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According
to the orthodox 'Holocaust' historians, the Germans set up six 'extermination
camps' in
The
'Holocaust' historians claim that Majdanek served both as a labour camp and a
murder factory. Between September 1942 and October 1943, the Germans are supposed to have
gassed large numbers of Jewish prisoners, partly by means of Zyklon-B, partly
by means of carbon monoxide. Moreover, the Germans
are accused of having shot about 18,000 Jews at Majdanek on November 3, 1943. This was allegedly
the beastliest mass murder ever committed in any German concentration camp on a
single day.
Tens
of thousands of books have been published about the 'Holocaust.' One would
therefore expect to find an abundance of scientific studies about these six
alleged mass murder sites. In reality, the exterminationist historians have
almost exclusively focused their attention upon
Unfortunately,
the revisionists have not done much better. The only revisionist book dedicated
to Majdanek is Josef Gideon Burg's Majdanek
in alle Ewigkeit? (1). Burg was an anti-Zionist German Jew. He accused the
Zionists of exploiting the tragic events at Majdanek to blackmail the German
nation morally and financially and claimed that there were no execution gas
chambers in that camp. Burg, who died in 1990, was an exceedingly courageous
and honest man, but unfortunately his book is of scarce scientific value as it
is almost exclusively based on eyewitness testimony and newspaper articles.
In
1988, Fred Leuchter wrote his famous report on the alleged gas chambers at
Whereas
both exterminationist and revisionist historians in the West have totally
neglected Majdanek, there exists an abundant literature on this camp in
My
Italian friend Carlo Mattogno - who
is doubtless the world's foremost expert on the 'Holocaust' - and I have decided
to do the work all other historians have failed to accomplish. Our book, KL Majdanek. Eine historische und technische
Studie has been published in German. (4)
In
June 1997, Mattogno and I spent time in
-
Documents found in Russian archives in 1995 (5);
-
Documents found in the archives of Majdanek museum, as well as in the archives
of the city of
-
The Polish literature;
-
Practical investigation on the ground of the former concentration camp.
Unfortunately,
the documentation about the
To
mention but one example, we do not know how many prisoners were deported to
Majdanek during the almost three years of its existence, and we have to content
ourselves with estimates. Still, the extant documents permit us to determine
the death figure of the camp with reasonable accuracy and to refute the myth of
the homicidal gas chambers as well as the legend of the mass shooting allegedly
perpetrated in November 1943.
The function of the German concentration camps
From
1933 to 1939, the German concentration camps did not serve any economic
purposes. They were used to isolate both inveterate criminals and political
opponents deemed to constitute a menace to the National Socialist government.
The peace-time figure of prisoners was usually quite low.
For
example, there were no more than 7500 concentration camp inmates in summer 1937
(6), the majority of them being ordinary criminals and so-called
"anti-social elements" (prostitutes, tramps, beggars etc.).
After
the outbreak of the war, numerous new concentration camps were set up, and the
number of their inmates dramatically rose. In addition to anti-Nazi resistance
fighters from the occupied countries, many prisoners of war were sent to the
camps. The mass deportation of Jews started in the end of 1941.
As
the war dragged on, the lack of manpower became an ever-increasing problem for
the German war industry so that the concentration camps gradually assumed an
important economic function. On April 30 1942, SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl, director of the
SS-Wirtschaftsverwaltungshauptamt, wrote to Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler :
[To
be quoted according to the official English version of the
"Der Krieg hat eine sichtbare
Strukturänderung der
Konzentrationslagergebracht und ihre
Aufgaben hinsichtlich
des Häftlingseinsatzes
grundlegendgeändert. Die Vermehrung
von Häftlingen nur aus
Sicherheits-, erzieherischen oder
vorbeugenden Gründen allein steht
nicht mehr im
Vordergrund. Das Schwergewicht hat sich
nach der
wirtschaftlichen Seite hin
verlagert." (7)
Owing to spotted typhus and other epidemics, but also to poor food
and clothing, the death rates in the concentration camps were appallingly high.
On December 28, 1942, Richard
Glücks, inspector of the concentration camps, stated in a circular
letter sent to all camp commanders :
[Official
English version NB documents]
"Die 1. Lagerärzte haben sich
mit allen ihnen zur Verfügung
stehenden Mitteln dafür
einzusetzen, dass die
Sterblichkeitsziffern in den einzelnen
Lagern wesentlich
herabgehen ... Die Lagerärzte
haben mehr als bisher die
Ernährung der Häftlinge zu
überwachen und in
Übereinstimmung mit den
Verwaltungen der
Lagerkommandanten
Verbesserungsvorschläge einzureichen
... Der Reichsführer SS hat befohlen,
dass die Sterblichkeit
unbedingt geringer werden muss."
(8)
Glück's
instructions had visible consequences; within 8 months the mortality in the
camps sank by almost 80% (9). Apart from their
economic importance, the concentration camps also fulfilled security functions.
In many of the occupied countries, the Germans were
facing powerful armed resistance movements
which constituted a serious threat to their troops and installations.
According
to American historian Richard C. Lucas, Polish resistance fighters inflicted
the following damages to the Germans between January 1941 and June 1944: They
damaged 6 930 train engines, derailed 732 trains, destroyed 979 train wagons,
blew up 38 bridges, destroyed 68 aircraft, burnt down 15 factories, annihilated
4 623 military vehicles, committed 25 125 acts of sabotages and 5 733 attacks
on German troops (10).
No
occupying power would have put up with this. Like every occupying power before
and after them, the Germans reacted to the terrorist activities of the resistance
movement by brutal repression against the civilian population: Not only
civilians suspected of being in league with the partisans but also hostages
were deported to the camps by tens of thousands.
A short survey of the history of Majdanek
There
are many myths about the Third Reich. One of these myths is that the National
Socialist state was a homogenous, strictly centralised entity where all
important decisions emanated from the supreme leadership and were rigidly
enforced. The reality was different. A good example demonstrating the often
irrational and contradictory policy of the National Socialist authorities is
the history of the Majdanek concentration camp which was never efficiently
organised and never had a clear function. Its character was always provisional
and its history chaotic from the beginning to the end.
In
July 1941, Himmler visited the city of
Himmler
had not yet made up his mind as to whether the building of the camp should be
supervised by Richard Glücks, the inspector of the concentration camps, or
by his personal confidant, SS-Brigadeführer Odilo Globocnik, whom Himmler
already had entrusted with the reorganisation of the city of
On
August 30, Zörner, the governor of Lublin, angrily protested against
Globocniks activities and accused him of setting up a concentration camp
without even consulting him, Zörner.
In
the first days of October, some Jewish members of the Polish army who had
formerly been interned in the "old concentration camp" were lead to
the site where the new camp was to arise. The "old camp" was situated
in the very center of
In
July 1941, Himmler had envisaged a camp for 25,000 to 50,000 prisoners. On November 1, SS-Oberführer
Kammler, chief of the second department of the WVHA (construction), ordered the
construction of a camp for 125,000 inmates (12), and five weeks later, he
increased the number to 150,000 (13). None of these figures were even remotely
reached; Majdanek never harboured more than 23,000
prisoners at the same time.
The
camp was built on a large plain situated between the city of
Moreover,
the barracks were built in the immediate neighbourhood of a former airfield
where the Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke, a mighty industrial complex, planned
to set up the workshops and factories in which the future inmates of the camp
would work for the benefit of the Reich.
Even
the most superficial observer could hardly fail to notice the existence of this
camp. Jozef Marszalek, the official historian of
Majdanek, unmistakably states (14):
"The whole area is
completely open. There are no natural obstacles in the
shape of rivers or forests. As to its geographical location, the camp was visible from all sides."
Of
course, for an 'extermination camp' this was the most impossible choice on
earth as mass murders in Majdanek could not have been
held secret for more than a couple of days. When asked why there is not
a single German document proving that even one single Jew was gassed at
Majdanek - or, indeed, in any concentration camp - the orthodox historians who
defend the gas chamber story argue that the Germans, who wanted to conceal
their atrocities, gave their gassing orders orally or used a coded language in
their documents. The same historians claim that the Germans set up a death
factory in the immediate vicinity of a large city and two hamlets from where
everybody could observe what was going on in the camp!
According
to the first known plan, drawn on 7 October 1941, the camp was to be subdivided
into ten units called 'fields' (15). (No similar arrangement existed in any
other German concentration camp.) By the end of November, the first row of
barracks was completed on field I.
Whereas
simple manual tasks were always performed by the prisoners themselves, skilled
workers were often provided by private firms which were predominantly Polish.
Documents found in the archives of the city of
The
Polish civilian workers, who were working side by side with the prisoners, left
the camp in the evening and returned to their families. It goes without saying
that they would immediately have been informed of human gassings or other mass
murders, and within days, the news would have spread all over Poland.
An
important document about the history of Majdanek is a letter written by the
vice minister of transport, Kleinmann, to Heinrich Himmler on the 7th of March
1942 (17). Kleinmann complained that the
From
conversations with SS officials he, Kleinmann, knew that the SS wanted to build
a town for its members and their families near
The
chaotic character of the German policy regarding Majdanek is also illustrated
by the fact that the camp had no fewer than five commanders during the 34 months
of its existence: Karl Otto Koch, Max August Koegel, Hermann Florstedt, Martin
Weiss and Arthur Liebehenschel. This incessant change of commanders made any
coherent development of the camp next to impossible.
From
the very beginning, the civilian authorities in
This
decision had dire consequences for the prisoners as the hygienic conditions
prevailing in the camp baffled description and lead to an enormously high death
rate. In May 1942, a group of sanitary experts from the
Another
two months later, the Zentralbauleitung acceded to this demand, and in January
1943, the work was completed. By the autumn of 1943, all barracks had running
water.
According
to a new plan traced in May 1942 - it was already the fourth one! - Majdanek
was to be subdivided into eight fields (20).
The
majority of the inmates were Jewish and non-Jewish Polish citizens. From spring
1942, large numbers of short-term prisoners were sent to the camp. They were
called 'zakladnicy,' hostages. These 'hostages' were civilians arrested in
retaliation to armed attacks committed by the Resistance against German
soldiers. Usually, they were released after a couple of weeks. They were rarely
forced to work.
In
addition to Jewish and non-Jewish Poles, numerous Jews from
As
the
As
the conditions in Majdanek were worse than in any other German concentration
camp, non-Polish prisoners eagerly volunteered for these transports whereas
Poles were usually reluctant to leave their country.
Majdanek
counted six sub-camps, the most important one being the 'Konzentrationslager
Warschau' set up after the Ghetto uprising in spring 1943 (22).
Towards
the end of its existence, Majdanek once more changed its character. It became a
kind of 'hospital camp' to which sick prisoners from numerous other camps were
transferred. When the Red army entered the outskirts of
The
history of Majdanek is the history of ambitious plans none of which were ever
realized. The inmates of the camp were to build a town for the SS and their
families, but this SS town remained a castle in the air. A huge working force
consisting of 150,000 prisoners was to supply the German Wehrmacht with a
constant flow of war material, but the number of the inmates never exceeded
23,000, and as Polish historian Anna Wisniewska has calculated on the basis of
the extant German documents, more than two thirds of the work done by the
prisoners were spent on the building of the camp itself (23).
The
never-completed camp of Majdanek remained a huge and ugly torso which
disfigures the southern outskirts of
Even today, shuddering visitors look at towering piles of shoes
which the propaganda depicts as having belonged to murdered inmates. In
reality, the Germans had set up a big cobbler workshop on field VI where
worn-out shoes were sent from the Eastern front for repair. This was admitted
by Polish historian Zdzislaw Lukaszkiewicz as early as in 1948
(24).
Number of casualties
As
I already pointed out, orthodox historians unanimously regard Majdanek both as
a labour camp and an extermination center. Let us have a look at the death
figures the different Western authorities claim. How many prisoners died in the
- 1,380,000 according to Lucy
Dawidowicz (25);
- 360,000 according to Lea Rosh and
Eberhard Jäckel (26);
- 250,000 according to Wolfgang
Scheffler (27);
- 200,000 or more according to the West
German tribunal which organised the Düsseldorf Majdanek trial (28).
Some
authors are only interested in the Jewish victims, as if Polish, Russian and
other non-Jewish prisoners who succumbed to the harsh conditions at Majdanek
were too unimportant to deserve any attention. Thus, Aharon Weiss puts the
number of Jewish victims at between 125,000 and 200,000 (29), Martin Gilbert at
125,000 (30), Raul Hilberg at 50,000 (31).
Of
course, none of these historians has bothered to prove the accuracy of his or
her figures scientifically. They either took one of the contradictory Soviet
and Polish figures, which they in some cases modified according to their
personal taste, or arbitrarily invented new figures. So much for the scientific
level of Western 'Holocaust' scholarship.
When
the Soviets liberated Majdanek in July 1944, they claimed that 1,7 million
prisoners had met their death in the camp (32). During the
According
to him, 60% of the victims had died from disease and starvation, 25% had been
killed in gas chambers, whereas the remaining 15% had been killed by other
methods (shooting, hanging, poisoning etc.) (34).
Being
exclusively based on eyewitness testimony and extrapolations, Lukaszkiewicz's
figures are devoid of any scientific value. In 1981, Jozef Marszalek, the then
director of the
One
single example will amply suffice to illustrate the dishonest methods resorted
to by Marszalek. On page 124 of the English version of his book, he mentions a
secret letter written to Himmler by Oswald Pohl on September 30, 1943, in which
Pohl referred to the mortality rate the concentration camps (37). According to
this letter, 53,309 prisoners had died in all 17 camps together during the
first six months of 1943.
Being
strictly confidential, this letter cannot possible have been written for
propaganda purposes, so we can safely assume that the figures were correct. On
the very same page of his book where he quotes Pohl's letter, Marszalek writes
that during the first nine months of 1943, an average of 300 prisoners died at
Majdanek every day which means that the death toll from the beginning of
January until the end of June must have been 54,000. Consequently, Marszalek's
death figure for Majdanek alone is higher than the documented one for all 17
camps together! So much for the scientific value of Marszalek's book.
Some
years ago, the official figure was reduced again. In 1992, Polish historian
Czeslaw Rajca candidly admitted that the number of the victims had been
inflated for purely political purposes. The real figure, he assured, was about
235,000. Rajca wrote (38): "Owing to the lack of documents about the
dimension of the crimes perpetrated at Majdanek, the only rational way to
ascertain the death figure consists in subtracting from the total number of
prisoners those who were transferred to other places, released or managed to
escape."
According
to the official Polish literature, 45,000 prisoners were transferred to other
camps, 20,000 were released, 1500 succeeded in escaping and another 1500 were
liberated by the Red Army in July 1944 (39). The figure of the transferred
prisoners is largely documented as they were registered in the camps they were
sent to. Although the Polish literature does not disclose on what documents the
figure of 20,000 inmates released by the Germans is based, I accept it because
I cannot see any possible motive to exaggerate it for political reasons.
On
the contrary, it is a cogent argument against the extermination theory: every
released prisoner would either have personally witnessed mass murders or at
least heard about them from his fellow-inmates.
In
other words, the Polish historians tell us that the same Germans who were so
eager to hush up the mass gassings that they never issued a single written
gassing order were stupid enough to release 20,000 witnesses of their
atrocities so that they could tell the whole world what they had seen or heard!
Rajca's
assertion that altogether 300,000 prisoners were sent to Majdanek is totally
unfounded. His source is an article written by Polish historian Zofia
Leszczynska in 1991 in which she states that a minimum of 275,000 prisoners had
been deported to Majdanek, but that the real figure was "much higher"
(40).
As
she does not specify what "much higher" means, Rajca arbitrarily
fixes the number at 300,000. Z. Leszczynskas article appeared in a book about
Majdanek where altogether 816 transports to the camp are listed. In 414 cases,
the exact figure of the incoming prisoners is mentioned; the total is 81,500.
For the remaining 402 transports no figures are indicated at all (41).
A
look at Z. Leszczynskas sources reveals that they are only to a small extent
corroborated by documents; most of them are based on eyewitness testimony which
means that they are next to worthless.
For
example, the fantastically high figures of Russians and Ukrainians allegedly
sent to Majdanek are almost exclusively based on reports of the resistance
movement during the war. Of course, the resistance movement had every reason to
inflate the number of prisoners in order to make the German occupation look
even grimmer than in actually was.
In
spite of the fragmentary character of the documentation which survived the war,
it is possible to determine the death figure quite accurately on the basis of
altogether eight documents: 1) The Totenbuch for the months from May to
September 1942. 2) The 'Totenmeldung für die Effektenkammer' for some days
in autumn 1942. 3) The list of prisoners deceased in November and December
1942. 4) The 'Stärkemeldung' (force of the camp) for some days in 1942. 5)
A register of prisoners deceased in October 1943. 6) The Totenbuch for March
and April 1943. 7) The
Between
October and December 1941, about 700 prisoners died at Majdanek. In 1942, the
approximate figure was 17,244, in 1943, 22,339 and between January and July
1944, 1,900. The relatively low figure for 1944 is largely due to the fact that
the Germans started evacuating the camp already in the beginning of the year -
which, by the way, did not prevent them from still transferring new prisoners
to Majdanek, especially sick ones who were unable to work.
Had
they really pursued an extermination policy, they would surely have disposed of
these sick people in their respective camps rather than bothering to send them
to Majdanek. Altogether, about 42,200 prisoners perished in the
Diseases,
especially spotted typhus, but also tuberculosis and dysentery, were the main
cause of the extremely high mortality rate at Majdanek. These diseases were
above all provoked by the atrocious sanitary conditions; as I have pointed out
before, the barracks did not have running water before autumn 1943. This made
any efficient struggle against the typhus-bearing lice and other vermin
impossible. The harsh and often inhuman working conditions - especially during
the first phase, the one of the construction of the camp - also claimed
countless lives.
According
to Pohl's letter to Himmler, which was later presented in
In
the same month, not a single prisoner died in the camp of Hertogenbosch in
The Gas Chambers
On
August 4, l944, two weeks after the liberation of Majdanek, a mixed
Polish-Soviet commission started investigating the occurrences at the
On
the 23 of August, the commission had finished its work and submitted a report
to the Polish and Soviet authorities. This fascinating document, which Mattogno
and I unearthed in the archives of the
The Crematoria
In
June 1942, the 'old crematorium' was set in operation. It consisted of two
mobile Kori ovens which were heated with oil and had been brought to Majdanek
from Sachsenhausen. SS-Oberscharführer Erich Mussfeldt, who was in charge
of this crematorium, stated in Polish captivity that the two ovens were put out
of operation already in November 1943 owing to a serious fuel shortage.
According to Mussfeldt, the corpses of the inmates who had died in the camp
between November 1942 and January 1944 where first buried and later dug out and
burned in a nearby forest (43).
However,
according to a report written by SS-Hauptsturmführer Krone, a sanitary
expert who inspected Majdanek in January 1943, the ovens were still used in that
month (44).
The
new crematorium was set in operation as late as in January 1944, the exact date
being unknown. It contained five Kori ovens heated with coke. The maximum
capacity of one oven was 20 corpses per day, but the gentlemen of the
Polish-Soviet commission had the impudence to claim that no less than 600,000
corpses had been incinerated in these 5 ovens during the six months of their
existence!
With
hare-brained arguments, the commission evaluated the daily capacity of this
crematorium at 1920 corpses, which was over 19 times higher than the real
figure. By the way, the commission members must have been very poor
mathematicians indeed: Even if the ovens had possessed the fantastic capacity
ascribed to them, they could only have disposed of about 350,000 corpses and
not 600,000 as the commission claimed.
The
Polish-Soviet commission found six homicidal gas chambers at Majdanek. Later, a
seventh gas chambers was conveniently discovered in the building of the new
crematorium. Jean-Claude Pressac sarcastically states :
The
vice-director of the museum has written to this author that this gas chamber
was used 'little, but really very, very little', which means that it was not
used at all. The fiction is maintained in order not to hurt the popular
superstition that every crematorium must have contained a gas chamber ... If
prisoners had been murdered with Zyklon-B in that room, its location within the
building, between an autopsy room, a corridor and the morgue, would have made
an artificial ventilation imperative, but there is not the faintest trace
proving that such a ventilation ever existed. In case of a natural ventilation
by the draught, it would have been necessary to evacuate the whole crematorium
for a period of time difficult to estimate." (45)
I'd
like to add that there are no blue spots whatsoever on the walls of this
ridiculous 'gas chamber' the existence of which the Polish-Soviet commission
had failed to notice.
According
to the Polish-Soviet commission, two of the six homicidal gas chambers had been
located in a barrack. The Polish historians who pretend to believe in the
existence of these gas chambers do not even know their location! So much for
these two chemical slaughterhouses.
The
four remaining gas chambers are more interesting. All of them are located in
barrack 41 near the present entrance of the camp. Barrack 41, which housed a
bath and a delousing chamber, is the first building the tourists visit.
Gas
chamber number one measures 17,1 m2. According to the official version, the
unfortunate inmates of this gas chambers were murdered with carbon monoxide or
with Zyklon-B. As there are no blue spots on the walls, Zyklon-B was certainly
never used here.
Two
large steel bottles allegedly containing carbon monoxide are stored in a small
adjacent room from which the "gas chamber" could be observed through
a small window. The carbon monoxide is said to have been introduced through a
perforated steel pipe which leads from the adjacent room into the gas chamber.
However, both steel bottles wear the inscription CO2.
It
is generally known that carbon dioxide is not lethal, so the whole thing is a
rather primitive swindle. My friend Carlo Mattogno conjectures that the
"gas chambers" was actually a storing room for weapons or ammunitions
which was supervised by a guard through the window in the adjacent room.
Gas
chamber number two equally measures 17,1 m2. The blue coloration of the walls
proves the use of Zyklon-B in this room.
There
is an opening in the ceiling through which the Zyklon pellets were allegedly
poured into the gas chambers. This opening is already mentioned in the report
of the Polish-Soviet commission which was written between the 4 and the 23 of
August.
Immediately
after the liberation of the camp, Soviet reporter Constantin Simonov visited
Majdanek. He interviewed former prisoners and meticulously described the
localities baptised 'homicidal gas chambers'. Simonov also visited barrack 42
which contained a delousing chamber. Unfortunately, this barrack is closed and
inaccessible to visitors.
Neither
Simonov nor anybody else has ever claimed that human beings were gassed there.
In his booklet The extermination camp,"which he wrote immediately after
his visit, Simonov mentions openings in the ceiling of the delousing chamber
through which the Zyklon-B was introduced (46). By the way, such openings would
not even have been necessary in a delousing chamber as the pellets could simply
have been laid on the floor.
Had
there been any openings in the ceilings of the so-called homicidal gas
chambers, Simonov, who was a keen observer, would certainly have noticed and
mentioned them, but he doesn't. According to him, the gas was introduced from
the neighbouring room through steel pipes running along the walls of the gas
chambers 30 cm above the floor.
He
states: "The naked people who were standing close to each other did not
occupy much space ... They were herded in the chamber, whereupon the steel door
was closed ... A special unit protected by gas masks poured
the Zyklon contained in the cans into the pipes ... The Zyklon was
introduced through the pipes, and the SS-man in charge of the killing
supervised the process of asphyxiation." (47)
This
passage is tremendously important. As I have pointed out, Simonov talked to the
liberated inmates of the camp before the Polish-Soviet commission was even
formed. The ex-prisoners didn't tell Simonov that they had seen an SS-man
pouring the Zyklon pellets into the gas chambers through openings in the
ceiling. They told him that the gas was introduced through pipes. Of course,
everybody familiar with the use of the world's most famous insecticide
immediately understands that this procedure was technically impossible. In
other words: The prisoners had never witnessed a gassing.
Among
the members of the Polish-Soviet commission, which established the official
version of the gassings a couple of weeks later there were professors of
chemistry and engineering. It goes without saying that these qualified
scientists and technicians knew exactly how Zyklon-B was used and were not
silly enough to repeat the naive fairy tale non-scientist Simonov had been
imprudent enough to tell his readers.
Consequently,
the commission hastily ordered openings to be made in the ceilings of the rooms
christened homicidal "gas chambers." Unfortunately, they forgot to
order this in case of gas chamber number three, a room measuring 35,2 m2 which
undoubtedly served as a delousing chambers, as the blue coloration of the walls
attests. The Polish historians claim that the Germans threw the Zyklon-B
pellets on the heads of the inmates before closing the steel door. Jean-Claude
Pressac comments:
"It is frankly unrealistic to
imagine an SS-man with a gas mask and a can of Zyklon-B in his hand throwing
the pellets into a space of 30 cm between the heads of the victims and the
ceiling - the pellets might have fallen on the floor in front of the gas
chamber - and subsequently trying to slam the door without the doomed inmates
making a desperate attempt to break out." (48)
Revisionists
could not have said it better.
The
fourth and last gas chamber, which is situated immediately beside the bath,
measures 107,7 m2. Its walls have an intense blue coloration. There are two
round openings in the ceiling.
I
vividly recall on our second visit to that gas chamber on 27 June last year. A
class of German schoolchildren was attentively listening to their teacher who
explained how the unfortunate Jews met their ghastly fate in this gas chamber.
Not one of the children, let alone the teacher, noticed the presence of a large
window in this very room. Now, the first thing the inmates of the gas chamber
would have done was to break the window.
The
possible objection that the window might not yet have existed during the war is
at once refuted by the fact that the wooden sill is covered by blue spots which
means that the window was already there when the Zyklon-B was used. The only
possible conclusion is that this room did indeed serve as a gas chamber but
only for lice and fleas - exactly as it is testified by the surviving German
documents according to which all gas chambers served for de-infesting purposes
and for nothing else.
The
experience with the German school children was very depressing indeed. It
dramatically shows to what extent otherwise reasonable human beings can be
stultified by cunning propaganda and to what extent our logical reasoning can
be obscured by pseudo-religious creeds. The "holocaust" myth, which
cannot possible be defended by logical arguments, can only survive as a religion.
The Jews have understood this. Their answer to the Rudolf Report was Schindlers
List.
The origin of the homicidal gas chamber story
As
the rooms called 'gas chambers' by the court historians could not have served
for the mass gassing of human beings, which means that no mass gassings ever
took place there, we will now endeavour to establish how the gas chamber story
originated.
Popular
superstition has it that the Nazi concentration camps were strictly isolated
places and that everything going on in these camps was a state secret. This is
generally not true, and in the case of Majdanek, it is simply utter rubbish.
The perpetual transfer of prisoners to other camps, the remarkably high number
of inmates released (20,000 according to official Polish sources!), the immediate
vicinity of a big city and the permanent presence of civil workers - all this
made it radically impossible to conceal what was happening within the camp.
After
Since
the concentration camps set up by the Germans were of special interest to both
the government in exile and the resistance fighters, many of the reports sent
to
In
1973, Polish historians Krystyna Marczewska and Wladyslaw Wazniewski published
a long article containing the reports about Majdanek the Delegatura transmitted
to
The first mention of a gas chamber occurred in a short report
dating from December 15, 1942 and consisted of one single phrase: "A gas
chamber and a crematorium are in operation."
One
would assume that the appearance of such an outlandish and fiendish murder
weapon would create an outpour of indignation, but strangely enough the
Delegatura contented itself with this one laconic sentence. For the next five months, the gas chamber was never alluded
to again in the no less than 25 reports the Delegatura wrote about Majdanek
between December 15, 1942, and May 7, 1943.
Especially
noteworthy was an extremely long, detailed and highly
accurate description of the
Now,
the gassings are said to have started in September or October 1942. For the
reasons already stated, it would have totally unthinkable to conceal such a
crime for more than a few days.
Of
course, all of you are familiar with Arthur Butz's legendary utterance: "I
see no elephant in my basement. If there were an elephant in my basement, I
would certainly see it. Therefore, there is no elephant in my basement."
It would have impossible to conceal mass gassings at Majdanek.
The Delegatura, which was exceedingly well informed about the camp, didn't talk
mass gassings at Majdanek during the first seven months of there alleged
existence (except for the laconic and inconclusive reference to "a gas
chamber" in the report dated December 15, 1920). Therefore,
no mass gassings occurred at Majdanek!
On May 7, 1943, the gassing propaganda started as a psychological
weapon against the Germans, and the gas chambers were
regularly mentioned in the subsequent Delegatura reports. Neither the location
of the gas chambers nor the killing process were ever described in any detail.
The
first detailed description of Majdanek as an extermination center was published
by one Abraham Silberschein, a Geneva-based Jew, in the first half of 1944
(50). According to him, no less than two million people had been slaughtered in
the
After
the liberation of the camp, the Polish-Soviet commission accused the Germans of
having murdered 1,7 million people at Majdanek, gassing having been one of the
most commonly used killing methods. To substantiate this terrible accusation,
the commission quoted exactly four German prisoners (who were later executed
after a Stalinist-type show trial) and nine former inmates of the camp!
These
witnesses testified to 19 gassing actions with somewhat over 4000 victims. With
one exception (Theo Schölen), they always spoke of "the gas
chamber" in the singular. None of them ever located the position of the
gas chamber, none of them mentioned carbon monoxide or Zyklon-B as the murder
weapon. Obviously, the witnesses did not know exactly what they were supposed
to tell. The commission had undoubtedly interviewed more than 9 former
prisoners, but evidently the statements of the other ones were even more
inconclusive so the commission did not even bother to quote them.
SS-Rottenführer
Theo Schölen confessed:
"I know that people were
systematically being killed in the gas chambers [plural]. Prisoners under my
command told me that they had themselves witnessed the choking of over 150
children in the gas chamber [singular]."
So the SS had learned about the gassings from the prisoners!
The
last two chapters, 'Erntefest' and 'Conclusion', will follow.
References
1)
Josef Gideon Burg, Majdanek in alle Ewigkeit?, Ederer Verlag,
2)
Leuchter, Fred A., An Engineering Report on the alleged Execution Gas Chambers at
Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek, Poland, Fred A. Leuchter, Associates, Boston
1988.
3)
Pressac, Jean-Claude, Les carences et incohérences du rapport Leuchter,
Journal J, December 1988.
4)
Jürgen Graf and Carlo Mattogno, KL Majdanek. Eine historische und
technische Studie, Castle Hill Publishers,
5)
GARF (Gosudarstvenni Archiv Rossiskoi Federatsii),
6)
Arno Meyer, Der Krieg als Kreuzzug,
7)
R-129.
8)
NO-1523.
9)
PS-1469.
10)
Richard Lucas, The forgotten holocaust. The Poles under German occupation, The
University Press of Kentucky,
11)
NO-3031.
12)
APMM (Archivum Panstwowiego Muzeum na Majdanku), Zentralbauleitung, 120.
13)
APMM, Zentralbauleitung, 120.
14)
Jozef Marszalek, Geneza i poczatki budowy obozu koncentracyjnego na Majdanku,
in: Zeszyty Majdanka, I, 1965, p. 22.
15)
ibidem, p. 33.
16)
WAPL (Wojewodzkie Archiwum Panstwowe w Lublinie), Zentralbauleitung, 145, p.
14.
17)
J. Marszalek, "Geneza...", p. 50, 51.
18)
J. Marszalek, "Geneza...", p. 46-48.
19)
J. Marszalek, Budowa obozu na Majdanku w latach 1942-1944, in: Zeszyty
Majdanka, IV, 1969, p. 70, 71.
20)
J. Marszalek, Budowa..., p. 22.
21)
Zofia Leszczynska, Transporty wiezniow z obozu na Majdanku, in: Zeszyty
Majdanku, X, 1980, p. 118-134.
22)
Czeslaw Rajca, Podobozy Majdanka, in: T. Mencel, "Majdanek
1941-1944", Wydawnictwo Lubelskie,
23)
Anna Wisniewska, Praca wiezniow, in: T. Mencel, "Majdanek...", p.
186.
24)
Zdislaw Lukaszkiewicz, 'Oboz koncentracyjny i zaglady Majdanek', in: Biuletyn
Glownej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce, Vol. IV,
25)
Lucy Dawidowicz, The War against the Jews 1933-1945, Pelican Books, 1979, p.
191.
26)
Lea Rosh and Eberhard Jäckel, Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland,
Hoffmann und Campe, 1991, p. 217.
27)
Wolfgang Scheffler, Judenverfolgung im Dritten Reich, Colloquium Verlag,
28)
Landgericht Düsseldorf, 'Urteil Hackmann u.a.. XVII 1/75', Band I, p. 90.
29)
Aharon Weiss, 'Categories of Camps', in: The Nazi concentration camps.
Proceeding of the fourth Yad Vashem International Historical Conference,
30)
Martin Gilbert,
31)
Raul Hilberg, Die Vernichtung der europäischen Juden, S. Fischer Verlag,
Frankfurt/M. 1990, Volume II, p. 956.
32)
The figure was taken up by a Polish court which sentenced 5 Germans to death in
December 1944. Anklageschrift gegen Hermann Vogel und andere, 26. Oktober 1944.
Archivum Panstwowego Muzeum na Majdanku, sygn. XX-1, p. 100.
33)
IMT VII, p. 648.
34)
Zdzislaw Lukaszkiewicz, 'Oboz koncentracijyny i zaglady Majdanek', in: Biuletyn
Glownej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce, Vol. IV (1948), p.
63-105.
35)
Jozef Marszalek, Majdanek. Oboz koncentracyjny w Lublinie, 1981.
36)
Jozef Marszalek, Majdanek. The Concentration Camp in
37)
PS-1467.
38)
Czeslaw Rajca, 'Problem liczby ofiar w obozie na Majdanku', in: Zeszyty
Majdanka XIV, 1992, p.127.
39)
Anna Wisniewska and Czeslaw Rajca, Majdanek. Lubelski oboz koncentracyjny,
Panstwowe Muzeum na Majdanku,
40)
Zofia Leszczynska, 'Transporty i stany liczbowe obozu', in: Tadeusz Mencel,
Majdanek 1941-1944, Wydawnictwo Lubelskie,
41)
T. Mencel, Majdanek..., p. 437-454.
42)
GARF, 7021-107-9, p. 229-243.
43)
Anna Zmijewska-Wisniewska, 'Zeznania szefa krematorium Ericha Muhsfeldta na
temat bylego obozu koncentracyjnego w Lublinie (Majdanek)', in: Zesyty Majdanka
I, 1965.
44)
APMM, mikr. Nr. 816, P. 9, 10.
45)
Jean-Claude Pressac, Les carences..., p. IX.
46)
47)
ibidem.
48)
Pressac, Les carences..., p. VIII, IX.
49)
Krystyna Marczewska and Wladyslaw Wazniewski, 'Oboz koncentracyjny na Majdanku
w swietle akt Delegatury Rzadu na Kraj', in: Zeszyty Majdanka, VII, 1973, p.
164-241.
50)
Abraham Silberschein, Die Judenausrottung in Polen, Fünfte Serie, Genf
1944.
51)
GARF, 7021-107-9, p. 311a - 313a.
Copyright ©1998
Adelaide Institute
Reproduced by
permission