PART TWO

The extermination instruments

Forward on the sources: Contains a listing on source documents.

17.000 Chapter 1. History of Topf. Chapter 1 is a history of Topf and Son, the crematory retort manufacturers. It is interesting primarily for the historical background. The following items are questionable:

1. On page # 105 Pressac discusses a patent for a retort furnace that he thinks burns bones. This is impossible.

2. According to Pressac the crematory at Mauthausen had retorts which could burn two bodies per hour. He should know better since the best retorts today (some fifty years later) can only handle one body per retort per 1.25 hours and cannot burn continuously or the furnace will burn out.

3. He also says that Messing of Topf tested the alleged gas chamber at Krema II with hydrogen cyanide to see if the ventilation system worked. There is no evidence to support this at all.