Editing Auschwitz concentration camp (section)

====Crematoria II–V====
{{Further|#Gas chambers}}
The first gas chamber at Auschwitz II was operational by March 1942. On or around 20 March, a transport of Polish Jews sent by the Gestapo from [[Silesia]] and [[Dąbrowa Basin|Zagłębie Dąbrowskie]] was taken straight from the [[Oświęcim]] freight station to the Auschwitz II gas chamber, then buried in a nearby meadow.{{sfn|Czech|2000|p=143}} The gas chamber was located in what prisoners called the "little red house" (known as bunker 1 by the SS), a brick cottage that had been turned into a gassing facility; the windows had been bricked up and its four rooms converted into two insulated rooms, the doors of which said "''Zur Desinfektion''" ("to disinfection"). A second brick cottage, the "little white house" or bunker 2, was converted and operational by June 1942.<ref>{{harvnb|Piper|2000b|pp=134–136}}; also see {{harvnb|Piper|1998c|p=161}}.</ref> When Himmler visited the camp on 17 and 18 July 1942, he was given a demonstration of a selection of Dutch Jews, a mass-murder in a gas chamber in bunker 2, and a tour of the building site of Auschwitz III, the new [[IG Farben]] plant being constructed at [[Monowitz]].<ref>{{harvnb|Pressac|van Pelt|1998|pp=214–215}}; also see {{harvnb|Piper|2000b|p=138}}.</ref> Use of bunkers I and 2 stopped in spring 1943 when the new crematoria were built, although bunker 2 became operational again in May 1944 for the murder of the Hungarian Jews. Bunker I was demolished in 1943 and bunker 2 in November 1944.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=143}}

Plans for crematoria II and III show that both had an oven room {{cvt|30|by|11.24|m|ft}} on the ground floor, and an underground dressing room {{cvt|49.43|by|7.93|m|ft}} and gas chamber {{cvt|30|by|7|m|ft}}. The dressing rooms had wooden benches along the walls and numbered pegs for clothing. Victims would be led from these rooms to a five-yard-long narrow corridor, which in turn led to a space from which the gas chamber door opened. The chambers were white inside, and nozzles were fixed to the ceiling to resemble showerheads.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|pp=165–166}} The daily capacity of the crematoria (how many bodies could be burned in a 24-hour period) was 340 corpses in crematorium I; 1,440 each in crematoria II and III; and 768 each in IV and V.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=159}} By June 1943 all four crematoria were operational, but crematorium I was not used after July 1943. This made the total daily capacity 4,416, although by loading three to five corpses at a time, the ''Sonderkommando'' were able to burn some 8,000 bodies a day. This maximum capacity was rarely needed; the average between 1942 and 1944 was 1,000 bodies burned every day.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=164}}