Editing Auschwitz concentration camp (section)

===Inside the crematoria===
[[File:Entrance to Crematorium III in Auschwitz II (Birkenau).jpg|thumb|Entrance to crematorium III, Auschwitz II, 2008{{sfn|Baxter|2017|p=241}}]]
The crematoria consisted of a dressing room, gas chamber, and furnace room. In crematoria II and III, the dressing room and gas chamber were underground; in IV and V, they were on the ground floor. The dressing room had numbered hooks on the wall to hang clothes. In crematorium II, there was also a dissection room (''Sezierraum'').{{sfn|Piper|1998c|pp=166, 168}} SS officers told the victims they had to take a shower and undergo delousing. The victims undressed in the dressing room and walked into the gas chamber; signs said "Bade" (bath) or "Desinfektionsraum" (disinfection room). A former prisoner testified that the language of the signs changed depending on who was being killed.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=169, n.&nbsp;489}} Some inmates were given soap and a towel.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=169, n.&nbsp;490}} A gas chamber could hold up to 2,000.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=169}}

The Zyklon B was delivered to the crematoria by a special SS bureau known as the Hygiene Institute.<ref>{{harvnb|Piper|1998c|p=162}}; also see {{harvnb|Piper|2000b|p=170}}.</ref> After the doors were shut, SS men dumped in the Zyklon B pellets through vents in the roof or holes in the side of the chamber. The victims were usually dead within 10 minutes; Rudolf Höss testified that it took up to 20 minutes.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=170}} [[Leib Langfus]], a member of the ''Sonderkommando'', buried his diary (written in [[Yiddish]]) near crematorium III in Auschwitz II. It was found in 1952, signed "A.Y.R.A":{{sfn|Cohen|1998|pp=529, 531}}
{{blockquote|It would be difficult to even imagine that so many people would fit in such a small [room]. Anyone who did not want to go inside was shot&nbsp;[...] or torn apart by the dogs. They would have suffocated from the lack of air within several hours. Then all the doors were sealed tight and the gas thrown in by way of a small hole in the ceiling. There was nothing more that the people inside could do. And so they only screamed in bitter, lamentable voices. Others complained in voices full of despair, and others still sobbed spasmodically and sent up a dire, heart-rending weeping.&nbsp;... And in the meantime, their voices grew weaker and weaker&nbsp;... Because of the great crowding, people fell one atop another as they died, until a heap arose consisting of five or six layers atop the other, reaching a height of one meter. Mothers froze in a seated position on the ground embracing their children in their arms, and husbands and wives died hugging each other. Some of the people made up a formless mass. Others stood in a leaning position, while the upper parts, from the stomach up, were in a lying position. Some of the people had turned completely blue under the influence of the gas, while others looks entirely fresh, as if they were asleep.{{sfn|Langfus|2000|p=357}}}}