This small-gauge track
was one of fifteen leading to five furnaces consisting of three
retorts each. At first small metal trolleys containing the bodies
of gassed victims were pushed by prisoners to the mouth of each
opening. The bodies of these innocent people were then thrust
into the flames. Other, more efficient means of loading the
ovens were soon employed, each team of workers developing its
own method. In the upper portion of this photo is the ceiling,
collapsed after the SS,
in the face of the advancing Soviet armies, had dismantled and
removed the furnaces and dynamited the structure in an effort
to hide their crimes.