According to a radio message from September 15, 1942 and a trip report dated September 17, 1942, on 16 September 1942, a delegation from Auschwitz — consisting of Commandant SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höß, SS-Untersturmführer Franz Hößler, who was responsible for clearing mass graves, and SS-Untersturmführer Walther Dejaco from the Central Construction Office — visited Litzmannstadt to inspect “the test station for field ovens as part of Aktion Reinhard”, i.e. the open air cremation furnaces at the Kulmhof / Chełmno extermination camp The group examined the “special facility” and discussed its implementation at Auschwitz with SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel. Blobel also ordered the delivery of “construction materials” and reserved a “ball mill for substances for Auschwitz concentration camp.”
On June 28, 1943, the Central Construction Office Auschwitz wrote a report addressed to the SS-WVHA on the completion of the third crematorium at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The document was written by SS-Untersturmführer Josef Janisch and prepared for the signature of SS-Sturmbannführer Karl Bischoff, head of the office. According to the report, Crematoria II and III each had the ability to cremate “1,440 persons” per day, while Crematoria IV and V could handle “768 persons” per day. Combined with the older crematorium at Auschwitz I, the camp’s total daily capacity reached “4,756 persons”.
Report by Topf & Söhne engineer Fritz Sander, dated September 14, 1942, on the new construction of incineration ovens for concentration camps. Sander points out the “high demand for cremation ovens” especially in Auschwitz”, where “they resort to using a large number of ovens or muffles and overloading the individual muffles with multiple corpses”. Furthermore, the practice that “multiple corpses must be packed into the muffle simultaneously…will likely cause damage to the relatively delicate muffle brickwork.”
Memo by Topf & Söhne engineer Kurt Prüfer regarding a phone call with the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (SS Economic and Administrative Main Office) on September 8, 1942. Prüfer reports that the Auschwitz concentration camp is planning for cremation ovens with a total capacity to incinerate 2,650 corpses per day. However, he notes that “this number of muffles is still not sufficient; we are to deliver more ovens as quickly as possible.”
Report of SS-Untersturmführer Fritz Ertl, dated August 21, 1942 about a meeting with engineers Kurt Prüfer and Robert Köhler in Auschwitz from August 19 and 20, 1942. The report discusses the “installation of two 3-muffle ovens at the bathing installations for special actions”, an euphemism for the Bunker extermination sites.
The Franke-Gricksch Report was written by SS officer Alfred Franke-Gricksch following his visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp in May 1943. It describes in detail the processes involved in the mass extermination of Jews, including the use of gas chambers and crematoria.