HOLOCAUST FAQ: The "Leuchter Report" (2/2)
The Nizkor Project
Last-modified: 1999/12/23
The Leuchter Report: A Layman's Guide
Holocaust Denial & The Big Lie (Part Two)
2.06 Doors of Gas Chambers Too Weak to Prevent Escape.....11
2.07 They Would Not Have Used Zyklon-B for Gassing........11
2.08 The gas chambers were never sealed, or...............12
2.09 The gas would have killed everyone outside when
ventilated...........................................14
2.10 Where did all the ashes from the cremations go.......14
2.11 People who dropped the gas into the gas chamber would
have been killed by it...............................15
2.12 The Auschwitz death list doesn't show all those
people were killed...................................15
2.13 Why would there be a swimming pool at a death camp...15
2.14 The high water table made it impossible to burn
bodies in ditches....................................15
2.15 How did witnesses to the gassings survive............16
2.16 Toxicity of fumes from a diesel engine...............18
2.17 There were not enough Jews in Europe to account for
six million victims..................................18
2.18 The "myth" of the Holocaust was created solely for
the financial benefit of Israel......................20
3.00 Leuchter's credibility.................................21
3.10 Leuchter's perjury in Canadian court...................21
3.20 Leuchter's credibility among American prison admins....24
4.00 Research Sources & Other Useful Appendices.............24
4.10 Recommended Reading..................................25
4.20 Abbreviations Used in Citations......................25
4.30 Glossary.............................................25
4.40 Works Cited..........................................25
[Leuchter] [Page 11]
2.06 Doors of Gas Chambers Too Weak to Prevent Escape
Holocaust denial asserts that the doors of the "alleged" gas chambers
were much too weak to withstand the pressure of people trying to
escape death from inside the chambers.
Since none of the Kremas remained in their original state (Bunker I &
II and Kremas II,III,IV and V destroyed, and Krema I modified) there
is no physical evidence as to what the doors of the extermination gas
chambers looked like. However, a door which probably belonged to an
extermination gas chamber was discovered in the camp's building yard;
it is massive, and reinforced with iron bars. Furthermore, the small
peephole is protected from the inside with a strong metal grid,
probably installed so the victims would not break the glass in the
peephole.
Those making this claim present pictures of doors for the delousing
chambers, which were not fortified, presumably on the assumption that
viewers are too inept to notice the switch. For a photograph of a
door probably used in an extermination gas chamber, see Pressac
(486). (Get pub/holocaust/gifs/aukdoor.gif)
2.07 They would not have used Zyklon-B for gassing
Holocaust denial often claims that if the Nazis had intended to kill
people by lethal gassing, they would have used something other than
Zyklon B.
Zyklon-B was in use at Auschwitz as a delousing agent, and was thus
readily available. The Nazis had experience in its safe use as well,
which made it even more attractive.
In addition, Zyklon B was easy to ship and to store, which also
made it attractive to the SS, who ordered enough of it, as Ho"ss
pointed out in his testimony, to kill two million people.
Yitzhak Arad mentions Christian Wirth's rejection of Zyklon-B
for use in exterminations: Wirth developed his own ideas on the
basis of the experiences he had gained in the Euthanasia
program. Thus, in Belzec he decided to supply the fixed gas
chamber with gas produced by the internal-combustion engine of a
motorcar. [He] rejected Cyanide B which was later used at
Auschwitz. This gas was produced by private firms and its
extensive use in Belzec might have aroused suspicion and led to
problems of supply. He therefore preferred a system of
extermination based on ordinary, universally available gasoline
and diesel fuel. (YVS XVI, 211)
In a letter requesting for a truck to bring Zyklon-B to Auschwitz,
the standard camouflage term "resettlement of Jews" is used to refer
to extermination. Another such document asks for "material for
special treatment" - another term used to disguise extermination
(Get ~/gifs/resett.gif; also Pressac, 557. For more examples of
the camouflage terms noted, see file of original Nazi documents).
[Leuchter] [Page 12]
Radio message 13 SS Garrison Radio Station Auschwitz Origin WVHA
[SS economic administration head office]
Received 2nd October 1942 in the Kommandantur of Auschwitz
Concentration camp
The movement authorization for one 5 Ton truck with trailer to
Dessau and back in order to pick up material for the
resettlement of the Jews, is hereby accorded.
The authorization is to be given to the driver.
Liebehenschel
SS Lieutenant Colonel
Permanent representative of the head
of the service with the rank of Waffen SS
Lieutenant General
For file
Head of the radio station
When camp adjutant R. Mulka was asked by Judge Hofmeyer what
"material for the resettlement of the Jews" meant, he answered "well,
sure. Zyklon-B" (The Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt, 11 Sep. 1964).
2.08 The gas chambers were never sealed... or there was no provision
to exhaust the gas from them... or there was no way for the
guards to release the pellets into them, or....
As stated earlier, the extermination chambers were dynamited by the
SS when they deserted the camp. There is therefore no direct
evidence of what they looked like when they were in operation other
than a few photographs taken by the Allies and the SS during the war
(See Brugioni; Get ~/gifs/krema3.gif for view of Krema III taken
during the war, from the air). The construction plans do include the
air extraction systems, as one readily sees (in krema3.gif and
others) and the air extraction system is mentioned in many documents.
Some of the ventilation openings are still visible in the ruins of
the gas chambers. The plans even include the shower heads that were
placed in the gas chamber to mislead the victims (Get ~/gifs/ auplan.gif).
It is a sad reflection on Leuchter's integrity and ability to use
logic to see that he admits the Kremas were demolished, yet continues
to claim he can deduce from their current state how they looked in
1944, before they were blown up! The following is a verbatim excerpt
from his cross-examination by Mr. Pearson, in the Zundel trial:
[Leuchter] [Page 13]
Q. Crematoria III has been demolished.
A. Um, there are still parts of Crematoruim III there, but for
the most part, the roof of the alleged gas chamber has crumbled
and is all lying in bits and pieces in the basement of what would
have been the alleged gas chamber.
Q. So, it's no longer subterranean?
A. That's correct. There's a hole in the ground.
Q. With respect to the gas chambers at Crematorium IV and V,
those are totally demolished.
A. With the exception of the foundation, yes.
Q. So, all that was there for you to examine was the foundation
of the building. Is that right?
A. That is correct.
Leuchter admits that the roof of the gas chamber of Krema III was all
blown up and collapsed, and that Krema IV and V are gone except for
the foundation! As for Krema II, his testimony is also intriguing:
Q. So, the gas chamber facility itself is presently underground?
A. Parts of it are and parts aren't.
Q. All right. And the parts that are underground, I take it that
the roof is no longer whole; is that right?
A. Um, one of the roofs is broken into several pieces but it's
essentially whole.
Q. It's broken in several pieces but it's essentially whole?
A. I mean it's not fragmented.
Q. How many pieces?
A. Three, I believe. I say that only to indicate that it's not
fragmented. There are large slabs left of the roof.
Q. Right. And it's collapsed.
A. It's dropped several feet. It's partially collapsed.
Q. Is there dirt over it? Is it subterranean?
A. In some places there are dirt over it and some places there's
no dirt.
[Leuchter] [Page 14]
Q. All right. And that's with respect to Crematorium II?
A. That's correct.
Even more incredible is to see what Leuchter writes in his report:
"Evidence as to Krema function is non-existent since Krema's I
oven has been completely rebuilt, Kremas II and III are partially
destroyed with components missing, and Kremas IV and V are gone".
"Are gone"! Yet, he can still conjecture about how they functioned
before being destroyed...
The pictures of the gas chambers in their current state appear in
Pressac. They are totally demolished and there is no way a
reasonable person would claim to be able to conclude anything about
how they functioned before they were destroyed.
Leuchter further ridicules himself by stating that the gas chambers
were never sealed and that using cyanide gas inside them would be
dangerous. But, he admits that the gas was used in them (for delousing
purposes, as he claims). This is absurd, of course; if they were not
sealed, introducing the gas into them would be dangerous no matter what
the purpose was. This obvious contradiction alone is reason enough to
discard the "Leuchter report".
2.09 If the gas chambers were ventilated, the gas would kill people
outside.
Nonsense; it is all a question of concentration. Once the gas is
released into the atmosphere, its concentration drops and it is no
longer dangerous. Also, HCN dissipates quickly. The execution gas
chambers in US prisons are also ventilated directly into the
atmosphere. Furthermore, if this argument would hold for the
extermination chambers, it would hold for the delousing chambers as
well, and one would have to conclude that no delousing chambers
existed either.
2.10 If so many people were actually killed and cremated, where is
all the ash?
After a person is cremated, quite a small amount of ash remains - it
fits in a small urn, or a box. This means that ashes of thousands of
people fit into one truck. The ash was either scattered around in
fields, buried, or - in Auschwitz, for instance - dumped into a
river.
[Leuchter] [Page 15]
2.11 The people who dropped the Zyklon-B into the chambers would have
died from the gas themselves.
Utter nonsense. Like those who used the Zyklon-B in the delousing
chambers, the SS men who carried out the gassings utilized gas masks.
(The mind boggles at the realization that a "gas chamber expert" could
not figure this out.)
2.12 The death lists from Auschwitz do not show that any people were
gassed, and point to a smaller number of victims.
This is because those lists refer only to those who where assigned
serial numbers. The majority of people transferred to the camp were
classified as "unfit for work" and gassed immediately. This fact is
noted, for instance, in a report written by top SS officer
Franke-Gricksch to Himmler (Get pub/camps/auschwitz/gricksch.rpt;
& ~/auschwitz.faq1, which discusses the registration process). These
people were not registered anywhere, and no one recorded their names.
(Testimony of Polish prisoner Aloiz Oskar Kleta, Shelly, p. 284;
Fertig, 12; Fleming, 174. Also, see testimony of Henryk Tauber,
Pressac, page 488, as to how the SS routinely burned documents
regarding the number of victims.
2.13 There was a swimming pool in Auschwitz, hence it could not have
been an extermination camp.
Indeed, a water reservoir in Auschwitz I (the main camp) was
converted to a swimming pool which was used by the camp's staff.
Other means of entertainment for the SS personnel existed - a band
composed of prisoners, and a brothel (which some prisoners were
permitted to use). How this "proves" that Auschwitz was not an
extermination center is beyond the author of this text.
2.14 Much of the area of Auschwitz has a high water table, therefore
corpses could not be burned in ditches.
There are pictures of these ditches with corpses burning in them
(See pub/holocaust/gifs for available photographs) . During
the period in which Auschwitz was active, the SS had the area
drained; as can be seen today, the drainage, which has not been
maintained since 1945, has deteriorated and the water level had
risen. Furthermore, the ditches were not used all the time, but only
when there were not enough furnaces to cremate the victims or during
the extermination of the Hungarian Jews, when so many people were
murdered daily that the furnaces could not handle the amount of
corpses. The "incineration ditches" are known to have been active in
October-November 1942 and the summer of 1944, which do not coincide
with the period the snow melts and the water level rises.
[Leuchter] [Page 16]
2.15: How come eye witnesses to the gassings survived? Why didn't
the Nazis kill them?
The answer is rather simple - the SS did kill almost all of them.
After the war, for instance, there were about 70 survivors from
Treblinka (more than 700,000 victims, see also file with excerpts
from ruling of German courts - get pub/camps/aktion.reinhard/reinhard.faq1
and ~/reinhard.faq2). These survivors escaped from the camp,
mostly during the rebellion they carried out. Same for Auschwitz:
nearly all the members of the "Special Commando" who saw the gassings
and had to carry out and cremate the victims, were killed by the SS,
but a small number of them escaped, mostly during the rebellion of
October 1944. Another factor is the fact that in the end of the war
Auschwitz was in total chaos - the Soviets were approaching fast, and
they even bombed the camp. Thus there was no time to kill all the
occupants, and some were transferred to camps within Germany. Many
of them died in those forced "death marches".
2.16: Fumes from a diesel engine are not toxic enough to kill
people. (This claim is made with regard to the death camp of
Treblinka - see file with ruling of German courts on this. In
other death camps, gasoline engines were used. The method of
killing was simple - people were crammed into the gas chambers,
and the exhaust of powerful engines was pumped into them).
Nonsense. In a closed chamber, of course diesel fumes will kill.
There was actually a study on this, and its results are reported in
"The Toxicity of Fumes from a diesel Engine Under Four Different
Running Conditions", by Pattle et al., British Journal of Industrial
Medicine, 1957, Vol 14, p. 47-55. These researchers ran a few
experiments in which various animals were exposed to diesel fumes,
and studied the results.
In the experiments, the exhaust of a small diesel engine (568 cc, 6
BHP) was connected to a chamber 10 cubic meters (340 cubic feet) in
volume, and the animals were put inside it. In all cases, the
animals died. Death was swifter when the intake of air to the engine
was restricted, as this causes a large increase in the amount of
carbon monoxide (CO) that is emitted. (See, for instance, "diesel
Engine Reference Book", by Lilly, 1985, p. 18/8, where it is stated
that at a high air/fuel ratio the concentration of CO is only a few
parts per million but for lower ratios (25:1) the concentration of CO
can rise up to 3,000 ppm. It is very easy to restrict the air intake
- the British researchers did so by partially covering the air intake
opening with a piece of metal.)
Even in cases where the CO output was low, the animals still died
from other toxic components - mainly irritants and nitrogen dioxide.
Now, the diesel engines used in Treblinka were much larger - they
belonged to captured Soviet T-34 tanks. These tanks weighed 26-31
tons (depending on the model) and had a 500 BHP engine (compared to a
[Leuchter] [Page 17]
mere 6 BHP in the British experiments). The volume of the
extermination chambers in Treblinka is, of course, a factor. But the
chambers' volume was about 60 cubic meters (2040 cubic feet); this is
6 times more than those in the British experiments, but the
difference in the size of the engines is much larger than a factor of
6.
It should be remembered that what matters in CO poisoning is not the
concentration of CO, but the ratio of CO to oxygen. In a small,
gas-tight room, crammed full of people, oxygen levels drop quickly,
thus making death by CO poisoning faster. As noted, other toxic
components in the fumes further accelerate mortality.
The SS was aware of the fact that cramming as many people as possible
into the gas chamber, thus leaving no empty spaces, would accelerate
mortality. This is evident, for instance, from a letter regarding
"gassing vans" (used in the Chelmno extermination camp and other
locations) sent to SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Walter Rauff, 5 June 1942.
The letter is quite long (more of it is reproduced in the file of
original Nazi documents), but here is the relevant part (Nazism,
document 913).
"2) The vans are normally loaded with 9-10 people per square meter.
With the large Saurer special vans this is not possible because
although they do not become overloaded their maneuverability is much
impaired. A reduction in the load area appears desirable. It can be
achieved by reducing the size of the van by c. 1 meter. The
difficulty referred to cannot be overcome by reducing the size of the
load. For a reduction in the numbers will necessitate longer period
of operation because the free spaces will have to be filled with CO.
By contrast, a smaller load area which is completely full requires a
much shorter period of operation since there are no free spaces."
Another gruesome testimony to the "science of gassing" developed by
the SS is the letter from Dr August Becker to SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer
Rauff, 16 May 1942 (Nazi Conspiracy, 418)
The application of the gas is not undertaken correctly. In
order to come to an end as fast as possible, the driver presses
the accelerator to the fullest extent. By doing that the
persons to be executed suffer death from suffocation and not
death by dozing off as was planned. My directions have now
proved that by correct adjustment of the levers death comes
faster and the prisoners fall asleep peacefully. Distorted
faces and excretions, such as could be seen before, are no
longer noticed.
[Leuchter] [Page 18]
Additional information was published to several UseNet newsgroups in
November of 1993, in which smul...@ecn.purdue.edu quotes Holtz (see
Recommended Reading section) and Elliot. A quick scan of the data
clearly shows the difference in oxygen and carbon monoxide levels
found in diesel exhaust under different fuel-air mixture conditions:
Exhaust gas composition of a diesel engine, running at the correct
fuel-air ratios (% by volume):
O2: 1.5%
CO2: 13.5%
CO: 0.5%
Exhaust gas composition of a diesel engine running at a fuel-air
ratio of 0.094 (% by volume):
O2: 0.3%
CO2: 10.2%
CO: 6.0%
The data clearly demonstrates that simply restricting the air intake
of the engine, any diesel engine will produce sufficient CO to be
clearly and rapidly fatal (6% CO represents roughly 60,000 ppm). This
data (Holtz & Elliot) appeared in "Transactions of the ASME" in early
1941, and was probably known to the Nazis.
Mr. Mullins has also published an article to UseNet which deals with
Berg's "The Diesel Gas Chambers: Myth Within a Myth," (Get pub/
orgs/american/ihr/jhr/jhr.v5n1), and which demonstrates not only how
diesel engines can quickly produce highly toxic levels of gasses,
but which uses Berg's own references to do so. (Get
pub/orgs/american/ihr/diesel.001 for the full article.)
2.17 There were not enough Jews in Europe to account for the number
of 6 million victims
This claim is ridiculous, as attested to by all population statistics
of that time, including the numbers of Jews appearing in many
original Nazi documents... for instance:
Extracts from the minutes of the Wannsee conference, January 20 1942,
regarding the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" [Trials of War
Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals - Washington, U.S
Govt. Print. Off., 1949-1953., Vol. XIII, p. 210]
---------------------------------------------------------------
[...]
II. At the beginning of the meeting the Chief of the Security
Police and the SD, SS Lieutenant General Heydrich, reported his
appointment by the Reich Marshal [Goering] to service as
Commissioner for the preparation of the Final Solution of the
European Jewish Problem....
[Leuchter] [Page 19]
In the course of this final solution of the European Jewish
Problem, approximately 11 million Jews are involved. They are
distributed among individual countries as follows:
A. Original Reich Territory [Altreich] 131,800
Austria 43,700
Eastern territories 420,000
Government General [Nazi occupied Poland] 2,284,000
..
..
..
The Netherlands 160,800
..
..
Rumania, including Bessarabia 342,000
..
..
Hungary 742,800
USSR 5,000,000
..
..
White Russia, excluding Bialystok 446,484
[Many countries deleted for brevity]
TOTAL over 11,000,000
Under proper direction the Jews should now in the course of the
Final Solution be brought to the East in a suitable way for use as
labor. In big labor gangs, with separation of the sexes, the Jews
capable of work are brought to these areas and employed in road
building, in which task undoubtedly a great part will fall out
through natural diminution.
The remnant that finally is able to survive all this - since this
is undoubtedly the part with the strongest resistance - must be
treated accordingly since these people, representing a natural
selection, are to be regarded as the germ cell of a new Jewish
development. (See the experience of history).
In the program of the practical execution of the Final Solution,
Europe is combed through from the West to the East.
The claims often made by Holocaust deniers about emigration of Jews
after the war are preposterous. For instance, there were 370,000
Jews in Palestine in 1937, and 600,000 in 1948. The numbers arrived
at by the Anglo-American committee for studying the Holocaust are the
following:
[Leuchter] [Page 20]
(Conclusions of the Anglo-American committee for studying the Nazi
genocide inflicted on the Jews of Europe, with exact breakdown,
country by country.)
Numbers of missing Jews (post-war minus pre-war):
Germany - 195,000
Austria - 53,000
Czechoslovakia - 255,000
Denmark - 1,500
France - 140,000
Belgium - 57,000
Luxemburg - 3,000
Norway - 1,000
Holland - 120,000
Italy - 20,000
Jugoslavia - 64,000
Greece - 64,000
Bulgaria - 5,000
Rumania - 530,000
Hungary - 200,000
Poland - 3,271,000
USSR - 1,050,000
Less dispersed refugees (308,000)
Total number of Jews that were exterminated = 5,721,500
-------------------------------------------------------
Some estimates are lower, and some are higher, but these are the
magnitudes in question. Recent evidence shows that the number of
ex-USSR victims was actually underestimated.
About 6 million non-Jewish civilians were killed by the Nazis -
mostly in Poland and Yugoslavia.
2.18 The "myth" of the Holocaust was created solely for
the financial benefit of Israel
Holocaust denial often asserts that the sole reason that the
"Holocaust hoax" has been promulgated was that it created a financial
windfall for the State of Israel. Deborah Lipstadt provides this
information in "Denying the Holocaust":
"Israeli officials detailed their claims against Germany in their
communique of March 1951 to the Four Powers, and this document became
the official basis for the reparations agreement. It contained an
explanation of Israel's means of calculating the size of the
reparations claim. In the communique Israeli officials explained that
Nazi persecution had stimulated 'a second Jewish exodus' of close to
five hundred thousand. Based on the size of this exodus, Israel
determined the amount of the reparations it would request:
[Leuchter] [Page 21]
The government of Israel is not in a position to obtain and
present a complete statement of all Jewish property taken or
looted by the Germans, and said to total more than $6 thousand
million. It can only compute its claim on the basis of total
expenditures already made and the expenditure still needed for
the integration of Jewish immigrants from Nazi-dominated
countries. The number of these immigrants is estimated at some
500,000, which means a total expenditure of $1.5 thousand
million.
It seems hardly necessary to point out that since the money the state
received by based on the cost of resettling _survivors_, had Israel
wanted to increase the amount of reparations it obtained from Germany
it would have been in its interest to argue that fewer than six
million had been killed and that more had managed to flee to Israel."
(Lipstadt, 57)
3.00 Leuchter's "credibility," or rather, his lack of same.
3.10 Leuchter's claims during his Zundel testimony, and the reality
of his perjury, Leuchter's admission that he is not an engineer
(in American court), court order to quit publishing "reports"
which claim engineering expertise.. (For an extensive examination
of Leuchter's reception as an "expert witness" in a Canadian
court, get pub/people/l/lipstadt.deborah/lipstadt.005. For the
Washington Post article discussing the Leuchter Consent Decree,
in which he admitted that he was not an engineer, and agreed to stop
disseminating 'reports' which identified him as such, get
pub/people/l/leuchter.fred/washington-post.0691.)
In his article of January 11, (Spotlight, "Major Historical Fact
Uncovered," January 11, 1993), Foner discusses the Canadian trial of
Ernst Zundel, and tells us...
Zundel went looking for an expert on executions, particularly
gassings. He found Leuchter, who specializes in the design and
fabrication of execution hardware used in prisons throughout the
United States. (Foner, 3)
Although Leuchter is touted by Neo-Nazi publications and Holocaust
deniers as an "expert," Mr. Leuchter's own testimony at the Zundel
trial made it clear that he was neither an expert nor a credible
witness.
The following is taken from Leuchter's testimony at the Zundel trial
(Douglas Christie, Zundel's attorney is the questioner) - following
the testimony are verbatim quotes from two American prison officials,
which were obtained after Leuchter's testimony at the trial. We
believe you will have no difficulty in determining the value of Mr.
Leuchter's credentials after considering both:
Q: And what is your relationship with the operation of those
facilities [i.e. gas chambers] in those two States [California
and North Carolina]?
A: We consulted with both States, California primarily on a heart
monitoring system to replace the older type mechanical diagraph
stethoscope that's presently in use. We will be shipping to them
shortly and installing a new heart monitor for both chairs in
their gas chamber.
[Leuchter] [Page 22]
Q: You are consulted by the State, I understand?
A: Yes, Juan Vasquez.
Q: I see. And in North Carolina?
A: North Carolina. My discussions and work was with one Nathan
Reise, and he had some work done by their maintenance personnel on
their gas chamber two years ago, and they had a problem with the
gasket on a door leaking. At which point, we discussed it with
him and recommended remedial procedures to change the gas chamber.
Q: And he consults you in regard to those matters?
A: He does.
What do those two facilities have to say about the matter? First,
the warden at San Quentin (California) responds:
"I can inform you, however, that San Quentin has not contracted
with Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. for the installation of a heart
monitoring system or for any other work." Signed: DANIEL B.
Vasquez, Warden (California)
Next, we offer the comments from North Carolina prison officials:
"I discussed your request with Mr. Nathan A. RICE, Former
Warden, and he stated that he vaguely recalled a telephone
conversation between him and a gentleman professing to be an
expert on execution chambers. Mr. Rice further states that the
gentleman called him for the purpose of selling a lethal injection
machine...
Also, our records do not support that Mr. Leuchter performed
either consulting or any service...I can attest that the planning
and work was performed by the Department of Correction Engineering
Section and our institution maintenance department." Signed: Gary
T. Dixon, Warden (North Carolina)
We discover, then, that neither California nor North Carolina have
consulted with Leuchter regarding their gas chambers. Leuchter was
incapable of even getting the names of the wardens right, and clearly
lying about his "professional" relationships with them.
The only other state with which Leuchter has alleged consulted
regarding gas chambers is Missouri. Yet, even thought Leuchter has
allegedly "designed" a gas chamber for the state, we have to take his
word for it since that gas chamber was never built nor installed and,
in fact, Missouri does not have an operational gas chamber to this
day even though Leuchter had allegedly designed one for them over 4
years ago. We would like to hear from anyone who has contacted
authorities in the State of Missouri regarding this matter.
[Leuchter] [Page 23]
An article in the Washington Post sheds additional light upon
Leuchter's legal problems, and his status as an engineer:
BOSTON, June 17 - Fred A. Leuchter Jr., a self-styled expert in
the machinery of death who parlayed his reputation as a builder
of killing equipment into a second career as a proponent of
"Holocaust revisionism," has admitted that he is not an
engineer.
Made in a consent decree filed with a Massachusetts court last
week, his admission should deal a blow to the movement holding
that the Nazi extermination of 6 million Jews and others during
World War II was a hoax or an exaggeration, according to experts
in the field.
Leuchter, 48, of suburban Malden, was to face trial later this
month on charges of practicing engineering without a license, a
violation of Massachusetts law. But on June 11, he signed a
consent agreement with the board that licenses engineers.
In it, Leuchter acknowledged that, "I am not and have never been
registered as a professional engineer" and that he nevertheless
had represented himself as an engineer in dealings with various
states that use the death penalty and to which he supplied
equipment or advice.
The agreement also requires Leuchter to stop disseminating
reports in which he purports to be an engineer, most
significantly a document known as the "Leuchter Report."
That report, widely circulated by revisionists, asserts that gas
chambers at Nazi concentration camps in Auschwitz, Birkenau and
Majdanek could not have been used for mass killings because they
were not big enough nor well ventilated or sealed. The
assertion is based largely on chemical analysis of materials
scraped surreptitiously from walls of those chambers by Leuchter
during a visit to Poland in February 1988.
Sally Greenberg, an attorney with the Anti-Defamation League of
B'nai B'rith in Boston, which was instrumental in bringing
Leuchter to the attention of Massachusetts authorities, welcomed
the settlement.
"It's a blow to Holocaust revisionism because he has been the
guru of the revisionists," she said. "Now, he has as much as
admitted that he is not qualified as an engineer to comment on
the 'myth' of the Holocaust. It's essentially an admission that
he's the charlatan and phony that we always knew he was."
("Holocaust Revisionist Admits He Is Not Engineer." The
Washington Post. Get pub/people/l/leuchter.fred/leuchter.02 for
the complete text.)
[Leuchter] [Page 24]
3.20 Leuchter's "credibility," or rather, his lack of same, among
American prison administrators
On July 20,1990, Alabama Assistant Attorney General Ed Carnes
sent a memo to all capital-punishment states questioning
Leuchter's credentials and credibility. Carnes stated that not
only were Leuchter's views on the gas-chamber process
'unorthodox' but that he was running a shakedown scheme. If a
state refused to use his services, Leuchter would testify at the
last minute on behalf of the inmate, claiming that the state's
gas chamber might malfunction. <Memorandum from Ed Carnes,
Alabama Assistant Attorney General, to all Capital Punishment
States July 20,1990; Shapiro 'Truth Prevails' pp. 17 and 21;
Newsweek, Oct. 22, 1990, p. 64; Swampscott Journal, Nov. 1,
1990.> According to Carnes, Leuchter made 'money on both sides
of the fence.' <Associated Press, October 24, 1990>. Describing
Leuchter's behavior in Virginia, Florida, and Alabama, Carnes
observed that in less than thirty days Leuchter had testified in
three states that their electric-chair technology was too old
and unreliable to be used. In Florida and Virginia the federal
courts had rejected Leuchter's testimony as unreliable. In
Florida the court had found that Leuchter had 'misquoted the
statements' contained in an important affidavit and had
'inaccurately surmised' a crucial premise of his conclusion
<Carnes, Op.Cit., 2>. In Virginia, Leuchter provided a
death-row inmate's attorney with an affidavit claiming the
electric chair would fail. The Virginia court decided the
credibility of Leuchter's affidavit was limited because Leuchter
was "the refused contractor who bid to replace the electrodes in
the Virginia chair <Shapiro, "Truth Prevails, 22>." (Lipstadt,
170)
4.0 Research Materials & Sources
Vera Laska provided an extensive list of assets for those interested
in Holocaust research, which was included in the Auschwitz FAQ. I
recommend it as an excellent starting point for anyone wishing to do
serious research into the Reinhard camps. (Get pub/camps/auschwitz
/auschwitz.faq2)
In addition, you may obtain our 25-part Holocaust bibliography by
using the Nizkor Web, http://www.nizkor.org. You'll find them
in http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/bibliographies and
http://www.nizkor.org/bibliographics, which provides links to reviews
and information about how to order books.
[Leuchter] [Page 25]
4.1 Recommended Reading
A German language version of this FAQ is now available at
URL http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/l/leuchter.fred/leuchter.faq.de.
For those wishing to learn more about the extermination facilities at
Auschwitz-Birkenau, we suggest that you begin with our two-part
Guide, by reading AUSCHWITZ AUSCHWITZ.FAQ1 and AUSCHWITZ.FAQ2,
which contains a comprehensive list of sources. The Auschwitz
FAQs are available on the World Wide Web at URL
http://www.nizkor.org/faqs/auschwitz/
A wide range of educational material, including videotape, lesson
plans, books and other teaching material is available via
http://www.nizkor.org/bibliographies/ssss.shtml.
"Cyanide Toxicity". Agency for Toxic Substances and
Disease Registry, U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services.
in _American Family Physician_, Vol. 48, no 1, July 1993.
Elkins, Hervey B. The Chemistry of Toxicology. New York: John
Wiley and Sons Ltd. 2nd (c) 1959
Two recent (September, 1995) articles in UseNet's
alt.revisionism provide extensive documentation regarding
spurious claims made by deniers. These articles, by
Brian Harmon, may be retrieved as:
http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/camps/auschwitz/cyanide/hcn-spurious-claims
Mr. Harmon's articles provide specific citations from the
two references to cyanide toxicology noted above.
Markiewicz, Jan, et. al. A Study of the Cyanide Compounds
Content in the Walls of the Gas Chambers in the Former
Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps. Cracow: Institute of
Forensic Research, 1994.
(http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/orgs/polish/institute-for-forensic-research/)
Meeussen, Johannes C. et. al. "Dissolution Behavior of Iron Cyanide
(Prussian Blue) in Contaminated Soils." Environmental Science and
Technology. 1992, 26, pp 1832-1838
Reitlinger, Gerald. _The Final Solution: The Attempt to
Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945_. (South
Brunswick, New Jersey) c 1961.
Truth Prevails: Demolishing Holocaust Denial, published by the Beate
Klarsfeld foundation and Holocaust Survivors and Friends. ISBN
1-879437-00-7.
Denying the Holocaust. Deborah Lipstadt provides extensive discussion
relating to Leuchter's lack of expertise or credentials - see Work
Cited.
The Holocaust archives are available via anonymous ftp, from
ftp.nizkor.org, and via the World Wide Web, at www.nizkor.org.
Because of the ease with which Web browsers retrieve software,
reaching the archives via the Web is the preferred means of
access.
4.2 Abbreviations Used in Citations
(For a list of abbreviations which may have been used in this
document, Get pub/camps/auschwitz/reference.term.)
4.3 Glossary
Krema: a unit containing a homicidal gas chamber and furnaces for
disposing of the bodies. Auschwitz had five such installations.
See http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/camps/auschwitz for images.
4.4 Works Cited
Borkin, Joseph. The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farbin. London &
New York: Collier Macmillan Publishers (London) and The Free Press,
a division of Macmillan Publishing, 1978.
Brugioni, Dino A., and Robert G. Poirier. The Holocaust Revisited:
A Retrospective Analysis of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination
Complex. (Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C.) February
1979.
The paper includes aerial photographs of the Auschwitz-Birkenau
complex in operation during WWII. A summary of their analysis is
included in the paper. These photos corroborate eyewitness
accounts/Nazi documentation on camp operations.
[Leuchter] [Page 26]
You can obtain a copy from the US gov't through the following
sources:
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22161
or:
Photoduplication Service
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C. 20540
Use the report number(#st 79-10001) and the document number
(NTISUBE28002) to speed service along. The document # is
particularly important.
Feig, Konnilyn G. Hitler's Death Camps. LOC D810.J4 F36, 1981
Foner, Samuel P. "Major Historical Fact Uncovered" SPOTLIGHT Vol.
XIX, Number 2, January 11, 1993)
Hilberg, Raul. Commandant of Auschwitz (London: Weidenfeld and
Nicholson, 1959)
Klarsfeld, Serge. The Holocaust and Neo-Nazi Mythomania, as quoted
in Feig.
Shelly, "Secretaries of Death", Edited and Translated by Lore Shelly,
Shengold Publishers INC., NY 1986
Fertig, Howard. The History of KL-Auschwitz. New York: 1982
Fleming, Gerald. Hitler and the Final Solution. University of
California Press, 1984
Lipstadt, Deborah. Denying The Holocaust. New York: Macmillan, 1993.
Toronto: Maxwell MacMillan Canada. ISBN: 0-02-919235-8
Merck Index. Ninth Edition, 1976.
Mueller, Filip. "Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas
Chambers", as cited by both Feig and Hilberg. Museum w Oswiecimu.
"KL Auschwitz seen by the SS Hoess, Broad, Kremer," 2nd. ed., 1978
Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Vol. III. Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946
Nazism: A History in Documents and Eye Witness Accounts, Vol.2
Pressac, J.C. Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas
Chambers. New York: Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1989
[Leuchter] [Page 27]
"Holocaust Revisionist Admits He Is Not Engineer." The Washington Post,
June 18, 1991, FINAL Edition. Christopher B. Daly
YVS XVI. Yad Vashem Studies, XVI. "Operation Reinhard":
Extermination Camps of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka.
Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1984
(Online at http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/orgs/israeli/yad-vashem/)
--
The Nizkor Project - An electronic Holocaust educational resource
http://www.nizkor.org/faqs
--
The Nizkor Project - An electronic Holocaust educational resource
David Irving vrs. Deborah Lipstadt & Penguin Books Ltd: Judgment
http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/i/irving-david/judgment-00-00.html
http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/i/irving.david/libel.suit