Response to The Myth of the Six Million

by A-J. H.

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

Throughout history there have been many tragedies that have occurred that have been written down on paper, shot on film, and or passed down through oral history. When anything occurs in this world there is some documentation of it whether it be in someone's mind or in a published book. Everyone has their own understanding of their experiences however some things that occur must be held as true. Often times as history is recorded there are variances in peoples image of the situation. Consequently most of the times the story tends to be similar. In the case of the holocaust in Germany during World War II there exists an overwhelming amount of first person accounts as to what occurred. Educated historians have written thousands of books on the subject of the holocaust. As history was being written it was held as fact that approximately six million Jews perished in death camps, work camps, and city streets.

Deniers of the holocaust see the holocaust in a different light. They either tend to believe that the systematic killing of Jews in Nazi occupied areas is completely untrue or they may believe that Jews did die but it was a consequence of war. One of the main problems with denying a part of history is that the deniers were not there to see whether or not something happened. Instead guesses are made as to what occurred. Many authentic works such as letters found written by Jews during the war aredismissed. These letters published by Yad Vashem are regarded by deniers as either fabricated or not to be taken seriously. They are not taken seriously because the writers of the letters were not qualified historians. The problem with this is that some deniers of the holocaust are not educated historians either.

Attention will be payed to what common thoughts are held by historians in regards to the numbers of Jews that were killed in the holocaust. There has also been some discrepancies as to where Jews were killed and how they were killed. In trying to understand why there was a systematic killing of Jews one must understand why the hatred was so great. An understanding of the system that created the anti-Semitism must be looked at as well. The problem often faced with putting oneself in the position of an SS guard in Nazi Germany is that you can't. You can look at all the brainwashing that occurred to the troops to have a clue of what was felt but the hate was much too great.

There have been competing ideas among historians as to why anyone would want to systematically kill a certain group of people. For example Goldhagens argument in the book Hitler's Willing Executioners is that ordinary Germans were led to believe that what they were doing was right as a result of the society's strong anti-Semitism. In an extension to this there are some historians who argue much like Milgram's experiment that all humans are willing to do wrong if they are told to do something even if they believe it's wrong. In these experiments it wasfound that normal people are willing to inflict pain on people if they are told to do so. The dissection of these interpretations as to why Germans would kill is integral to believing the facts of first person accounts and books written about the six million Jews that died. Analysis as to why anyone would commit such crimes against humanity is just as important as to where and when the crimes where committed. This is what deniers tend to disregard because there is no way to argue the amount of brainwashing and propaganda that was fed to the troops in Nazi Germany.

Holocaust deniers disregard many facts and figures about the holocaust because they are sometimes impossible to argue. First person accounts can't be used to convince a denier because they will say that the document was fabricated. Yad Vashem, collectors of first person accounts have accounts of many holocaust survivors. These stories speak of how their friends and family were killed in gas chambers or how their children died of starvation. Some excuses given as to why these accounts are not admissible to deniers is that these people are too old and won't remember right. They start adding things that didn't happen or maybe they are too emotional and want people to understand and may embellish a bit. For historians these accounts are important because it gives the holocaust a more personal feel. When so many people who saw so many horrific things in their life feel so adamant about what they know to be true it's hard to argue that something like the holocaust didn't happen. This another reasonwhy deniers don't bother dealing with these accounts. Another aspect of the deniers belief is that there is no way that many Jews could have been killed because there weren't that many Jews in Germany. However the Jews that were sent to the camps weren't from Germany alone but from all parts of Europe.

One of the most influential publications to deniers of the holocaust is The Myth of the Six Million. As the title denotes the anonymous author writes about how it was not possible that six million Jews could have died as a result of Nazi policy. The author stipulates in his first sentence that "There has never been an more colossal and successful deception" (Anonymous 1), in regards to the Holocaust. On a superficial level this means that all the authors of all the books on the Holocaust and all these primary sources were fabricated and are not true. The author is assuming in the first sentence of his essay that there is an enormous conspiracy to make people believe that six million Jews died at the hands of Nazi Germans during World War II. The author continues to state in his opening statement that "since the end of World War II the people of Western Germany have been forced to pay more than ten billion dollars to Israel and to individual Jews elsewhere in restitution" (Anonymous 1). The authors main concern seems to be that Jews are getting paid restitution for something he believes didn't happen. The severity of the issue he is addressing is more pressing than whether or not Jews are getting paid restitution.

The author continues to give estimates as to how many Jews were living in Germany before and during the war. The author states that when Hitler became chancellor and there were only 500,000 Jews living in Germany. He continues to say that the severity of anti-Jewish sentiment caused many Jews to leave Germany. As a result there was only 360,000 Jews under German control and then 65,000 left during the war. These figures were presented in this essay with no citations and no footnotes. When quoting statistics such as these there must be some kind of reference point the reader can to verify what he or she has just read. However in this piece proof of such a statement is missing. The reliability of the author then is in question because these "facts" and figures could have been concocted by anyone. This essay lacks many citations to this type of information the author presents which in turn causes the narrator to be an unreliable one.

The author addresses the issue that it was not possible that the Germans could have captured six million Jews. He states that "to have exterminated six millions would have made it necessary for them to have executed every last Jew that they seized" (Anonymous 22). Again this is another example of not having citations along with such important statistics. How does the author know that six million Jews were not seized by the Germans. There are no references to any census on how many Jews lived in Nazi occupied areas. The author states that the Germans neverceased six million Jews and then continues to say that if they had they would have to have killed all of them. This is a type of concession in that there is no real proof that the Germans didn't capture six million because there is no reference. The author then doesn't appear to be so sure of himself as to say that even if they did capture six million they wouldn't have captured any more therefore they would have had to have killed all of them. The author also doesn't address the fact there were people who were killed on the streets of occupied areas and of the death marches. He only addresses the captured.

The author of the essay of The Myth of the Six Million then addresses the question of transportation. He states that there was no way eleven million people much less than six million could have been transported to these camps and that there was no way they could have fit in the camps. Again this is another assumption by the author. There is no reference to documents that state that this could not have happened. He just states that it could not have happened and that is all that needs to be known. There is however some truth to his assumption and that is that interning that many people would have raised a problem of food. There wasn't sufficient amount of food because it was it would be a major expense to feed all of these people interned at the camps. There were thousands of people that died from starvation at the camps.

The author addresses Adolph Eichmann the chief SS official, as someone who should not be taken as proof of the holocaust in his trial as a war criminal. The author questions Eichmann's importance in the Nazi hierarchy because "throughout his whole career Eichmann never once had a personal interview with Hitler" (anonymous 34). This argument is really not sufficient enough to question Eichmann to such an extent. The author rules out Eichmann because he never met with Hitler. If he rules out Eichmann how can the author expect the reader to believe his "facts". The reason for this apprehension would be that the figures found to support the author's belief were probably kept by people like Eichmann, that's if the author ever bothered to look for written evidence. If he discredits Eichmann then he in a sense discredits his proof. Not to say that if you take Eichmann seriously then you should take the authors figures seriously. This however happens to be the continuity problem the author faces.

The tone of the essay is one of trying to convince the reader. He wants to sound convincing of his belief along with other deniers that the holocaust didn't occur. This is evident in the repetition of the phrase "extermination myth". The author wants to embed this idea in the readers mind through shear repetition. It is as if the concrete evidence is so insignificant that he wants you to come out of reading this essay believing that it was just a myth.

To better understand why it was plausible that humans couldinflict so much pain and hatred towards a certain group of people policies and laws preceding the holocaust must be examined. For example one must look at the policy of Euthanasia employed by the Nazi regime. Before the final solution, euthanasia was a policy to rid the Nazi state of the "undesirables". In support of Nazi belief, in order for the German state to be successful all people that slowed down this process were to be eliminated. In The Myth of the Six Million there is no attention payed to policies that may have caused people to believe that there was a holocaust. The euthanasia policy enabled the state to exterminate the handicapped. There was also a law passed in July of 1933 which was a law to prevent offspring with hereditary diseases. If someone was to have some sort of disease but was able to function in daily life they were not imprisoned or killed but they were not allowed to have children in fear of having the disease spread.

An effective program of euthanasia was established in 1938 led by Dr. Karl Brandt. A committee was formed and was called the Reich Committee for the Scientific Registration of Serious Hereditary and Congenital Illnesses. This committee evaluated whether or not to extinguish certain children with deformities. Reports on these children were submitted by physicians and care givers of the children. "The reports then scored by three doctors with a red plus sign (=death), a blue minus sign (=survival), or a question mark in doubtful cases requiring further assessment. Children who had been marked with a red plus sign were then killedby lethal injection" (Fischer 389). Later this implementation of euthanasia was adapted to exterminate adults as well. The implications of such outrageous act as to kill people with deformities in a systematic manner allows us to get an idea as to why the holocaust occurred. Causes must be looked at to help make sense of such a grim time in history. Why was euthanasia implemented? Simply because deformities and mental problems were not accepted as a part of Nazi ideology. If the killing of innocent people was an accepted policy than why is it not possible to have the same feeling about any other group of people who stood in the way of Nazi ideology as well.

In a religious society such as the one in Germany prior to the holocaust the church is looked at for some type of guidance. However the Catholic church in Germany also participated in the accepted anti-Semitism subscribed by the people. This helps to further understand why so much hate was felt towards Jews. The German people were being fed anti-Semitic propaganda from one of the most influencial and sacred forums. An ideology becoame so accepted and widespread that it was hard for the people to think otherwise. "The German episciopate's February 1936 official guidelines for religious instruction declared: Race, soil, blood and people are precious natural values which God the Lord has created and the care of which he has entrusted to us Germans" (Goldhagen 106). In this quote the policy of the church stands out in that God looked to the Germans for the upkeep of the world. The quote doesen't say to kill anyone but the idea that Germans as a people have the power to do what they want whenever they want is a bit strange.

The Protestant church also had similar beliefs and was similarly influential. "Protestant pastors had allied themselves with the anti-semitic German National People's Party, and their antisemitism had permeated the Protestant press even before the Nazi's were voted into power"(Goldhagen 107). The German people were influenced by such a powerful entity such as the church to believe that Jews were the reason for their problems. This anti-Semitism existed before the war had broken out. When the war did break out it allowed action to take the place of thought.

In the German occupied areas there were two different types of camps set up. These camps were set up prior to the war to detain criminals or threats to the Nazi regime. There were death camps and there were work camps. The death camps that were set up during the war were Auschwitz, Chemlo, Treblinka, Sabibor, Maidanek, and Belzec. All of these camps were set up in Poland.

There were some work camps that were set up before the war had broken out. These six camps were Dachau in 1933, Sachenhausen in 1936, Buchenwald in 1937, Flossenburg in 1938, Mauthausen in 1938, and Ravensbruck in 1939. Examples of political prisoners held there would be socialists, communists, liberals, and conservatives. These prisoners were placed into custody without trial or any kind of appeal. This is an example of how intensethe action towards opposition would be. The Nazi state under Hitler was not going to allow anyone or anything get in the way of Nazi ideology. If there existed any opposition that might compromise the Nazi objective it would be shut down. The opposition had to become silent and the best way to do this was to imprison them.

In these work camps much like the death camps the conditions were terrible. Dachau and Belsen were examples of work camps. In these camps Jews preceding the war and during the war were abused, starved and died from disease and terrible treatment by Nazi soldiers. Evidence of the severe conditions Jews had to face came out in the Belsen trial. This trial tried Nazi officials of committing war crimes and while doing this many facts about the war came out. Along with the statements of Nazi officials there were also testimonies written by holocaust survivors that are strikingly similar to the testimonies give by Nazi officials during the Belsen trial. In the testimony given by Vice-Director of Medical Services in Belsen Hugh Hughs information was given as to what the general state of the camp was. He responded by saying this:

There were various sizes of piles of corpses lying all over the camp, some outside the wire and some in between the huts, and the frightful scenes inside were much worse.. The gutters were full and within the huts there were uncountable numbers of bodies, some even in the same bunks as the living. (Phillips 2)

In regards to how crowded everything was in the huts Hughs remarks by saying:

They were filled absolutely to overflowing with prisoners in every state of emaciation and disease. There was not room for them to lie down at full length in each hut. In the most crowded there were anything from 600 to 1000 people in accommodation which should only have taken 100. (Phillips 2)

These conditions that Hughs pointed out on trial cannot be fabricated because he was under oath. Deniers may argue that he's lying and these conditions are not real but how could someone create such a grim picture of Belsen if he had never seen it before in his lifetime.

In following with these quotes from the Belsen trials one must also realize that these conditions were found in the work camps and death camps. In these kinds of conditions many people can and did die daily. This type of death in addition to execution through gas chambers caused millions to die. Improper medical supplies also allowed many to die as Hughs states "I was told by the chief doctor there, was 300 aspirin tablets for 17,000 sick people for one week." In addition to this there was little food to go around. Hughs was asked "what was the food supply in the camp?" He responds by saying this "At the time practically nil... at most, one meal a day of watery stew made of vegetables" (Phillips 2).

Another reason so many people died was that disease ran rampant because of the dead corpses and because of the excrement found everywhere. "Excremental assault has been correctly defined as one of the central lines of attack by the SS on the inmates"(Gill 35). Many people became dehydrated and passed on disease through the excrement. "Diarrhoea was universal and unavoidable, but privies were small and primitive , and could be used only at certain times of day, or with permission. Otherwise you had to go where you were and let it run down your legs" (Gill 36). The gruesome picture I have painted is an indication of what life in a camp was. These descriptions of situations and conditions were all too common. Disease was spread effectively with no way to cure it. There was no way to feed yourself for the lack of food.

Another mode of execution was found in the death marches. These marches would take prisoners on aimless treks. As pointed out by Goldhagen "The death marches were not means of transport; the marching transports were means of death"(Goldhagen 367). Freezing cold weather killed many from hypothermia and those who were to weak from malnourishment died from exhaustion. An example of the pain endured by those who participated in these marches is a death march that occurred in April 1945 from Flossenburg to Regensburg. The distance between these two cities was 50 miles but the Nazi troops managed to extend this trip to more than 250miles, where there were few survivors.

Similar stories were told by a survivor being transported away from Russian occupation in 1945. In Auschwitz William E. Wiener marched away from Auschwitz to Gleiwitz in freezing cold weather. The trip had taken two and a half days. He along with a few thousand people were taken by open cattle cars to Sachenhausen. "The whole journey was on these open cattle-cars, and we were given almost nothing to eat or drink. Out of 6,000 people, 4,000 died in those ten days on the train" (Gill 294).

This an example of how holocaust survivors have stories that correlate with those of established historians. There are many occasions were stories told by survivors have same facts as to what historians have researched. Of course survivors tell stories about the holocaust which deniers dismiss but the correlations time and time again match up. Deniers assume that there is a there is a conspiracy of which nobody has ever even witnessed between historians and survivors. What do survivors have to gain from telling their story other than telling history the way they lived it. The anonymous author The Myth of the Six Million believes that somehow all Jews around the world are receiving those millions in reparations given to Israel from Germany. He however is being irrational in believing so.

Nazi rhetoric was such that anti-Semitism prevailed throughout Germany before, during, and after the war. Deniers must at least concede to this as fact. It was instilled within sodeeply ingrained and embedded in the brain that killing of Jews in that backward society was accepted. Genocide unfortunately has been a part of the worlds history and this must be realized. It continues to this day and it's written about, people see it first hand. Deniers of the holocaust attempt to disguise their anti-Semitic beliefs by writing Neo-Nazi propaganda such as The Myth of the Six Million. They want to appeal to more people by disguising themselves as established educated historians. More often then not however their education is not representative of a real historian.

If the author of The Myth of the Six Million felt so strongly about his feelings and thorough research on the Holocaust then why didn't he take responsibility for his actions. The case is that he wanted people to believe what he believed and that is that the holocaust didn't occur. He wanted people to read his essay and see a few quotes and references and take it for the truth. He is misinforming people because he can get away with it. There is nobody to point him out.

In the book What is the Use of Jewish History ? written by Lucy S. Dawidowicz there is a discussion on who the anonymous author of The Myth of the Six Million was. She states that Willis A. Carto wrote the introduction to The Myth of the Six Million where he says that the writer remained anonymous because he was a college professor. The anonymous author didn't want to get fired for his essay. Dawidowicz claims that "It appears likely that theauthor was none other than David L. Hoggan, for in 1969 he sued Noontide Press for damages claiming authorship of The Myth of the Six Million" (Dawidowicz 91). Noontide Press was the publisher of the essay. She continues to write about how the litigation went until 1973 when the plaintiff withdrew from the case.

If Hoggan was the author then why didn't he publish his name on the essay? Doesn't he believe that his work has historical merit therefore receiving recognition. It is obvious that he isn't willing to stand behind what he believes in. It shouldn't matter to him if he got fired from work because he believes he is writing what is right or does he. It is quite apparent that the author of The Myth of the Six Million set out to misinform people of one of the greatest travesties in history. It is this type of propaganda that caused the holocaust to occur and it should not be tolerated. Hitler and the Nazi ideology mislead the German people into believing that Jews, Gypsies and homosexuals were at the root of their problem. The author of The Myth of the Six Million wants us to share in his anti-Semitic beliefs by preying on the ignorant. However people should do as W.B. Yeats once wrote and that is to "Save the imagination from abstraction."

Works Cited

Anonymous. The Myth of the Six Million. Torrance, California: The Noontide Press, 1978.

Golhagen, Daniel Jonah. Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. New York: Random House, 1996.

Gill, Anton. The Journey Back From Hell. New York: Avon Books, 1988.

Dawidowicz, Lucy S. What is the Use of Jewish History?. New York: Schocken Books, 1992.

Fischer, Klaus P. Nazi Germany: A New History. New York: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1995.

Friedlander, Henry. "The Nazi Camps." Genocide. Los Angeles: Simon Wiesenthal Center, 1983.

Phillips, Raymond. The Trial of Josef Kramer and 44 others: The Belsen Trials. London: William Hodge and Company, 1949. Available: www.nizkor.org/hweb/camps/bergen-belsen/belsen- trial-01.html