Aerial Photos of Auschwitz-Birkenau

[alf]

The Mazal site has a series of aerial photos of Auschwitz-Birkenau at

http://www.mazal.org/Auschwitz%20Aerial/Contents.htm

The site itself has a wealth of information all in the one place to research, some will agree with it, some will disagree but its given as a resource for all to look at. http://www.mazal.org

I will post 3 photographs as a sample, I will comment here and then post below in order for easier reading.

Then first photo (i) is simply to show the scale of the camps, from viewing the readings here, many are unaware of the size and complexitiy of the whole area. It isnt topical, it is just an aerial photo from 26.6.1944

The second photo (ii) is topical, it is what could be called a "convergence of evidence" photograph.

It clearly shows a train at the siding, it shows people being seperated into distinct groups, one group heading for the part of the camp where the Gas Chambers and Cremortium are, (there are no exists from the direction they are heading.

Why is it a convergence? Deniers desperately try to treat things in strict isolation, deriding all eye witness accounts, claiming anything docmentary evidence is false it if affects their case. A convergence is a third party piece of evidence that ties in other facets. This picture is such a one. It corroberates all those eye witness testimonies from the Germans and prisoners who survived. It matches the plans of the camp as told by them.

The third picture (iii) is another convergence one, showing the dismantling of the camp in December 1944, again it fits into accounts from the Germans and prisoners who survived. It is at right angles to the previous one btw.

Heading of a standard attack, those who claim John Ball has disproved the photos as frauds, need to read this http://www.holocaust-history.org/auschwitz/john-ball/

Conclusion
A future essay on this website will address the specific issues John Ball raises. For now, we have seen nothing which indicates his expertise to speak on those issues. He can offer no academic credentials of significance. He refuses to address a contradictory expert opinion presented by someone with superior credentials, and has covered up this refusal with a fabrication. The one time he offered to stand behind his results, he quietly disappeared the moment real interest was displayed.

And the one time his expertise was put to any kind of real test - in a court of law - he was "stripped almost bare": ruled so unqualified that he could not be asked to render an opinion on anything related to aerial photographs of Auschwitz.

Detailed analysis of aerial photography is largely a matter of interpretation, and where the results are important we should not trust the interpretation to amateurs. When we are asked to take this man's drawings, explanations and theories as so authoritative that they can nullify the testimony of eyewitnesses to and perpetrators of the crimes, we are at the very least entitled to some evidence that he is well-qualified.

The evidence indicates the opposite.

Shades of Fred Leucter, a psuedo academic to try and mislead.

For more photos and a detailed examination of Ball, go to http://www.holocaust-history.org/see-no-evil/

Some will disbelieve prefering their own predjuices to knowledge, some will study, thats what the site is offered for, those with genuine interest to go and look and start to see for themselves.

The book on the subject is The Holocaust Revisited: A Retrospective Analysis of the Auschwitz -Birkenau Extermination Complex - Dino Brugioni and Robert Poirier (1979)

(edited to get the photos to work, sorry all)

(i)



(ii)



(iii)

[Lucius Felix Silla]

Dear Mr. alf,

These photos and much others not posted here (as the most important, the photo dated 31.5.1944, taken at the peak of the presumed extermination process of Hungarian Jews), proves EXACTLY the contrary of what YOU have written.

None sign of Krematoria in activity, no smoke, no people near or around the Krematoria, no personnel SS in activity, none large pits to bury the corpses of the gassed people are visibles.

THESE PHOTOS, published only in 1979 by CIA and others more recently released, show clearly that the eyewitnesses are wrong: they speak of smoke and flames countinously erupting from crematoria, but in none of the photos taken long seven months from april to october 1944 by allied aviation, there any single sign of smoke, flames, activity of the krematoria.

And just for the precision, the photo nr.2 is stamped to contrary: the krematoria II and III are in wrong position.

A last note: that the people was on way to presumed gas chambers is only a speculative assertion of the editors of the work published in 1979(Brugioni and Poirer). The way, as everyone can see on one map of the camp or in photo nr.3, continues and lead to disinfestation facilities and to barracks of Kanada I.

Best Regards

LFS

[xcalibur]

Dear Mr. alf,

These photos and much others not posted here (as the most important, the photo dated 31.5.1944, taken at the peak of the presumed extermination process of Hungarian Jews), proves EXACTLY the contrary of what YOU have written.

None sign of Krematoria in activity, no smoke, no people near or around the Krematoria, no personnel SS in activity, none large pits to bury the corpses of the gassed people are visibles.

THESE PHOTOS, published only in 1979 by CIA and others more recently released, show clearly that the eyewitnesses are wrong: they speak of smoke and flames countinously erupting from crematoria, but in none of the photos taken long seven months from april to october 1944 by allied aviation, there any single sign of smoke, flames, activity of the krematoria.

And just for the precision, the photo nr.2 is stamped to contrary: the krematoria II and III are in wrong position.

A last note: that the people was on way to presumed gas chambers is only a speculative assertion of the editors of the work published in 1979(Brugioni and Poirer). The way, as everyone can see on one map of the camp or in photo nr.3, continues and lead to disinfestation facilities and to barracks of Kanada I.

Best Regards

LFS

Point of clarification: Are you saying that Krema II is not adjacent to (west of) the Women's Camp as depicted in photo 2?

In photo 2, where the stamp is that says "Gas Chamber and Crematorium III would appear to be the soccer field area you described in another thread. Was this field not directly east of Krema III?

[David Thompson]

LFS -- You said:

THESE PHOTOS, published only in 1979 by CIA and others more recently released, show clearly that the eyewitnesses are wrong: they speak of smoke and flames countinously erupting from crematoria, but in none of the photos taken long seven months from april to october 1944 by allied aviation, there any single sign of smoke, flames, activity of the krematoria.

Please explain to our readers:
(1) The significance of your observation that the CIA didn't release some of the pictures until 1979. If you can, please include the names and dates of persons unsuccessfully trying to obtain the photographs in the 1945-1979 period.
(2) Please tell our readers the days on which photo recon missions were flown over Auschwitz in Apr-Oct 1944.
(3) Please tell our readers exactly why the crematoria would have been active on those days, and
(4) How the fact that the crematoria were not belching smoke at the moment the photos were taken on one or another of those days proves "that the eyewitnesses are wrong."

[RACPISA]

I recently read the book Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? by Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman, and it has a section about interpreting the aerial photographs taken of Auschwitz. It mentions what was going on in the camp during the days that the photographs were taken. To save time, I'll just mention what they said about two of the photos in question, from June 26 and August 25.

On June 26, no one was gassed, according to the Chronicle (Danuta Czech's Auschwitz Chronicle). Four prisoners received numberes; 778 prisoners were transferred from Auschwitz to Buchenwald; and the camp received four sieves for sifting through the man ashes to find unburned human bones for incineration.

No one was gassed on August 25 either. The Chronicle reports only prisoners receiving numbers, and, interestingly, "750 Polish and Russian prisoners were transferred from Auschwitz II to the Fremen A.C., which belongs to Neuengamme." In one August 25 photograph a train is visible, with thirty-three cars stationed near the loading and unloading ramps, with lines and lines of prisoners. These may very well be the same 750 Polish and Russian prisoners, but since we do not know the exact time they were moved, we cannot be sure this is the activity in the photograph.

(p.152)

In terms of the pictures taken December 21, various sources say that Himmler ordered a halt to the gassings at Auschwitz in November 1944.

In November Himmler ordered gassings to stop, and a "clean-up" operation was inaugurated to conceal traces of the mass murder.

http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holoca ... hbirk.html

This website states that Himmler ordred the gassings to stop on October 26 and the message reached Auschwitz on November 2. The last gassing at Auschwitz took place on November 28.

1944 October 26 Himmler issues orders to destroy the crematoriums at Auschwitz-Birkenau in an attempt to eliminate the evidence of Nazi mass murder.

1944 November 2 Himmler's order of October 26 arrives at Auschwitz: "I forbid any further annihilation of Jews." Upon his further orders, all but one of the crematoriums are dismantled, the burning pits covered up and planted over with grass, and the gas pipes and other equipment shipped to concentration camps in Germany. The single remaining crematorium is for the disposal of those who die of natural causes and the gassing of about 200 surviving members of the Sonderkommando. The final solution is formally over. Yet tens of thousands of Jews will continue to die of brutality and neglect. (Apparatus)

1944 November 28 The last gassings take place at Auschwitz. More than 8,000 have been gassed since the first of November. (Atlas)

http://www.humanitas-international.org/ ... 44tbse.htm

A concluding quote from Denying History:

These photographs are a good example of how, in order to make proper interpretations, we must review the physical evidence in conjunction with written documents and eyewitness testimony. Sometimes we can make logical inferences, but other times we cannot draw final conclusions. The historian, however, is willing to wait for further evidence. In contrast, deniers seem anxious to prove that because nothing happened on one particular day at one particular moment, then nothing happened at other times on other days as well- an example of the fallacy of pseudohistorical thinking.

(p.153)

[Earldor]

I'd like to know why LFS thinks the SS destroyed the kremas before they left the camp. If their use was not homicidal, there shouldn't have been any reason to do that.

[Lucius Felix Silla]

LFS -- You said:

THESE PHOTOS, published only in 1979 by CIA and others more recently released, show clearly that the eyewitnesses are wrong: they speak of smoke and flames countinously erupting from crematoria, but in none of the photos taken long seven months from april to october 1944 by allied aviation, there any single sign of smoke, flames, activity of the krematoria.

Please explain to our readers:
(1) The significance of your observation that the CIA didn't release some of the pictures until 1979. If you can, please include the names and dates of persons unsuccessfully trying to obtain the photographs in the 1945-1979 period.
(2) Please tell our readers the days on which photo recon missions were flown over Auschwitz in Apr-Oct 1944.
(3) Please tell our readers exactly why the crematoria would have been active on those days, and
(4) How the fact that the crematoria were not belching smoke at the moment the photos were taken on one or another of those days proves "that the eyewitnesses are wrong."

Dear Mr. David Thompson,

I answer to Your questions:
1) When and where i have written that "CIA didn't release "some of the pictures until 1979"? I have written that CIA have released these important photos only in 1979, in order to reply to revisionists Prof. Butz and Prof. Faurisson. Before nobody have any idea of their existence, also if revisionist Prof. A.R. Butz suspected in his work, dated 1978, that Auschwitz-Birkenau was under control of allied.
2) The photos were taken on
27.12.1943
4.4.1944
31.5.1944
26.6.1944
26.7.1944
20.8.1944 (recently released)
23.8.1944 (recently released)
25.8.1944
13.9.1944
29.11.1944
21.12.1944
3-4) None of photos shown something consistent with eyewitnesses accounts about the Auschwitz inferno's: flames, smoke everywhere, large pits to bury corpses, mass graves aren't visibles. None process of gassing is visible. None actitvity near or around Krematoria is present.

Best Regards

LFS

[Lucius Felix Silla]

I recently read the book Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? by Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman, and it has a section about interpreting the aerial photographs taken of Auschwitz. It mentions what was going on in the camp during the days that the photographs were taken. To save time, I'll just mention what they said about two of the photos in question, from June 26 and August 25.

On June 26, no one was gassed, according to the Chronicle (Danuta Czech's Auschwitz Chronicle). Four prisoners received numberes; 778 prisoners were transferred from Auschwitz to Buchenwald; and the camp received four sieves for sifting through the man ashes to find unburned human bones for incineration.

No one was gassed on August 25 either. The Chronicle reports only prisoners receiving numbers, and, interestingly, "750 Polish and Russian prisoners were transferred from Auschwitz II to the Fremen A.C., which belongs to Neuengamme." In one August 25 photograph a train is visible, with thirty-three cars stationed near the loading and unloading ramps, with lines and lines of prisoners. These may very well be the same 750 Polish and Russian prisoners, but since we do not know the exact time they were moved, we cannot be sure this is the activity in the photograph.

(p.152)

In terms of the pictures taken December 21, various sources say that Himmler ordered a halt to the gassings at Auschwitz in November 1944.

In November Himmler ordered gassings to stop, and a "clean-up" operation was inaugurated to conceal traces of the mass murder.

http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holoca ... hbirk.html

This website states that Himmler ordred the gassings to stop on October 26 and the message reached Auschwitz on November 2. The last gassing at Auschwitz took place on November 28.

1944 October 26 Himmler issues orders to destroy the crematoriums at Auschwitz-Birkenau in an attempt to eliminate the evidence of Nazi mass murder.

1944 November 2 Himmler's order of October 26 arrives at Auschwitz: "I forbid any further annihilation of Jews." Upon his further orders, all but one of the crematoriums are dismantled, the burning pits covered up and planted over with grass, and the gas pipes and other equipment shipped to concentration camps in Germany. The single remaining crematorium is for the disposal of those who die of natural causes and the gassing of about 200 surviving members of the Sonderkommando. The final solution is formally over. Yet tens of thousands of Jews will continue to die of brutality and neglect. (Apparatus)

1944 November 28 The last gassings take place at Auschwitz. More than 8,000 have been gassed since the first of November. (Atlas)

http://www.humanitas-international.org/ ... 44tbse.htm

A concluding quote from Denying History:

These photographs are a good example of how, in order to make proper interpretations, we must review the physical evidence in conjunction with written documents and eyewitness testimony. Sometimes we can make logical inferences, but other times we cannot draw final conclusions. The historian, however, is willing to wait for further evidence. In contrast, deniers seem anxious to prove that because nothing happened on one particular day at one particular moment, then nothing happened at other times on other days as well- an example of the fallacy of pseudohistorical thinking.

(p.153)

Dear Mr. Racpisa,

Is a fact that on date 26th June and 25th August, according to Auschwitz Chronicle, weren't arrivals on inmates in days before. I known the work of Shermer - Grobman: the scope of the authors isn't joined and his efforts are a complete failure.

They, in particular, cannot provides a logic, good, sound justification in order to explicate why in the aerial photo taken on date 31 May 1944, none killing activity is visible.

In before days, from 16th May to 31th May a grand total of 184,000 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz, of whom 91% were gassed, according to R.L. Braham (see The Politics of Genocide. The Holocaust in Hungary, NY 1981, vol.II, p.676 Braham says that 435,000 Jews were deported from Hungary and that 400,000 were killed, so 91%).

But in the photo dated 31th May 1944 there's no visible sign of mass graves, burial pits, activity around or near the presumed gas chambers.
According to various presumed eyewitnesses (Bendel, Tauber, Müller three ex fomer inmates Jews) one would see large open burial pits for the cremations of people allegedly gassed.

Nothing of all this. This evidence constitutes one fatal strike to the credibility of eyewitnesses and to the history of Auschwitz as killing center.

See for photo
http://www.yad-vashem.org.il/exhibition ... _5_44.html
Some photos from april 1944 to february 1945
http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/camps/auschwitz/aerials.html


As for the order of Himmler to stop the killing of people in Auschwitz, You can provides the document or the reference to see this document? Obviously, not.
This order is only a supposition, never proved.

Best Regards

LFS

[Konrad]

And don't forget that the Topf-designed crematoria in Auschwitz/Birkenau would discharge smoke like hell when in operation. The reason according to the experts is, that cold instead of preheated combustion air was blown into the rear of the cremation muffles. (See the picture of the Buchenwald crematorium which is of identical design. http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/GALL32R/BUCH24.HTM)

So the lack of smoke which would be discharging from the crematoria stacks indicates to me that they are not in operation, at a time when thousands of Hungarian Jews were daily gassed.

Konrad

[David Thompson]

LFS -- You said:

As for the order of Himmler to stop the killing of people in Auschwitz, You can provides the document or the reference to see this document? Obviously, not. This order is only a supposition, never proved.

The Himmler order is referenced at Hoehne, Order of the Death's Head, p. 642, Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews (1 vol. version), p. 632, and Levin, The Holocaust, p. 700.

[Lucius Felix Silla]

LFS -- You said:

As for the order of Himmler to stop the killing of people in Auschwitz, You can provides the document or the reference to see this document? Obviously, not. This order is only a supposition, never proved.

The Himmler order is referenced at Hoehne, Order of the Death's Head, p. 642, Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews (1 vol. version), p. 632, and Levin, The Holocaust, p. 700.

So If i read these works i see the document? I can read black on white "stop the killing of Jews in Auschwitz"? One moment, i go to read...

Best Regards

LFS

[Lucius Felix Silla]

Dear Mr. David Thompson,

I have read Hilberg, The destruction...vol. II, p.1080, Torino, 1999 (this is the italian edition of the Holmes & Meier edition, NY, 1985 but reviewed and enlarged by same Hilberg).

Two points:

1) Here the order was dated 25th november 1944.
But elsewhere was dated 26th october 1944. See above and http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holoca ... hbirk.html.

You can explicate this manifest discrepancy?

2) The note give reference to an affidavit of a certain Kurt Becker dated 8 march 1946- See Nur. doc. PS-3762.
So i don't see none document, but only one witness which say that this order exist.
????


Best Regards

LFS

[Andy H]

Just for my information.

Did the crematoria work at night, and thus wouldn't show up on aerial recon photo's?

Andy H

[David Thompson]

LFS -- You are confusing two different documents. The first is a memo from Himmler to Kaltenbrunner and perhaps Pohl, in Oct 1944. The second is a telegram to Becher, in Nov 1944.

Oct 1944

Reichsfuehrer-SS Heinrich Himmler met secretly near Vienna with Dr. Jean-Marie Musy, President of the Swiss Altbund, to discuss the fate of the remaining Jews held in Nazi concentration and death camps. At the meeting, Himmler declared that he was ready to release all Jews held in German custody and allow them to travel to Switzerland. Following the meeting, Himmler dictated a memorandum to SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the chief of the RSHA, Sipo and SD, to spare the lives of all Jews being held in concentration camps. According to SS-Standartenfuehrer Kurt Becher, the message read: "I forbid any extermination of Jews and order that on the contrary care should be given to weak and sick persons." (Hoehne 642)

Reichsfuehrer-SS Heinrich Himmler sent an order to SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Oswald Pohl, head of the SS Economic Administration of the concentration camps, and to SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Ernst Kaltenbrunner, head of the Reich Central Security Office, ordering them to stop killing the Jews. (Holo Levin 700)

Nov 1944

Reichsfuehrer-SS Heinrich Himmler telegraphed Kurt Becher: "The crematoria at Auschwitz are to be dismantled. The Jews working in the Reich are to get normal eastern workers' rations. In the absence of Jewish hospitals they may be treated with Aryan patients." (Holo Levin 700)

[xcalibur]

And don't forget that the Topf-designed crematoria in Auschwitz/Birkenau would discharge smoke like hell when in operation. The reason according to the experts is, that cold instead of preheated combustion air was blown into the rear of the cremation muffles.
Konrad