Two False Testimonies from Auschwitz

Two False Testimonies from Auschwitz Carlo Mattogno

Introduction

In an article commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of the Nuremberg trial, Robert M. W. Kempner states that the extermination of the Jews has been incontestably and unassailably proved since the time of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, and the twelve successive trials which continued until mid-1949.[1]

Kempner writes:

The history of the Holocaust written at Nuremberg bears importantly on the punishment of the guilty. The historical verification rests almost exclusively on the official records of the Hitler regime, which a faithful bureaucracy painstakingly preserved.

In addition to these documents there are the confessions of Hans Frank and Baldur von Schirach, the eyewitness testimonies of Rudolf Hoss and Otto Ohlendorf and the statements of numerous defendants heard as testimony in the Einsatzgruppen and Wilhelmstrasse trials. “A large number of other historical truths were established thanks to documents and eyewitness testimony before German courts during the past twenty years.” [2]

In reality, as we have shown in our study “The Myth of the Extermination of the Jews”,[3] despite the enormous mass of official National Socialist documents produced during these trials, there exists not a single proof of a “plan to exterminate” the Jews, so that at this time “it is difficult to say exactly how, when, and by whom the order to exterminate the Jews was given.”[4]

Even apart from that, however, to attribute historical value to the verdicts of tribunals in which the victors sat in judgment over the vanquished is at the very least naive.

In fact, as the attorney general of the United States stated during a hearing of the Nuremberg trial on 26 July 1946, the International Military Tribunal constituted simply “a continuation of the United Nations’ war effort” against Germany, with which they were “technically still in a state of war” although the political and military institutions of the enemy had collapsed.[5]

At Nuremberg, as the English historian A. J. P. Taylor remarks:

The documents were chosen not only to demonstrate the war-guilt of the men on trial, but to conceal that of the prosecuting Powers. The guilt of Germany was therefore posited at the start: The verdict preceded the tribunal; and the documents were brought in to sustain a conclusion which had already been settled.[6]

Torture also entered into the framework of this “continuation of the war effort” directed, thanks to the trials, against the Germans. The first commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoss, interrogated by British investigators at Heide with “alcohol and the whip,” signed a deposition without even knowing its content![7]

At the Malmedy trial, which took place at Dachau in 1946, American investigators submitted the accused to every sort of physical and mental torture to force them to sign false confessions, as the commission of inquiry presided over by Judges van Roden and Simpson established.[8]

During the proceedings, there occurred an incident which illustrates perfectly the atmosphere which prevailed during the trials of the vanquished conducted immediately after the war by the victors.

The American investigator Kirschbaum had introduced a witness, Einstein, to prove that the defendant, Metzel, had murdered his brother, who was nonetheless sitting in the courtroom! Kirschbaum proceeded to scold Einstein: “How can we bring this pig to the gallows, if you are so stupid as to bring your brother into court!”[9]

The most absurd aspect of these trials is that any “eyewitness” was able to tell the most shameless lies without the least fear of being contradicted, let alone being charged with perjury.

That this is literally true is demonstrated by the extravagant statements about Auschwitz by one Sophia Litwinska during The Belsen Trial. She stated that she had been “selected” for the gas chamber” — together with 3,000 other Jews at the Auschwitz hospital — on Christmas Eve, 1941[10] or several days before,[11] although, according to the historians of the Auschwitz Museum, neither “selections” nor “gassings” of Jews had begun at that time.[12] In the “gas chamber,” Sophia Litwinska saw “fumes coming in through a very small window at the top”,[13] which is absurd because Zyklon B, the gas allegedly used to “exterminate” the Jews, is stored as a solid in hermetically sealed cans.[14] Our “eyewitness” was exposed to the gas “a minute or two perhaps”,[15] and then something extraordinary happened:

At that moment I heard my name called. I had not the strength to answer it, but I raised my arm. Then I felt someone take me and throw me out from that room. Hössler put a blanket round me and took me on a motor cycle to the hospital, where I stayed six weeks.[16]

Thus, in the middle of a “gassing” someone — without even a gas mask! -is supposed to have entered the “gas chamber” to summon Sophia Litwinska and carry her out!

This comes under the heading of lunacy, if one considers that hydrocyanic acid is one of the most powerful poisons which exist: for humans 12 milligrams per liter of air is a fatal dose; moreover, “if the concentration of hydrocyanic acid in the air is strong enough, death is almost immediate.”[17]

In this study we shall examine the Eyewitness testimony” of two other witnesses who testified at The Belsen Trial: Charles Sigismund Bendel and Ada Bimko.

Their testimonies, while less extravagant, are entirely false.

This, however, has not prevented Gerald Reitlinger from accepting them in his famous book The Final Solution.[18]

Further, the “eyewitness testimony” of Charles Sigismund Bendel has been recently dug up by Georges Wellers to demonstrate the existence of the “gas chambers” at Auschwitz.[19]

Now, the fact that these perjurers lied brazenly is doubtless shameful, but it is still more shameful that unscrupulous judges used their “eyewitness testimony” to exact a legal vengeance against the German defendants, with whom they were “technically still in a state of war,” and that biased historians have consciously used it to prop up the tottering myth of the “extermination” of the Jews.

I. The “Eyewitness”

Charles Sigismund Bendel

The Romanian-Jewish doctor Charles Sigismund Bendel was a prosecution witness at The Belsen Trial in 1945[1] and at the Tesch trial in 1946.[2] His “eyewitness testimony” also appeared in 1946 in the work Temoignages sur Auschwitz (Auschwitz Eyewitnesses).[3]

He was arrested in Paris on 4 November 1943 and interned in the camp at Drancy from which, on 10 December 1943, he was deported to Auschwitz. From there he was sent to the Buna camp (Monowitz or Auschwitz-III), then returned to the main camp at Auschwitz, from which he was finally transferred to Birkenau.[4???]

Dr. Bendel does not even know when this took place, since he declares, contradictorily:

On 1st January, 1944, I was transferred to the main camp, and on 27th February,1944, into the gipsy camp4 in Birkenau, where I worked as a doctor.[5]

Q: How long did you work at Birkenau?

A: From 1st January 1944 to 18th January 1945.[6]

In June 1944, Dr. Bendel was attached to the Sonderkommando[7] of the crematoriums at Birkenau, which according to him simultaneously comprised 200[8] and 900 men, [9] and in which he helped in the “extermination” of Jews in the “gas chambers.”

At this time he observed a “gassing” for the first time:

One day in June 1944, at 6 in the morning, I joined the day shift (150 men) of Crematorium 4 … At noon a long procession of women, children, and elderly people entered the courtyard of the Crematorium. They were from the Lodz ghetto. [10]

This is incorrect because the first convoy of Jews from Lodz arrived at Auschwitz on 15 August 1944.[11] Furthermore, this contradicts Bendel’s testimony in The Belsen Trial:

The first time I started work there was in August, 1944. No one was gassed on that occasion, but 150 political prisoners, Russians and Poles, were led one by one to the graves and there they were shot. Two days later, when I was attached to the day group, I saw a gas chamber in action. On that occasion it was the ghetto at Lodz — 80,000 people were gassed.[12]

In reality the execution of the 150 political prisoners is a complete fabrication [13] while his number for Lodz ghetto Jews “gassed” is greater by ten thousand than the number of Jews deported from Lodz to Auschwitz.[14]

Dr. Bendel states that there were four crematoriums at Birkenau, numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4.[15]

According to him, the construction of crematoriums 1 and 2 (II and III in the official German numeration) began in March 1942: “The foundations of these imposing red brick buildings were laid in March 1942.”

This is not correct, because the Central Construction Office[16???] of the Waffen-SS and Police in Auschwitz took bids for the construction of the first Birkenau crematorium on 1 July 1942 .[17]

Once again according to Dr. Bendel, the crematoriums were completed in January 1943: “Completed in January 1943, their dedication was honored by the presence of Himmler in person”.[18]

This is likewise incorrect. The Construction Office of the Waffen-SS and Police of KGL-Auschwitz finished construction on crematoriums II and III on 31 March and 25 June 1943 respectively.[19]

It is also untrue that Himmler was present for the openings.[20]

According to Dr. Bendel, crematoriums 1 and 2 (II and III) each had 16 ovens,[21] which is false because 5 triple ovens were installed in the above-mentioned crematoriums, giving a total of 15 muffles.[22]

Dr. Bendel asserts that there were two “gas chambers” in each of the four crematoriums at Birkenau:

Q: How many gas chambers were there?

A: In each crematorium there were generally two gas chambers.[23]

Contradicting this, in his sworn declaration of 21 October 1945 Dr. Bendel speaks of a single “gas chamber” in each crematorium.[24] These two assertions are contradicted anew by the “official” version defended by the Auschwitz Museum, the protagonists of which assign crematoriums II and III one “gas chamber” each, while crematoriums IV and V are supposed to have had a total of four.[25] The “gas chambers” of crematoriums 1 and 2 (II and III) measured 10 x 4 x 1.6 meters [40 square meters, 64 cubic meters) and at the same time 10 x 5 x 1.5 meters (50 square meters, 75 cubic meters):

Q: How big were the chambers?

A: Each chamber was 10 meters long and 4 wide.[26]

Q: [by the defense attorney, Dr. Zippel]: You stated that the gas chambers had dimensions of 10 by 1.6 meters, is that correct?

A: Yes, certainly.[27]

There were 2 underground gas chambers, each approximately 10 meters long, 5 wide, and one and a half high. The 2 gas chambers supplied the corpses for the crematoriums.[28]

The “gas chambers” of Crematoriums 3 and 4 (III and IV) measured in turn 6 x 3 x 1.5 meters (18 square meters, 27 cubic meters): “For crematoriums 3 and 4 there were 2 other gas chambers which each measured 6 meters long, 3 wide, and one and a half high.” [29]

The data supplied by Dr. Bendel are all false. According to the original plans of the crematoriums, the rooms which are supposed to have been “gas chambers” had the following dimensions:

The capacity of the “gas chambers” described by Dr. Bendel was, if truth be told, surprising:

1,000 people were customarily put in each of the two large chambers and 500 in each of the two small ones.[33]

This is impossible and contradictory. Impossible, since the two “gas chambers” of crematoriums II and III would have held — based on the surface area supplied by Dr. Bendel-25 or 20 people per square meter, while those of crematoriums IV and V would have held 28 people per square meter! Contradictory, because Dr. Bendel asserts:

“In crematoriums 1 and 2, 2,000 each; in crematoriums 3 and 4, 1,000 each; and in the bunker 1,000.”[34]

Cross-examined by the defense attorney on the possibility of cramming 1,000 people into a room of 64 cubic meters, Dr. Bendel gave an astonishing answer, which makes plain the deceitfulness and bad faith of this “eyewitness”:

Q: How is it possible to get 1,000 people into a room of 64 cubic meters? A: That’s a good question. It could only be done with German technique. Q: Do you seriously maintain that 10 people can be put in a space of half a cubic meter? A: Four million people who were gassed at Auschwitz are the witnesses.[35]

This ridiculous argumentation has been taken up by the court historians who obstinately close their eyes to the flagrant technical absurdities of the “gassings” and Cremations,” pretending that because the extermination of the Jews occurred, it was therefore feasible. Thus the famous declaration of the 34 French historians:

It is not necessary to ask how, technically, such a mass murder was feasible. It was technically feasible because it took place.[36]

Dr. Bendel describes the extraordinary German technique which allowed cramming 1,000 people into a room of forty square meters:

The people were so tightly packed in there that it was impossible to fit in even a single one more. It was great fun for the SS to throw in children over the heads of those packed closely into these rooms.[37]

That was no longer possible, because the “gas chambers,” according to the “witness,” had a height of only 1.6 or 1.5 meters!

Thus it is evident that Dr. Bendel never set foot in the crematoriums at Birkenau and that what he says about the “gas chambers” is completely false.

Equally false is his description of the technique of “extermination” allegedly employed in Crematorium V. The “victims” undressed in the crematorium courtyard:

About twelve o’clock the new transport arrived, consisting of some 800 to 1000 people. These people had to undress themselves in the court of the crematorium and were promised a bath and hot coffee afterwards.[38]

This contradicts the official “truth” about Auschwitz, according to which the “victims” undressed in special rooms referred to specifically as “changing rooms” in Exterminationist literature. On the original plan of Crematorium II, the alleged changing room is actually called “Leichenkeller 2”; on the plan of Crematorium IV, the alleged changing room is not so designated: on the plan appears solely the word Entluftung (aeration, ventilation).[39]

From the courtyard of the crematorium the new transport entered the “gas chamber”: “One heard cries and shouts and they started to fight against each other, knocking on the walls.”

This is not possible, because in the “gas chamber,” according to Dr. Bendel, there were 28 persons per square meter, that is to say a density preventing all movement completely.[40???]

The “victims” died in two minutes; twenty minutes after the “gas chamber” was opened the men of the Sonderkommando went inside without gas masks — since Dr. Bendel says nothing of gas masks, either — and began to drag out the bodies:

This went on for two minutes and then there was complete silence. Five minutes later the doors were opened, but it was quite impossible to go in for another twenty minutes. Then the Special Kommandos started work.[41]

This is impossible. Crematoriums IV and V did not have ventilation systems. The “gas chambers” were aired out simply by opening the doors to create a draft.[42] Given the extreme toxicity of hydrocyanic acid, a room fumigated for disinfection must be aired for at least twenty hours.[43] Thus it is evident that the men of the Sonderkommando, entering, after only twenty minutes’ aeration, “gas chambers” in which there lingered lethal concentrations of gas[44] would themselves have been gassed.

Consequently, it is still more impossible that the Sonderkommando could have begun evacuating the corpses five minutes after the death of the “victims,” as Dr. Bendel anomalously asserts:

For two interminable minutes, one heard blows against the walls, cries which had nothing human in them any longer. And then nothing. My head spun, I thought I had lost my mind. Of what abominable crimes were these women, these infants guilty that they had to die in so cruel a manner?

Five minutes later the doors were opened. The heaped, contracted corpses tumbled out like a waterfall. A few were so intertwined that separating them required fantastic effort. Covered with blood, they appeared to have struggled desperately against death. One who has seen a gas chamber even only once can never forget it. The corpses, still warm, passed to the barber, who cut their hair, and the dentist, who pulled out their gold teeth.[45]

Elsewhere, Dr. Bendel reports that the “victims” unable to enter completely filled “gas chambers” were shot in front of the cremation ditches:

During the time this is going on they continue to shoot people in front of these ditches, people who could not be got into the gas chambers because they were overcrowded.[46]

This is also in contradiction with the official “truth” about Auschwitz, which says absolutely nothing about executions near these alleged ditches.[47]

On this matter, Dr. Bendel asserts that during the period of maximum exterminations, Crematorium V was unable to deal with the enormous number of corpses, and so three cremation trenches were dug behind it for burning the bodies in the open:

In Crematorium No. 4 [V] the result which was achieved by burning was apparently not sufficient. The work was not going on quickly enough, so behind the crematorium they dug three large trenches 12 metres long and 6 metres wide.[48]

This is wrong, as shown by the aerial photograph of Birkenau taken 26 June 1944,[49] on which there appears not the least trace, anywhere in the camp, not merely of pyres, but of any smoke at all, including over the crematoria. Yet according to Dr. Bendel “during the month of June the number of gassed was 25,000 every day.”[50]

Dr. Bendel’s claims on these phantom ditches are not merely wrong, but impossible. He asserts that “… in the middle of these big trenches they built two canals through which the human fat or grease should seep so that work could be continued in a quicker way.”[51] In reality, corpses placed in a cremation trench (!) would have been charred, and, even if the fat had flowed off, it could not have collected in the bottom of the trench because it would have burned immediately owing to the high temperature of the pyre. For the same reason the men of the Sonderkommando would not have been able to come up to these 72-square-meter pyres to throw in the corpses of the “gassed” without being burnt themselves.

Here again, therefore, the “eyewitness” Charles Sigismund Bendel has lied.

Regarding the incineration capacity of the crematoriums, he asserts:

The corpses were then removed by the men of the Kommando and placed in an elevator which rose to the ground floor, where there were sixteen ovens. Their overall capacity was around two thousand corpses in twenty-four hours. The twin crematoriums 3 and 4 [IV and V] which were commonly called the “Forest Kremas” (being located in a pleasant clearing), were of more modest dimensions, with their eight ovens having a capacity for a thousand corpses in twenty-four hours.[52]

This is wrong too (see note 18 of “Auschwitz: A Case of Plagiarism”). Had they been as efficient as those in a modern crematorium, the 46 muffles at Birkenau could have incinerated 946 to 1,325 corpses in 24 hours, i.e. an average of 1,104 corpses and not the 6,000 which Dr. Bendel has dreamed up.

As has been seen, our “eyewitness” states that in June 1944 25,000 people were gassed a day, which amounts to 750,000 for the entire month. But, contradictorily, he asserts that during the months of May and June 1944, 400,000 people were killed:

In May and tune 1944, a total of 400,000 people were gassed and in August around 100,000.[53]

In still another contradiction with the above, Dr. Bendel claims that “from 15th July to 1st September, 80,000” people were gassed.[54]

In any case it is absolutely impossible that in the month of June 1944 25,000 people per day were “gassed” for a total of 750,000 since, during this month, fewer than 70,000 persons were deported to Auschwitz.[55]

As to the grand total of “victims,” Dr. Bendel asserts that the number “gassed” was “more than 4 million”[56] but he contradicts himself by defining Birkenau as “the tomb of hundreds of thousands of victims brought from all corners of Europe.”[57]

As is well known, the figure of four million, invented by the Soviets,[58] is now considered incorrect, even by Exterminationist historiography.[59]

Dr. Bendel claims that disinfection of personal clothing and barracks in the concentration camp was accomplished “chiefly with lisoform”, [60] that is, with a substance ineffective against parasites.[61] This is to avoid acknowledging that the alleged means of “extermination” in the “gas chambers,” Zyklon B. was in fact commonly used at Auschwitz, and in all the German concentration camps, for disinfection.

Finally, the Eyewitness testimony” of Dr. Bendel presents other deviations from the official “truth” about Auschwitz.

According to him, 17 tons(!) of gold teeth were extracted from the alleged 4 million corpses.[62]

According to the historians of the Auschwitz Museum, 40 kg of gold teeth were collected from 16 to 31 May 1944 (29 transports of Jews allegedly sent to the “gas chambers”).[63] At that rate, 12,000 transports would have been necessary to obtain the 17 tons imagined by Dr. Bendel.

Dr. Bendel claims that 4,300 Gypsies were “gassed” at the end of July 1944.[64] The Auschwitz Museum’s historians claim that the “gassing” of 2,897 Gypsies took place on 2 August 1944.[65]

To believe Dr. Bendel, in the revolt of 7 October 1944, 500 men of the Sonderkommando were shot, more precisely 100 from Crematorium 1 (I) and 400 from Crematorium 3 (IV),[66] which is false, since on 7 October 1944 the Sonderkommando of Crematorium IV consisted of only 169 men. [67]

Bendel states that 200 other members of the Sonderkommando were gassed either on 7[68] or 27 September 1944,[69] depending on which of his two testimonies is credited.

The four detainees accused of supplying the explosives to the Sonderkommando were hanged “in December 1944”, [70] although, according to the historians of the Auschwitz Museum, this event took place on 6 January 1945.[71]

In conclusion, Dr. Charles Sigismund Bendel has lied on every essential point of his Eyewitness testimony.

II. The ‘Eyewitness’ Ada Bimko

The Polish-Jewish physician Ada Bimko, deported to Auschwitz on 4 August 1943, compares to Dr. Bendel as a prosecution witness in The Belsen Trial.[l]

During her testimony she related that in August 1944 she had been sent into a “gas chamber” at Birkenau to recover blankets left by the “gassing victims.” No sooner had she entered the crematorium than she had the good fortune to meet a member of the Sonderkommando who came from the same town as she; he described to her the ultrasecret installations for “extermination.” Here is her account:

In the first room I met a man who came from the same town as I do. There was also an S.S. man with a rank of Unterscharfuhrer, and he belonged to the Red Cross. I was told that in the first big room the people left their clothes, and from this room were led into a second, and I gained the impression that hundreds and hundreds might go into this room, it was so large. It resembled the shower-baths or ablution rooms we had in the camp. There were many sprays all over the ceiling in rows which were parallel. All these people who went into this room were issued with a towel and a cake of soap, so that they should have the impression that they were going to have a bath, but for anybody who looked at the floor it was quite clear that it was not so because there were no drains. In this room there was a small door which opened to a room which was pitch dark and looked like a corridor. I saw a few lines of rails with a small wagon which they called a lorry, and I was told that prisoners who were already gassed were put on these wagons and sent directly to the crematorium. I believe the crematorium was in the same building, but I myself did not see the stove [sic!]. There was yet another room a few steps higher than the previous one with a very low ceiling, and I noticed two pipes which I was told contained the gas. There were also two huge metal containers containing gas.[2]

To summarize, from the changing room one could enter the “gas chamber” which opened on an adjacent room, resembling a corridor (the room with the rails), from which one passed into another room a few steps higher than the previous one and with a very low ceiling (the room with the gas containers).

If one compares this description with the original plans of the crematoriums, one notices that it is completely incorrect. Let us examine the material facts of the crematoriums II and III.[3]

From the alleged “changing room” (Leichenkeller 2) one proceeds directly to Leichenkeller 3, and, by a corridor (Gang), to the anteroom (Vorraum), in which is located the elevator (Aufzug) and through which the alleged “gas chamber” (Leichenkeller 1) is entered. This entire sector of the crematoriums was underground, and on a single level.

The room with the rails and the room with the gas chambers did not exist. No underground room had rails leading directly to the oven room, which was on the ground level (the corpses were transported by the elevator). No room was several steps higher than the others or had a very low ceiling: Leichenkeller 1 was 2.30 meters high and Leichenkeller 2 was 2.40 meters in height.[4]

Now let us examine crematoriums IV and V.[5]

From the alleged changing room (designated Entlüftung, or ventilation, on the plan) across the anteroom (Vorraum) one enters the first of three adjacent alleged “gas chambers.” All these rooms were on the ground floor and on the same level. The room with the rails and the room with the gas containers were non-existent. No room had rails leading directly to the oven room; besides, these rails would have had to cross the alleged “changing room.” No room was several steps higher than the others, nor did any room have a very low ceiling; the lowest place in these two crematoriums measured 2.20 meters in height.[6]

But the crowning absurdity of this “eyewitness testimony” is that Ada Bimko, not even aware that Zyklon B was contained in cans,[7] speaks of pipes and of “huge metal containers containing gas,” as if the gas in question were methane!

Dr. Bimko gives to understand that the gas passed from the metal containers into the pipes and came out the shower sprays into the “gas chamber.”[8]

Another member of the Sonderkommando reported to Dr. Bimko that “in this gas chamber” “about four million” Jews were “gassed.”[9]

In fine, Dr. Ada Bimko never set foot in any of the crematoriums at Birkenau and her “eyewitness testimony” on this subject is completely fabricated.

It is therefore not surprising that our “eyewitness” doesn’t even know how many crematoriums there were:

Auschwitz was divided into a number of camps and the five crematoria were in a portion called Birkenau, of which Kramer was commandant.[10]

Dr. Bimko’s other lies complete the tableau of her perjury:

I remember that 1st December, 1943, was a day of very large scale selections. Typhus was rampant throughout the camp and there were in the hospital 4124 sick Jewish women. Of this number 4000 were selected for the crematorium and only 124 remained.[11]

In fact, according to the Kalendarium der Ereignisse im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-Birkenau (Calendar of Events in the Concentration Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau), no selection was made in the hospitals on that date.[12]

On 27th July I remember that all those who were even suspected, who were not yet in hospital, were sent to the gas chamber. On that day big transports came in from a concentration camp called Litzmannstadt and there were quite a few cases of typhoid fever.[13]

As we have seen, however, the first transport of Jews froIn the Litzmannstadt (in Polish, Lodz) ghetto arrived at Auschwitz on 15 August 1944.[14]

Dr. Ada Bimko, therefore, has also lied on all the essential points of her “eyewitness testimony.”

Appendix Figure 1: Original plan of Crematorium IV — and by symmetrical inversion — Crematorium V at Birkenau. 1. Binder (main beam) 2. Room without designation 3. Lichte Höhe (height of lights) 2 meters 4. Vorraum (antechamber) 5. Kohle (coal) 6. Arztzimmer (doctor’s office) 7. Entlüftung (aeration, ventilation) 8. Schleuse (airlock) 9. Geräte (tools) 10. Verbrennungsraum (cremation room) 11. Achtmuffel-Einäscherungsofen (eight-muffle incineration oven) 12. Einäscherungsanlage für das K.G.L. (incineration installation for prisoner-of-war camp) 13. Eingetragen im Planausgabebuch unter Nr. 3616/18.9.42 Bauleitung der Waffen-SS und Polizei (Entered in the register of programmed expenses under no. 3616/18.9.42. Construction Office of the Waffen SS and Police)

Figure 2: Two aerial photographs of Auschwitz-Birkenau, taken by the Allies on 25 August and 21 December 1944 (Gerald Fleming, Hitler und die Endlosung, Limes Verlag, 1982, between pages 128 and 129). Crematoriums II and III can be seen in the first photograph. In the second the same crematoriums, II and III. are shown partially dismantled, as are crematoriums IV (destroyed) and V.

Figure 3: From KL Auschwitz. Fotografie documentalne. Krajowa Wydawnicza, Warsaw, 1980, outside the text.

K II: Crematorium II K III: Cremtorium III K IV: Crematorium IV K V: Crematorium V

Notes to the Introduction 1. For the trials against the National Socialist “war criminals,” see Adalbert Ruckerl NS-Verbrechen vor Gericht, Heidelberg, 1982. 2. Robert M.W. Kempner, “Vor dreissig Jahren in Nurnberg,” in Allgemeine Judische Wochenzeitung, 21 November 1975. 3. English translation (revised, corrected and expanded) “The Myth of the Extermination of the Jews,” The Journal of Historical Review, VoL 8, nos. 2 & 3 (Summer and Fall 1988). 4. Liliana Picciotto Fargion, “La congiura del silenzio,” in La Rassegna Mensile di Israel, May-August 1984, p. 226. 4. Der Prozess gegen die Hauptkriegsverbrecher vor dem internationalen Militargerichtshof, Nuremberg, 14 November 1945- 1 October 1946, published at Nuremberg, 1948, vol. XIX, p. 440. 5. A.J.P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War, Atheneum, New York, 1983, p. 13. 6. Le Commandant d’Auschwitz parle, translated by Constantin de Grunwald, Julliard, (1959) 1970, p. 2. 7. Freda Utley, The High Cost of Vengeance, Regnery, Chicago, 1949, pp. 185-200. 8. Ibidem. 9. Trial of Josef Kramer and Forty-Four Others (The Belsen Trial), William Hodge and Company, London-Edinburgh-Glasgow, 1949, p. 79. 10. The Belsen Trial, p. 79. 11. The “gassing” of Xews at Auschwitz is supposed to have begun in January 1942; the first “selection” on 4 May 1942 (Contribution a l’histoire du KL Auschwitz, Edition du Musee d’Etat a Oswiecim, n d., pp. 178 and 180). 12. The Belsen Trial, p. 80. 13. Zyklon B is hydrocyanic acid (HCN) absorbed by a porous material such as diatomaceous earth — whence its granular appearance – and contained in hermetically sealed canisters (NI-9098, p. 35 and 38). Hydrocyanic acid evaporates into a gaseous state at a temperature of 25.7 degrees centigrade (about 78 degrees Fahrenheit); its vapors are lighter than air (Les Chambres a gaz, secret d’Etat, Editions de Minuit, Paris, 1984, p. 258). 14. The Belsen Trial, p. 81. 15. The Belsen Trial, p. 80. 16. J. Sehn, Le Camp de Concentration d’Oswiecim-Brzezinka, Warsaw, 1957, p. 133. 17. Gerald Reitlinger, The Final Solution. The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe 1939-1945, London, 1953, p. 150-152. 18. Georges Wellers, Les chambres a gaz ont existe. Des documents, des temoignages, des chiffres, Gallimard, 1981, pp. 113-114, 120. Georges Wellers, “Auschwitz,” in Les Chambres a gaz, secret d’Etat, op. cit. p. 183, 206. Notes to Part I 1. Trial of Josef Kramer and Forty-Four Others (The Belsen Trial), op. cit. pp.130-135. 2. NI-11953. 3. Temoignages sur Auschwitz, Paris, 1946, pp.159-164. The testimony in question, titled “The Sonderkommando,” is signed “Dr. Paul Bendel, 167 460,” but is undoubtedly that of Charles Sigismund BendeL 4. Sector B II e (Zigeunerfamilienlager) of the Birkenau camp. 5. The Belsen Trial, pp. 130-131. 6. NI-11953, p. 1. [In the present article, Bendel’s testimony has been retranslated from the French.l 7. A special team of prisoners assigned to work in the crematoriums. 8. NI-11390, p. l. 9. NI-11953, p. l. 10. Temoignages sur Auschwitz, pp. 161-162. 11. Contribution a l’histoire du KL Auschwitz, Edition du Musee d’Etat a Oswiecim, n.d., p. 209. 12. The Belsen Trial, p. 131. 13. There is not the slightest reference to these executions in the Kalendarium der Ereignisse im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz- Birkenau (Hefte von Auschwitz), Wydawnictwo Panstwowego Muzeum w Oswiecimiu, 8,1964, pp.54-62. 14. Contribution a l’histoire du KL Auschwitz, op. cit., p. 209. 15. Temoignages sur Auschwitz, pp. 160-161. The official numeration at Birkenau was; II, III, IV, V ( J.Sehn, Le Camp de Concentration d’ Oswiecim-Brzezinka, Warsaw, 1957, p.132). 16. Temoignages sur Auschwitz, p. 161. 17. Hefte von Auschwitz, Wydawnictwo Panstwowego Muzeum w Oswiecimiu, 3,1960, p.68. 18. Temoignages sur Auschwitz, p. 161. 19. Hefte von Auschwitz, Wydawnictwo Panstwowego Muzeum w Oswiecimiu, 4,1961, pp.87 and 109. 20. Ibidem Himmler’s last visit to Auschwitz goes back to the summer of 1942 (Kommandant in Auschwitz. Autobiographische Aufzeichnungen des Rudolf Hoss, edited by Martin Broszat, DTV, Munich, 1981, p. 181). According to the Kalendarium der Ereignisse im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-Birkenau, he was there on 17 and 18 July (Hefte von Auschwitz, 3, pp.71-72). 21. Temoignages sur Auschwitz, p. 161. 22. Problämes choisis de l’histoire du KL Auschwitz, Edition de Musee d’Etat a Oswiecim 1979, p.44. 23. “In each crematorium there were generally two gas chambers,” The Belsen Trial, p. 135. 24. NI-11350, pp. l and 3. 25. J. Sehn, Le Camp de Concentration d’Oswiecim-Brzezinka, op. cit., p. 132 26. NI-11953, p. 2. 27. NI-11953, p. 4. 28. NI-11390, p. 1. 29. NI-11390, p. 2. 30. J. Sehn, Le Camp de Concentration d’Oswiecim-Brzezinka, op. cit. p. 132. 31. This room is supposed to have been later divided into two parts, giving birth to the fourth “gas chamber” (Jean-Claude Pressac, ‘Les Xrematorien’ IV and V du Birkenau et leurs chambres a gaz. Construction et fonctionnement,” in Le Monde Juif, no. 107, July-September 1982, pp. 104 and 124). 32. Jean-Claude Pressac, in the article cited above,pp.104-105. See appendix, figures 1 — 4. 33. NI-11390, p. 3. 34. NI-11953, p. 2. 35. NI-11953, p. 4. 36. Le Monde, 21 February 1979, p. 23. 37. NI-11953, p. 2. 38. The Belsen Trial, p. 132. 39. J. Sehn, Le Camp de Concentration d’Oswiecim-Brzezinka, op. cit., p. 132; J.C. Pressac, in the article cited above, pp. 104-105. Leichenkeller = mortuary chamber; Entluftung = aeration. 40. The Belsen Trial, p. 132. 41. Ibidem. 42. J.C. Pressac, article cited above, p. 125, note 21. 43. NI-9912: Richtlinien fur die Anwendung von Blausaure (Zyklon) zur Ungeziefervertilgung (Entwesung) (Guidelines for using hydrocyanic acid [Zyklon] in the extermination of vermin), p. 13: “Ventilation must last at least twenty hours.” 44. William B. Lindsey, “Zyklon B, Auschwitz, and the Trial of Bruno Tesch,” in The Journal of HistoricalReview, Vol. 4, no. 3 (Fall 1983), p. 299, note 44. 45. Temoignages sur Auschwitz, p. 163. 46. The Belsen Trial, pp. 132-133. 47. J. Sehn, Le Camp de Concentration d’Oswiecim-Brzezinka, op. cit., p. 147. 48. The Belsen Trial, p. 131. 49. Dino A. Brugioni and Robert Poirier, The Holocaust Revisited A Retrospective Analysis of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Complex, Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C., February 1979, p. 8 (the captions which accompany the photographs are quite tendentious). See appendix, figures 5 and 6. 50. NI-11953, p. 3: “During the month of June the number of gassed was 25,000 every day.” 51. The Belsen Trial, pp. 131-132. 52. Temoignages sur Auschwitz, p. 161. t 53. NI-11390, p. 4. ; 54. NI-11953, p. 3. 55. During June 1944, 21 transports from Hungary arrived at Auschwitz i.e. about 63,000 persons, since each train contained about 3,000 (Leon Poliakov, Le Proces de Jerusalem, Paris, 1963, p. 199); besides those, a transport from Drancy, one from Corfu, one from Fossoli and one ” from ‘s Hertogenbosch, bringing a total of 4,493 persons: finally, two transports from Italy without indication as to how many passengers but certainly a very modest number (a), and two from Vienna, one from Cracow and one from Sosnowitz, carrying 115 persons in all .a. The average number of Jews per transport from Italy (computed from those transports for which we have figures) is less than 400 persons. Ebrei in Italia: Deportazione, Resistenza, Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea di Milano, Florence, 1974. A “chronological list of transports” is included. 56. NI-11953, p. 2. 57. Temoignages sur Auschwitz, p. 160. 58. USSR-08. The number is calculated on the basis of the duration of the crematoriums’ existence and on an imaginary cremation capacity of 9,300 corpses per day! 59. Gerald Reitlinger, La soluzione finale. Is tentative di stermimo degli Ebrei d’Europa 1939-1945, Milan, 1965, p. 559. Der Mord an den Juden im Zweiten Weltkrieg, edited by Eberhard Jacket and Jurgen Rohwer, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart, 1985, p. 176. Colloquium of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en sciences sociales, L’Allemagne nazie et le genocide juif, Gallimard-Le Seuil, 1985, p. 253. 60. NI-11953, p. 3. 61. NI-11953, p. 4. 62. NI-11953, p. 3. 63. Hefte von Auschwitz, 7, 1964, p. 55. 64. The Belsen Trial, p. 131. 65. Hefte von Auschwitz, 8, 1964, p. 55. 66. The Belsen Trial, p. 133. 67. Hefte von Auschwitz, 8, 1964, pp. 72-73. 68. Temoignages sur Auschwitz, p. 159. This date has used by Georges Wellers in the article “Revolte du Sonderkommando a Auschwitz,” in Le Monde Juif, no. 18, April 1949, p. 18. 69. NI-11953, p. 3. According to the historians of the Auschwitz Museum, the event in question took place around 25 November 1944 (Contribution d l’histoire du KL Auschwitz, op. cit., p. 211). 70. The Belsen Trial, p. 133. 71. Hefte von Auschwitz, 8, 1964, p. 94. Notes to Part II 1. The Belsen Trial, pp. 66-78. 2. Idem, p. 67-68. 3. See Appendix, Figure 3 of the preceding article, “Auschwitz: A Case of Plagiarism.” 4. Central Commission for Investigation of German War Crimes in Poland, German Crimes in Poland, Warsaw, 1946, voL I, p. 84. 5. See Appendix, Figures 1 and 2. 6. Jean-Claude Pressac, article cited above, pp. 104 and 105. 7. See note 14 to the Introduction. 8. According to the official “truth” about Auschwitz, the “gassings” were achieved by emptying the contents of the Zyklon B canisters directly into the “gas chambers.”‘ 9. The Belsen Trial, p. 68. 10. Idem, p. 67. 11. Idem, p. 67. 12. Hefte von Auschwitz, Wydawnicto Panstwowego Muzeum w Oswiecimiu, 6, 1962, p. 81. 13. The Belsen Trial, p. 73. 14. See note 11 to Part I.

This article and “Auschwitz: A Case of Plagiarism” were translated from Annales d’histoire revisionniste, No. 5, Summer-Fall 1988 (B.P. 9805, 75224 Paris CEDEX 05, France).] From The Journal of Historical Review, Spring 1990 (Vol. 10, No. 1), pages 25-47.