RONALD MacEachan's essay in the applied logistics of genocide (South China Morning Post, January 31), is one of the more unpleasant attempts at revisionist history to have been published recently. Let us take a few of his points for scrutiny.
Firstly, the contention that 10 camps existed at the start of the 'operation' is not one with which I argue. Mr MacEachan however, then calculates the remainder of his figures on the basis of these 10 camps. This is incorrect.
The number of camps had, by early 1945, increased dramatically. Secondly, ovens were not used for disposal of human remains until late in the war, when it became apparent, even to the most diehard Nazis, that the war was lost and a reckoning due. Since the original 'final solution' had envisaged deporting European Jews en masse to Madagascar, the camps were only designed as holding areas.
They were certainly used for slave labour and deaths were frequent and on a large scale. Dead bodies were regarded by the authorities as an inconvenient by-product of cheap labour. Once the Madagascar option was seen to be untenable, conditions worsened and killing became more frequent. As the death toll mounted efforts to remove the bodies consisted in many cases of mass burial, the corpses being spread with quicklime to speed the process of decay.
Given that a corpse may take up 0.34 cubic metres (1.8 metres by 0.6 m by 0.3 m), a mass grave 24 m long, six metres wide and three metres deep, could hold at least 1,000 bodies. Such a pit could be dug in less than a day, using an excavator. The Germans had plenty of excavators and plenty of space.
As to the mechanics of mass murder, it took the Germans a long time to hit upon the idea of poison gas (Zyclon B was a concentrated form of pesticide and the authorities had to negotiate with the manufacturers before the latter would allow its use - they were apparently concerned at the future commercial problems of allowing their product to be used without its in-built 'signature' odour).