MME. VAILLANT-COUTURIER: No. When we arrived Jewish women had not the
right to be admitted. They were taken straight to the gas chamber.
M. DUBOST: Would you please tell us about the disinfection of the
blocks?
MME. VAILLANT-COUTURIER: From time to time, owing to the filth which
caused the lice and gave rise to so many epidemics, they disinfected the
blocks with gas; but these disinfections were also the cause of many
deaths because, while the blocks were being disinfected with gas, the
prisoners were taken to the shower-baths. Their clothes were taken away
from them to be steamed. The internees were left naked outside, waiting
for their clothing to come back from the steaming, and then they were
given back to them all wet. Even those who were sick, who could barely
stand on their feet, were sent to the showers. It is quite obvious that
a great many of them died in the course of these proceedings. Those who
could not move were washed all in the same bath during the disinfection.