Wednesday 25 January 2012

Auschwitz: Central Construction Office


In his judgment of the 2000 libel trial of Irving vs.
Penguin & Lipstadt, Justice Gray stated:
The most important Auschwitz archive that survived the war was that of the Central Construction Office at Auschwitz. The main archives of the camp Kommandantur had been destroyed by the Germans before they evacuated the camp in January 1945. The Construction Office was 300 yards away and through an oversight was left intact.
- Judgment 7.58

Interior view of a room of the office building of the Central Construction Office in Auschwitz
(APMO, neg. 20995/138). Source: Carlo Mottongo's THE CENTRAL CONSTRUCTION OFFICE OF THE
WAFFEN-SS AND POLICE AUSCHWITZ ORGANIZATION, RESPONSIBILITIES, ACTIVITIES

Leading Revisionist Carlo Mottongo states (in the above mentioned book pp.7-8) that the Soviets took back to Moscow over 88,000 documents from the Auschwitz Central Construction Office, and although this was the greater share of the documents found in the office building of the Central Construction Office, many documents remained there.

I enquired as to the location of the premises of the Auschwitz Central Construction Office" aka the "ZBL" (Zentralbauleitung) at the Information Desk in the Auschwitz Visitor Centre. The young lady at the desk did not know, so she asked her supervisor, who didn't know either. She then asked two Auschwitz tour guides, neither of them knew where it was, but all of them were very friendly and immensely helpful. Finally, one of the tour guides took the piece of paper on which I'd written "Central Construction Office. ZBL", and headed off behind a "staff only" door. After 5 minutes he returned and advised that: "It is no more, demolished after the war, houses are there now." But he kindly gave me directions to where it once had approximately stood.




Photo taken at the position marked "A" on the above google earth view
of the road on which the office of the Central Construction Office stood

Another house along the same segment of road

2 comments:

  1. At a time when the Polish economy is in free-fall, it is good to know that some of the former internment camp-site has been turned over to use for the locals. The main camp would make a great shopping centre, or maybe a leisure complex - afterall, it already has a swimming pool, theatre, cinema etc!

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  2. ummmm no that's a horrible idea

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