Another funny bit of ‘Remarkable Holocaust Nonsense’ is found in the ‘Holocaust Survivor’ and jewish doctor at Auschwitz Gisella Perl’s 1948 autobiography ‘I was a Doctor in Auschwitz’ where she claims that:
‘There was one latrine for thirty to thirty-two thousand women and we were permitted to use it only at certain hours of the day. We stood in line to get into this tiny building, knee deep in human excrement. As we all suffered from dysentery, we could rarely wait until our turn came, and soiled our ragged clothes, which never came off our bodies, thus adding to the horror of our existence by the terrible smell which surrounded us like a cloud. The latrine consisted of a deep ditch with planks thrown across it at certain intervals. We squatted on these planks like birds perched on a telegraph wire, so close together that we could not help soiling one another.’ (1)
The irony about this is there is actually some truth to what Perl is talking about, but she pretends that it was a long-lasting phenomenon but was in fact an exaggerated version of the situation in 1942 to spring 1943 which the Germans swiftly rectified since SS doctor Eduard Wirths sent the following requirement of Rudolf Hoss on 20th March 1943:
‘Bedridden patients must use dry toilets (bedpans lined with lime and peat moss) which, as also already mentioned, are kept in an isolated space in each barracks. For a load of 190 patient-prisoners, 14 dry toilets are required for this, 5 for each 70 patients, thus 343 dry toilets altogether.’ (2)
As well as SS-Brigadefuhrer Hans Kammler – who inspected Auschwitz on 7th May 1943 – who wrote in a memo on 9th May 1943 about the Germans plans to sort the sanitation situation:
‘General description from the garrison physician that the maintenance of the prisoners’ health appears tenuous, due to the bad conditions in the latrines, an inadequate drainage system, lack of medical barracks and separate latrines for the sick, as well as lack of laundry, bathing and disinfestation capabilities. For the improvement of the PoW camp, the renovation of the latrines is called for, that these be provided with toilet seats and lids. Due to the often-clogged sewer lines, many of them [the toilets] have to be emptied out on occasion, and the feces have to be removed and recycled for agricultural purposes.
The head of the Central Construction Office opposed this approach, and recommended an outlet from the water-supply network in which the latrines would be flushed by means of a ramp over which water would flow continuously. He opposed the septic-tank scheme because of the high groundwater level, from which contamination of the groundwater is to be expected, since the necessary but difficult tub-style insulation works cannot be performed at the moment, and because rough estimates indicate that the amount of feces cannot be deposited anywhere near the camp. The greatest difficulties could be overcome only by fitting the entire drainage system with pipes and with a pumping station, for which, however, the necessary allotments [of construction material] are missing. The Brigadefuhrer has recognized the very special urgency of these matters and promises to do everything possible to remedy them. He wonders, however, that on the one hand he receives favorable reports from physicians about the sanitary and hygienic conditions, and on the other hand later receives completely opposite reports. The head of the Central Construction Office is instructed to submit suggestions to the head of Office Group C until May 15, 1943 for the resolution of the deficiencies and the design of an effective drainage system, while ignoring the current contingency difficulties, which the head of Office Group C will sort out himself.’ (3)
We know this drastically improved since by September 1943 since different populations – in this instance Czech prisoners and jews – now had separate toilet blocks provisioned for them. (4)
The point here is that Perl’s memoir is dishonest in that it represents a very particular time at Auschwitz which she was not in fact at Auschwitz for – she arrived in 1944 when what she is describing is a massively propagandised version of the state of the Auschwitz camp’s sanitation facilities in 1942 to early 1943 – so we can see that is in fact ‘Remarkable Holocaust Nonsense’ because she is making up things that we know from the documentation were not the case in 1944!
References
(1) Gisella Perl, 2007, [1948], ‘I was a Doctor in Auschwitz’, 1st Edition, Ayer: North Stratford, pp. 32-33
(2) Quoted by Carlo Mattogno, 2016, ‘Healthcare in Auschwitz: Medical Care and Special Treatment of Registered Inmates’, 1st Edition, Castle Hill: Uckfield, pp. 43-44
(3) Quoted in Ibid., pp. 44-45
(4) Ibid., p. 104