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Holocaust Controversies What Part Of The Word Genocide Do You Not Understand? Pages Main Page Auschwitz Aktion Reinhard Chelmno, Gas Vans & Euthanasia Soviet Union & Yugoslavia Nazi Policy Holocaust Deniers Miscellaneous Open Access Sources Open Access Secondary Literature Comments Policy About HC/Contact Us Abbreviations & Archives Friday, January 15, 2010 The dumbest Holocaust denial icon: the Auschwitz swimming pool [Update: here is a more in-depth piece on the swimming pool and other stuff the sillier deniers like to bring up.] I mean, Jon Harrison dealt with it, Pressac dealt with it, van Pelt dealt with it: Given the dichotomy between the very complex nature and history of Auschwitz and the habit of many to consider the camp only as a "top-secret mass extermination center," many people, including bona-fide historians, survivors, and not so bona-fide holocaust deniers, often commit the fallacy of composition: they reason from the properties of the part of Auschwitz that was engaged with mass extermination to the properties of Auschwitz as a whole. A favourite example of the negationists is the so-called swimming pool in Auschwitz I. They argue that the presence of a swimming pool, with three diving boards, shows that the camp was really a rather benign place, and therefore could not have been a center of extermination. They ignore that the swimming pool was built as a water reservoir for the purpose of firefighting (there were no hydrants in the camp), that the diving boards were added later, and that the pool was only accessible to SS men and certain privileged Aryan prisoners employed as inmate-funcionaries in the camp. The presence of the swimming pool does not say anything about the conditions for Jewish inmates in Auschwitz, and does not challenge the existence of an extermination program with its proper facilities in Auschwitz II. Yet it keeps returning, and returning, and returning, and returning, like a zombie. The "argument" is so mind-bogglingly illogical that one is surprised that even denial cultists would want to repeat it, yet they keep doing it till it's not longer funny. No historian or court ever claimed that every single inmate of Auschwitz had to perish - or had to perish immediately. The presence of relatively privileged groups of prisoners (like Kapos, "Aryan" or Jewish) is acknowledged by everyone. The presence of amenities (like a brothel) for certain privileged prisoners is hardly a secret. So why the persistent mentions of the structure, the existence of which contradicts nothing even if one denies its primary use as a water reservoir (and which is not even situated in the extermination section, i.e. Birkenau, though even if it were otherwise, it would still not be an issue)? How utterly braindead, ignorant or devious one must be to even think about using the Auschwitz swimming pool as a PR trick in the name of "revisionism"? Posted by Sergey Romanov at Friday, January 15, 2010 Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest Labels: Auschwitz, Auschwitz swimming pool, idiots 39 comments: The Black Rabbit of InléSunday, November 27, 2011 5:49:00 pmSo Auschwitz had a swimming pool then.That's nice. The Jews could have a dip after there'd finished playing football on the pitch next to Krema III and before they caught a show in the Auschwitz theatre.ReplyDeleteReplieshmp49Saturday, November 09, 2019 10:37:00 pmI visited Auschwitz 30 years ago, with my father, a survivor of Auschwitz.We arrived at Auschwitz I, which is where the museum was and the main parking lot, with its brick buildings with glass in the windows. My father did not believe it was Auschwitz. This is where the "swimming pond" was located.Like my father, the Jews at Auschwitz never saw Auschwitz I. They were all kept and killed at Auschwitz II, Birkenau. At Auschwitz II, we found only 1 other car in the parking lot. There were only 6 barracks still standing (the Poles had torn down the many hundreds of others to use as lumber after WWII), and only one was accessible. It was made of wood, had no windows, and had the shelves you've seen in pictures where the prisoners slept crowded upon one another.Why it would matter to anyone what happened at Auschwitz I, where the guards were barracked and Aryan prisoners kept, is beyond understanding for normal people. But Holocaust deniers are not normal people.DeleteRepliesReplyAndrew-PaulThursday, October 29, 2020 4:57:00 pmLol. I can see you wrote that 9 years ago. Did you get around to reading the blog yet? Because you clearly hadn't at the time you wrote your reply!DeleteRepliesReplyReplyThe Black Rabbit of InléSunday, November 27, 2011 5:54:00 pmWhat proof is there that:"the swimming pool was built as a water reservoir for the purpose of firefighting ... that the diving boards were added later"ReplyDeleteRepliessfvjoshWednesday, November 08, 2017 9:10:00 amThere's interviews of Jews that were there saying they went to movies and bars.face it you were lied to...