The Technical Existence of the Extermination Gas Chambers at Auschwitz and Birkenau

by D-A. L.

A student essay from Dr. Elliot Neaman's History 210 class (historical methods - fall 1997)

There is nothing more frightening than active ignorance.
Goethe

Introduction

On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and the course of history was forever changed. Antisemitism had always been present in Germany and many countries of Europe. Martin Luther said this of the Jews four hundred years before Hitler: "They hold us captive in our country. They let us work in the sweat of our noses, to earn money and property for them, while they sit behind the oven, lazy, let off gas, bake pears, eat, drink, live softly and well from our wealth. They . . . mock us and spit on us, because we work and permit them to be lazy squires who own us and our realm." (1) The idea of exterminating the Jews was not a new idea to the Germans. Between 1861-1895, twenty-eight out of fifty-one antisemitic writers proposed solutions to the Jewish problem. "During this pre-genocidal era of European civilization—when consciousness of mass human slaughter of the First and Second World Wars, let alone of genocide as an instrument of national policy, did not exist—fully two-thirds of these prominent antisemites took their beliefs to their extreme logical consequences and uttered, indeed called for , a genocidal response." (2)

As Hitler rose to power using his propaganda machine and the inner hatred for Jews among so many Germans, he was able to free Germany, "from this embrace [of Jewry] the greatest of all dangers to the people." (3) Hitler imposed the Nuremberg laws to segregate the Jews from society and Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, rounded up 30, 000 Jews to concentration camps. Jewish men, women, and children were starved, probed on during medical experiments, forced into labor, separated from their family, beaten, attacked, forced into ghettos, shot arbitrarily and gassed in specially made chambers because of Hitler's ultimate control over his people. In total, the Nazis under their Fürher, Adolf Hitler, successfully annihilated six million Jews, or three out of every four Jews in Europe. The Nazis killed another five million homosexuals, gypsies, political prisoners, and non-Aryans for a total of eleven million.

Around the world people are burdened with the sorrow of this unforgivable act. They cannot believe the destruction Hitler did. While a majority of the world population recognizes this terrible deed, there are the select few that don't acknowledge its existence. They believe the Jews were placed into concentration camps because they were security risks to the people. They know Jews died, but believe they died of natural wartime causes. These people do not believe Hitler was behind the genocide, or even that there was a genocide of six million Jews. Holocaust denial had already started a few years after the war finished. The Holocaust deniers were part of a organization of Historical revisionists, those who sought to rewrite history because all that was previously known was wrong. The Holocaust deniers today are part of an organization called the Institute for Historical Review where they refute many parts of history besides the Holocaust.

Holocaust denial had already laid its foundation by 1950. Charges were already being made that the Holocaust was a hoax. Many of the deniers were extremists but some were credited scholars. There was a reasoning in the denial of the Holocaust and that was the need to legitimize fascism,. Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany discredited the name of fascism and in order to rebuild it, the objectionable parts of Nazi Germany had to be expunged. These revisionists adamantly deny the existence of the gas chambers which were known to be at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzac, Chelmo, Treblinka, Sorbidor, and Majdanek. The largest and most known of these extermination camps is the Auschwitz-Birkenau facility in Poland.

The gas chambers, especially Auschwitz-Birkenau, are one key area that the deniers focus one. Paul Rassiner is one of the first to deny the existence of the death camps and the uses of Zyklon B, a hydrogen cyanide acid, to kill the Jewish victims. Rassiner himself was a concentration camp victim in Buchenwald but went on after to tell everyone that everything that former Nazi members and survivors said was a lie and that the Nazis did not kill anyone by mass genocide. The facts that prove that these death camps did exist are enormous. In order for a more concise and clearer picture of the death camps, the extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau will be looked at more closely. First the arguments given by Holocaust deniers will be examined followed by a refutation of the denier's claims. A synopsis of the history of the Auschwitz-Birkenau facility will be reviewed to give a broader picture of this mass killing machine. At the conclusion, motives for Holocaust denial will be shown and a better understanding of society's subculture will be gained.

The Holocaust Denier's Arguments

Robert Faurisson is one of the revisionists who adamantly denies the existence of the gas chambers. In his article in the Journal of Historical Review, the magazine for the Institute for Historical Review, he comes to certain conclusions on the thirty years of revisionist research on the gas chambers. Among these points, Faurisson says the gas chambers and the genocide of the Jews are a lie and never took place. Faurisson does not deny the existence of concentration camps and the crematoriums established there but does deny the existence of extermination camps—camps set up for the sole purpose of killing Jewish men, women, and children. He does say, "Hitler's 'gas chambers' are only a historical lie." (4)

In 1984, the Ernest Zündel case in Canada brought the gas chamber controversy to mainstream attention. Zündel was officially charged with "stimulating antisemitism through the publication and distribution of material he knew to be false." (5) He was found guilty in 1985 but the ruling was overturned due to technicalities. Zündel's second trial began in 1988 and introduced a new figure to the denial movement—Fred Leuchter. During the Zündel trial, Robert Faurisson and David Irving, a Hitler proponent and on the edge of denial, came to assist Zündel in his trial and suggested they find a gas warden who had performed gas executions. The purpose was to show that the gas chambers used by the Nazis were too primitive to actually perform the mass executions. Faurisson and Irving found out about Fred Leuchter and a new aspect of the gas chamber controversy emerged.

Fred Leuchter says he originally believed in the Holocaust story. The story that was taught to every American school child. "I believed in the Nazi genocide. I had no reason to disbelieve. . . One snowy afternoon in 1988 [when] the telephone rang. This very believing engineer was about to receive a very shocking history lesson. . . 'Hello, this is Robert Faurisson'—and that very believing engineer would believe no more." (6) In one weekend, Faurisson and Irving had convinced Leuchter that the Holocaust and the gas chambers were a hoax. In order to prove this, Fred Leuchter embarked on a Zündel-funded $35,000 trip to visit Auschwitz, Brikenau, and Majdanek. After this trip Leuchter became known throughout the subculture of Holocaust denial as America's foremost specialist on the design and fabrication of homicidal gas chambers. Leuchter left with his wife, Carolyn; his draftsman, Howard Miller; his cinematographer, Juergen Neumann, and the interpreter, Tijudar Rudolf. The entourage left on February 25, 1988 for Poland.

Leuchter returned and wrote his findings in a report published by the Institute for Historical Review. He had two goals in his work, The Leuchter Report: An Engineering Report on the Alleged Execution Gas Chambers of Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Majdanek, Poland: to study the determination of (a) the capability of the alleged execution gas chambers to have accomplished that mass murder of human beings by the use of Zyklon B gas in Auschwitz I and Birkenau and carbon monoxide and/or Zyklon B gas in Majdanek; (b) the capability of the investigated kremas to have accomplished the alleged number of human cremations in the alleged time period." (7)

Leuchter had quite a task before him. As an expert in engineering, as Leuchter refers to himself, he examined all available information of Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Majdanek. After reading the literature, Leuchter came to the conclusion that "no evidence that any of the facilities normally alleged to be execution chambers were never used as such." (8)

For a fumigation facility, the chamber has to be welded, pressure tested, and properly sealed. The chamber also needs gas generators to circulate warm air and gas. The size of the gas chambers determine the amount of gas being pumped into the chamber. Leuchter believes that the gas chambers and crematoriums are not real because they are not in the original condition, some are rebuilt, and others are completely destroyed. The buildings that Leuchter refers to is a basement at Auschwitz, referred to as Auschwitz I. In Birkenau there were Bunkers 1 and 2. Krema I is located in Auschwitz and Kremas II, III, IV, and V are located in Birkenau. Leuchter's on-site inspection of the gas chambers came to several conclusion on the design of the gas chambers. Leuchter reports that there were no gasketed doors, no ventilation system, and the buildings were not coated with a sealant which Leuchter says is a basic requirement for execution gas chambers to absorb the gas. The execution rooms were too small to hold the number of occupants and would not allow enough room for the HCN to circulate and kill all the victims. The Zyklon B was dropped from roof vents by SS officials but Leuchter claims that these men would have been exposed to the gas themselves. Leuchter states, "Both chambers failed to meet the design requirements for venting, heating, and circulating, and leakage. Nowhere were the bricks, stucco, and mortar ever coated with a sealant inside or out. This would make the entire area a death trap, especially with the HCN. . .This facility was never intended for even the limited use of HCN gas." (9)

HCN stands for hydrogen cyanide and was manufactured by the German firm Degesch under the commercial name Zyklon B which Leuchter claims as "the most powerful and dangerous of all fumigation chemicals." (10) Arthur Butz, a formidable Holocaust denier, says the Zyklon B was typically used as a disinfectant. This is true. Zyklon B was used before and during the war to control the lice, fleas and other vermin spreading typhus. In concentration camps there were chambers used for the specific purpose of disinfecting clothing with Zyklon B. "There apparently existed a 'gas chamber' at Dachau which was, of course, represented as a murder chamber in the early phases of propaganda, although today no attempt is made to claim it as anything other than a 'disinfection room'." (11) In the disinfecting rooms there was prussian blue staining on the wall. This comes from the combination of the cyanide mixed in with the iron in the bricks and mortar. The actual name of the prussian blue pigment is ferro-ferro-cyanide Leuchter claims that because the prussian blue staining is only visible in the delousing chambers and not in the gas chambers it is implausible to believe the gas chambers were used for mass executions. Instead of looking down on Nazis for killing the Jews with Zyklon B, the deniers give a heroic thank-you to the Germans for using Zyklon B. "No doubt, many hundreds of thousands of people, possibly millions including countless Jews owe their lives to these [disinfecting] chambers and the German technology based upon Zyklon B." (12)

Fumigation of a delousing chamber takes 24 to 48 hours and after the delousing is done; ten hours are needed to air out the room. Deniers claim it to be impossible for the times given to gas human beings. Testimony from German soldiers that performed gassing says they entered the chamber thirty minutes after the human victims stopped screaming. Rudolph Höss, director for Auschwitz gives this testimony:

I used Zyklon, which was crystallized prussic acid, which we dropped into the death chamber from a small opening. It took three to fifteen minutes to kill the people in the death chamber, depending on climatic conditions. We knew when the people were dead because their screaming stopped. We usually waited about a half hour before we opened the doors and removed the bodies. (13)

At Krema I in Auschwitz Leuchter says that ventilation would take at least twenty hours in order to kill the number of victims it is claimed to have killed. He also says no exhaust system existed at this crematorium therefore he does not think that the place would clear of all the gas in a week. "This is clearly contradictory to the alleged use of several gassing per day." (14 )

Leuchter's statements are accepted by Holocaust deniers as the truth when it comes to Holocaust research. Leuchter concludes, "After a thorough examination of the alleged execution facilities and their associated crematories, the only conclusion that can be arrived at by a rational, responsible person is the absurdity of the notion that any of these facilities were ever capable of, or were utilized as, execution gas chambers." (15)

The Evidence Against the Deniers

Many of the Holocaust deniers use the report given by Fred Leuchter. Before one can discredit the information he gives in his report, one has to look at his biographical information. Fred Leuchter and other Holocaust deniers claim him to be America's foremost expert on the design and fabrication of homicidal gas chambers. In order to be an accredited engineer one must have had formal training in any of the branches of engineering. This accreditation comes from an institution of higher education where a degree is received. Leuchter has a degree in history, far from any formal training in engineering. Leuchter stated under oath, "I have the background training both on the college level and in the field to perform my function as an engineer." (16) Fred Leuchter graduated from Boston University with a degree in history and has designed one gas chamber for the Missouri Penitentiary. During the Ernest Zündel cases, Judge Ronald Thomas would not let Leuchter testify due to his lack of training:

THE COURT: I'm not going to have get into the question of what's in a brick, what's in iron, what's in—he has no expertise in this area. He is an engineer because he has made himself an engineer in a very limited area. . . He hasn't any expertise. (17)

America's leading expert on gas chambers had been discredited in court and subsequently all his work in Poland had been discredited.

One might wonder how Leuchter traveled and was able to gather information in Poland at the extermination camps he visited. Leuchter writes,

"We took samples , documented our activities on video tape and in still photos, and made scale drawings of these facilities, carefully documenting the removal locations of all forensic samples. We had to break into the sauna building, since it was locked. . . Upon completion of Auschwitz, we drove again to Birkenau to take our control sample at delousing facility 1. Unfortunately the building was locked and again we had to break and enter in order to access the delousing chamber. . .The alleged gas chambers [in Majdanek] were blocked by gates and not accessible for detailed inspection by the general public. It was necessary for me to trespass beyond these gates. (18)

In order for Leuchter to obtain this information on his trip he broke into buildings and trespassed, both illegal actions. If Leuchter were a credited scholar and respected by the worldwide community, then the illegal actions he partook in would not have taken place. Since Leuchter does not have the proper credentials or the proper methods for obtaining his information, what does this say about the facts he presented in his report? Obviously the claims he made has no bearing on the research of the Holocaust and cannot be used by Holocaust deniers as solid proof.

One area Leuchter focuses on in his now discredited report is the use of Zyklon B. The use of Zyklon B was used in both the extermination gas chambers and the delousing chambers. "Zyklon B is a powerful insecticide that serves as a carrier for the gas Hydrocyanic acid, or HCN. . . HCN is extremely poisonous to humans." (19) Leuchter talks about the disparities in the prussian blue staining in the gas chambers and the delousing chambers. He says there was hardly any staining in the gas chambers, therefore they could not have been used for extermination. The disparities in the prussian blue staining comes about because it takes more HCN to kill the insects than to kill a human. "In delousing, concentration of up to 16,000 ppm (parts per million ) are sometimes used, and exposure time can be up to 72 hours; while 300 ppm will kill people in fifteen minutes or so." (20) Because of the short time it took to kill humans, the HCN did not have enough time to form to the wall and form the prussian blue staining. The blue staining was found in the delousing chambers because of the higher concentration level and exposure time. Leuchter also claims that the time needed for ventilation is inconsistent with normal twenty hour waiting period before a chamber can be entered. The gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau forcibly ventilated the air. If the air was not ventilated, the Sonderkommandos (forced Jewish laborers) entered the chambers with gas masks. Leuchter referred to the area around the extermination chamber as a death trap because of the high levels of HCN. If this were true all of the camp would be a death trap because the delousing chambers had no ventilation system either. (21)

Leuchter also reports that the furnace were too close to the gas chambers and because of the explosive nature of Zyklon B, it would mean that the chambers were not used for extermination. "They overlook the fact that the concentration of HCN necessary to cause death is nearly 200 times lower than that necessary to cause explosion. Explosion of HCN takes place at 56,000 ppm but the level to kill humans is 300 ppm." (22) If Leuchter were an expert engineer as he claims to be, this fact would have been common knowledge to him.

Holocaust deniers, with Leuchter at the forefront, also claim the chambers were not sealed properly to keep gas from leaking out and no exhaust system was present to pump gas out. Yet credible research has proven "the construction plans do include the air extraction system. . . and the extraction system is mentioned in many documents. Some of the ventilation openings are still visible in the ruins of the gas chambers." (23) Leuchter tries to assert facts about the gas chambers even though they were blown up in 1944 by the Nazis. In the Zündel trial, Leuchter states, "There are still parts of Crematorium III there, but for the most part, the roof of the alleged gas chamber has crumbled and is all lying in bits and pieces in the basement of what would have been the alleged gas chamber." (24) Leuchter's documentation of the gas chambers comes from a foundation and the rubble lying upon it. He refuses to believe the wartime photos which show the gas chambers and the original blueprints found. Therefore, what other proof does Leuchter have other than heaps of stone exposed to harsh weather conditions for more than fifty years.

The original documents were found by Gerald Flemming, author of Hitler and the Final Solution. Robert Jan Van Pelt, professor of architecture, analyzed the blue prints which give absolute proof that the gas chambers did exist and killed over a million Jews. As the Nazis destroyed documents there was very important ones they overlooked. The KGB confiscated them after the liberation and were kept in a Moscow library where they were denied access to the public. Flemming found out about the documents and in 1991 was allowed access to them. The blueprints themselves do include the word "gas chamber" but the implication this was indeed a gas chamber can be seen. As Van Pelt said, "You have to do careful detective work." (25) The blueprints show the designs for the crematoriums at Birkenau which became fully operational in June 1943. Some of the blue prints are labeled as bathing facilities for "Special Actions." This was known by the SS guards as the code term for the gas chambers.

The gas chambers were not a kept secret among the Nazi party. The numbers killed in total mounted to 1.1 million Jewish people. Four thousand gypsies were also gassed and are the only other race gassed. Holocaust deniers claim that is impossible for six million Jews to be gassed at Auschwitz. No one has ever claimed that all six million were gassed at Auschwitz. (26) It was originally believed that four million Jews were gassed at Auschwitz but further research proves that only 1.1. million were gassed. "In a single year, Krema II could incinerate over a quarter -million bodies. Add to that the capabilities of Kremas III, IV, V, and you begin to get the picture." (27)

There are other absurd points Leuchter makes. Leuchter said that because there is a swimming pool at Auschwitz, it could not have been an extermination camp. SS guards that lived in the camp were given a form of entertainment. "Other means of entertainment for the SS personnel existed—a band composed of prisoners, and a brothel." (28) To compare the existence of the gas chambers to a swimming pool for SS guards is beyond comprehension. One does not compare to the other and plainly shows the lack of evidence Leuchter has to prove the extermination gas chambers did not exist. Leuchter also wants to know what happened to all the ashes from the corpses that were burned. "The ash was either scattered around in the fields, buried, or—in Auschwitz, for instance—dumped into a river." (29) After fifty years does Leuchter expect the ash just to be in a heap by the crematoriums, not to have moved at all.

The True Picture

In May, 1940, the most notorious concentration camp was set up in Auschwitz, Poland, thirty-seven miles out of the city of Cracow. Polish inmates were first sent there on June 14, 1940. These prisoners of war were going to be used as slave labor for a factory that was being built there. The name of this camp was called Monowitz run by I.G. Farben for the purpose of producing synthetic rubber. "On January 20, 1942, sixteen top Nazi officials met in the Berlin suburb of Wansee to coordinate the total destruction of the Jewish people." Reinhard Heydrich, was named "Plenipotentiary for the Preparation of the Final Solution of the European Jewish question," led the Wansee conference. (30) Heydrich said the Jews should be separated into two groups: one group consisted of the healthy who would do labor and the second group consisted of the weak and sick. This second group would be left to "natural selection." Heydrich stated, "In the course of the implementation of the Final Solution, Europe will be combed East to West." (31) With these words, Jews were transported to more than thirty concentration camps located mainly in Poland and Germany. Here the strong were forced into the labor and the weak exterminated. "Auschwitz became the center of the planned mass extermination." (32)

Auschwitz actually performed its first gassing before the direct orders from the Wansee Conference. On September 3, 1941, eight hundred and fifty men were gassed in a primitive fashion.. The victims of this first gassing were forced into an underground detention cell and the windows were covered with dirt. SS men dropped the Zyklon B pellets into the chamber and sealed the doors. The next day not everyone had died and more insecticide was released into the chamber. (33) After the orders from Heydrich, new buildings had to be built for these gas chambers. Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, ordered the camp be expand to Birkenau, located three kilometers down the road to house prisoners and build the gas chambers.

Plans drawn up by a German firm J.A. Topf and Sons to start the building of more crematoriums which were the blue prints Robert Jan Van Pelt examined. A morgue converted to a crematorium in Auschwitz was named Krema I. "The gas chamber of Krema I was only used for a short time, and then it was changed to a air raid shelter." (34) Birkenau was originally set up to house the extra prisoners from Auschwitz. Krema II and III were set up with the gassing rooms below ground and the incinerator ovens above ground. The Zyklon B pellets were dropped from four openings in the roof. Krema IV and V were the best equipped with the gas chambers above ground allowing for better ventilation. Kremas IV and V. . . were completely destroyed by the SS before the Soviets liberated the camp. Today, Kremas II, III, IV, and V are in ruins with just their foundation in view. Other parts of the chambers do exist, including a gas tight door with a peephole used to see if the victims are dead. At the Auschwitz Birkenau State Museum, Krema I is shown to visitors as it is still in the best condition because it was not destroyed by Nazis.

Chances for survival were not high in Auschwitz, as the trains pulled into the station, men and women were forced to separate. After this initial separation, the SS guards picked those who were fit to work, and the rest, usually the old and the very young were immediately sent for gassings. This whole process could take place in less than an hour. (35 )"Up to ninety percent of every transport arriving at Birkenau would be sent straight to the gas chambers." (36) Ota Kraus, Auschwitz inmate from 1942 to 1945, gives this account of the arrival to Auschwitz:

I saw a group of SS men standing here or walking about. The railway trucks were there too and it took sometime for people to get out of the trucks and then people are grouped into two lines. One is for men and one is for women and children. First the men moved slowly before the SS man who stood about here somewhere. They came before him, one after the other, and he waved his hand one way or the other. Those on that side went to the crematorium. The others stood waiting; they had been detailed for work. These people were mainly young. That took at least an hour, the whole procedure. It was perfectly well-organized. The main Auschwitz camp probably had received a telegram or some other message that a transport was coming at such and such a time and they had by then given the order to start the fire in the oven. . . We saw it all. (37)

As the convoys of trains arrived those sent to gassings were fooled into believe that they were being sent for showers. "The walls of the chamber were camouflaged with simulated entries to shower room in order to mislead the victims." (38) The were sent to a hairdresser where their hair was shaved. They then were forced to undress and file into rooms marked, "To Bath Houses and Inhalation Rooms." (39) The SS guards told the prisoners as they walked into the chamber, ". . . Breath in deeply. It strengthens the lungs. Inhaling is a means of preventing infectious diseases. It's a good method for disinfection." (40) One could reason that the Germans were disinfecting their society. A doctor working at Auschwitz believes the Jew is a disease, he states, "The Jew is the gangrenous appendix in the body of mankind." (41)

Approximately nine thousand people could be gassed in a twenty-four hour period. More would have been able to be gassed except for the fact that the crematoriums could not keep up with the number of people being gassed. "There were some attempts to increase the capacity of the crematorium. . . The camp was eventually forced to resort to open-pit burning to keep up with the output of the highly efficient gas chambers." (42) The stench of death filled the air could not be ignored.

In Auschwitz, the inmates were not just killed by the gassing. There were a variety of ways that the Jews were killed. The inmates were injected with phenolic acid, the guards beat and shot the Jews at their whim, and were forced to be in medical experiments. Typhus was also rampant in the camp. The Jews were overcrowded in the barracks and the close living quarters plus the lack of a proper sewage system led to dysentery. "Life expectancy of an Auschwitz inmate was but a few weeks." (43)

In November, 1944, gassing were put to a halt by order from Himmler. "Himmler had expressly forbidden that any more Jews be killed." (44) But in 1945, 400,000 more Hungarian Jew were gassed. "The furnaces in the crematoria became so hot that the firebricks cracked, and additional burning pits had to be dug." (45) In fear of the coming of the Allied forces, the Nazis began evacuation of the camps in 1945. All documents were destroyed to rid the Nazis of any proof that this mass killing machine existed. On January 17, 1945 the Soviet army liberated the camp and the horrors were revealed to the world.

Conclusion

The Holocaust is a known, horrific period in modern history. The "death by fire" (the Greek translation of the word Holocaust) was an extreme example of what happens when the people and their leader are driven by such deep hatred. It baffles the mind when the Holocaust denier present their arguments. What are they trying to achieve and what do they expect to gain out of their denial. On the home page for the Institute for Historical Review different interesting ideas can be found. One talks of the need to reestablish white supremacy: "The results of the Holocaust have gone along way in silencing 'white supremacists' both in the United States an throughout the world—a silence which, the IHR believes, has led to the phenomenon of multiculturalism and the displacement of the older majority white, Euro-centered, Christian-based culture in this country and in Europe." (46) The revisionists of history do not have purely scholarly reasons why they revise history. Right behind their facade lies their strong feelings for a white-based, fascist society. They want Hitler to be an acceptable part of history. They see Hitler as a "Christian hero who—at great sacrifice to himself and his countrymen—had the courage to stand up against Russia, communism, and the Jews which were behind it all." (47)

On the Holocaust, the Institute for Historical Review states, "Although the institute does not deny the Holocaust, 'over the years it has published detailed books and numerous probing essays that call into question aspects of the orthodox Holocaust extermination story." (48) Officially, these revisionists might not deny the Holocaust but they deny various aspects of the Holocaust. They do not believe in the gas chambers, they thought Auschwitz was almost like club med, they believed Hitler had no clue that any of the actions were taking place, they do not believe in the number of people that were killed and they believe the Holocaust was a conspiracy to fund the state of Israel. It these facts are not denial of the Holocaust, then what is?

This subculture of America may not be large but for people who do not know the real facts, the revisionists could seem like they were telling the truth. In the news, stories make front page when a right wing extremist group emerges. If more information was readily available about these right wing group, those of weaker mind can learn to stay away from these people. The less people that are listening to them, the less support they will have in the future.

As was seen with Fred Leuchter and his report, his facts have no substantial backing. He and other Holocaust deniers look for the information they need and askew quotes to fit their purpose. They are not revising history, they are rewriting history. They do not have solid proof and they are defiling the plight lived through by the survivors. This subculture of Holocaust denial is using a delicate subject that cause so much pain and sorrow as a way to further their own self-interest.

Endnotes

(1) Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah. Hitler's Willing Executioner's: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. New York: Vintage Books, 1996. p 284.

(2)Ibid., p 71.

(3) Jäckel, Eberhard. Hitler's World View: A Blueprint for Power. Trans. Herbert Arnold. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972. p 54.

(4) Faurisson, Robert. "The Problem of the Gas Chamber." Institute for Historical Review (pamphlets vol. 1). Online. Internet. 22 October 1997. Available: www.kaiwan.com/~ihrgreg/

(5) Lipstadt, Deborah. Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. New York: Plume Book, 1993. p 175

(6) Leuchter, Fred. "Inside the Auschwitz 'Gas Chambers'." Institute for Historical Review. (pamphlets) Online. Internet. 22 October 1997. Available: www.kaiwan.com/~ihrgreg/

(7) Leuchter, Fred. The Leuchter Report: An Engineering Report on the Alleged Execution Gas Chambers of Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Majdanek, Poland. Available: http://www.webcom.com/ezendel/english/leuchter/report1/leuchtertoc.html

(8) Ibid., Leuchter Report

(9) Ibid., Leuchter Report

(10) Ibid., Leuchter Report

(11) Butz, Arthur. The Hoax of the Twentieth Century. New Port Beach: Institute for Review, 1976. p 108

(12) Berg, Friedrich Paul. "The German Delousing Chambers." The Journal of Historical Review. p 87

(13) Kreiger, Larry ., Steven L. Jantzen, and Jenneth Neill. World History: Perspectives on the Past. Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1992. p 725

(14) Leuchter Report

(15) Leuchter Report

(16) Denying, 164

(17) Ibid., 165

(18) Leuchter Report

(19) "Auschwitz" The Nizkor Project. Online. Internet. Available: http://www.nizkor.netizen.org/faqs/auschwitz. faq 6

(20) Ibid., faq 6

(21) Ibid., faq 6

(22) "The Leuchter Report" The Nizkor Project. Online. Internet. Available: http://www.nizkor.netizen.org/faqs/leuchter. faq 5

(23) Ibid., faq 11

(24) Ibid., faq 11

(25) "Nazi Designers of Death" With Stacy Keach. Nova. PBS. WGBH, Boston. 1995.

(26) "Leuchter" faq 8

(27) Ibid., faq 8

(28) Ibid., faq 16

(29) Ibid., faq13

(30) Gilbert, Martin. The Holocaust: The History of the Jews of Europe during the Second World War. New York: Holt, Reinsert, and Winston, 1985. p 280

(31) Ibid., 281-282

(32) Naumann, Bernd. Auschwitz. Trans. Jean Steinberg. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966. p 3

(33) "Leuchter" faq 4

(34) Ibid., faq 6

(35) Haas, Peter J. Morality After Auschwitz: The Radical Challenge of the Nazi Ethic. P)Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988. p 4

(36) Gill, Anton. The Journey Back From Hell. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1988. p 26

(37) "Designers"

(38) The Jewish Black Book Committee. The Black Book: The Nazi Crime Against the Jewish People. 1946

(39) Morality 105

(40) Ibid., 105

(41) Ordinary Germans 26

(42) Morality 104

(43) Auschwitz 4

(44) Ordinary Germans 356

(45) Journey 26

(46) "The Institute for Historical Review." Online. Internet. Available: http://www.isrp.org/histrvw.html

(47) Ibid., "Institute"

(48) "A Few Facts About the IHR." Online. Internet. Available: http://www.kaiwan.com/~ihrgreg/pamphlets/v15n5p18_Staff.html