Go up the funnel

[Johnyxxx]

Hello,

Is the sentence below correct?

"A prisoner told me something I did not understand then; he said the previous transport had gone up the funnel."

Thanks a lot.

 

[Tarheel]

It doesn't make sense to me. Except for those really big smokestacks on ships (which might be called "funnels"), things go down funnels, not up them. But you know that if you looked up funnel.

 

[Tarheel]

If you are asking if the sentence is grammatically correct, yes.

 

[Rover_KE]

Source, author and context, Johny?

 

[Johnyxxx]

Source, author and context, Johny?

I have seen a lot of documentaries about people who survived Nazi extermination camps like Auschwitz, Treblinka etc. Many of them said the same thing: "when we had been in the camp for two or three days, we asked the prisoners what had become of those who went to the left during the selection. The prisoners said what we did not understand then, that ...." (and now comes the phrase I am struggling with)

I have thought go up through the chimney could maybe do the trick because what the prisoners were saying to the people was "the people you are asking for were killed in the gas chamber immediately after the selection and burnt. (they become smoke going up through the chimney)

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, I think you're right. The funnel is the chimney. They were gassed and burnt.

 

[Tdol]

Chimney makes more sense than funnel to me.