Leuchter found puzzling because there was no means of introducing Zyklon B into the facility. (32-9182)
Outside was a booth that, according to the official allegation, was used by an SS officer who would turn on the valves of the two carbon monoxide cylinders to supply the gas through a piping system to the two chambers. The cylinders were too small in Leuchter's opinion; he pointed out that a barred window beside the cylinders had no glass in it and had been constructed in such a way that it could never have had any glass or gasketed material to stop the gas from leaking out of the chamber into the booth where the person operating the system stood. (32-9116, 9181; Photograph of two alleged carbon monoxide cylinders entered as part of Exhibit 151 at 32-9181) In Leuchter's opinion, if carbon monoxide were used in a facility such as this, some 60,000 parts per million of gas in the air would be required to effect the death in one half hour. Before that much gas could be pumped into a chamber that housed that many people, the people would probably exhaust the available air supply and suffocate strictly from the lack of oxygen. (32-9117)
Leuchter testified that to get 60,000 parts per million of gas into the room, the room would have to be pressurized to approximately two and a half atmospheres, or 55 pounds per inch. These chambers could not hold that pressure without leakage at the doors, the vents and cracks in the brick. Leuchter believed that the facilities might have been experimental delousing chambers using carbon monoxide gas. (32 9116, 9117)
Chamber 2 was alleged to have used Zyklon B gas. But Leuchter, upon inspecting the vent in the roof through which the pellets were allegedly thrown, found that while the vent was cut through the ceiling, it had never been cut through the roof of the building. If this room had been used as a gas chamber, Leuchter testified, there would have been a problem in venting it. The alleged vent did not open through the roof and the only other means of venting the air was through a single door. (32 9118)
The outside of the building was surrounded by a depressed concrete walkway that was about two and a half feet deep below grade. In Leuchter's opinion, utilizing hydrogen cyanide gas in the building, a structure which had no coating of pitch or tar or anything else to prevent gas leakage, would inevitably have resulted in the gas leaking through the brick and foundation and mixing with any rain water which might be in the walkway. This would make the entire facility a death trap for anyone approaching it at any distance around the building. (32-9120)
Leuchter concluded that none of the facilities were used for homicidal gas chambers. Owing to the design and the inherent construction of the buildings, they would have been extremely dangerous and difficult at best to use, and anyone using them probably would have been endangering his own life and others in the area. (32-9121) There was no means of venting, no means of distributing the air and no means of adding the Zyklon B material. (33-9145)
Samples Removed from the Alleged Gas Chambers
Samples collected by Leuchter at the gas chamber sites at Kremas I, II, III, IV and V and from Delousing Facility No. 1 in Auschwitz and Birkenau were placed in plastic zip-lock bags and the bags marked. Samples 1 through 7 were removed from Krema II. Samples 8 through 11 were removed from Krema III. Samples 13 through 20 were removed from Krema IV. Samples 21 through 24 were removed from Krema V. Samples 25 through 31 were removed from Krema I. Sample 32 was a control sample taken from Delousing Facility No. 1 in Birkenau. The locations from which the samples were taken were indicated on the drawings prepared of each site. Samples were collected from the walls and all available surface areas that possibly could have come in contact with hydrogen cyanide gas. Leuchter personally carried the samples from Poland and delivered them to Alpha Laboratories in Ashland, Massachusetts. (32-9124, 9125; 33-9157, 9158, 33-9172)
The only area in Birkenau which indicated any blue staining was Delousing Facility No. 1, from which control sample 32 was removed.
