A. I have known since spring 1943 that innocent human beings were being liquidated in Auschwitz gas chambers and that their corpses were subsequently incinerated in the crematoriums.
Q. Who is the designer of the ventilation systems for the gas chambers?
A. Schultze was the designer of the ventilation systems in the gas chambers, and he installed them.
Q. Why was the brick lining of the muffles so quickly damaged?
A. The bricks were damaged after six months because the strain on the furnaces was colossal.
Q. What motivated you to continue with the building of the other crematoriums as senior engineer with Topf?
A. I had my contract with the Topf firm and I was aware of the fact that my work was of great importance for the national socialist state. I knew that if I refused to continue with this work, I would be liquidated by the Gestapo.
Ten days later, on March 15, 1946, Mr. Prufer was interrogated again.
Q. Since when have you been constructing and building crematoriums for concentration camps?
A. Since 1940. In that year, I was asked by Ludwig Topf to build a three-muffle-furnace crematorium. He, Ludwig Topf, told me that this is an order from the SS Command and that it must be completed urgently. In the same year, 1940, the SS leadership accepted the three-muffle furnaces designed by me, and thereafter Topf and Sohne began this work under my direction. From 1940 to 1944, 20 crematoriums for concentration camps were built under my direction -- for Buchenwald, Dachau, Mauthausen, Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen.
Q. Who at Topf accepted your projects?
A. They were accepted by chief engineer Sander. If Sander noticed any errors in these projects, he modified such faults personally and he also confirmed acceptance of these projects personally. It was only then that Sander submitted these projects to Ludwig Topf for final approval. I constructed and designed the furnaces. Keller did the technical drawings. I was technically responsible and Schultze created and installed the ventilation systems.