KL NATZWEILER-STRUTHOF

From the opening of the camp until February 1943 dead prisoners of the main camp and sub camps were transported to the civil crematorium in Strasbourg-Robertsau for cremation. Until February 1943 deaths were registered with the marie in Natzweiler in accordance with the normal procedures of the district.

On 3 February 1943 the first preliminary crematorium was set up just off the the road to the camp near where the gas chamber was built. This was likely a portable single muffle Kori. From 10 Fenruary 1943 cremations were begun by the camp itself. Also from February 10 1943 a new registrar office was created for the camp, Natzweiler II so deaths did not need to be recorded in the normal district registers. Until the beginning of August 1944 the sub camps sent their dead prisoners back to Natzweiler main camp where they were registered and cremated according to the procedures of the main camp.

Source: Steegmann, Robert: Struthof. La Nuee Bleue 2005.

Photos of the the single muffle portable Kori oven in Natzweiler.  See the crude body delivery device as compared to the more sophisticated Topf device used in Auschwitz/ Birkenau and Buchenwald.  The oven has been adapted from its original form where it was fuelled by oil to being fuelled by coal or  wood.