The Pyres of Dresden

[Nessie]

...

And what evidence is there that wood wasn't being added? The same goes for the Reinhardt camps. They didn't add all the necessary wood and let it work, they just added it gradually. At Treblinka, they claim that every few seconds more wood was added to the pyre, who knows how they protected themselves from the intense heat without thermal protective equipment.

Link to and quote the witnesses who said that wood was added. Thanks.

[bombsaway]

Why are only certain sections of the body piles burning?

[Stubble]

Why are only certain sections of the body piles burning?

A combination of factors. Heat distribution in the pyre, basically. This will be effected by 'load', wind, fuel etc.

Do me a favor, build a fire pit, load it up, set it, and watch it, see if different parts burn at different rates (pro tip, they do).

[pilgrimofdark]

The Heidefriedhof cemetery has a website and Dresden bombing memorial.

The Ash Grave seems to be here:

Dresden Heidefriedhof Aschegrab

Google Maps measurement has the planted area at about 35 ft x 16 ft, but that could have little correlation to the size of the actual grave.

Ash grave photo:

Spoiler

Someone could try contacting them about any information they have about the grave space or other archival documents. There might be some old-timer working at the cemetery who is just desperate to tell anyone who will listen everything he knows about the history of the grave.

Also, the Deutsche Fotothek might have the full series of photographs Walter Hahn took. Many more than have been shared so far. They are all dated to February 25, 1945.

Search Results - Altmarkt pyre photos start on Page 2

And the Dresden city archive document Irving cited has an entry online, but maybe not digitized yet anywhere.

Schlussmeldung über die vier Luftangriffe auf den LS-Ort Dresden am 13., 14. und 15. Febr. 1945

[bombsaway]

Why are only certain sections of the body piles burning?

A combination of factors. Heat distribution in the pyre, basically. This will be effected by 'load', wind, fuel etc.

Do me a favor, build a fire pit, load it up, set it, and watch it, see if different parts burn at different rates (pro tip, they do).

To me it would make sense that the bottom of the pile, closest to the wood, would burn, not towards the top which is what you see in this picture

https://www.codohforum.com/download/file.php?id=722

I would think they are burning because they were doused with liquid fuel.

[Nessie]

Why are only certain sections of the body piles burning?

It looks like the photos were taken after the pyre was set and as the flames spread to the corpses. This photo shows a pyre in background, with smoke pouring off all of it;

[Nessie]

This image shows how all the wood below the rail is on fire and that the flames are starting to spread to the corpses above;



Wait and that will be engulfed in flames, as the corpses catch fire, as the heat drives out water content and the body fat, clothing and anything flammable, burns.

[bombsaway]

There doesn't seem to be any wood between the bodies, so how would the ones at the top burn? Logically to me it seems like liquid fuel was used.

[Stubble]

There doesn't seem to be any wood between the bodies, so how would the ones at the top burn? Logically to me it seems like liquid fuel was used.

God damn Bombsaway, are you fucking serious right now? You are back to this, again?

Ok, how was gasoline added to the fucking pyre and why is the smoke white? We will go around with this again.

Slimy, slimy, slimy...

Disingenuous, dishonest, and just plain slimy...

[pilgrimofdark]

It looks like the photos were taken after the pyre was set and as the flames spread to the corpses. This photo shows a pyre in background, with smoke pouring off all of it;

This is a higher-resolution version of that same photo. It shows less smoke, but still smoking pretty good.



There are some photos from the pyre being set up with almost no corpses on it yet, others when it has been set alight. Also some piles of wood and straw.

The truck in this photo has some type of cylindrical container on the back and someone holding a hose? Obviously, no indication of what's in the container, or if it's gasoline, whether the top or base of the pyre were doused with it.

Spoiler

See pile of wood and straw here:

Spoiler

edit: typo.

[Stubble]

It looks like the photos were taken after the pyre was set and as the flames spread to the corpses. This photo shows a pyre in background, with smoke pouring off all of it;

This is a higher-resolution version of that same photo. It shows less smoke, but still smoking pretty good.



There are some photos from the pyre being set up with almost no corpses on it yet, others when it has been set alight. Also some piles of wood and straw.

The truck in this photo has some type of cylindrical container on the back and someone holding a hose? Obviously, no indication of what's in the container, or if it's gasoline, whether the top of base of the pyre were doused with it.

Spoiler

See pile of wood and straw here:

Spoiler

That pot on the truck appears to be your accelerant.

I'll see if I can identify that mobile dispenser.

Do note the length of the hose and that the truck has to be pulled up to the unlit pyre to dispense the accelerant to start the pyre.

Another thing worth mentioning is that this small unit is a few gallons at best, obviously simply to get the pyre started.

[Callafangers]

That pot on the truck appears to be your accelerant.

That is a tiny tank. Assuming a ~50 gallon tank, that's about 140kg of gasoline, which only compensates for about ~500kg of wood (able to burn ~1.5 corpses). Even with 1,000 refills, you'd only reduce the amount of wood needed by ~20% (for the claimed 6,800 corpses). And this assumes perfect efficiency, whereas gasoline/petrol (due to explosiveness) is not efficient (much heat loss in the flash-burn), so likely closer to ~10-15% at most. Hence why its generally only used as a starter, not a steady fuel source. This still suggests that either:

• Vast amounts of wood (>2,100,000 kg) were still required, or
• The corpses were not cremated completely (i.e. down to bone fragments)

There is no third option. There is also still the problem of wood ash being mixed with any human remains/ash.

Thus, the volume of the thousands of corpses at Dresden was necessarily much larger than the 8-10 cubic meters strangely alleged by the historian cited at the HC blog, who apparently relied on a handful of testimony speaking to a specific subset of the total number cremated, or a particular pile of cremains/remnants, etc.

[Stubble]

[bombsaway]

lol where are the enormous stacks of wood and wood ash they were constantly shoving in and out?

if we're judging by these pictures, fuel requirements were not that high for this kind of procedure

if I was a Dresden revisionist, I would be saying this whole thing stinks to high heaven

[Stubble]

Judging by the laws of thermodynamics and physics, the fuel requirement is that high.

Unless you are claiming the laws of the universe were suspended by 'Muh Nazis'?

Did they use a Hans Koller device? A 𝔖𝔱𝔯𝔲𝔪𝔷𝔲𝔤𝔤𝔢𝔯 perhaps?

Go ahead Bombsaway, explain it like I'm 5, why doesn't physical law apply?