“I was hospitalized in the Revier at Dora, in the tuberculosis Block, for the first half of February. This was the Block closest to the building with the crematorium oven. In this way, I saw the crematorium oven in action as well as the pyre that had been set up just beside it, a layer of wood logs, a layer of corpses. At night, the pyre under our windows lit up the room of our barracks. We were sometimes present for the turning over of the corpses with the help of long forks – which at night was Dantesque – probably done to stoke the combustion of the corpses. Personally, I think that the decision to set up the pyres was taken because of the Gross Rosen camp evacuation transport arriving at Dora. The crematorium could not alone suffice before such an influx of corpses.”
–Robert Roulard, Archives de l’Amicale Dora-Ellrich