# Holocaust Questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 14, 2002, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-questions/108940 "2002-05-14T01:34:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Daoloth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/82dd89/32.png) [@Daoloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daoloth)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-questions/108940/1 "2002-05-14T01:34:17Z")
Recently I’ve been reading the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel in my lit class. Coincidentally, I also recently read a post by some troll on Usenet. The troll asserts many things about the historocity of “Night” (read: Holocaust denier), and the vast majority of the troll’s assertions are laughingly false and asnine. However, a few of them raised questions. The questions themselves pertain to the Holocaust itself than to the disgusting denial movement. So, here they are: -In “Night” Wiesel mentions seeing the furnace at Auschwitz belching forth flame. How does flame belch from chimneys? Were they blast furnaces, or was this passage symbolic? -Wiesel implies that some people were thrown into the furnaces alive. How often did this happen at Auschwitz? -Wiesel says that babies were thrown into the furnace alive. Again, how often did this happen? -What did they do to Auschwitz right before the Death March? Wiesel says that they were forced to clean their buildings, but I recall hearing that the Germans burned the entire camp down. Which happened, or did both actually occur? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-questions/108940/2 "2002-05-14T02:40:03Z")
It’s called evil, kid. Pix of Auschwitz furnaces. [http://www.fmv.ulg.ac.be/schmitz/Holocaust/furnace.html](http://www.fmv.ulg.ac.be/schmitz/Holocaust/furnace.html) Discussion of Auschwitz furnaces. [http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/camps/auschwitz/crematoria/furnaces-cold-air](http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/camps/auschwitz/crematoria/furnaces-cold-air) Annnnd…that’s about as far as I personally feel like going with this evil stuff, looking at Google hits for “Auschwitz furnaces”. ☹ Feel free to borrow my search engine. > **[Google](https://www.google.com)** > > Celebrating the late We:wa! #GoogleDoodle ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-questions/108940/3 "2002-05-14T02:45:29Z")
You might go the the library and get the book _Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich_ by William L. Shirer. This is a well researched and documented account. There is a section (starting page 967 in my book) in it about the activities of the various extermination and other concentration camps of that period. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-questions/108940/4 "2002-05-14T02:55:00Z")
Just be wary of Holocaust revisionists. They will tell you it never happened. Which is total bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-questions/108940/5 "2002-05-14T03:08:29Z")
> [@](#): > > -In “Night” Wiesel mentions seeing the furnace at Auschwitz belching forth flame. How does flame belch from chimneys? Were they blast furnaces, or was this passage symbolic? > > -Wiesel implies that some people were thrown into the furnaces alive. How often did this happen at Auschwitz? > > -Wiesel says that babies were thrown into the furnace alive. Again, how often did this happen? Does Wiesel talk about seeing the flames from a location in the barracks? Jewish prisoners were forced to attend to the disposal of the bodies. If Wiesel was ever a part of one of the work parties, he’d have seen the flames from the doors being opened. On the other hand, I worked at a place that had an incinerator (back before clean air standards were improved) and I know that with any lax standards regarding maintenance and fire levels, you can, indeed, get flaming debris rising up the stacks. (It would not be a constant flame in the manner of an oil refinery burn-off stack, but it could be considered “flaming.”) As to throwing people (adult or infant) into the flames, alive: it certainly would not have been standard practice (as that would have slowed down the assembly-line efficiency for which the Nazis were striving), but one or two incidents of spontaneous cruelty in that manner would probably haunt a person for a very long time. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2002, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holocaust-questions/108940/6 "2002-05-14T04:16:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Just be wary of Holocaust revisionists. They will tell you it never happened. > Which is total bullshit. I don’t think the OP could have said it better himself.