This half-timbered building which looks likea Bavarian garden cottage in a peaceful wooded setting is theoriginal Krematoria built in 1940, to house one double oven inwhich the bodies of dead prisoners were cremated. According tohistorian John Toland, the cremation of the dead was ordered byHeinrich Himmler in an effort to stop epidemics in all the camps.When the mortality rate increased as the camp population grew,another larger crematorium building had to be built in 1942, usingprison labor. Here a group of very subdued teen-aged touristsvisits the tiny room where flowers have been placed on the ovenby visitors in remembrance of the dead.