Was Auschwitz crematorium II able to burn 3-4 for forn?
Executive summary
The engineering blueprints and SS calculations indicate Crematorium II at Auschwitz‑Birkenau was designed and recorded as capable of cremating roughly four adult bodies per retort per hour, with 15 retorts yielding a theoretical 1,440 corpses per day (15 × 4 × 24) [1] [2]. Practical throughput could be lower or supplemented by outdoor pyres when arrivals outstripped oven capacity; survivor testimony and later scholarship document both the designed capacity and evidence the SS resorted to other disposal methods at peak periods [1] [2].
1. Design capacity: what the SS and builders calculated
The Central Building Administration (Zentralbauleitung) and Topf & Söhne engineering documents underpin the standard capacity figures: the framework for Crematorium II specified 15 muffles (retorts), each estimated to cremate four adult males per hour, producing a theoretical daily throughput of 1,440 corpses for Crematorium II (15 × 4 × 24) and contributing to a combined daily capacity of 4,416 for the Birkenau crematoria complex as recorded on 28 June 1943 [1] [2] [3].
2. Operational realities: why “designed” ≠ “always achieved”
Multiple archival and museum sources caution that designed capacity is an engineering maximum, not a steady-state operational figure; when deportation waves exceeded oven capacity the SS burned bodies on open‑air pyres and in pits behind crematoria V and elsewhere, demonstrating that actual disposal practices combined ovens with improvised methods [1] [4]. Technical improvements and alterations—such as ventilation changes and additional mechanical aids—were made to increase throughput, but bottlenecks, maintenance, fuel, and the chaotic timing of mass transports constrained continuous 24‑hour operation at theoretical maxima [5] [6].
3. Eyewitness, Sonderkommando testimony, and complementary records
Survivor and Sonderkommando accounts describe enormous daily numbers and record practices incompatible with civilian single‑body cremation norms; some Sonderkommando survivors estimated much higher combined throughput for the Birkenau crematoria—claims that, taken together with documentary plans and SS reports, show that disposal capacity varied and could be augmented in crisis phases [2] [7] [8]. Contemporary SS calculations, delivery waybills, and Topf & Söhne correspondence provide physical corroboration of the ovens’ construction, layout, and intended capacities [3] [1].
4. Contrasting claims and attempts to minimize capacity
Postwar attempts to minimize cremation capacity—most notably the Leuchter “report”—produced much lower estimates by applying civilian cremation standards (one body at a time) and concluded impossibly low weekly numbers; these methods have been discredited by scholars and museum research because they ignore the ovens’ multi‑muffle design, ad hoc procedures used at Auschwitz (simultaneous partial burns, mechanical grinding of bone fragments), and contemporaneous SS engineering records [9] [10]. Other revisionist critiques pick at technical details (ventilation rates, blower models) to sow doubt, but mainstream historiography and Auschwitz‑Birkenau State Museum documentation uphold the higher documented capacities while acknowledging operational variation and the use of pyres when ovens were insufficient [6] [2] [5].
5. Direct answer: was Crematorium II able to “burn 3–4 for[n]”?
Interpreting “3–4 forn/forn” as four bodies per retort per hour—the phrase that appears in the primary construction framework—the answer is yes: at design and in SS capacity calculations each muffle in Crematorium II was estimated to cremate about four adult bodies per hour, and with 15 muffles that yielded the documented figure of 1,440 corpses per day for Crematorium II [1] [2]. This is a statement about engineered and recorded capacity; it does not claim that every day the ovens achieved that number, and both contemporary witness testimony and archival evidence show that disposal rates fluctuated and were sometimes supplemented by outdoor burning when deportations overwhelmed oven throughput [1] [2] [4].