Majdanek this and that

[Fred Ziffel]

Issues with this video
1. The roof was most likely completed in fall of 1942, but no biggie here
2. Narrator refers to the building as a “gassing and delousing” building. I say a gassing room for lice, mites, and fleas. I will leave that here since this has been discussed zillions of times in the past in this thread
3. The rollers he talked about could have been pulled by horses he mentioned in the #1 video. If not, 5 or 6 men could have pulled them with not a lot of effort and time to rest. I say no one was cracking a whip to get the rollers pulled
4. B42 was a potential crime scene also, of all the barracks there, why did the Soviets pick this building (B42) to set up a movie theater? Makes no sense
5. I showed that the building highlighted at the 3:53 mark to be one of the inmate hospitals. This can be seen in the display in B43 north wall. See attached

[Wetzelrad]

Issues with this video
1. The roof was most likely completed in fall of 1942, but no biggie here

Yes, in fact the museum's own magazine includes an estimate that the canopy roof was finished in September 1942 (bottom of page 9). If they now say it is spring 1943, that is a pretty significant revision.

4. B42 was a potential crime scene also, of all the barracks there, why did the Soviets pick this building (B42) to set up a movie theater? Makes no sense

The projector room is weird, but I see no reason to assume this isn't true. By that I mean there isn't a convincing motive to invent a lie about this.

The most obvious pieces of evidence in support are that:
1) B42 already had a perfectly good entrance.
2) The 1942 blueprint for B42 (included in your post) does not include this additional room.
3) B41 is approximately symmetric but also lacked this additional room.

I could make more points if you feel inclined to argue about it. Otherwise I'm satisfied with Tarkowski's claim. What most likely happened is the Soviets built this extra room (because they had no qualms about modifying this alleged site of mass murder), and when the museum wanted it gone, they stupidly closed off the whole entryway, not realizing its significance.

EDIT: The use of a movie projector may also have contributed to the destruction of walls and the closing up of windows in this area. Furthermore, the magazine linked above makes some mention of how the Soviets used building materials that matched the existing barracks when they constructed the B41 connecting room. If they did the same here, that may explain why its seemingly original appearance fooled you.

5. I showed that the building highlighted at the 3:53 mark to be one of the inmate hospitals.

I note that he calls it the old crematorium and the ruins behind it the laundry, whereas Mattogno believes it was the other way around. This remains a significant factual difference which needs to be resolved. I'm not convinced one way or the other. Regardless, I would be very interested to see or hear more about this building since it is currently accused of being all of a crematorium, gas chambers, laundry, and infirmary. Is there no photo of its insides?

[Wetzelrad]

The museum is out with another video Part 2

In this one, Tarkowski implies that bodies are being cremated behind the bathhouses at the same time that the canopy roof is being built. At timestamp 04:00, he says the smoke coming from that area "most likely originates from the corpse-burning sites at present-day Wilcza and Grochowskiego Streets."

Firstly, I question whether his placement is correct. The smoke in the photo rises from behind the bathhouses, from an origin that could only be to their southwest, because the camera itself was facing westsouthwest. But the location of origin that Tarkowski highlights is actually to B42's northwest.

The smoke seen in the photo simply does not match what Tarkowski claims. If you don't believe me, compare his own diagrams, one from 00:48 to another at 04:18, and you will see that the smoke originates from a location south of where he claims.

However, this is fairly trivial. Let's take it on faith that there is evidence to support burnings in this general area. Going forward on that basis, why would there be burnings while the roof is still under construction? Under the cremation theory, this would mean the Germans were gassing and cremating prisoners before the facility was complete. It would also mean they were continuing to build delousing features into the facility while/after gassing was already underway--because the only purpose this canopy roof had was to protect laundry from weather. Neither of these make sense temporally.

The answer to this question is probably that which you (Fred) already suggested before this video was published. The assumed burnings were to dispose of personal trash originating from prisoners entering the camp through this facility.

[Fred Ziffel]

I can concede that Tarkowski is telling the truth about the structure being a projector room
Three characteristics about the building
1. It is made of concrete like the nearby bunker. Rather robust for a projector room
2. It seems you have to climb steps UP to an elevated level of the structure for what reason?
3. I suspect the slanted roof was added when the canopy came down, both 41, 42, bunker, and the heater shed got a new roofing at the same time.

Being a crime scene seemed unimportant to the Soviets at the time. If so sloppy, then why would anyone believe what they reported? Inside B42 there must have been a ton of reworking in order to set up chairs for a theater. Note interior layout of March 31,1942 blueprint drawing, a drawing I say is very accurate.

The attached is the only photo I have with one of the ovens located at another building. I cannot say for sure it is even the building we speak of. Could be Plaslow camp? I have no known photos of the interior of that building. But the sign is on the wall (Here the window) of that the building functioned as a hospital. I shall stay with that.

If it was an OUTSIDE body burn pit, then the Germans would be faced with all the logistics of doing that. I have a great video from Rumble on burning bodies outside at Treblinka. I can post if anyone is interested

[Fred Ziffel]

I came across this in Mattogno's book on Majdanek

Read from "On July 10, 1942 to the portion I have highlighted, think about what is written in the highlighted portion.

This would mean that a Polish Contractors were invited and submitted bids the build the Majdanek bunker or what is referred to as the gas chamber out back of B41.

I am not sure who won the contract. If a Polish builder did win the contract, then the Germans (The enemy of the Pols) paid the Pols to build a building to gas inmates, some of them Polish Jews.
There were 11+ Polish contractors looking for work contracts from the Germans at Majdanek.

[Wetzelrad]

If a Polish builder did win the contract, then the Germans (The enemy of the Pols) paid the Pols to build a building to gas inmates, some of them Polish Jews.

It doesn't make much sense, does it. Perhaps at some point they will try to explain this away by saying that the Poles secretly sabotaged the project by forgetting to cut one of the ceiling holes, by only installing one of the heaters, by putting in an unsealed peephole, etc. In this way all the things that don't make sense can be packaged into one narrative that seems superficially plausible and even heroic.

I am not sure who won the contract.

Mattogno gives Michał Ochnik and Polstephan as two known bids. It's unlikely that Ochnik won because Mattogno found a bill for his work on the B41 chimneys but no bill for this. My money would be on Polstephan -- in part because Mattogno does not say anything else about them, meaning their documents were lost or not available to him, and in part because Polstephan is known to have done other work in camp at that time.

Majdanek's website now has a very helpful archival photograph section which includes high-quality photos from Tarkowski's (past and no doubt future) videos.
https://cyfrowy.majdanek.eu/fotografie-majdanek/

Observe that on this photo showing construction work, a sign with the name Polstephan is prominent over what is said to be barracks for the company's own use.
https://cyfrowy.majdanek.eu/fotografie- ... batallion/

[Wetzelrad]

I suspect that Tarkowski's concessions on dates will prove to be more and more significant over time. The official narrative is that the gas chamber bunker was active "for a year from September 1942", according to a sign there*. If the canopy over the bunker was not finished until spring 1943, as these photo captions say, then there will be several repercussions:

1) If the canopy was not yet finished, probably neither was the bunker. As a general rule, buildings are usually finished on the outside before the interior, and I see nothing to evidence the reverse here.

2) How is it possible to conduct gassings here while canopy construction was underway? Did they conveniently schedule train arrivals to only come in while the workers were off? Did the workers take down and put up the barbed wire every day? Etc.

3) Wouldn't everyone be able to see the gassings as they were conducted? Any idea that the roof provided cover or camouflage can't work if it wasn't there. Especially for any passerby travelling on the road which is so close that it abuts the canopy's southeastern corner.

4) The photos show the canopy was finished at the center and west side before the more public east side. This is suggestive that protecting clothing was a more pressing concern than hiding homicidal gassings.

Logical problems like these will continue to emerge as the museum makes revisions of this kind.

* In fact September 1942 is much too early anyway, because Ochnik and Polstephan only put in their estimates for the interior work on the bunker in November.