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Criminal Prosecution of 'Holocaust Denial'
Mar 11, 2008

by Barbara Kulaszka

In recent years, more and more attention has been devoted to the supposed danger of
"Holocaust denial." Politicians, newspapers and television warn about the growing
influence of those who reject the Holocaust story that some six million European Jews
were systematically exterminated during the Second World War, most of them in gas
chambers.

In several countries, including Israel, France, Germany and Austria, "Holocaust
denial" is against the law, and "deniers" have been punished with stiff fines and prison
sentences. Some frantic Jewish community leaders are calling for similar government
measures in North America against so-called "deniers." In Canada, David Matas,
Senior Counsel for the "League for Human Rights" of the Zionist B'nai B'rith
organization, says: (note 1)

The Holocaust was the murder of six million Jews, including two million children.
Holocaust denial is a second murder of those same six million. First their lives were
extinguished; then their deaths. A person who denies the Holocaust becomes part of
the crime of the Holocaust itself.

Often overlooked in this controversy is the crucial question: Just what constitutes
"Holocaust denial"?

Six Million?

Should someone be considered a "Holocaust denier" because he does not believe -- as
Matas and others insist -- that six million Jews were killed during World War II? This
figure was cited by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1945-1946. It
found that "the policy pursued [by the German government] resulted in the killing of
six million Jews, of which four million were killed in the extermination institutions."
(note 2)

Yet if that is so, then several of the most prominent Holocaust historians could be
regarded as "deniers." Professor Raul Hilberg, author of the standard reference work,
The Destruction of the European Jews, does not accept that six million Jews died. He
puts the total of deaths (from all causes) at 5.1 million. Gerald Reitlinger, author of
The Final Solution, likewise did not accept the six million figure. He estimated the
figure of Jewish wartime dead might be as high as 4.6 million, but admitted that this
was conjectural due to a lack of reliable information.

16



Human Soap?

Is someone a "Holocaust denier" if he says that the Nazis didn't use Jewish fat to
make soap? After examining all the evidence (including an actual bar of soap supplied
by the Soviets), the Nuremberg Tribunal declared in its Judgment that "in some
instances attempts were made to utilize the fat from the bodies of the victims in the
commercial manufacture of soap." (note 3)

In 1990, though, Israel's official "Yad Vashem" Holocaust memorial agency "rewrote
history" by admitting that the soap story was not true. "Historians have concluded that
soap was not made from human fat. When so many people deny the Holocaust ever
happened, why give them something to use against the truth?," said Yad Vashem
official Shmuel Krakowski. (note 4)

Wannsee Conference?

Is someone a "Holocaust denier" if he does not accept that the January 1942
"Wannsee conference" of German bureaucrats was held to set or coordinate a program
of systematic mass murder of Europe's Jews? If so, Israeli Holocaust historian Yehuda
Bauer must be wrong -- and a "Holocaust denier" -- because he recently declared:
"The public still repeats, time after time, the silly story that at Wannsee the
extermination of the Jews was arrived at." In Bauer's opinion, Wannsee was a meeting
but "hardly a conference" and "little of what was said there was executed in detail."
(note 5)

Extermination Policy?

Is someone a "Holocaust denier" if he says that there was no order by Hitler to
exterminate Europe's Jews? There was a time when the answer would have been yes.
Holocaust historian Raul Hilberg, for example, wrote in the 1961 edition of his study,
The Destruction of the European Jews, that there were two Hitler orders for the
destruction of Europe's Jews: the first given in the spring of 1941, and the second
shortly thereafter. But Hilberg removed mention of any such order from the revised,
three-volume edition of his book published in 1985. (note 6) As Holocaust historian
Christopher Browning has noted: (note 7)

In the new edition, all references in the text to a Hitler decision or Hitler order for the
"Final Solution" have been systematically excised. Buried at the bottom of a single
footnote stands the solitary reference: "Chronology and circumstances point to a
Hitler decision before the summer ended." In the new edition, decisions were not
made and orders were not given.

A lack of hard evidence for an extermination order by Hitler has contributed to a
controversy that divides Holocaust historians into "intentionalists" and
"functionalists." The former contend that there was a premeditated extermination
policy ordered by Hitler, while the latter hold that Germany's wartime "final solution"
Jewish policy evolved at lower levels in response to circumstances. But the crucial
point here is this: notwithstanding the capture of literally tons of German documents
after the war, no one can point to documentary evidence of a wartime extermination

17



order, plan or program. This was admitted by Professor Hilberg during his testimony
in the 1985 trial in Toronto of German-Canadian publisher Ernst Zündel. (note 8)

Auschwitz

So just what constitutes "Holocaust denial"? Surely a claim that most Auschwitz
inmates died from disease and not systematic extermination in gas chambers would be
"denial." But perhaps not. Jewish historian Arno J. Mayer, a Princeton University
professor, wrote in his 1988 study Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?: The 'Final
Solution" in History': ... From 1942 to 1945, certainly at Auschwitz, but probably
overall, more Jews were killed by so-called 'natural' causes than by 'unnatural' ones."
(note 9)

Even estimates of the number of people who died at Auschwitz --allegedly the main
extermination center -- are no longer clear cut. At the postwar Nuremberg Tribunal,
the Allies charged that the Germans exterminated four million people at Auschwitz.
(note 10) Until 1990, a memorial plaque at Auschwitz read: "Four Million People
Suffered and Died Here at the Hands of the Nazi Murderers Between the Years 1940
and 1945." (note 11) During a 1979 visit to the camp, Pope John Paul II stood before
this memorial and blessed the four million victims.

Is it "Holocaust denial" to dispute these four million deaths? Not today. In July 1990,
the Polish government's Auschwitz State Museum, along with Israel's Yad Vashem
Holocaust center, conceded that the four million figure was a gross exaggeration, and
references to it were accordingly removed from the Auschwitz monument. Israeli and
Polish officials announced a tentative revised toll of 1.1 million Auschwitz dead.
(note 12) In 1993, French Holocaust researcher Jean-Claude Pressac, in a much-
discussed book about Auschwitz, estimated that altogether about 775,000 died there
during the war years. (note 13)

Professor Mayer acknowledges that the question of how many really died in
Auschwitz remains open. In Why Did the Heavens Not Darken? he wrote (p. 366):

... Many questions remain open ... All in all, how many bodies were cremated in
Auschwitz? How many died there all told? What was the national, religious, and
ethnic breakdown in this commonwealth of victims? How many of them were
condemned to die a 'natural' death and how many were deliberately slaughtered? And
what was the proportion of Jews among those murdered in cold blood among these
gassed? We have simply no answers to these questions at this time.

Gas Chambers

What about denying the existence of extermination "gas chambers"? Here too, Mayer
makes a startling statement (on page 362 of his book): "Sources for the study of the
gas chambers are at once rare and unreliable." While Mayer believes that such
chambers did exist at Auschwitz, he points out that

most of what is known is based on the depositions of Nazi officials and executioners
at postwar trials and on the memory of survivors and bystanders. This testimony must

18



be screened carefully, since it can be influenced by subjective factors of great
complexity.

Höss' Testimony

One example of this might be the testimony of Rudolf Höss, an SS officer who served
as commandant of Auschwitz. In its Judgment, the Nuremberg International Military
Tribunal quoted at length from his testimony to support its findings of extermination.
(note 14)

It is now well established that Höss' crucial testimony, as well as his so-called
"confession" (which was also cited by the Nuremberg Tribunal), are not only false,
but were obtained by beating the former commandant nearly to death. (note 15) Höss'
wife and children were also threatened with death and deportation to Siberia. In his
statement -- which would not be admissible today in any United States court of law --
Höss claimed the existence of an extermination camp called "Wolzek." In fact, no
such camp ever existed. He further claimed that during the time that he was
commandant of Auschwitz, two and a half million people were exterminated there,
and that a further half million died of disease. (note 16) Today no reputable historian
upholds these figures. Höss was obviously willing to say anything, sign anything and
do anything to stop the torture, and to try to save himself and his family.

Forensic Investigations

In his 1988 book, Professor Mayer calls for "excavations at the killing sites and in
their immediate environs" to determine more about the gas chambers. In fact, such
forensic studies have been made. The first was conducted in 1988 by American
execution equipment consultant, Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. He carried out an on-site
forensic examination of the alleged gas chambers at Auschwitz, Birkenau and
Majdanek to determine if they could have been used to kill people as claimed. After a
careful study of the alleged killing facilities, Leuchter concluded that the sites were
not used, and could not have been used, as homicidal gas chambers. Furthermore, an
analysis of samples taken by Leuchter from the walls and floors of the alleged gas
chambers showed either no or minuscule traces of cyanide compound, from the active
ingredient of Zyklon B, the pesticide allegedly used to murder Jews at Auschwitz.
(note 17)

A confidential forensic examination (and subsequent report) commissioned by the
Auschwitz State Museum and conducted by Institute of Forensic Research in Krakow
has confirmed Leuchter's finding that minimal or no traces of cyanide compound can
be found in the sites alleged to have been gas chambers. (note 18)

The significance of this is evident when the results of the forensic examination of the
alleged homicidal gas chambers are compared with the results of the examination of
the Auschwitz disinfestation facilities, where Zyklon B was used to delouse
mattresses and clothing. Whereas no or only trace amounts of cyanide were found in
the alleged homicidal gas chambers, massive traces of cyanide were found in the
walls and floor in the camp's disinfestation delousing chambers.

19



Another forensic study has been carried out by German chemist Germar Rudolf. On
the basis of his on-site examination and analysis of samples, the certified chemist and
doctoral candidate concluded: "For chemical-technical reasons, the claimed mass
gassings with hydrocyanic acid in the alleged 'gas chambers' in Auschwitz did not
take place ... The supposed facilities for mass killing in Auschwitz and Birkenau were
not suitable for this purpose ..." (note 19)

Finally, there is the study of Austrian engineer Walter Lüftl, a respected expert
witness in numerous court cases, and former president of Austria's professional
association of engineers. In a 1992 report he called the alleged mass extermination of
Jews in gas chambers "technically impossible." (note 20)

Discredited Perspective

So just what constitutes "Holocaust denial"? Those who advocate criminal
persecution of "Holocaust deniers" seem to be still living in the world of 1946 where
the Allied officials of the Nuremberg Tribunal have just pronounced their verdict. But
the Tribunal's findings can no longer be assumed to be valid. Because it relied so
heavily on such untrustworthy evidence as the Höss testimony, some of its most
critical findings are now discredited.

For purposes of their own, powerful special interest groups desperately seek to keep
substantive discussion of the Holocaust story taboo. One of the ways they do this is by
purposely mischaracterizing revisionist scholars as "deniers." But the truth can't be
suppressed forever: There is a very real and growing controversy about what actually
happened to Europe's Jews during World War II.

Let this issue be settled as all great historical controversies are resolved: through free
inquiry and open debate in our journals, newspapers and classrooms.

Notes

1.
Globe and Mail (Toronto), Jan. 22, 1992.
2.
Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal
(IMT "blue series"), Vol. 22, p. 496.
3.
IMT "blue series," Vol. 22, p. 496.
4.
Globe and Mail (Toronto), April 25, 1990; See also: M. Weber, "Jewish
Soap," The Journal of Historical Review, Summer 1991.
5.
Canadian Jewish News (Toronto), Jan. 30, 1992.
6.
See: Barbara Kulaszka, ed., Did Six Million Really Die: Report of the
Evidence in the Canadian 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zundel (Toronto:
Samisdat, 1992), pp. 192, 300, 349.
7.
"The Revised Hilberg," Simon Wiesenthal Annual, Vol. 3, 1986, p. 294.
8.
B. Kulaszka, ed., Did Six Million Really Die (Toronto: 1992), pp. 24-25.
9.
A. Mayer, Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?: The 'Final Solution' in History
(Pantheon, 1988), p. 365.
10. Nuremberg document 008-USSR.; IMT "blue series," Vol. 39, pp. 241, 261.
11. B. Kulaszka, ed., Did Six Million Really Die (Toronto: 1992), p. 441.
12. Y. Bauer, "Fighting the Distortions," Jerusalem Post (Israel), Sept. 22, 1989;
Auschwitz Deaths Reduced to a Million," Daily Telegraph (London), July 17,
20



1990; "Poland Reduces Auschwitz Death Toll Estimate to 1 Million," The
Washington Times, July 17, 1990.

13. J.-C. Pressac, Les Crématoires d'Auschwitz: La machinerie du meurtre de
masse (Paris: CNRS, 1993). See also: R. Faurisson, "Jean-Claude Pressac's
New Auschwitz Book," The Journal of Historical Review, Jan.-Feb. 1994, p.
24.
14. IMT "blue series," Vol. 22, p. 485; Nuremberg document 3868-PS (USA-819),
in IMT "blue series," Vol. 33, pp. 275-279.
15. Rupert Butler, Legions of Death (England: 1983), pp. 235-237; C. Hitchens,
"Whose History is it?," Vanity Fair (New York), Dec. 1993, p. 117.
16. See: R. Faurisson, "How the British Obtained the Confession of Rudolf Höss,"
The Journal of Historical Review, Winter 1986-87, pp. 389-403.
17. A deluxe edition of The Leuchter Report is available from the IHR for $20.00,
plus $2.00 shipping.
18. The complete text of this report was published in English in The Journal of
Historical Review, Summer 1991.
19. G. Rudolf, Gutachten ueber die Bildung und Nachweisbarkeit von
Cyanidverbindungen in den 'Gaskammern' von Auschwitz (London: 1993).
See: The Journal of Historical Review, Nov.-Dec. 1993, pp. 25-26.
20. "The 'Lüftl Report'," The Journal of Historical Review, Winter 1992-93.
21
Visibility: Everyone
Posted: Tuesday March 11, 2008, 4:24 am
Tags: denial holocaust [add/edit tags]

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