The Auschwitz Swimming
Pool
[back] Auschwitz-Birkenau
[A swimming pool in a death camp!? Sports?]
[2001] Controversy Of The Auschwitz Swimming Pool By Robert Faurisson Since 1978, this body has barred revisionists from its archives, which are known to be an exceptionally rich resource.
In several of the photographs of Auschwitz I, Wilson saw what appeared to be a swimming pool. In one photograph, it looked as if diving boards were present. (32 8934) Wilson also believed there was water in the pool based on colour tone and the casting of the shadows along its edge. He agreed a reservoir that had water in it would exhibit the same features. He could not say how old the swimming pool was. (32-8941a, 8941b) [Kenneth R. Wilson] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988
Felderer showed a slide of inmates fencing. This photograph was another which came from the Dürrfeld records in the American archives. Dürrfeld believed that the camp had been a decent place where inmates could, in their free time, pursue sports such as fencing, boxing and swimming. To Felderer, the idea that Auschwitz was also a death camp, as well as a place where sporting events were carried on, was ludicrous. (19-4406, 4407) [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988
The swimming pool at Auschwitz I was located inside the electrified fence and measured 25 metres long, 6 metres wide, and 3 metres deep. Slides depicted the two starting blocks, the mount for the springboard and the showers. Piper told Felderer that the pool had been used to rehabilitate inmate patients and as recreation. There was never any denial by the Auschwitz Museum administration that the pool was there during the war and aerial photographs taken by the Allies confirmed its existence. Felderer requested Auschwitz officials to provide him with the blueprints of the pool but without success. Some literature of Holocaust survivors referred to this swimming pool and how it was used for water polo. One such survivor who had written about the pool was a person named Kreuz. (18-4258, 4275 to 4278; 20-4713) [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988
Inmates were sometimes also allowed to swim in the nearby Sola River. Felderer obtained this information from interviews with Jehovah's Witnesses who had been interned in the camp and from "survivor" accounts. (18-4264) [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988