curioussoul wrote: ↑Sat May 10, 2025 9:31 pm
Hans wrote: ↑Sat May 10, 2025 8:58 pm
curioussoul wrote: ↑Tue May 06, 2025 8:29 pm
Exactly. The new ramp went straight into the Birkenau camp with a track crossing right between the two Crematoria, which were enclosed. The old ramp didn't even go into a camp, let alone into 'dedicated enclosed areas of the camp'. This anachronism demonstrates the report couldn't possibly date from when it is alleged to have been written.
The old ramp was actually within the administrative district concentration camp.
It was special tracks, it was in the camp area and it was separated from Auschwitz-Birkenau and Auschwitz main camp. From the perspective of a visitor in 1943, the old ramp could indeed have been seen as "special tracks in specially designated districts of the camp".
No, it really could not, since the "Alte Judenrampe" neither went into any of the camps (it literally stopped midway between Birkenau and Auschwitz Main Camp, after which you'd have to walk by foot or drive to the camps) nor was it a "dedicated enclosed area of the camp". And in no way was it a "special track" since it was part of the old rail line. I can't find any evidence it was even enclosed.
Once again: the "old Jew ramp" was inside the Auschwitz camp complex - this a matter of administrative record. It was not inside the barbed-wire enclosures of Auschwitz I or Birkenau, but that’s irrelevant. The Auschwitz camp in Nazi terminology referred to the "area of interest", which was a vast zone that included the main camp, Birkenau, subcamps, SS barracks, workshops, agricultural enterprises, and yes, the old ramp.
See this map dated October 1943 (with old ramp encircled by me):
On April 10, 1943, the Gauleiter of Upper Silesia, Fritz Bracht, issued a decree that formally defined the borders of Auschwitz town and also already mentioned the "newly formed administrative district concentration camp" (Amtsblatt der Regierung Kattowitz, Stück 15, 1943). The district with Höss as district leader was outlined in his decree of 15 June 1943 with an area corresponding to the SS designated "area of interest of the Auschwitz concentration camp" (with the exception of the Auschwitz train station, which had previously been claimed by the SS but was now defined to the civil administration of the town).
This shows you how the govermement and the SS viewed the camp’s extent - not by fencing, but by function and control.
In the
long report on their trip, Franke-Gricksch describes Auschwitz as "the biggest concentration camp in Germany" covering "about 18,000 morgen". That's more than 40 km² - way more than the area of fenced, enclosed main and sub-camps. His description is entirely consistent with the definition of the Auschwitz complex at the time and thus it is entirely reasonable to assume that he was told that the ramp for the Jewish transports was located within the camp area.
The term "special tracks" does not require anything to be newly constructed specifically for that purpose. The tracks and the ramp functioned as a dedicated unloading point for prisoners deported to the camp. This is was made them "special". This is not about rail engineering, but about the function of the site from a operational standpoint.
Whether the ramp was physically "enclosed" with fencing or not is beside the point. The Franke-Gricksch report does not say it was fenced off. It says it was separated, which may refer to geographical, organizational, or functional separation - not necessarily fencing.