Kaufmann Schafranov, Sofia

Sofia Kaufmann, married name Schafranov, was a Persian Jewess of Russian origin who lived in Italy. She was arrested on 2 December 1943, and later deported to Ausch­witz, where she arrived on 6 February 1944. On 18 January 1945, she was evacuated, and ultimately ended up in Mauthausen Camp. Her testimony was published in 1945. In it, she claimed to have heard about gas-chamber killings from another inmate who had managed to escape. Therefore, she could have learned this from him only after her camp was liberated, hence after the war. Her hearsay story includes the following claims:

• The deportees employed in the gas chambers were killed every two months – whereas many of them miraculously survived to testify.
• The victims were given towels and soap when sent into the “fake shower bath.” This most certainly would never have happened, considering the mess it would have created and the effort necessary to retrieve and clean these items afterwards. In addition, no one takes towels into a shower.
• The chamber had a low ceiling – when in fact it was 2.40 meters high.
• The chambers could hold 25 or 30 persons – a hundredth of the amount otherwise claimed.
• Shower heads on the ceiling sprayed poison gas instead of water – while the morgues of Crematoria II and III had real showers, and the gas was supposedly supplied by throwing in Zyklon-B pellets.
• The Germans were stingy, so gas was applied only sparingly, as a result of which the people did not die, and therefore “were thrown into the furnaces while still alive.” Imagine the scene: a few Jewish inmates of the Son­der­kom­man­do needed to somehow throw tens, hundreds or even thousands of undead Jews into the furnaces.

(For a few more details, see Mattogno 2021, p. 373.)