After using improvised gas chambers that had been installed in a village house, the Nazis built four new, large gas chambers in Birkenau, and erected crematoria next to them to incinerate the bodies. Construction took place between March 22 and June 28, 1943. The Nazis rated the killing capacity of each chamber at 2,000 persons at a time. At their peak, the crematoria consumed 4,756 bodies within a 24-hour period.
