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| Europe |
| Auschwitz plans found in Berlin flat |
| 2008-11-10 |
| A complete set of original plans for construction of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz have been found in a flat in Berlin, according to a report in Bild newspaper. The 28 yellowing blueprints show an 11.66 metre by 11.20 metre room marked "Gaskammer" (gas chamber). The plans also include a crematorium and a room marked "L. Keller" - an abbreviation for "Leichenkeller", or corpse cellar. Hans-Dieter Kreikamp, head of the federal archives office in Berlin, told Bild that the blueprints offered "authentic evidence of the systematically planned genocide of European Jews". The plans also offer evidence that the Nazis planned the Holocaust from an earlier date than previously believed. The decision to kill Europe's 11 million Jews has historically been dated to the Wannsee Conference in January 1942. A copy of the minutes, known as the "Wannsee Protocol", is generally regarded as one of the most important documents from the war. But the newly discovered Auschwitz plans, published ahead of the 70th anniversary of the Kristallnacht purge against Jews, are dated Oct 23, 1941, offering evidence that the Nazis had developed plans to kills Jews on a mass scale earlier than previously thought, the newspaper said. The plans of the death camp, which was built near Krakow, in Poland, were drawn by SS technicians and inmates. Dr Kreikamp said one green ink sketch on the plans appears to be in the hand of SS chief Heinrich Himmler. Dr Kreikamp said he attached "extraordinary meaning to the documents". He added; "The documents reveal that everyone who was concerned with the planning and building of the extermination camp would have known that human beings were to be put to death here on an industrial scale. "The documents disprove beyond all doubt that which Holocaust deniers claim - that Auschwitz was nothing more than a labour camp where no gassing took place." The planning documents are to undergo further research at the federal archive before being turned over to scholars interested in using them. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #7 Approximately 11 million people were killed in the death camps. 6 million were Jews. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2008-11-10 19:14 |
| #6 "The decision to kill Europe's 11 million Jews has historically been dated to the Wannsee Conference in January 1942" The decision was well made before that date. What was decided at the Conference were the exact measures and organization. One of the most important "technicalities" was about how to deal with people who were only partly Jewish. The documents are certainly interesting but "prove" nothing new. There is probably no single historic event (and atrocity) better documented and proven without any doubt than the holocaust including the gas chambers. |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2008-11-10 16:42 |
| #5 i think they meant there where 11millionn jews in europe. 6 million were killed |
| Posted by: chris 2008-11-10 11:37 |
| #4 It's 11 million now? I thought it was 6 million just a few years ago, at this rate they will have gone extinct 60 years ago by next year. I don't know if there is anything in the media that I would believe anymore, but if these prove to be real they will certainly give the arabs someting to squeal about for a while. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-11-10 10:09 |
| #3 I'll bite: They were 'Yellowing'... Seriously, though, have you ever met a person that saves EVERYTHING? You should have seen my grandmother's house by the time she was moved into hospice with Alzheimers. No surprise it happens in other countries, too. My bet: Relatives were clearing out the 'junk' & salvaging familial items. If it were the property owner, they might have been tossed as 'garbage'. |
| Posted by: logi_cal 2008-11-10 09:46 |
| #2 What were these doing in a Berlin flat? |
| Posted by: Richard of Oregon 2008-11-10 06:05 |
| #1 Eh...'they' will just say the Jews forged the perfect instrument to prove their point, and 'they' will believe it just because 'they' want them to and, simply, 'they' also WANT to believe it... What species is the only one to have effectively neutralized the law of natural selection? Oh, yeah... |
| Posted by: logi_cal 2008-11-10 00:22 |