SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

328 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR
On the other hand, if Majdanek had been part of the Aktion Reinhardt
camps, why would its homicidal gas chambers 1002 have used Zyklon
B rather than the exhaust gases from an internal combustion engine?
In this context it is absurd to believe that, according to mainstream Holocaust
historiography, Be��ec initially experimented with Zyklon B for
its killings, but abandoned it later. In the reasoning of the verdict in the
trial against Josef Oberhauser in Munich it is in fact said: 1003
“Over the first few weeks Zyklon-B-gas was used as the killing
medium, later on, for reasons of economy, exhaust gas from a Diesel
engine.”
And for what purpose would Jews have been sent from Majdanek to
Sobibór, i.e. from one alleged extermination camp to another? Schelvis
tells us: 1004
“In the autumn of 1942 some 1,600 Jews arrived in their striped
suits from Lublin/Majdanek; they were to be murdered the same
day.”
According to the witness Joseph Duniec, the transport which left
France on 25 March 1943 with 1,008 deportees on board was rerouted
“to Majdanek and on to Sobibór, as Majdanek could not accommodate
them.” 1005
In stark contrast to this we have seen above in Fritz Reuter’s memo
of 17 March 1942, that “Hstuf. Höfle is about to build a large camp in
which the Jews fit for work can be classified according to their professions
and delegated as necessary” (see p. 296).
These Jews were certainly excluded from any evacuation beyond the
confines of the Government General and were in all likelihood employed
in the network of camps in the Lublin district.
The deportations envisaged at the meeting of 26 and 28 September
1942 were later implemented only partially, because in the section “The
Jews in the ghettos” Korherr established the estimate for “the Jews primarily
housed in the remaining ghettos of the General Government” as
of 31 December 1942 as given in Table 11. 1006
1002 Actually, they were disinfestation chambers as has been documented abundantly in the
book already mentioned, op. cit. (note 686), chapter VI.2: “Design, Construction and
Purpose of the Gas Chambers,” pp. 128-138.
1003 A. Rückerl (ed.), op. cit. (note 36), p. 133.
1004 J. Schelvis, op. cit. (note 70), p. 109.
1005 J. Schelvis, op. cit. (note 71), p. 233.
1006 NO-5194, p. 11.