6. What evidence exists that six million Jews were not killed by the Nazis?

Ernst
Zündel Replies:

Rebuttal # 6

As with Dachau, the purpose of Auschwitz has been adequately
summarized in an Institute for Historical Review pamphlet, written by Mark
Weber, which is posted here for convenience's sake and as backdrop.

Mark Weber of the IHR

It is entitled "Auschwitz:
Myths and Facts." (Full
documentation for footnotes, where indicated, is available here):

"Nearly everyone has heard of Auschwitz, the German wartime concentration
camp where many prisoners -- most of them Jewish -- were reportedly
exterminated, especially in gas chambers. Auschwitz is widely regarded as the
most terrible Nazi extermination center. The camp's horrific reputation cannot,
however, be reconciled with the facts.

Scholars Challenge Holocaust Story

Astonishing as it may seem, more and more historians and engineers have been
challenging the widely accepted Auschwitz story. These "revisionist"
scholars do not dispute the fact that large numbers of Jews were deported to
the camp, or that many died there, particularly of typhus and other diseases.
But the compelling evidence they present shows that Auschwitz was not an
extermination center and that the story of mass killings in "gas
chambers" is a myth.

The Auschwitz Camps

The Auschwitz camp complex was set up in 1940 in what is now south-central
Poland. Large numbers of Jews were deported there between 1942 and mid-1944.

The main camp was known as Auschwitz I. Birkenau, or Auschwitz II, was
supposedly the main extermination center, and Monowitz, or Auschwitz III, was a
large industrial center where gasoline was produced from coal. In addition
there were dozens of smaller satellite camps devoted to the war economy.

....

Four Million Victims?

At the postwar Nuremberg Tribunal, the Allies charged that the Germans
exterminated four million people at Auschwitz. This figure, which was invented
by the Soviets, was uncritically accepted for many years. It often appeared in
major American newspapers and magazines, for example. (note 1)

Today no reputable historian, not even those who generally accept the
extermination story, believes this figure. Israeli Holocaust historian Yehuda
Bauer said in 1989 that it is time to finally acknowledge the familiar four
million figure is a deliberate myth. In July 1990 the Auschwitz State Museum in
Poland, along with Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Center, suddenly announced
that altogether perhaps one million people (both Jews and non-Jews) died there.
Neither institution would say how many of these people were killed, nor were
any estimates given of the numbers of those supposedly gassed. (note 2) One
prominent Holocaust historian, Gerald Reitlinger, has estimated that perhaps
700,000 or so Jews perished at Auschwitz. More recently, Holocaust historian
Jean-Claude Pressac has estimated that about 800,000 persons -- of whom 630,000
were Jewish -- perished at Auschwitz. While even such lower figures are incorrect,
they show how the Auschwitz
story has changed drastically over the years. (note 3)

Bizarre Tales

At one time it was seriously claimed that Jews were systematically electrocuted
at Auschwitz. American newspapers, citing a Soviet eyewitness report from
liberated Auschwitz, told readers in February 1945 that the methodical Germans
had killed Jews there using an "electric conveyor belt on which hundreds
of persons could be electrocuted simultaneously [and] then moved on into
furnaces. They were burned almost instantly, producing fertilizer for nearby
cabbage fields." (note 4)

And at the Nuremberg Tribunal, chief U.S. prosecutor Robert Jackson charged
that the Germans used a "newly invented" device to instantaneously
"vaporize" 20,000 Jews near Auschwitz "in such a way that there
was no trace left of them." (note 5) No reputable historian now accepts
either of these fanciful tales.

Höss utterly terrified of British interrigators

who obtained a "confession" out of him

Click
here for full story of this picture

The Höss 'Confession'

A key Holocaust document is the "confession" of former Auschwitz
commandant Rudolf Höss of April 5, 1946, which was submitted by the U.S.
prosecution at the main Nuremberg trial. (note 6)

Although it is still widely cited as solid proof for the Auschwitz
extermination story, it is actually a false statement that was obtained by
torture.

Höss
confession? - click here and read

Many years after the war, British military intelligence sergeant Bernard
Clarke described how he and five other British soldiers tortured the former
commandant to obtain his "confession." Höss himself privately
explained his ordeal in these words: "Certainly, I signed a statement that
I killed two and half million Jews. I could just as well have said that it was
five million Jews. There are certain methods by which any confession can be
obtained, whether it is true or not." (note 7)

Even historians who generally accept the Holocaust extermination story now
acknowledge that many of the specific statements made in the Höss
"affidavit" are simply not true. For one thing, no serious scholar
now claims that anything like two and a half or three million people perished
in Auschwitz.

The Höss "affidavit" further alleges that Jews were already
being exterminated by gas in the summer of 1941 at three other camps: Belzec,
Treblinka and Wolzek. The "Wolzek" camp mentioned by Höss is a
total invention. No such camp existed, and the name is no longer mentioned in
Holocaust literature. Moreover, the story these days by those who believe in
the Holocaust legend is that gassings of Jews did not begin at Auschwitz,
Treblinka, or Belzec until sometime in 1942.

No Documentary Evidence

Many thousands of secret German documents dealing with Auschwitz were
confiscated after the war by the Allies. Not a single one refers to a policy or
program of extermination. In fact, the extermination story cannot be reconciled
with the documentary evidence.

Many Jewish Inmates Unable to Work

For example, it is often claimed that all Jews at Auschwitz who were unable to
work were immediately killed. Jews who were too old, young, sick, or weak were
supposedly gassed on arrival, and only those who could be worked to death were
temporarily kept alive. But the evidence shows that, in fact, a very high
percentage of the Jewish inmates were not able to work, and were nevertheless
not killed. For example, an internal German telex message dated Sept. 4, 1943,
from the chief of the Labor Allocation department of the SS Economic and
Administrative Main Office (WVHA), reported that of 25,000 Jewish inmates in
Auschwitz, only 3,581 were able to work, and that all of the remaining Jewish
inmates -- some 21,500, or about 86 percent -- were unable to work. (note 8)

This is also confirmed in a secret report dated April 5, 1944, on
"security measures in Auschwitz" by Oswald Pohl, head of the SS
concentration camp system, to SS chief Heinrich Himmler. Pohl reported that
there was a total of 67,000 inmates in the entire Auschwitz camp complex, of
whom 18,000 were hospitalized or disabled. In the Auschwitz II camp (Birkenau),
supposedly the main extermination center, there were 36,000 inmates, mostly
female, of whom "approximately 15,000 are unable to work." (note 9)

These two documents simply cannot be reconciled with the Auschwitz
extermination story.

The evidence shows that Auschwitz-Birkenau was established primarily as a camp
for Jews who were not able to work, including the sick and elderly, as well as
for those who were temporarily awaiting assignment to other camps. That's the
considered view of Dr. Arthur Butz of Northwestern University, who also says
that this was the reason for the unusually high death rate there. (note 10)
Princeton University history professor Arno Mayer, who is Jewish, acknowledges
in a recent book about the "final solution" that more Jews perished
at Auschwitz as a result of typhus and other "natural" causes than
were executed. (note 11)

Anne Frank

Perhaps the best known Auschwitz inmate was Anne Frank, who is known around the
world for her famous diary. But few people know that thousands of Jews,
including Anne and her father, Otto Frank, "survived" Auschwitz.

The 15-year-old girl and her father were deported from the Netherlands to
Auschwitz in September 1944. Several weeks later, in the face of the advancing
Soviet army, Anne was evacuated along with many other Jews to the Bergen-Belsen
camp, where she died of typhus in March 1945.

Her father came down with typhus in Auschwitz and was sent to the camp hospital
to recover. He was one of thousands of sick and feeble Jews who were left
behind when the Germans abandoned the camp in January 1945, shortly before it
was overrun by the Soviets. He died in Switzerland in 1980.

If the German policy had been to kill Anne Frank and her father, they would not
have survived Auschwitz. Their fate, tragic though it was, cannot be reconciled
with the extermination story.

Allied Propaganda

The Auschwitz gassing story is based in large part on the hearsay statements of
former Jewish inmates who did not personally see any evidence of extermination.
Their beliefs are understandable, because rumors about gassings at Auschwitz
were widespread.

Allied planes dropped large numbers of leaflets, written in Polish and German,
on Auschwitz and the surrounding areas which claimed that people were being
gassed in the camp. The Auschwitz gassing story, which was an important part of
the Allied wartime propaganda effort, was also broadcast to Europe by Allied
radio stations. (note 12)

Survivor Testimony

Former inmates have confirmed that they saw no evidence of extermination at
Auschwitz.

An Austrian woman, Maria Vanherwaarden, testified about her camp experiences in
a Toronto District Court in March 1988. She was interned in Auschwitz-Birkenau
in 1942 for having sexual relations with a Polish forced laborer. On the train
trip to the camp, a Gypsy woman told her and the others that they would all be
gassed at Auschwitz.

Upon arrival, Maria and the other women were ordered to undress and go into a
large concrete room without windows to take a shower. The terrified women were
sure that they were about to die. But then, instead of gas, water came out of
the shower heads.

Auschwitz was no vacation center, Maria confirmed. She witnessed the death of
many fellow inmates by disease, particularly typhus, and quite a few committed
suicide. But she saw no evidence at all of mass killings, gassings, or of any
extermination program. (note 13)

A Jewish woman named Marika Frank arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau from Hungary in
July 1944, when 25,000 Jews were supposedly gassed and cremated daily. She
likewise testified after the war that she heard and saw nothing of "gas
chambers" during the time she was interned there. She heard the gassing
stories only later. (note 14)

Inmates Released

Auschwitz internees who had served their sentences were released and returned
to their home countries. If Auschwitz had actually been a top secret
extermination center, the Germans would certainly not have released inmates who
"knew" what was happening in the camp. (note 15)

Himmler Orders Death Rate Reduced

In response to the deaths of many inmates due to disease, especially typhus,
the German authorities responsible for the camps ordered firm counter-measures.

The head of the SS camp administration office sent a directive dated Dec. 28,
1942, to Auschwitz and the other concentration camps. It sharply criticized the
high death rate of inmates due to disease, and ordered that "camp
physicians must use all means at their disposal to significantly reduce the
death rate in the various camps."

Furthermore, it ordered:

The camp doctors must supervise more often than in the past the nutrition of
the prisoners and, in cooperation with the administration, submit improvement
recommendations to the camp commandants ... The camp doctors are to see to it
that the working conditions at the various labor places are improved as much as
possible.

Finally, the directive stressed that "the Reichsführer SS [Heinrich
Himmler] has ordered that the death rate absolutely must be reduced."
(note 16)

German Camp Regulations

Official German camp regulations make clear that Auschwitz was not an
extermination center. They ordered: (note 17)

New arrivals in the camp are to be given a thorough medical examination, and if
there is any doubt [about their health], they must be sent to quarantine for
observation.Prisoners who report sick must be examined that same day by the
camp physician. If necessary, the physician must transfer the prisoners to a
hospital for professional treatment.The camp physician must regularly inspect
the kitchen regarding the preparation of the food and the quality of the food
supply. Any deficiencies that may arise must be reported to the camp
commandant.Special care should be given in the treatment of accidents, in order
not to impair the full productivity of the prisoners. Prisoners who are to be
released or transfered must first be brought before the camp physician for
medical examination.

Telltale Aerial Photos

Detailed aerial reconnaissance photographs taken of Auschwitz-Birkenau on
several random days in 1944 (during the height of the alleged extermination period
there) were made public by the CIA in 1979. These photos show no trace of piles
of corpses, smoking crematory chimneys or masses of Jews awaiting death, things
that have been repeatedly alleged, and all of which would have been clearly
visible if Auschwitz had been the extermination center it is said to have been.
(note 18) For more Aerial photo information, see John Ball's Air-Photo.com website.

Absurd Cremation Claims

Cremation specialists have confirmed that thousands of corpses could not
possibly have been cremated every day throughout the spring and summer of 1944
at Auschwitz, as commonly alleged.

For example, Mr. Ivan Lagace, manager of a large crematory in Calgary, Canada,
testified in court in April 1988 that the Auschwitz cremation story is
technically impossible. The allegation that 10,000 or even 20,000 corpses were
burned every day at Auschwitz in the summer of 1944 in crematories and open
pits is simply "preposterous" and "beyond the realm of
reality," he declared under oath. (note 19)

Gassing Expert Refutes Extermination Story

America's leading gas chamber expert, Boston execution technician Fred A.
Leuchter, carefully examined the supposed "gas chambers" in Poland
and concluded that the Auschwitz gassing story is absurd and technically
impossible.

Leuchter
is the foremost specialist on the design and installation of gas chambers used
in the United States to execute convicted criminals. For example, he designed a
gas chamber facility for the Missouri state penitentiary.

In February 1988 he carried out a detailed onsite examination of the "gas
chambers" at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek in Poland, which are either
still standing or only partially in ruins. In sworn
testimony to a Toronto court and in a technical
report, Leuchter described every aspect of his investigation.

He concluded by emphatically declaring that the alleged gassing facilities
could not possibly have been used to kill people. Among other things, he
pointed out that the so-called "gas chambers" were not properly
sealed or vented to kill human beings without also killing German camp
personnel. (note 20)

Dr. William B. Lindsey, a research chemist employed for 33 years by the Dupont
Corporation, likewise testified in a 1985 court case that the Auschwitz gassing
story is technically impossible. Based on a careful on-site examination of the
"gas chambers" at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek, and on his years
of experience, he declared:

"I have come to the conclusion that no one was willfully or purposefully
killed with Zyklon B [hydrocyanic acid gas] in this manner. I consider it
absolutely impossible." (note 21)"

So far the IHR pamphlet. There is a wealth of information about Auschwitz in 15
years' worth of articles in the Journal for Historical Review, indexed at http://www.ihr.org/

Summary:

Seek, and Ye shall find.

This information is such basic stuff that it boggles the mind that Nizkor would
still peddle Auschwitz, that theme park of anti-German hate, as
"evidence" that gassings and burnings of millions or even hundreds of
thousands bodies were going on there as a matter of routine.

That claim has now as many holes as the the proverbial cheese. Any serious
scholar, either on the side of the so-called "Holocaust" or on the
side of those who challenge the "Holocaust" claims will not be able
to get around the facts as they are are now available and summarized in
engineering, architectual and forensic reports and in the aerial photos.

Perhaps two additional things need to be mentioned that are implied in the
Nizkor post:

1) that the "unfit" - meaning the
elderly, the children, and most of the women - were immediately sent to the gas
chambers" and that (implied)

2) the fuel that was produced at Auschwitz was used
on location to burn the genocidal evidence.

Regarding 1): How did it come about, then, that at war's end photos show the
elderly, women and children being "liberated" - very much alive and
not any the worse for the wear? Or why was Elie Wiesel, sent to the Auschwitz
hospital for an operation? and

2) why would the Germans be so foolish as to waste precious heating fuel to
incinerate dead Jews when their own children were freezing to death in the
ditches as they were fleeing from the Communists, when their own vehicles
stalled by the thousands and clogged the roads because there was no fuel?

The fuel shortage was indeed one of the most serious shortages that Germany was
battling at the time. Anybody who has lived through the last years of the war
will talk of the cold as being the most tormenting reality - claiming victims
in many parts of Germany and on the Eastern front - way, way ahead of bombs,
diseases and starvation!

Why would the Germans have been so foolish as to have wasted something as
precious as fuel that was so desperately needed in the arteries of warfare? It
only stands to reason that the Germans would have used valuable fuel for urgent
military needs, rather than for some harebrained scheme to burn cadavers in
water-filled ditches.

April 22, 1996