I am back on X.
I want to raise a hypothesis about the Majdanek bunker's pipe system. It remains an enigma, owing in large part to the lack of documentation and the totally unnecessary design of it. What was the perforated pipe actually for? I remain unpersuaded by any one explanation.
One possibility that occurs to me is that it was a heating pipe. We know the bunker was
originally planned to have a central furnace (described in the cost estimates as a "disinfestation furnace" or "gas furnace", p.134) installed on its
north exterior wall, but this was not actually built. In that same plan, there was
no cell 14 on its
south side, but that
is what was built. From this it follows that the most likely purpose for cell 14 was to hold that furnace -- not gas bottles.
It is also true that a Klein air heater (p.131)
was installed on the
west wall, but since there is no photograph or document that demonstrates this object's presence until after liberation, it seems entirely possible that it was not part of the original build. I submit that the bunker was originally built to be heated from a central furnace in cell 14, with the western furnace being a later addition after a change of plans.
I am not an engineer, so perhaps there are physical reasons that this does not make sense. To my thinking, the long perforated pipes would not make sense for releasing gas, but perforated ducts are sometimes used in heating, so their use seems plausible here. If these pipes are simply too narrow to send hot air through under any circumstances, then I would posit that it was exactly this major design flaw that led to the installation of an alternative furnace system.
The closest comparable facility to the Majdanek bunker is Stutthof's delousing building. This included an exterior brick stove which blew hot air into a pipe which ran along the inside wall of the chamber. The bricks covering this pipe were perforated. See
Concentration Camp Stutthof for details, especially the photo section. This particular design quirk is so similar that I am inclined to believe its purpose was exactly the same in both facilities.