On Saturday, November 8,
2008, one day before the seventieth anniversary
of Kristallnacht,
the German newspaper, Bild, published
an article stating that architectural blueprints
of the Auschwitz concentration
camp had been discovered in an apartment
in Berlin.
In the apartment were found
twenty-eight detailed sketches of the Auschwitz concentration
camp that display scaled depictions of the
camp's railroad tracks, barracks and clearly
labeled shower room, gas
chambers and crematorium.
The plans are believed to
have been drawn between 1941 and 1943 - after
the establishment of the camp. They are not
original construction plans but, rather,
plans for an expansion of the camp. Auschwitz
was largely expanded over the course of the
year 1941. Historians believe that the extermination
chambers were built after the initial erection
of Auschwitz and these plans would prove
that theory.
Until now, historians have
believed that the official start of the Nazi
genocide campaign was January 20, 1942
when Nazi
officials met at the Wannsee resort
outside of Berlin and decided on the Final
Solution. An earlier dating on one of
the sketches, however, may change the accepted
historical timeline. The organized genocide
may have begun a year before the currently
accepted start date. After these blueprints
are proven as legitimate, Holocaust historians
will need to reassess the information about
the genocide that they previously took to
be fact.
The article in the German Bild maintained
that this important piece of evidence indicating
Nazi plans for extermination could be the
final proof against those who deny the
atrocities of the Holocaust.