SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 277
And Brack’s “gassing equipment”? How, when, why, and on whose
orders was it replaced by an engine? Nobody seems to know…
Let us make a final remark on these alleged experts in gas chambers.
In his annotated book on euthanasia Henry Friedländer dedicates only a
couple of lines to Hackenholt: 839
“In the fall of 1939, Dubois was recruited by T4, together with
his friend Lorenz Hackenholt, who would later operate the diesel
engine at the Be��ec gas chambers.”
However, his involvement in the alleged gas chambers at Be��ec is
mentioned only in the “Gerstein report”! About Lambert, on the other
hand, Friedländer has more to tell. He makes him “master mason and
building trades foreman” 840 and asserts that “he served as T4 ‘expert for
the construction of gas chambers,’” 841 and that therefore “Lambert’s testimony
that he only erected room dividers and installed doors is simply
not believable.” 841
Within the Holocaust debate, though, it is Friedländer’s assertion
which is not believable.
Brack declared during his interrogation: 842
“Q. How large were these gas chambers?
A. They were of different sizes. It was simply an adjoining room. I
can’t remember whether they were 4 × 5 meters, or 5 × 6 meters.
Simply normal sized rooms, but I can’t tell you the exact size. It was
too long ago. I can’t remember.
Q. Were they as large as this courtroom?
A. No. They were just normal rooms.
Q. Well, a man of your intelligence must have some idea about
the size of these rooms. The assertion ‘normal size’ doesn’t mean
anything in particular.
A. By that I mean the size of the normal room in a normal house.
I didn’t mean an assembly room or a cell either. I meant a room, but
I can’t tell you the exact size because I really don’t know it. It might
have been 4 × 5 meters, or 5 × 6 meters, or 3½ × 4½, but I really
don’t know. I didn’t pay much attention to it.”
We have already underlined above his statement to the effect that in
the euthanasia institutions “no special gas chamber was built” and that
839
Henry Friedländer, The Origins of Nazi Genocide: from Euthanasia to the Final Solution.
University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill/London 1995, p. 241.
840
“Maurerpolier,” ibid., p. 214.
841
Ibid., p. 215.
842
“The Medical Case,” op. cit. (note 828), p. 882.