REPORT OF PROFESSOR ROBERT JAN VAN PELT Table of Contents notes Given the fact that Germar Scheerer is generally known by his original name Germar Rudolf, and given the fact that his affidavit relies heavily if not totally on work he has done and published under the name Rudolf, I will refer to the author of this affidavit as Rudolf. "Claimant's skeleton argument re an application to adduce new evidence," # 6. Nuremberg Document PS-4024. Arthur R. Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century: The Case Against the Presumed Extermination of European Jewry (Torrance CA: Institute for Historical Review, 1992), 363f. The Journal of Historical Review, vol. 10 (1990), 499. Irving vs. Penguin and Lipstadt, transcripts, day 6 (January 19, 2000), 42f. Irving vs. Penguin and Lipstadt, day 11 (January 28, 2000), 151. Henry Saint John, 1st Viscount of Bolingbroke, "The substance of some letter s written originally in French, about the year 1720, to M. De Pouilly ," The Works of Lord Bolingbroke, 4 vols. (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1844), vol. 2, 492. Rudolf, Germar, Character Assasins [sic], http://vho.org/GB/c/GR/CharacterAssassins.html http://vho.org/GB/c/GR/CharacterAssassins.html "Claimant's skeleton argument re an application to adduce new evidence," # 6. David Hackett Fischer, Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought (New York and Evanston: Harper and Row,1970), 47 Fischer, Historians' Fallacies, 53. Irving versus Penguin and Lipstadt, transcript, Day 32 (March 13, 2000), 21ff. Irena Strzelecka, "Hospitals," Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, ed. Yisrael Gutman and Michael Berenbaum (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994), 389. See letter Pohl to Himmler, September 30, 1943. As quoted in Randolph J. Braham, The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary, 2 vols. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), vol. 1, 241. Joseph Goebbels, The Goebbels Diaries, 1942-1943, ed. Louis P. Lochner (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1948), 357. Letter Bischoff March 31, 1943, Archive of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim, ms., BW 30/34. Robert Faurisson, "The Mechanics of Gassing," The Journal of Historical Review, vol. 1 (1980), 26. Fred A. Leuchter, The Leuchter Report: The End of a Myth, foreword by Dr. Robert Faurisson (decatur Alabama: David Clark, n.d.), 11 Letter Bischoff March 31, 1943, Archive of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim, ms., BW 30/34. See Pressac, Auschwitz, 230. John C. Zimmerman, Holocaust Denial (Lanham NY and Oxford: University Press of America, 2000), 369f. Bill Topf, August 20, 1943. Ms., Osobyi Moscow, 502/1-327; USHRI Washington, RG 11.001M.03‹42. Wilhelm Schlesiger, The Rudolf Case Campaign to destroy an innocent scientist, contrary to human rights. See www.vho.org/GB/Books/trc Rudolf Höss, Kommandant in Auschwitz (Munich: DTV, 1987), 171. Ibid., 164. Ibid., 128. Ibid., 130. Benedikt Kautsky,Teufel und Verdamte (Zürich: Gutenberg, 1946), 273ff. See Ernst Klee, Dokumente zur "Euthanasie" (Frankfurt: Fischer, 1997), 126. "Augenzeugenbericht zu den Massenvergasungen," Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, vol 1 (1953), 189, 194. Heinz Küpper, Illustrierte Lexikon der deutschen Umgangssprache, 8 vols., vol 3, p. 992. "Aktenvermerk Betr.: Anwesenheit von Obering. Prüfer der Fa. Topf u. Söhne Erfurt, bezüglich Ausbau der Einäscherungsanlagen im K.G.L. Auschwitz," State Museum Auschwitz, BW 30/27, 38f. ". . . gebe ich an, daß mir damals bekannt war, daß es sich hierbei um Vergasungsäume handelt." testimony Fritz Ertl, January 21, 1972, Republic of Austria, Ministry of Justice, Case 20 Vr 3806/64 (Ertl/Dejaco), Landesgericht für Strafsachen, Vienna, file ON 484, 120. Day 8, 172ff. "Nach Vorhalt der Onr. 193, Aktenvermerk vom 21.8.1942, Unterschrieben v Angekl. Ertl, betreffende Prüfer d. Fa. Topf gibt der Angekl. Ertl an: Das is so ein Fall, als ich für Bischoff einspringen musste, da dieser damals in Berlin war. Aus Punkt 2./ des Aktenvermerk ersieht man deutlich, das der Chef damals in Berlin war. Ich habe ihn damals angerufen, und zwar am 21.8.1942 und habe anschliessend den Aktenvermerk gemacht. Zu dem Wort "Badeanstalten für Sonderaktionen" befragt gebe ich an, da mir damals bekannt war, daß es sich hierbei um Vergasungsume handelt." Testimony Fritz Ertl, January 21, 1972, Republic of Austria, Ministry of Justice, Case 20 Vr 3806/64 (Ertl/Dejaco), Landesgericht für Strafsachen, Vienna, file ON 484, 120. "Dann habe ich mit einem Angehrigen der politischen Abteilung der im Privatberuf Richter war, gesprochen. Er hat mir dann einiges erzählt. Normalerweise hat man sich im Dienst nich zu sprechen getraut, da man befürchten musste, dafür bestraft zu werden. Ich kann mich erinneren, wie die Frau von Bischoff einem Offizier anzeigt, der Goebbels den Scherznamen "Jupp" gab. Dieser Richter hat mich aufgeklärt. Das muss im Sommer 1942 gewesen sein und ich kann mich erinnern, dass er sich enorm adfällig geäussert hat. Er war aus Hamburg unst ist später gefallen. Auschwitz, so erzählte er, sei ein Vernichtungslager. Viele Leute würden erschossen, also auch vor Standgerichte gestellt werden. Er hatte dann mit der Judenfrage auch angedeutet, dass grssere Vernichtungen kommen würden. Er gab mich den Rat, ich solle schauen, dass ich bald wegkäme. Er selbst ist dann später weggekommen und in Russland gefallen. Diese Aussprache war für mich ein Alarmsignal, ich war entsetzt und empört. Dieses Gespräch fällt in die Zeit in der die Krematorien beantragt wurden. Ich habe das zum Anlass genommen, um meine Versetzung anzusuchen. Bischoff hat mich angeschrien und mir erklärt, dass eine Versetzung nich in Frage kommt." Republic of Austria, Ministry of Justice, Case 20 Vr 3806/64 (Ertl/Dejaco), Landesgericht für Strafsachen, Vienna, file ON 484, proceedings January 21, 1972, 113. "Vorhalt der Onr. 195, so. 109, Schreiben an das Wirtschafts-Verwaltungs Hauptamt, vom 13.10.1942 durch den Vors. gibt der Angekl. Ertl an: Dieses Schreiben ist von Bischoff unterschrieben. Das Diktatzeichen ist Janisch. Ich selbst habe dieses Schreiben, so lange ich in Auschwitz war, nie gesehen. Ich habe nur jene Briefe geschreiben, die mir zugeteilt wurden. Bezüglich Punkt 3.) dieses Schreibens, Krematoriumneubau wurde in Juli 1942 begonnen. Diese Neubau war notwendig auf grund der Sonderaktionen. Mir selbst ist doch schon im Frühjahr 1942, und zwar ca. im März 1942 bekanntgeworden, was sich in Auschwitz tut und um was es bei den Sonderaktionen gegangen ist." Ibid., 124. "Zu diesem Zeitpunkt war ich nicht mehr in Auschwitz. Im Personalakt steht, daß ich am 25.1.1943 aus Auschwitz weggekommen bin. Ich habe dieses Schreiben nicht mehr bekommen. / Es stehen nur mehr die Namen "Janisch" und "Kirschneck" im Verteiler drauf. / In diesem Schreiben wurde schon sehr offen gesprochen, das geht aus dem Wort "Vergasungskeller" hervor. Das Diktatzeichen is "Bischoff". Ich kann mir vorstellen, dass er das selbst geschrieben hat. Ich habe den Auftrag von Bischoff gehabt, daß ich das Wort "Vergasung" nicht schreiben darf. Ich musste immer umschreiben. / über Befragen des Vorsitzenden, on Bischoff konkret zum Angeklagten Ertl gesagt hat, daß er das nicht schreiben darf, oder ist dieser Auftrag von hüoherer Stelle gekommen? Gibt der Angekl. Ertl an: / Ich glaube Bischoff hat mich darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß das Wort "Vergasen" nicht vorkommen darf. Es ist auch mglich, daß von höherer Stelle einmal eine Order gekommen ist. Ich kann mich heute daran nicht mehr erinneren. Nachdem jedoch dieses Wort "Vergasen" eigentlich immer umschrieben ist, mit "Sonderaktion" oder "Sonderma&szlignahme" bin ich der überzeugung, daß dies verlangt worden ist. Mich wundert, daß Bischoff dieses Wort "Vergasungskeller" selbst gebraucht hat. Nachdem auch von "oben" imer das Wort "Sonderaktion" verwendet wurde, habe ich das auch so verwendet. Ich habe diesen terminus übernommen." Ibid., 125f. Johann Paul Kremer, "Diary," in Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim, KL Auschwitz Seen by the SS: Rudolf Höss, Pery Broad, Johann Paul Kremer, transl. Constantine FitzGibbon and Krystyna Michalik (Warsaw: Interpress, 1991), 161f. Testimony by Kremer, 18 August 1947, in Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim, KL Auschwitz Seen by the SS, 162 Kremer, "Diary," in Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim, KL Auschwitz Seen by the SS, 162f. Testimony by Kremer, 17 July 1947, in Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim, KL Auschwitz Seen by the SS, 163. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, BW 30/27, p. 17. Pressac, Auschwitz, 213. Höss, "Himmler," in Höss, Death dealer, 287. Ibid., 289. Ibid. 290. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, D-AuII-3a/56, Women's camp Occupancy Report. Georegs Welelrs, "The Number of Victims and the Korherr Report," in Serge Klarsfeld ed., The Holocaust and the Neo-Nazi Mythomania (New York: The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1978), 188. Ibid., 194. Ibid., 183. Ibid., 183f. Nuremberg Document R-135, as quoted in Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Proecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, 10 vols. (Washington DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1946), vol. 1, 1001. Nuremberg Document NO-4634, as printed in Nuernberg Military Tribunals, Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10, 10 vols. . (Washington DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1949), vool. 4, 1166f. http://www.holocaust-history.org/~dkeren/cremation/topf-manual.shtml Steve Looker, in Washington City Paper (Vol. 16 No. 11, March 15-21 1996), pp. 20-24. Kenneth V. Iserson Death To Dust : What Happens to Dead Bodies? (Tucson: Galen Press, 1994), 264f. "LeMoyne Cremated," Chicago Tribune, Oct 17, 1879. Lawrence F. Moore, "Technology of Cremation," Association of American Cemetery Superintendents, Proceedings , vol 54 (1940), 67. Walter E. Londelius, "Cremation and Modern Crematory Construction," Association of American Cemetery Superintendents, Proceedings (1928), 24. Lawrence Moore, "Crematories and Cremation," Association of American Cemetery Superintendents, Proceedings (1929), 34. Ibid., 37. Iserson, From Death to Dust, 262. As quoted in Robert Nicol, At the End of the Road (St. Leonards: Allen and Unwin Australia, 1994), 352. Ibid., 262. Information given by Steve Looker of B&L, manufacturer of cremation muffles, to Mike Stein. Stanislaw Jankowski, "deposition," Jadwiga Bezwinska and Danuta Czech, eds., Amidst a Nightmare of Crime (Oswiecim: State Museum of Oswiecim, 1973), 41. Pery Broad, "Reminiscences," in KL Auschwitz Seen by the SS (Warsaw: Interpress, 1981), 112ff. Ibid., 119. Deborah Dwork and Robert-Jan van Pelt, Auschwitz: 1270 to the Present (New York: Norton, 1996), 279. David Irving, "Challenging the Experts", http://www.fpp.co.uk/Auschwitz/PeltLtr.html. Jamie McCarthy, The 'Wolzek' Paradox. http://www. Holocaust-history.org Broad, "Reminiscences," 136. Affidavit Kurt Becher, March 8, 1946. Document 3762-PS. International Military Tribunal, The Trial of the Major War Criminals, vol 23, p. 68. Letter Paul Zucchi to Robert Jan van Pelt, March 11, 2001, p. 2. Arthut Butz, "The Nagging 'Gassing Cellar' Problem," The Journal of Historical Review (July/August 1997), 22. Robert Faurisson, "Auschwitz: Technique & Operation of the Gas Chambers--Part !," The Journal of Historical Reviews, vol. 11 (Sprin 1991), 49f. Filip Müller, Eyewitness Auschwitz (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1999), 45. Ibid., 12f. Pery Broad, "Reminiscences," KL Auschwitz Seen by the SS (Warsaw: Interpress, 1991), 110ff. Irena Strzelecka, "Hospitals," Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, ed. Yisrael Gutman and Michael Berenbaum (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994), 389. Alfred Kantor, The book of Alfred Kantor (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971), 61f. Letter Topf to Central Construction Office Auschwitz, March 2, 1943. Osobyi Moscow, ms. 502/1-313. USHRI Washington, microfilm RG 11.001M 03. Pressac, Auschwitz, p. 444. See Plan 1697 of Birkenau, dated September 22, 1942, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum BW 2/11, as reproduced in Pressac, Auschwitz, 209. Wilhelm Stäglich, The Auschwitz: A Judge Looks at the Evidence (S.L.: Institute for Historical Review, 1986), 53. Crowell, "The Gas Chamber of Sherlock Holmes," section 12, at htt:/www.tpp.co.uk/Auschwitz/ Auschw.html. Crowell, "The Gas Chamber of Sherlock Holmes," section 14, at htt:/www.tpp.co.uk/Auschwitz/ Auschw.html. "Documents on Auschwitz," http://www.fpp.co.uk/Auschwitz/documents/LSKeller/ MoscowDocs.html Irving vs. Penguin and Lipstadt, transcripts, day 8 (January 24), 99f. Irving vs. Penguin and Lipstadt, transcripts, day 11 (January 28), 53ff. Irving vs. Penguin and Lipstadt, transcripts, day 32 (March 15), 177f. Ibid., 22. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,, United States Holocaust Research Institute Archives, "Preliminary Finding Aid," RG-11.001M.03, Records of the Zentralbauleitung der Waffen-SS und Polizei in Auschwitz (Osobyi fond # 502),. Statement by Geoffrey P. Megargee, Ph.D., February 21, 2001. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives, RG 11.001 M03, reel 47, file 400, 3. Ibid., 4-6. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives, RG 11.001 M03, reel 47, file 401, 5f. Der SS-Standortälteste Auschwitz, Standortbefehl 51/43, 16 November 1943. Werner Präg and Wolfgang Jacobmeyer, eds., Das Dienstagebuch des deutschen Generalgouverneurs in Polen 1939-1945 (Stuttgart: Deutsche verlags-Anstalt, 1975), 565. Ibid., 566. "Das Bericht von Jürgen Stroop," in Josef Wulf, Das Dritte Reich und seine Vollstrecker (Munich, New York, London and Paris, Saur, 1978), 78. Ibid., 192. Jean-Claude Pressac, Auschwitz, Technique and operation of the gas chambers (New York: The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1989), 229. Arthur Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century: The Case Against the Presumed Extermination of European Jewry (Torrance CA: Institute for Historical Review, 1976), 105. Robert Faurisson, "Le Professeur de médicine Johann Paul Kremer devant les horreurs du typhus à Auschwitz en Septembre-Octobre 1942," in Robert Faurisson, Memoire en Defense contre ceux qui m'accusent de falsifier l'histoire / La question des chambres à gaz, preface by Noam Chomsky (Paris: La Veille Taupe, 1980), 13-64. F.H. Hinsley, with E.E. Thomas, C.F.G Ransom and R.C. Knight, British Intelligence in the Second World War, 5 vols. (London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1981), vol. 2, 673. See: United States, Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10, 10 vols. (Washington D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1950), vol. 5, 433. Van Pelt, Expert Report, 641f. David Irving, "Reply to Defence of Second Defendant," 5. Letter David Irving to James Libson of Mishcon de Reya, Solicitors, and to Mark Bateman of Davenport Lyons, Solicitors, of December 19, 1999. Irving versus Penguin and Lipstadt, Van Pelt, "Deliveries of Zyklon B to Auschwitz and Consumption Rates of Zyklon B in Auschwitz and Other Camps" 20. See: Trial by a Military Court of Bruno Tesch, Joachim Droshin and Karl Weinbacher, PRO/WO (Judge Advocate General's Office‹War of 1939-45; War Crimes Papers) WO 235/Case no. 83, 146972 (March 1-8 1946). See NI 9912, Health Institution of the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia in Prague, "Directives for the Use of Prussic Acid (Zyklon) for the Destruction of Vermin (Disinfestation)," in Mendelsohn and Detwiler, eds., The Holocaust: Selected Documents in Eighteen Volumes, vol. 12, 136. It seems, however, clear that the many Jewish forced labour camps in the General Government, which housed in 1943 an average of 200,000 inmates, were not included. These camps were run by the local SS and Police Leaders (SS- und Polizeiführer) in the General Government, and did not belong formally to the SS concentration camp system. There are no records about any Zyklon B shipments to these camps. See Dieter Pohl, "Die gro&szligen Zwangarbeitslager der SS- und Polizeif¨¨hrer für Juden im Generalgouvernement 1942-1945," in Ulrich Herbert, Karin Orth and Christoph Dieckmann, eds., Die nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager: Entwicklung und Struktur, 2 vols. (Göttingen: Wallstein, 1998), vol. 1, 415ff. Sources used to compile this table are Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, revised and definitive edition, 3 vols. (New York and London: Holmes and Meier, 1985); Wolfgang Sofsky, Die Ordnung des Terrors: Das Konzentrationslager (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1993); Heinz Kühnrich, Der KZ-Staat: 1933-1945 (Berlin: Dietz, 1988); Danuta Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle 1939-1945(New York: Henry Holt, 1990). The following camps within the TeSta sales area operated in 1942 and 1943, the years that are under consideration, Zyklon B homicidal gas chambers: 1. Lublin (Majdanek); 2. Neuengamme; Sachsenhausen. The three homicidal gas chambers in Lublin (Majdanek) initially operated on bottled carbon monixide, but were later adapted to also use Zyklon B. It is assumed that 50,000 people were killed in these gas chambers, but it is not clear how many were killed with bottled carbon monoxide, and how many with Zyklon B. In Neuengamme two Zyklon B gassings took place in the camp prison in 1942, killing a little under 450 people. In Sachsenhausen occasional Zyklon B gassings were introduced in 1943. These gassings killed probably a couple of thousand people. See Eugen Kogon, Hermann Langbein and Adelbert Rückerl, Nazi Mass Murder: A Documentary History of the Use of Poison Gas (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993), 174ff., 183ff., 193ff.. Holocaust deniers like to invoke the authority of the late Martin Broszat, director of the Munich Institute for Contemporary History, who in 1960 would have written in the weekly Die Zeit that no gassings would have taken place in the so-called Altreich. Consequently Neuengamme and Sachsenhausen could not have operated homicidal gas chambers. For the record, this is what Broszat actually wrote: "Neither in Dachau, nor in Bergen-Belsen, nor in Buchenwald were Jews or other inmates gassed." N.B.: Broszat did not make a statement about either Neuengamme or Sachsenhausen. "The mass destruction of the Jews began in 1941/1942 and only took place at some specially selected places equipped with appropriate technical installations. [These places were] primarily in the occupied Polish territories (but nowhere in the Altreich): in Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Sobibor along the Bug, in Treblinka, Chlemno and Belzec." N.B.: Broszat only wrote that there were no mass gassings of Jews in the Altreich; he did not make any statement about the existence or non-existence of gas chambers within the Altreich. Die Zeit, August 19, 1960. See Document NI-11906, Letter Kaliwerke to the Commander of the Security Police and the SD at Theresienstadt, February 25, 1944, printed as Document 7 in Henry Friedlander, ed., The Holocaust: vol 12: The "Final Solution" in the Extermination Camps and the Aftermath. (New York and London: Garland, 1982), 159f.. For the inmate total of Theresienstadt see H.G. Adler, Theresienstadt 1941-1945 (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1955), 311. Originally both BW5a and BW5b had one large gas chamber of around 120 square meters in size. The gas chamber of BW5a was subdivided into five spaces, of which only two, totalling some 30 square meters, functioned as gas chambers. These gas chambers have a ceiling at a little over 2 meters high, and have thus a capacity of 60 cubic meters. The gas chamber of BW5b had an average height of 3 meters, and thus a capacity of 360 cubic meters. See NI 9912, Health Institution of the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia in Prague, "Directives for the Use of Prussic Acid (Zyklon) for the Destruction of Vermin (Disinfestation)," in Henry Friedlander, ed., The Holocaust: vol 12: The "Final Solution" in the Extermination Camps and the Aftermath. (New York and London: Garland, 1982), 141. Ibid. "Prussic acid is one of the most powerful poisons. 1 mg per kg of body weight is sufficient to kill a human being. Women and children are generally more susceptible than men." See NI 9912, Health Institution of the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia in Prague, "Directives for the Use of Prussic Acid (Zyklon) for the Destruction of Vermin (Disinfestation)," in Henry Friedlander, ed., The Holocaust: vol 12: The "Final Solution" in the Extermination Camps and the Aftermath. (New York and London: Garland, 1982), 136. Of the total of 12,000 kg Zyklon B delivered to Auschwitz, 250 kg represents 2%, and 500 kg represents 4% of the total Zyklon use, figures that are well within Pressac's 1989 estimate that between 2 and 3% of Zyklon B shipped to Auschwitz was used for genocidal purposes. See NI 9912, Health Institution of the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia in Prague, "Directives for the Use of Prussic Acid (Zyklon) for the Destruction of Vermin (Disinfestation)," in Henry Friedlander, ed., The Holocaust: vol 12: The "Final Solution" in the Extermination Camps and the Aftermath. (New York and London: Garland, 1982), 141. Carlo Mattogno, Auschwitz: fine di una legganda, 13ff. Also in Carlo Mattogno and Franco Deana, "Die Krematoriumsofen von Auschwitz-Birkenau," in Ernst Gauss, ed., Grundlagen zur Zeitgeschichte, 287ff. J.A. Topf & Söhne Erfurt, Patent Application, "Kontinuierliche arbeitender Leichen-Verbrennungsofen für Massenbetrieb," Archive Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim, BW 30/44, 1f. Report Klaus and Christel Kunz, 25 April 1985, on patent application T 58240 Kl. 24 for a "Kontinuierliche arbeitender Leichen-Verbrennungsofen für Massenbetrieb," Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oswiecim, ms. BW 30/44. It is to be noted that Mr. Justice Gray accepted my reasoning why the letter should be considered authenic. See Judgment, 13.76.
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