Felderer on Anne Frank
Sergey Romanov
I want to refer to it in my article but I need to know the exact
source. Does anybody know it?
Gassen
No doubt you seek it out for your own sexual satisfaction?
Try reading "My master holds the whip just so", it's an AR classic.
Ron Jacobson
Ross Cummins "Gassen Burnham <gasenb...@dodo.com.au>" wrote:
(snip)
Cummins also asserts that Germans are liars, and that
they have fabricated the stories about the bombing of their
cities during WW2:
"The salient point, Ronnie, is that we, being well adapted
persons of the world, freely admit these patently outrageous
stories wrt Dresden, were pure wartime propaganda." -- Ross
Cummins, in a post to the alt.revisionism forum, 2004-03-18
06:30:59 PST.
RJ.
Sergey Romanov
Kurt Knoll
Did Six Million Really Die?
Ditlieb Felderer
[Ditlieb Felderer was the first witness called by the defence. He
testified on
March 2, 3, 4 and 7, 1988.]
Ditlieb Felderer, 46, first met Zündel in 1979. Both had an interest in
what
Felderer defined as the "extermination theory," the belief that during
the
Second World War, in Poland, millions of people had been exterminated in
gas
chambers. (18-4225)
Felderer's interest in the subject had been aroused during his years as
a
researcher for the Jehovah's Witness publication Awake!, during which
time he
prepared a research paper for the Witnesses' governing body on the
history of
the Jehovah's Witnesses during World War II. Members of the sect were
incarcerated in virtually every camp in Nazi Germany during the war and
also in
such countries as Canada because they refused to bear arms. (18-4225 to
4229)
In the beginning, the Jehovah's Witnesses claimed that 60,000 of their
members were
killed in the Nazi concentration camps. Felderer's research on the
question,
which took him to the headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses in New
York, as
well as to archives in Toronto, Switzerland and Scandinavian countries,
convinced him that the actual number was far lower, and that only about
200
Jehovah's Witnesses were killed. Felderer's research put him on a
collision
course with the sect; the leadership in New York warned members that
they were
not allowed to speak to him. In a subsequent Yearbook published by the
Jehovah's
Witnesses, however, they conceded that only 203 people were killed
during the
war. Felderer had told Zündel about this research. (18-4226 to 4229;
4645)
In 1976, Felderer received an English language edition of the booklet
Did Six
Million Really Die? by Richard Harwood from an anonymous sender.
Felderer, who
was Swedish, could also read Danish, Norwegian, German, French and
English. As a
result of reading the booklet, he decided to delve into the issue and
visit all
of the camps that he possibly could. (18-4230, 4231)
Felderer subsequently published a Swedish language edition of Did Six
Million
Really Die? in 1977. Under Swedish law, he was required to submit the
booklet to
the Attorney General's department, which had a special department where
publications were scanned to determine whether they were lawful. No
complaint or
prosecution was ever brought against Felderer for the booklet. It was
mailed to
all major newspapers in Sweden and schools and was still available in
Sweden
today. (18-4233) In total, he distributed about 10,000 copies in
Swedish.
(19-4620; Dog Verkligen Sex Miljoner? entered as Exhibit 74, 18-4231)
Felderer had never found anything substantially wrong with Did Six
Million
Really Die?. He testified that, to the contrary, it had proven to be
more true
as the years progressed. In 1974, when the booklet was first published,
it was
believed there was a Hitler order. Did Six Million Really Die? was the
first
publication Felderer saw which claimed otherwise. The exterminationists
had now
moved to a position closer to that of the booklet. (19-4601)
After publishing the booklet, Felderer saw a book produced by a Jewish
group in
South Africa which he believed was the only book ever published to
attempt to
refute Did Six Million Really Die?. Felderer pointed out that he had
mailed his
material to historians in Sweden with the request that if they found any
error
in the material, they should let him know. He did not for a moment
believe any
book to be perfect. Each book had its faults and mistakes, but it was
not for
him, as a publisher, to start cutting out views and ideas. It was up to
the
purchaser of the material to find out the truth. (19-4618, 4619)
Asked if he was part of some conspiracy to rehabilitate Nazism and
Hitler,
Felderer stated that Nazism was dead and a past issue, and that it was
pure
fantasy for someone who even nurtured that viewpoint. He felt history
should be
a non political matter where each individual, without threat of having
authorities stopping their research, could research freely and in that
way come
to the truth. (19 4620, 4621)
The first camp Felderer visited was Dachau in West Germany. He discussed
this
visit with Zündel, as he regarded Dachau as an essential element in
understanding exterminationism. He pointed out that in
exterminationalist
literature published between 1947 and the Frankfurt trial in 1964, the
focus for
the gas chamber allegation was Dachau. Later, the focus switched to
Poland.
(18-4234)
At Dachau, Felderer investigated the entire area, looking at the
crematories and
the alleged gas chamber. While claims were once made that over 200,000
people
died at Dachau, the sign at the camp today indicated that no one was
gassed
there; they had been "sent away." Felderer questioned why the "stupid
Germans"
would ship people around in the midst of a war to be executed when they
already
had a place to execute them in Dachau. The Dachau authorities, when
asked about
this, replied that nobody had ever asked them that question before.
(18-4235)
To prepare himself for his visits to the camps in Poland, Felderer
interviewed
people who had been in the camps, asking about smells, locations and
buildings;
he studied books such as those by Raul Hilberg and Gerald Reitlinger.
(18-4236,
4237) Felderer made a special note of the people who wrote
exterminationist
literature and asked the guards at the camps in Poland whether any of
them had
done research there. He had pictures, for instance of Raul Hilberg, in
order to
ask guards if they recognized him and whether he had ever been there.
The guards
replied that they had never seen the man. For Felderer, it confirmed an
essential point, that the exterminationists did not do any real
research.
(18-4238)
He corresponded with such people as German historians Wolfgang
Scheffler, Martin
Broszat and the staffs at Yad Vashem and the Encyclopaedia Judaica, the
Red
Cross, major academics in Poland, and historians in the Soviet Union.
(18-4239,
4240)
In Poland, Felderer visited all of the alleged extermination camps:
Chelmno,
Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor, Auschwitz, Birkenau, Gross-Rosen, Stutthof,
and
Majdanek. He took photographs of the camps and interviewed people who
lived in
the area. On the whole, he made at least thirty trips to Birkenau and
Auschwitz.
Felderer later showed to Zündel the photographs and tapes of interviews
he had
made with such people as Dr. Szymanski, the Director of Artifacts of
Auschwitz.
(18-4243, 4244, 4451)
Felderer got to be on speaking terms with the administration of the
Auschwitz
Museum. He believed that many doors were opened to him because the
Polish
officials believed his Filipino wife was Vietnamese. They invited him to
see
their libraries, archives and the special buildings where they kept
artifacts
which were not open to the public. (18-4243, 4245)
These people included Dr. Szymanski, Kazimierz Smolen, then Director of
Auschwitz, Piper, Director of Artifacts, and Madame Danuta Czech, the
head historian of Auschwitz. (18-4246,
4247)
The Auschwitz Museum also had an extensive library which included the
revisionist writings of Dr. Arthur Butz, Thies Christophersen and
Felderer
himself. (18-4247)
The Auschwitz officials showed Felderer original material including what
was
alleged to be the handwritten material of former Auschwitz commandant
Rudolf
Hoess. Felderer noted that this writing was in pencil with no errors or
corrections. He asked one of the Auschwitz historians, Mr. Tadeusz
Iwaszko, if
the Museum had the original draft made by Hoess with his corrections.
Iwaszko
checked with the Director of the Museum, who in turn had to check with
Mr.
Pilichowski, the person in charge of the General Commission for
Investigating
Nazi Crimes in Warsaw. Felderer discussed this incident with Zündel; it
showed
the necessity of obtaining original source material, since documents
could
easily be falsified or altered. (18 4247, 4248, 4249)
Felderer later published his book Auschwitz Exit (Exhibit 75), a book
which he
gave to Zündel in 1979 when Zündel and Felderer were planning to go to
Poland
together. (19-4515)
He also made available to Zündel an extensive bibliography
which he prepared on the subject. (19- 4519, Exhibit 76). Felderer and
Zündel
made both video and audio cassettes together on the subject, (18-4251)
including
the video Genocide by Propaganda. (19-4569)
Felderer showed to the jury a series of about 300 slides made in the
Nazi
concentration camps in Poland which he had shown to Zündel. The slides
were
taken using Nikon and Pentax cameras and primarily three types of film.
Infrared
film was also used in order to detect alterations that might have been
made in
buildings. Overall, Felderer took some 30,000 slides of the various
camps he
visited during the years 1978 to 1980. (18-4252 to 4254, 20-4633; slides
entered
as Exhibits 80 to 84, 19-4558).
Aerial photographs of Auschwitz:Aerial photographs taken of Auschwitz by
the Americans during the war were released by the CIA in 1979 in a book
entitled The Holocaust Revisited: A
Retrospective Analysis of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Complex.
Using
slides of these photographs, Felderer pointed out to the jury the main
buildings
in the camp, including the electrified fence, the alleged gas chamber,
Commandant Hoess's house, the administration buildings, the swimming
pool, the hospital block, the gynecological block (as children were born
at Auschwitz),
the SS hospital, blocks where inmates learned a trade such as sewing and
the two
largest buildings in the camp, the kitchen, and the theatre. (18-4255 to
4259)
Close-up slides of the aerial photographs indicated that the alleged gas
chamber
in Auschwitz I was about 30 metres from the SS hospital building.
(18-4260)
Felderer was told by people in the town of Auschwitz that during the war
people
could obtain special permission to take tours of the camp on special
days.
(18-4323; The Holocaust Revisited entered as Exhibit 85, 19-4605)
Auschwitz I Map:
A map taken from a book by former Auschwitz inmate Maximillian Kobler
was, to
Felderer's knowledge, the only map of the camp to indicate the theatre
as a
theatre, and to label the alleged gas chamber, not as a gas chamber, but
as a
crematory, which, in Felderer's opinion, it actually was. (18-4263)
Auschwitz I Kitchen:
The kitchen in Auschwitz I, one of the largest buildings in the camp,
had twelve
chimneys and included a dietary section, a bakery and a butchery. The
kitchen
also had flush toilets which were unknown to that part of Europe at the
time.
Soviet soldiers who captured the camps thought they were places to wash
their
hands because they had never seen flush toilets before. Felderer told
Zündel
that it didn't make sense that one of the biggest buildings in an
alleged
extermination camp was a kitchen. (18-4267, 4268)
Auschwitz I Theatre and Orchestra:
The theatre in Auschwitz I was used by the inmates to put on plays and
contained
a stage and musical instruments. Felderer decided to investigate the
large
building after an Auschwitz tour guide told him the building was
unimportant and
was only used by the Germans to put garbage into. Museum officials Piper
and
Czech later confirmed to Felderer that the building was used as a
theatre during
the war. Survivor accounts such as Fania Fenelon's Playing for Time also
spoke
of the Auschwitz orchestra. A large blow-up of a photograph of the
orchestra
playing during the war was displayed at the Auschwitz Museum at the main
entrance. Felderer also showed a slide of a Ukrainian choir singing in
what
Felderer believed was the theatre building. The photograph was taken
from the
Dürrfeld file of the United States Archives. Dürrfeld, who had worked at
Monowitz, was later charged with war crimes and entered the photographs
in his
defence.1 (18-4270 to 4273)
Auschwitz I Swimming Pool:
The swimming pool at Auschwitz I was located inside the electrified
fence and
measured 25 metres long, 6 metres wide, and 3 metres deep. Slides
depicted the
two starting blocks, the mount for the springboard and the showers.
Piper told
Felderer that the pool had been used to rehabilitate inmate patients and
as
recreation. There was never any denial by the Auschwitz Museum
administration
that the pool was there during the war and aerial photographs taken by
the
Allies confirmed its existence. Felderer requested Auschwitz officials
to
provide him with the blueprints of the pool but without success. Some
literature
of Holocaust survivors referred to this swimming pool and how it was
used for
water polo. One such survivor who had written about the pool was a
person named
Kreuz. (18-4258, 4275 to 4278; 20-4713)
Inmates were sometimes also allowed to swim in the nearby Sola River.
Felderer
obtained this information from interviews with Jehovah's Witnesses who
had been
interned in the camp and from "survivor" accounts. (18-4264)
Auschwitz Cinema:
At Auschwitz today tourists were shown documentary films taken by the
Soviets at
the liberation of the camp in the same room where inmates had watched
films
during the war. Piper told Felderer that the seats in the cinema were
identical
to those used by the inmates. (19-4413)
Auschwitz I Brothel:
Just inside the main gate of Auschwitz was a building used during the
war as a
brothel for the inmates. It was not a secret that the camp had a
brothel; it was
mentioned in books and its existence was confirmed by the Auschwitz
Museum
officials. Felderer first heard about the brothel during his work for
the
Jehovah's Witnesses. Today, the building housed the museum's archives
and
library. Felderer joked with Piper, whose office was in the building,
about how
it felt to work in a brothel. Piper had blushed and laughed about it.
(18-4266,
4267)
Auschwitz I Crematory and Alleged Gas Chamber:
Felderer was assured by museum officials that nothing had been altered
in
Auschwitz since its capture by the Soviets at the end of the war.
(18-4280,
4281) Tourists on guided tours of the camp were also told that what they
saw was
exactly the way it had been at the time of liberation. (19-4474)
However,
comparisons of photographs of the gas chamber exterior taken after
liberation
and of the gas chamber as it appeared when Felderer was there indicated
that
alterations had been made. Piper explained that since many visitors to
Auschwitz
could not read, alterations were made to help them "understand" the
crimes.
(18-4280, 4281)
The alleged gas chamber was located next to the SS Hospital building and
the
Gestapo buildings. There were two entrances to the alleged gas chamber.
(18-4279) The first door, which had a peephole in it, opened into a
small
vestibule. Anyone looking through the peephole did not see into the
alleged gas
chamber, but saw only a concrete wall approximately one and a half
metres away.
(18-4294, 4299) Felderer testified that the peephole had significance in
exterminationist literature because the Nazis were supposed to have
watched with
great pleasure as the people died. (18-4295)
The doors to the alleged gas chamber were not iron or airtight as was
also
claimed in exterminationist literature. The doors were made of wood with
simple
handles and locks. One door had a pane of thin glass in it. (18-4295,
4296) Both
doors opened inward. Felderer pointed out that the exterminationist
literature
described people rushing to the doors in an attempt to escape death, and
piling
up to the ceiling. He questioned how the Nazis could have opened the
doors after
each gassing when they opened inward - the pile of corpses would have
prevented
it. "It was to me not a very ingenious way of building and making a
door," said
Felderer. (18-4296, 4297)
Felderer asked Auschwitz Museum officials why people about to be gassed
inside
the room never broke the glass in the door to get out. The usual answer
was that
no one had ever asked them those types of questions before. To Felderer,
these
things indicated that the room was not one where millions of people were
gassed.
(18-4296)
Slides of the vents on the roof of the alleged gas chamber, through
which the
Zyklon B was allegedly thrown, showed them to be very shoddily made
wooden
contraptions. (18-4282) Photographs of these four vents from the inside
of the
alleged gas chamber indicated very rough workmanship; the reinforcement
iron
bars in the concrete roof were clearly visible in some slides. Felderer
testified that this shoddiness flew in the face of exterminationist
literature
which insisted that these vents were scientifically devised airtight
openings.
When asked about the vents, Piper later conceded that they were made
around
1947. (18-4290, 4291)
There were no shower heads in the alleged gas chamber at Auschwitz
although it
was claimed that the gas in most instances entered through shower heads.
(18-4287) There were drainage openings, however, which seemed to
indicate that
two toilets were once located in the room. (18-4289) Infrared film
showed that
there were once several partitions in the room. (18- 4299, 4300)
Felderer
received blueprints from the Auschwitz officials which showed how the
building
looked at different stages. In the beginning, it had actually been a
crematory
with two furnaces and a morgue. After Birkenau was completed, cremations
were
carried out at the crematories in that camp while the crematory at
Auschwitz I
was converted into a hospital shelter in the case of an air raid.
Partition
walls were put up in the morgue (the alleged gas chamber) to create four
small
rooms, one of which was a surgery room. (19-4354, 4355)
In a room adjoining the alleged gas chamber was the crematory, which
today
contained two furnaces. There was no door in the doorway between the two
rooms.
(18-4288, 4302) Felderer discovered that the huge, free-standing chimney
presently located beside the alleged gas chamber and the crematory was
not
connected by any smoke channel to the crematory. Mr. Szymanski later
told
Felderer that the fake chimney was placed there for symbolic reasons.
(18-4283)
Piper also admitted that the furnaces presently in the crematory were
placed
there in 1947, also for symbolic reasons. Felderer discovered that the
location
of the original furnaces and the real smoke channel was across the room.
(18-4308)
Behind the room containing the furnaces were two rooms, one of which
Felderer
believed had been an autopsy room. Every crematory in Germany had an
autopsy
room and such a room was mentioned in survivor testimony such as that of
Dr.
Nyiszli in his book [Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account.] The
officials at
Auschwitz were still not willing, however, to reveal the location of
this room.
(18 4302, 4303)
A slide taken by Felderer of the crematory furnaces showed flowers which
people
placed on the ovens. Felderer told Zündel that the religious aura which
surrounded the whole place was one reason why people did not ask
questions.
Every day tourists would come with bouquets of flowers and candles which
they
placed in the room. Judge Thomas interjected at this point to tell
Felderer that
he really did not need to hear about "the flowers and the religion."
(18-4304)
Felderer showed slides of the "dirty" side of the crematory ovens where
the
ashes were removed, placed in a special parcel and mailed to relatives
if an
address was available. Felderer later saw the tags and the special
parcels in
which the ashes were shipped in a private collection of artifacts kept
at the
Museum. (18-4307)
Museum officials eventually admitted to Felderer that the entire "gas
chamber"
at Auschwitz I was rebuilt in various stages to "help" tourists
understand what
occurred. (18-4298) Felderer concluded that there had never been any gas
chamber
at Auschwitz I and that the building had been nothing more than a
crematory and
morgue, later altered in 1943 to an air-raid shelter with a surgical
room.
Felderer advised Zündel of his conclusions. (19-4356)
The Auschwitz I Black Wall:
The Black Wall at Auschwitz I was allegedly where about 20,000 people
were shot
by the Nazis. Felderer checked the wall and discovered that it was
constructed
of one set of bricks with no indications of bullet holes. (18-4305,
4306)
The wall was located between Blocks 10 and 11 which were used during the
war as
special barracks for the criminals at Auschwitz. Felderer pointed out
that there
were many ordinary criminals in the camp as well as Jehovah's Witnesses
and so
on. (18 4310 to 4312)
At this place also, there was a religious aura. When tourists were taken
to the
Black Wall, the Museum guide asked them to be silent for one minute.
Again, the
tourists placed flowers at the wall which they could buy at the
Auschwitz flower
shop. (18 4312)
Standing Cells:
Felderer showed a series of slides of the so-called standing cells where
the
prisoners allegedly had to stand up in the cell. Tourists, who were
asked to
follow a certain path while looking into the standing cells, would find
that the
windows in the cells became smaller and smaller with less and less
light.
Felderer discovered by going outside the building and around the back
that the
windows had been patched over to make them consecutively smaller to
provide for
this more dramatic effect. (18 4315, 4316)
Auschwitz Museum Private Artifacts:
Felderer was allowed by Dr. Szymanski to view and photograph the private
artifact collection located inside Block 25. (18-4316) This collection
included
crafts made by the inmates while they were recovering from sickness
(18-4320);
sheet music played by the orchestra (18- 4321); posters which were
displayed in
the barracks, warning the inmates that if they did not keep themselves
clean,
they would die. One poster illustrated a large louse with a caption in
German
and Polish warning inmates that "One Louse Means Your Death." This
referred to
the louse which carried typhus. (18-4321, 4322)
Also included in the private collection were gas masks and filters used
by the
Germans while fumigating the camp with Zyklon B. Felderer indicated that
Zyklon
B was sold in Sweden prior to the Second World War as an insecticide to
kill
lice, rats and bugs. In Auschwitz, it was used for the same purpose.
Piper told
Felderer that the camp had copies of the special instructions which the
exterminators followed during the fumigation process, such as how the
gas mask
was to be worn, the complications of the gas and the required airing of
the
room. Felderer was very curious as to why the gas masks and other
related items
were not in the main display at Auschwitz. His conclusion, which he
related to
Zündel, was that when one talked about gassing, one did not want the
people to
realize that there were technical problems involved with it. Instead,
one wanted
to portray to the people that there was really nothing much to it and
that it
could be done very quickly. (18 4317, 4318)
In this private collection, Felderer was astonished to discover that the
cremations carried out at Auschwitz were done in a manner no different
than was
done in Sweden today. The body to be cremated was identified by a
numbered tag
placed on the body before cremation. After cremation, the ashes were
placed in a
plastic bag and the tag tied to the bag. The bag was then placed in an
urn and
either placed in a wooden casket or mailed to next-of-kin. Felderer
showed
slides of the bags, urns and tags held in the private collection. These
were
shown to Felderer and the procedure explained to him by Dr. Szymanski.
(18-4318,
4319)
Inmate Sporting Activities:
Felderer showed a slide of inmates fencing. This photograph was another
which
came from the Dürrfeld records in the American archives. Dürrfeld
believed that
the camp had been a decent place where inmates could, in their free
time, pursue
sports such as fencing, boxing and swimming. To Felderer, the idea that
Auschwitz was also a death camp, as well as a place where sporting
events were
carried on, was ludicrous. (19-4406, 4407)
Auschwitz Mass Grave:
Felderer showed a sign at the only mass grave at Auschwitz, that of 700
prisoners of the camp who died in the last days of the camp's existence
and
those who were beyond recovery and died after the liberation by the
Soviets in
1945. (19-4360)
Monowitz:
Monowitz was located about 6 km. from Auschwitz and was the industrial
complex
where many of the inmates worked. Today, it was Poland's largest
chemical
factory and spewed pollution over the countryside. At times, Auschwitz
was
enveloped in this poison, said Felderer. He noted that Communist
countries such
as Poland had absolutely no pollution controls. (19- 4361, 4362)
Birkenau (Auschwitz II) Aerial Photographs:
Birkenau was located about 3 km. from the mother camp of Auschwitz I.
Using
slides of the CIA aerial photographs taken during the war and a map of
the camp,
Felderer pointed out Kremas II and III (which were the buildings claimed
to be
the gas chambers), the railway line into the camp, the ramp where
prisoners
disembarked, the delousing buildings, the male and female sections of
the camp,
the Sauna, the hospital section, the kitchens, the sports field, and the
sewage
plant. (19-4363 to 4369)
Using the aerial photographs, Felderer explained how the gassing
procedure
allegedly took place. Prisoners arriving by train disembarked at the
ramp, and
were then allegedly selected for either work or immediate gassing. Those
selected for gassing were walked up to the crematory buildings where
both men
and women undressed in a large room below ground. The alleged gassings
took
place in an adjacent room. (19-4370 to 4372)
Felderer refused to speculate on how many prisoners were in the camp
during the
war. The number could only be known, he testified, if the authorities
allowed
access to camp records still kept secret in Moscow. (19-4447)
Birkenau Monuments:
As the tourist entered Birkenau, he went up a road which led to the main
Birkenau monument. On several large stone tablets in front of the
monument were
written, in several languages, the words:
FOUR MILLION PEOPLE SUFFERED AND DIED HERE AT THE HANDS OF THE NAZI
MURDERERS BETWEEN THE YEARS 1940 AND 1945.
Most tourists ended their visit to Birkenau by looking at this monument
and
without making any further inspection of the camp. For the tourist, the
monuments were proof of the mass murders allegedly committed at the
camp.
(19-4403, 4404)
Birkenau Hospital Buildings:
Next to Krema III was the place where the hospital section at Birkenau
had been
located. The hospital buildings were no longer standing today because
around the
1960s (Felderer had been unable to ascertain the exact date) the
buildings
burned down. (19-4405)
Birkenau Delousing Buildings:
Felderer discovered two delousing buildings in Birkenau, which he
testified,
were probably kept secret and off-limits to the public because they
explained
the so called "selection" procedure at the ramp by Dr. Mengele and other
camp
doctors. Males were sent to delouse in a separate building from the
women and
children. (19-4378 to 4381) The selection procedure also involved a
visual
determination of the health of incoming prisoners. It was in the
interest of the
camp authorities not to spread disease. If people were sick and needed
to be
treated, the camp had hospitals. (20-4765 to 4768)
The Auschwitz Museum today did not deny that incoming prisoners were
deloused.
Hair was cut off from both males and females because it harboured lice.
It was
also saved and used for various manufacturing needs during the war.
(19-4381)
Hair on display at Auschwitz today, however, was depicted as being the
hair of
gassed victims. (19-4381, 4382)
Felderer showed a slide of an outside wall of the delousing building in
the
women's camp which indicated a significant blue colour. Felderer was
told by
Auschwitz officials that the blue staining resulted from the use of
Zyklon B.
(19-4383) Felderer believed the colour got on the walls when mattresses
which
had been deloused inside the building were then taken outside for
airing, leaned
against a wall and beaten for a length of time to get any Zyklon B out
of the
material. The powder material which was the inert carrier of the Zyklon
B would
stick to the wall and produce the distinct blue colouration. Felderer
noted that
this blue colour was not found in the alleged gas chamber at Auschwitz
at all.
(19-4383, 4384)
The delousing buildings, which were not open to the public, contained
autoclaves
used to decontaminate materials using steam. (19-4384, 4385) Rooms
inside the
building also indicated blue staining, which Felderer concluded was
authentic
and not simply painted on afterwards. Felderer told Zündel that the
discovery of
the delousing buildings was a tremendous step in their investigation.
The blue
staining was the Zyklon B mark and it was astonishing that this colour
was not
found in the buildings where it was claimed people were gassed to death
using
Zyklon B. (19 4376, 4387, 4388)
Posters on the walls of the delousing building warned inmates that "One
Louse
Means Your Death" and "To be Clean is Your Duty." Felderer testified the
Nazis
were very fearful of lice because they brought great epidemics into the
camps.
(19 4392)
Birkenau Kitchens:
The kitchens were also buildings closed to the public. Auschwitz
officials told
Felderer the kitchens were not accessible to the public to prevent
vandalism and
to preserve the buildings. Slides indicated several extremely large
cooking vats
still inside the buildings. (19-4394)
Birkenau Wash Barracks:
One barrack in each of the women's and men's camps contained wash
facilities,
including running water, for personal hygiene. The walls were decorated
with
paintings of razors, paste and toothbrushes. Signs warned inmates that
to make
the drinking water impure would result in a stiff sentence. Drawings and
sayings
painted on the wall said: "Sun, Air, Water Maintains Your Health."
Felderer told
Zündel that the personal hygiene of the inmates was important not just
for the
inmates but also for the camp administration, since typhus struck both
inmates
and Nazi camp personnel alike. (19-4394, 4395, 4398)
Birkenau Barracks:
Inmates drew sayings and paintings on the walls, including ships, birds,
windmills, a child underneath an umbrella, children playing, a boy going
to
school, a church nestled in a wooded countryside. Felderer testified
that he
never expected to find such drawings in a "death camp." Nobody wanted to
be in
prison; he himself had been in prison and knew what it meant. But the
inmates,
to cheer their life up, decorated the walls. It indicated to Felderer
that their
life was not as severe as they had made it out to be. (19-4400 to 4402)
Birkenau Crematoria (Kremas) and Alleged Gas Chambers:
Felderer was certain that the buildings marked on plans of Auschwitz as
crematories (called Kremas)were indeed used as such. He did not believe
they
were used as gas chambers. (19- 4374) Auschwitz-Birkenau needed
crematories
because the camps were engulfed by extreme epidemics of typhus, caused
primarily
by lice. Epidemics were so severe that at times the authorities
prohibited
people from entering Auschwitz or the surrounding area for a radius of
some 40
km. in efforts to contain the disease. For the same reason, it was
necessary to
dispose of the corpses by cremation. (19-4409, 4410) The crematories
were built
at the same end of the camps as the sewage plants and water purification
plants.
(19-4433, 4434)
Krema II at Birkenau contained five furnaces with three retorts each.
The rooms
below ground alleged to be gas chambers were shown as morgues on the
original
blueprints obtained by Felderer from Auschwitz officials. They required
cool
places to store the corpses, thus the rooms were below ground. (19-4409)
The Auschwitz Museum stated that the victims would go down the stairs
into the
undressing room, undress and wait their turn to be gassed. The actual
gassings
were alleged to have taken place in an adjoining room. The Zyklon B was
said to
have been discharged into the gas chamber through seven holes in the
roof. After
the gassing, the victims were allegedly taken up to the crematory and
burned.
Felderer testified that he told Zündel there were two major problems
with this
account: first, the crematories at Auschwitz were not much different
from those
still used in Sweden which took an hour and a half to two hours to
incinerate a
body. This meant that the bodies of the allegedly gassed would have
piled up
considerably since the furnaces would not have been able to handle the
volume.
Secondly, since Zyklon B was so dangerous to handle, it would have meant
that
the entire staff of the building and those waiting to be gassed would
have been
gassed in any event. Felderer found the whole theory "ridiculous."
(19-4421,
4422)
Felderer examined and measured the roof over the alleged gas chamber at
Krema
II. He found only a natural crack and two holes chiselled into the
concrete with
twisted reinforced steel sticking out. Neither hole was in the position
on the
roof that the Auschwitz authorities alleged they should have been. A
heavy
concrete lid lying by one of the holes did not fit. Felderer believed
the holes
were chiselled out after the war to support the gassing allegation.
(19-4423,
4424) The alleged gas chamber was 70 metres long, 30 metres wide and 2
metres 20
cm. high. (19- 4479)
cmi.
Inside the alleged gas chamber of Krema II, Felderer found and
photographed
drains on the floor. Extermination authors such as Reitlinger claimed
that the
gas chamber had no drainage. (19-4425) There was no evidence on the
inside of
the alleged gas chamber of the bluish stain characteristic of Zyklon B.
Nor was
there any evidence of facilities for the shower heads which
extermination
literature also claimed were used for the discharge of the gas. The
pillars in
the room were of solid concrete; this contradicted extermination stories
of
hollow pillars down which the Zyklon B was allegedly thrown.(19-4426,
4427)
Felderer found no evidence of an opening for ventilation to exhaust the
gas.
(19-4477) Neither Krema II nor III, upon examination by Felderer, showed
any
indication of the blue stain associated with Zyklon B. (19-4430)
Very little remained of Kremas IV and V, and Felderer was not convinced
that
these buildings had, in fact, been used as crematories. He speculated
that,
given the size of the camp, they might in fact have been garbage
incinerators.
He pointed out that, given the severe typhus epidemics at the camp, the
Germans
would not have taken the garbage out of the camp thereby risking the
spread of
the disease. Felderer showed a slide of a wagon he found beside Krema IV
which
looked very much like the wagons used in incinerators in Sweden to take
away
ashes. (19- 4445, 4448) Krema IV was allegedly destroyed during a mutiny
of
prisoners on October 7, 1944. (19-4447) As with many other things
concerning the
camp, the Auschwitz officials were not forthcoming with information
concerning
these buildings. (19-4446)
Felderer discussed with Zündel the problems which would have arisen in
any
attempt to gas people in underground rooms such as the alleged gas
chamber at
Krema II. There was the danger of explosion; the requirement of a
tremendous
ventilation to get the gas out so that a new batch of victims could be
put into
the room. He came to the conclusion that the building was never used as
a gas
chamber, but was used as a crematory and morgue, as indicated on the
original
German blueprints where the alleged gas chamber was labelled a
Leichenkeller - a
place where corpses were stored. (19-4477 to 4480)
Birkenau Sports Field:
Close to the Kremas was a sports playing field which was used by the
inmates to
play soccer and other sports. One of the first people to tell Felderer
that it
was used as a sports ground was one of the guards of the artifacts, a
Mr.
Urbaniek. Felderer found it very peculiar that one would put a sports
ground
close to the very places where it was claimed that millions of people
were
gassed to death. Felderer showed a slide of a map in one of the main
guidebooks
of Auschwitz which indicated that the field had been a sports stadium.
He
believed it was the first map presented by Auschwitz authorities which
identified the field as a sports field. (19-4375, 4376)
Birkenau Sewage Plant:
Also near the Kremas were the Birkenau sewage facilities where the
toilet water
and so on was purified and channelled into what was called the
Kiesgruben for
filtration. Felderer told Zündel this indicated that the camp was
intended to
last for many years and was not made "just for a twinkle of an eye." A
great
deal of engineering and planning was involved. Felderer pointed out that
functions such as the sewage plants and the crematories were placed at
the top
part of the camp away from the barracks. (19-4433, 4434)
Birkenau Sauna:
The Sauna was built in 1943; this became the new place where delousing
took
place. Today it was not open to the public although it was the largest
building
in the Birkenau camp. Exterminationist literature also had very little
to say
about this building. (19-4434, 4435)
The Sauna contained defumigation chambers where either hot air or steam
was used
to defumigate clothing or other materials. Clothes were placed on wagons
on the
"dirty" side of the chamber and pushed into the chamber on rails. These
chambers
clearly had air-tight doors which were sealed by heavy sprockets. No
allegation,
however, had ever been made that this building was used to gas people.
After
defumigation, the clothes were pushed out the other end to the "clean"
side of
the chamber. (19-4436 to 4439)
The Sauna also contained a special room where hair was cut prior to the
prisoners being deloused. The largest room in the Sauna was used on
special
occasions as a dance hall. Felderer assumed that this was the room
referred to
by Fania Fenelon. (19-4442, 4443) Smolen promised to provide Felderer
with a
blueprint of this building but never did so. (19-4436)
To Felderer, the building indicated that there was a kernel of truth to
the
extermination allegation: there were gas chambers but they were used for
defumigation and cleansing purposes, not to exterminate people.
(19-4439)
Birkenau Burning Pits:
Felderer examined the area where such former inmates as Filip Müller
claimed
that large pits were dug for the burning of corpses. Felderer found it
to be
very swampy and wet and close to a forested area. He told Zündel that
such pits
would have filled very quickly with water. (19- 4450, 4451)
Majdanek Crematory and Alleged Gas Chamber:
The crematory and alleged gas chamber at Majdanek were in separate
buildings and
were approximately 1 km. distant from each other. A monument, which was
supposed
to depict an urn, contained sand to symbolize the ashes of the people.
These
monuments were paid for by the West German government; they were
maintained by
Christian youth groups who were sorry about all the people allegedly
gassed
there. (19-4463, 4464)
Felderer believed the furnaces at Majdanek to be authentic. (19-4482)
The
crematory contained an autopsy room and a washroom. (19-4467, 4469) Like
Auschwitz, Majdanek also suffered from epidemics of typhus. Felderer was
shown
the Majdanek death books by a camp official, which indicated that in May
of 1942
about 1,500 people had died of the disease. (19-4468)
The delousing buildings at Majdanek were the places where the alleged
gassings
occurred. (19-4489) The gas was allegedly discharged through openings
into the
gas chamber by an SS man from an attic above the chamber. Felderer
examined the
attic and found it extremely difficult to maneuver in because of the
proximity
of the roof and the number of nails. (19-4491, 4492) After the gassing,
the
bodies were allegedly taken 1 km. to the crematory for burning. (19-
4489) Since
the gassings were supposed to be done in total secrecy, Felderer
believed this
claim was, even for exterminationists, far-fetched. (19-4496) Felderer
believed
the room could very well have been used as a fumigation chamber but not
as a gas
chamber to kill people. The walls had the distinctive blue staining of
Zyklon B.
(19-4495)
Guards at the camp showed Felderer a new gas chamber under construction
in
Disinfection Number 1, a building closed to the public. The room was to
be a
symbolic reproduction. (19-4499, 4500)
Majdanek had displays of shoes and several-sized cans (1-2 litre) of
Zyklon B.
(19 4484, 4485) The officials held that the Zyklon was used to gas
people;
Felderer believed it was used for the purpose it had long been used for,
that of
fumigation. (19-4486)
Treblinka:
Treblinka was claimed to be one of the death camps. Very little could be
seen
there, however, except for monuments and stones. (19-4502, 5403)
Felderer
conducted tests on the trees to determine when they were planted.
Exterminationists claimed the trees were planted by the Nazis to
camouflage the
camp; Felderer found that the trees had been planted in about 1966 to
1968.
(19-4505) While exterminationists claimed that prisoners were unloaded
from the
trains and taken very quickly to the gas chambers, Felderer pointed out
that the
area alleged to be the camp today was several kilometres from the
railroad.
(19-4506)
Belzec:
As with Treblinka, there were no authentic buildings remaining of this
alleged
death camp and it was located away from a railroad line, contrary to
exterminationist accounts. (19- 4508)
Sobibor:
Felderer found no material evidence at Sobibor to support the death camp
allegation. He again made tests of trees alleged to have been planted by
the
Nazis, and found them to have been planted in the late 1960s. This was
later
confirmed by a general who lived in the area. (19-4510)
Gross-Rosen:
Felderer showed the jury a photograph of the swimming pool at
Gross-Rosen
concentration camp. (19-4514)
This ended the show of slides which Felderer took on his investigations
of the
Nazi concentration camps. Felderer testified that he was arrested in
Poland near
Sobibor after distributing leaflets about the Katyn massacre of about
14,000
Polish officers during the war. While the official version claimed the
officers
were murdered by the Nazis, the Poles interviewed by Felderer claimed
that it
was the Soviets who murdered them. (19-4523, 4524) He was warned that he
could
be liable to a prison sentence of up to 15 years for distributing such
material.
Felderer had not been back to Poland since that trip, but hoped that he
would be
allowed in if he returned. (19 4526)
Felderer was upset that people were being deliberately conned and fooled
into
believing the extermination story. He noted that the fact that one could
be
imprisoned for challenging the story did not make people very free to
conduct
investigations. It would make them fearful. This fear, said Felderer,
was what
the authorities wanted because without fear they could not control
people.
(19-4528)
Felderer believed he had done his homework; he had walked over these
places,
talked to the people, looked at the original documents to the extent
that he
could. He had gotten his feet dirty unlike the exterminationists who ran
around
with red ribbon documents like prima donnas2, who looked down at the
guards at
the camps and said "You are just a guard here, but I am from the United
States,
I am a professor!" To Felderer, the exterminationists lacked the human
touch and
failed to do their research. They lived on their titles and tried to
impress
people with their titles but they didn't impress Felderer. He mocked his
opponents, asking how they could write about this subject without ever
having
visited the camps. (19-4541, 4542)
Felderer published a book showing that the Anne Frank diary was a hoax3;
his
research included examining the building where the Anne Frank Museum was
located
today, samples of the girl's handwriting and the internal contradictions
within
the diary itself. Felderer wrote to Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father,
requesting
the opportunity to examine the actual handwritten diary. This request
was
denied. Felderer suggested in his book that an analysis of the diary ink
should
be made to determine authenticity; this was later done on part of the
manuscript
in a West German court proceeding. This analysis found that certain
parts of the
diary were written in ball- point pen and therefore must have been
written after
the war since ball-point pens were not sold during the war. Although
Felderer
was investigated in 1979 by the Swedish Attorney General concerning this
book,
no cause for any charge was found. Zündel was aware of the book and the
investigation. (19-4529 to 4532)
In 1979, after the showing of the film Holocaust in Sweden, Felderer
began
receiving threatening telephone calls night and day. Stones were thrown
through
his windows and he was attacked and hit over the head with an iron bar
outside
his apartment. Felderer himself believed in non-violence as he believed
truth
could never be obtained through violence. (19-4579, 4580,4581)
Felderer was charged in 1983 (19-4537) as a result of publishing a flyer
entitled "Please Accept This Hair of a Gassed Victim!." (19-4542;
entered as
Exhibit 78, 19 4552). The flyer was addressed to the Auschwitz Museum
authorities, telling them that their exhibits of hair were as much proof
of
gassings as his own garbage at home. The flyer encouraged people to send
their
garbage to Auschwitz to enlarge the museum's collection of faked
exhibits.
(19-4537) The flyer was meant as satire, and reflected Felderer's
disgust with
the many faked aspects of the Auschwitz Museum. (19-4538) He intended to
make
people think about the exhibits and to question what exhibits of hair
and snuff
boxes had to do with the alleged murders of many people. The flyer also
emphasized the environmental problems in Poland. Auschwitz today, said
Felderer,
was a "veritable gas chamber" because Polish authorities would do
absolutely
nothing about pollution control at nearby Monowitz. (19-4539)
To penetrate the belief in the extermination theory, a theory which had
so much
state power and money behind it, it was necessary in Felderer's view to
use
satire. He pointed out that Zionists made many movies satirizing Adolf
Hitler
and made money out of it. (19-4548) Felderer believed that the state of
Israel
had, to a large extent, built itself upon this hoax and he communicated
this
view to Zündel. (19 4541)
Zündel had disapproved of the flyer, but Felderer felt that it was a
serious
thing to accuse the German people of having committed a terrible crime
and then
to use deceptive methods to prove it. Felderer thought the concentration
camps
were more humane than the prisons of today where the prisoners sat in
concrete
buildings staring at concrete walls with only a short period outside for
exercise. At Birkenau, the prisoners could come out of the brick
barracks and
see the sky. (19 4546, 4547)
The second flyer which formed part of the charge against him in Sweden
was
"Dokumentationszentrum No. 468 - The Call for Volunteers" (Exhibit 79,
entered
19 4555)), in which Felderer reproduced a letter he had obtained
anonymously.
The letter, addressed from a Christian Zionist group (Gesellschaft für
christlich-jüdische Zusammenarbeit Heidelberg) to a government Minister
in Bonn,
called for Felderer's political persecution in Sweden. To Felderer, it
proved
that freedom of speech was being suppressed through means no different
from that
of the Soviet Union. As a result of publishing these flyers, Felderer
was
convicted on the criminal charge of agitating against an ethnic group
and
received a ten month prison sentence. Felderer testified both pamphlets
were not
anti-Jewish but anti-Zionist. After three hunger strikes, Felderer was
finally
allowed to have a paper and pen in his cell. (19-4546, 4552 to 4556)
Felderer considered his writings to be true and correct, but was not
dogmatic
about it. He had mailed his material to persons such as Raul Hilberg,
Simon
Wiesenthal and others and requested such opponents to find errors in it.
If they
found any errors, Felderer said he would be the first one who would
change them.
"I am not like my opponents, rigidly sticking to a dogma and not change
my views
when I know I cannot hold on to them." (19-4550) He had attempted many
times to
get an open debate on the extermination going. (19-4613 to 4616)
Felderer believed the CIA booklet The Holocaust Revisited (Exhibit 85)
to be one
of the most important booklets published on the extermination theory
because of
the photographs. He did not agree at all with the text. (19-4605)
A tape of an interview between Zündel and Felderer which took place in
Sweden in
1981 concerning the mass extermination and gas chambers was played to
the jury.
(19-4606, 4607, 4621; entered as Exhibit 86, 19-4632))
Felderer testified that during the war his family had lived in different
places.
His mother was more or less forcibly interned at various places. At the
end of
the war the family, with the help of smugglers, escaped into Italy after
being
accused of being Jewish. The family had boarded in Munich with a Jewish
family.
The family lived in Italy until 1949 when they moved to Sweden. (19-4609
to
4611)
Felderer wanted the truth to be told because he loved Jews; he believed
the
truth benefited them and all others as well. It was through a proper
understanding of history that racial harmony increased. If people were
told, for
instance, that the American Indians were the only bad people who did
nothing but
scalp White men, then people were not getting the truth. (19- 4612,
4619)
On cross-examination, Felderer testified that prior to publication, he
did not
know that "Richard Harwood" was not the real name of the author of Did
Six
Million Really Die?. He now understood the author's real name was
Richard
Verrall, although he had never met him. The pseudonym "Richard Harwood"
was
subsequently used by author David McCalden and by Felderer himself.
Felderer
testified he was not interested in the author, but in the contents of
Did Six
Million Really Die?. (20-4635 to 4638)
His book Auschwitz Exit was published under the pseudonym "Abraham
Cohen"
because he was doing research in Communist countries which required
visas for
entrance. He feared that if his real name was associated with the book,
he would
be denied entry. His fears proved to be entirely justified because in
1981 he
was thrown into prison in Poland. (20-4641, 4642) Volume II of Auschwitz
Exit,
however, was published with his own name on the front cover. (20-4646)
Felderer testified that in 1979 Zündel knew perhaps more than many
people about
the extermination theory but he lacked knowledge about the geographical
aspects
of the camps. (20- 4646, 4647) Zündel was searching, trying to find an
answer to
the question of whether the Nazi regime exterminated millions of Jews.
(20-4651)
Felderer first read about the Joint Allied Declaration of the Allies in
Dr.
Arthur Butz's book, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century in about 1976.
(20-4652)
He was aware that in a war there was propaganda. His interest was in
getting at
the central issue of the gas chambers by visiting the places where the
crimes
themselves were allegedly perpetrated. (20-4654)
Felderer was quite sure Zündel had read literature pertaining to the
declarations regarding gas chambers made by prisoners who escaped in
1944 from
Birkenau. (20 4655)
Felderer believed he was the person who brought to Zündel's attention
the
falsification of former Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoess's memoirs,
since
Felderer had actually seen the material in Auschwitz allegedly written
by Hoess.
This material was written in pencil with no corrections of any sort and
was even
underlined in areas which Felderer believed to be parts the Communists
were
interested in as propaganda. (20-4658) Many of the passages were so
confused
that the reader could not tell which buildings Hoess was referring to.
Felderer
questioned how Hoess, as the man in charge of the camp, could be so
bewildered.
Did he really write the memoirs? Was he drugged? (20-4667)
In the transcript of the Nuremberg trials, there was no statement by
Hoess that
he was tortured, to Felderer's knowledge. He pointed out, however, that
Hoess's
handwritten memorandum, access to which was being denied, might mention
torture.
Felderer emphasized the importance of obtaining the original source
material. He
raised the question of whether Hoess might in fact still be alive since
there
were no photographs or other confirmations of Hoess's hanging. (20-4663,
4664)
Felderer was quite sure he had made reference, in discussions with
Zündel, to
the West German Auschwitz trials conducted in the 1960s, in which none
of the SS
officers denied that the gas chambers at Birkenau were used to
exterminate Jews.
He told Zündel that the SS men also testified that they bicycled inside
the gas
chamber in between gassings. The most ridiculous things were said in
these
trials, said Felderer; he compared them to the witch trials in Sweden,
where
people admitted they had sexual intercourse with the devil. Judges had
accepted
this as the truth and burned women at the stake for it. Felderer
discussed with
Zündel the secrecy of the Auschwitz trials, such as the refusal of the
West
German government to provide the addresses of the people who testified.
He
himself had been able to track some of the witnesses down and found
their
stories to be different from the stories presented in the newspapers.
Felderer
asked if we were supposed to believe stories such as the bicycles in the
gas
chamber or the claim that the firmness of female breasts was one of the
criteria
by which the Nazis decided which women would be gassed and which would
not.
(20-4668, 4669)
Felderer believed that the Auschwitz trials in West Germany in the 1960s
were
post war propaganda but did not believe they were part of a "Zionist
conspiracy." The Jehovah's Witnesses had hidden the truth from the
public and
they were not Jews. He believed the Holocaust propaganda was the work of
the
victors of World War II and of different people who had a vested
interest in
hiding the truth. The Americans wanted to hide the fact that they were
the first
to use the atomic bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Zionists used it
as an
effective way to deflect attention from their terrorization of the
Palestinians
and to get money. (20-4670, 4671, 4723)
Asked if the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem was part of a "Zionist
conspiracy,"
Felderer pointed out that it was the Israelis who abducted him.
(20-4674)
Felderer testified that both he and Zündel were aware of the Wannsee
Conference
in 1979 and both were asking questions about the conference protocol's
authenticity and the accuracy of the translation. Felderer questioned
why those
relying on the Wannsee Conference protocol did not produce the original
document. He himself no longer believed it. Asked if he did not accept
documents
from the National Archives, Felderer reiterated the importance of going
to
original source documents. (20-4677, 4678)
Felderer had watched Professor Christopher Browning's testimony in court
but had
never read Browning's book, Fateful Months, until recently. Browning had
never
been a big man on the issue, pointed out Felderer, but maybe he was the
new star
because the others were burned out and useless. Professor Raul Hilberg
was
afraid of coming to Canada to testify and was hiding somewhere in the
United
States. (19 4676)
Felderer stated both he and Zündel were aware of the Hans Frank diary as
it was
mentioned in Did Six Million Really Die?.(20-4678)
Felderer sold Did Six Million Really Die? for eight Swedish Crowns,
which was
less than the cost of production. Many he gave away free. When some
people paid
more he would reinvest the money into publishing. Primarily, however, he
was
supported by his wife. (20-4680, 4681)
Felderer had no formal education in architecture (20-4690); chemistry
(20-4691);
topography (20-4691); analysis of trees (20-4692); biology (20-4693);
analysis
of aerial photographs ((20-4693); or history ((20-4695). But he pointed
out that
most of the people who wrote on the "Holocaust" were not historians
either,
including Hilberg, Reitlinger and Wiesenthal. (20-4687) Felderer had
often
quoted specialists in his publications, however, and taught himself many
skills,
including dendrochronology. He assumed Zündel knew he did not have
degrees in
chemistry, history and the rest. (20-4691, 4692)
Asked if he was suggesting that the Nazi concentration camps were
"holiday
camps," Felderer replied that he would rather have been in Auschwitz
than in
Dresden or Hamburg which were destroyed with incendiary bombs. At least
there
was some chance of survival in the camps. Felderer did not believe in
incarceration, and noted that Canada had incarcerated 3,000 Jehovah's
Witnesses
in camps during the war, and that the United States had incarcerated up
to
170,000 Japanese. He didn't believe it was a holiday for those people
either.
(20-4720)
The Crown read extensively from the text from The Holocaust
Revisited.(20-4752
to 4784)
Felderer's major publisher, besides his own firm, was the Institute for
Historical Review (IHR) in the United States, founded by Willis Carto.
Carto was
also the founder of the Liberty Lobby. (20-4826)
Felderer agreed that the objective of Did Six Million Really Die? was to
permit
the discussion of the race problem. He did not agree with Harwood's
opinion, but
did not see that his purpose, as a publisher, was to direct people what
to
write. (20-4833, 4834) He himself had married a woman of another race.
(20-4835)
Asked if David McCalden had the same view, Felderer testified that he
had talked
with McCalden a few times and he had not been entirely clear on the
issue.
Felderer pointed out that in the United States, a black man named
Farrakhan
wanted the black people to identify themselves. It was their choice and
Felderer
was not a judge of that. (20-4835)
Felderer was on the Editorial Advisory Committee of the Institute for
Historical
Review and was familiar with a Special Report published by it entitled
Nazi
Gassings a Myth? A New Look at the Holocaust. (20-4835, 4836; IHR
Special Report
filed as Exhibit 93 at 20-4897) The front page of the IHR Special Report
made
reference to an unclaimed $50,000 reward offered by the IHR to anyone
who could
prove that gas chambers for the purpose of killing human beings existed
at
Auschwitz. Felderer testified that he was aware that a Mr. Mermelstein
made a
claim for the $50,000 but stated that he also knew that the claim was
not based
on anything more than emotional stress simply for being challenged.
Mermelstein
filed an affidavit indicating that he was a survivor at Auschwitz, and
that he
was going to produce a dead witness to testify. Felderer had written
Mermelstein
asking him how it was possible that for the first time in history he
would be
able to obtain a dead witness to testify as an expert. Felderer was not
clear on
what happened in the case. By that time, he was getting less and less
interested
in the exterminationists; he felt he had done his main work and was
convinced it
was not true. As far as he knew, Mermelstein never produced anything
other than
claiming that there were some showers inside Krema I. Felderer pointed
out there
were no showers in Krema I except as a figment of Mr. Mermelstein's
imagination.
(20-4837 to 4839)
Mermelstein sued Felderer in the United States; the trial proceeded in
Felderer's absence when the United States refused him entry. Felderer
found it
mind-boggling that such things could go on. (20-4839)
Asked if the main objective of the Institute for Historical Review was
to deny
the Holocaust, Felderer testified that they had come to a consensus that
there
was a real problem involved with the extermination theory. He agreed it
was an
objective but was not its whole activity. (20-4842, 4843)
Felderer agreed that the "Bibliography of 'Holocaust' Revisionism"
contained in
the IHR Special Report included books by Butz, Christophersen,
Faurisson,
Rassinier, Walendy, Harwood and himself. (20-4843, 4844, 4845)
Felderer was sentenced to ten months in prison in Sweden for one of the
RH
Bulletins which dealt with sending garbage to Auschwitz. Felderer
understood Mr.
Wiesenthal was very disturbed at Felderer's offence, that of having
thought for
himself and not allowing somebody else to think for him. Wiesenthal, of
course,
did not like that because totalitarians always liked other people to
think for
you and not to have you thinking for yourself. (20-4847)
Asked if he had testified that he loved Jews, Felderer testified that
his
biggest problems had been with non-Jews. The extermination theory made
Jews into
Nazi collaborators and thieves and he believed he was showing love to
them and
liberating them by his work. (20-4847, 4848)
Upon request by the Crown, Felderer read in full RH305, "Please Accept
This Hair
of a Gassed Victim," the flyer for which he had been convicted in
Sweden.
Please Accept This HAIR OF A GASSED VICTIM!
€ NEXT TIME YOU CUT YOUR HAIR, DO NOT DISCARD IT! NO, MAIL IT
INSTEAD TO MR.
SMOLEN AT THE AUSCHWITZ MUSEUM OR TO ANY OF THE ADDRESSES FOUND ON THE
NEXT PAGE
- TO BE EXHIBITED IN THE DISPLAY OF HAIR OF GASSED VICTIMS. YOU HAIR HAS
A MUCH
BETTER CLAIM TO BE EXHIBITED THERE THAN THE PHONY SAMPLES OF COMMERCIAL
WIGS AND
HAIR HITHERTO EXHIBITED. ALSO COLLECT TOGETHER THE HAIR OF ALL YOUR
FRIENDS,
DOGS, AND OTHER ANIMALS. SEND IT ALL IN A PLASTIC BAG TO MR. SMOLEN. HE
WILL
REMEMBER YOU FOR IT. IT CAN BE MAILED AS "PRINTED MATTER" BY PLACING THE
TERM
"SAMPLE" ON THE PRECIOUS DELIVERY.
TO: Mr. K. Smolen and Staff, Auschwitz Museum, Oswiecim, Poland
Dear Mr. Smolen,
In appreciation of your deep concern for gassed victims, I am hereby
forwarding
my personal trophy for your permanent Museum exhibits. I understand that
you are
intensely involved with the subject of gassing. Personally I feel rather
miserable. Not even Zyklon B would cure me! This is much on account of
the fact
that I am getting gassed to death by a slow poison procedure. Our air is
full of
filth, poison, gasses, harmful chemicals and other disgusting elements.
Matters
are no better in your city. Your city is virtually saturated with deadly
gasses
emanating from your Monowitz chemical factory. In fact the place is not
fit even
for crows. I urge you to pay it a visit. Surely the Nazis never had a
factory in
such deplorable condition. But it is not necessary for you to go there
as the
factory's poison gasses reaches your very own office at Auschwitz which
is
situated close to the former Nazi brothel. In case of urgency I suggest
you to
put on a gas mask immediately. You may collect one at the private Museum
displays in Block 24. Please be sure that it has the special "J" filter.
The
poison at Auschwitz is deadly. You need to take the upmost precautions.
My package of hair to you is a very personal proof of the fact that I am
being
gassed to death. Should you doubt it, I beg your experts to analyze it.
I am
therefore donating this private gift to you with the hope of that
countless of
your Museum's avid onlookers may gaze at it in wonder and give a solemn
prayer
in memory of a victim doomed to extinction due to environmental poison
gassing.
With much respect for your stupendous task and your deep concern for
gassed
victims, I hereby solemnly, and prayerfully, deliver my hair to your
loving and
tender care. May it inspire you and all your visitors to a multitude of
silent
moments and intense meditations.
A VICTIM WHOSE DAYS ARE NUMBERED
(page 2)
INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY OF GARBAGE COLLECTORS FOR A POISON FREE WORLD
The below given, highly acclaimed museums and addresses are in permanent
need of
documentary evidence and museum exhibits. They would highly appreciate
if you
could send them any documentary garbage that you may possess so that
they can
complete and extend their princely exhibits. May we suggest the
following items
to be considered to be sent to the distinguished gentlemen at your
speediest
convenience:
Pulled teeth (exhibited as authentic samples from gassed victims), dust,
dust
from vacuum cleaners, scrap paper, broken spectacles (exhibited as proof
of
gassed and clobbered victims), cut nails (Nazi examples of pulling
nails), used
toothbrushes and toothpicks, dirty socks, cigarette butts, used chewing
gum,
used snuff (snuff cans are exhibited at Auschwitz), fish bones, meat
bones,
chicken bones and other bones, tin cans (exhibited as contained Zyklon
B), old
cloth (exhibited as being the cloths of former inmates), old shoes, soap
rests
(will be exhibited as "Pure Jewish Fat"), dead lice (in memory of former
friends
or enemies - depending on which side you were on), potato, orange, and
apple
peelings (as evidence for starved victims), worn-out bedpans (in memory
of when
Mr. Smolen used to chase around with them in the Hospital just by "gas
chamber"
No. 3 at Birkenau), additional bedpans (in memory of when Dr. Szymanski
used to
administer his loving and tender care to the patients in the "death
camp"),
bundles of swastikas (in appreciation of the fact that Czech, Smolen,
Szymanski,
Pilichowski, Filip Müller, S. Wiesenthal, J. Wieczorek, Kania and
legions of
others collaborated with the Nazis) - and countless of other precious
items: YOU
NAME THEM - THEY TAKE THEM!
[Cartoon of Smiling Woman holding a wrapped gift, saying: "Please send
us all
your junks. We need them for our authentic exhibits and documentation!"]
THE EXTERMINATION OUTLETS ARE IN CONSTANT NEED OF YOUR PRECIOUS GIFTS.
DO NOT
DISAPPOINT THEM. SEND YOUR GARBAGE TO THEM AT ONCE!. THEY WILL THANK YOU
FOR IT.
Dear Gentlemen and Distinguished Members of the International Fraternity
of
Garbage Collectors:
€ My personal free gift to your museum and documentary depot. AS
ONE OF THE
MILLIONS OF GASSED VICTIMS ON THIS EARTH DUE TO ENVIRONMENTAL POISONING,
I WANT
TO DONATE THIS SAMPLE TO BE DISPLAYED AT YOUR PERMANENT EXHIBITS. I ALSO
FEEL
THAT THEY SHOULD FULFILL YOUR MOST STRINGENT REQUIREMENTS AS DOCUMENTARY
EVIDENCE. IN FACT, I KNOW OF NOTHING AS AUTHENTIC AS THIS AMIDST ALL
YOUR
PRESENT EXHIBITS AND DOCUMENTS.
I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE IN THE HUMANITARIAN WORK OF COLLECTING
PRICELESS
MEMORIES OF UNFORTUNATE AND DESTITUTE VICTIMS. MAY THIS SMALL TOKEN ON
MY PART
SPUR YOU TO RENEWED EFFORTS IN THIS HONORABLE AND TIMELESS TASK. IT IS
MY
SINCERE HOPE THAT I IN THE FUTURE WILL BE ABLE TO MAKE ADDITIONAL
CONTRIBUTIONS
BY MEANS OF MY AUTHENTIC AND PRICELESS SAMPLES SO THAT YOU CAN USE THEM
IN YOUR
WORLD ACCLAIMED EXHIBITS.
SIGNED: A Person Who Does Not Regret To Share His Troubles and Precious
Possessions With Those In Need.
[Cartoon of Clown saying: "I am an Exterminationist specialist. Kindly
send your
documents to all of our addresses. You will be remembered for it!]
[List of names and addresses of exterminationist historians: Leon
Poliakov,
Simon Wiesenthal, Gideon Hausner, Martin Broszat, Anne Frank Huis,
Czeslaw
Pilichowski, Janusz Wieczorek] (RH Bulletin entered as Exhibit 78)
Felderer testified that the Bulletin was satire and it was clear by
reading it
that it was satire. (20-4855)
Upon request by the Crown, Felderer read the caption under the cartoon
of a male
crying crocodile tears which said:
"I Was Gassed 6 Times! No! Ten times, No!...and there are 5,999,999
others like
me in Neu Jork!" The six million gassed Jews is a swindle! There never
were any
gas chambers! For information and literature send us US $3 in an
envelope or
similar. Order: Anne Frank Diary A Hoax... Subscription to our
Bulletins: US
$20. (Cartoon entered as Exhibit 91 at 20-4896)
Asked if he still maintained that he loved Jews, Felderer asked what
that had to
do with the question of the gas chambers. There were Jewish people who
did not
believe in the gas chambers. Did they hate themselves because they did
not
believe in it? It was not a question of Jews, but a question of the gas
chambers. (20-4856)
The Crown next produced a flyer regarding the Anne Frank Museum with a
condom
attached. Felderer stated that the flyer and condom had been produced in
the
1985 trial and that he had clearly testified then that he had nothing to
do with
the condom. He had published the actual flyer itself. (20-4857) Upon
request by
the Crown, Felderer read the flyer. He indicated that the cartoon came
from
Hustler magazine. (20-4861; re-ex. 20-4886; entered as Exhibit 88 at
20-4862)
Upon request by the Crown, Felderer read another of his flyers entitled
"Three
Jewish Contributions to Western Civilization." These contributions were
the
atomic bomb, developed by Robert Oppenheimer, the hydrogen bomb,
developed by
Edward Teller and the neutron bomb, developed by Samuel Cohen. All three
men
were Jews. Felderer testified the flyer said a lot about certain people
who had
developed these terrible weapons. (Flyer entered as Exhibit 89 at
20-4863)
Felderer was shown another flyer of which only one side reflected his
own
material. He did not know who produced the material on the other side.
He had
stated in his Bulletin that if people wanted to use his address they
could do
so; that was why he could not always know what some people might publish
in his
name. Upon request by the Crown, Felderer read the side of the bulletin
he had
identified as his own material. It dealt with the sending of garbage to
Auschwitz for their displays. (20 4863, 4864, 4865)
Felderer was shown another flyer entitled "Invitation" which he again
was
requested to read. The flyer dealt with Felderer's incarceration for 6
months in
Sweden. (20 4867, 4868; Flyer entered as Exhibit 90 at 20-4895)
Felderer testified that he had been put into custody in a two by three
metre
bunker where he was not allowed any form of writing or even allowed to
keep his
watch. He did not know whether it was night or day and was constantly
kept awake
by radio noises. When he complained, the noise only increased. There was
no
washroom in the cell. He was escorted to the toilet and locked inside.
He was
struck several times in prison. Felderer went on a hunger strike three
times
until he was finally allowed some sort of normal action. He stated that
such
treatment wasn't given to hard criminals. He had simply published things
which
were satire, but this apparently was more dangerous than if he had raped
a
thousand Swedish women. There was no proportion at all to the
punishment, and he
denounced such actions. (20-4868, 4869)
In the flyer, he had indicated that Sweden was using the same methods as
the
Soviet Union: if you could not get someone through arguments and reason,
you put
him in a mental institution and declared him insane. The author Roland
Huntford
had described [in The New Totalitarians] how Sweden was using its mental
hospitals in order to combat their alleged detractors. This method was
no
different from the Soviet Union. (20-4870)
Felderer had discussions with the staff and doctors at the hospital and
asked
them how they could justify what they did. He pointed out to them that
he had
not raped or murdered anybody, but had simply written satire which even
they
laughed at and thought was funny. (20- 4870) Felderer reiterated that
when
people could not get you by reasonable arguments, they threw you in
their
prisons and thereby thought they had won the argument.
"Well, as you can see," said Felderer, "I'm still here. I'm still alive.
I'm
still kicking. So all their terror and acts of persecution, which they
even
admitted in their letters... sometimes it works, but many times it
doesn't work,
and I think I'm a living example that it doesn't work." (20- 4868)
The Crown suggested to Felderer that he couldn't accept the fact that
the
Swedish authorities thought he was sick and needed help. Felderer
replied that
he had gone through the tests and had been found perfectly fit and sane,
which
was more than the Crown attorney could prove regarding his sanity.
(20-4871)
On re-examination, Felderer testified that these mental tests had been
made
during his trial in Sweden and that he had been found fit. (20-4868)
Felderer had not read Martin Gilbert's The Holocaust because in the last
few
years his interest in the subject had waned. He felt he had done his
work. He
had stated that if anyone found anything wrong with it, they should let
him
know. During all of these years nothing had happened. He no longer found
the
issue to be challenging. It had been confirmed for him that there were
no gas
chambers for human beings and that the buildings were faked. He wanted
to go on
to other things. Felderer didn't want to devote the rest of his life to
this
concocted trash. The earth was too beautiful for him for that. (20-4875)
Felderer testified that the photograph of fencing scenes from Auschwitz
came
from the Dürrfeld trial. It had been produced as evidence of prisoners
having
sports. (20 4875)
The CIA report The Holocaust Revisited did not give any indications of
the
qualifications of either of its authors, Poirier or Brugioni. One of the
reasons
Felderer wrote to the CIA was to attempt to determine what they were. In
Felderer's opinion, the prisoners shown in photograph 4 of the CIA
booklet were
not going to the gas chambers, as indicated by the text, but were
walking to the
Sauna. Photograph 6 showed the alleged vents in the roof of the
Leichenkeller of
Krema II, but Felderer's examination showed there were no holes in those
locations. He had written the authors of the report to ask them why
these
alleged vents could not be found in the roof today. (20-4877 to 4879)
Felderer testified that there were no photographs in the report which
indicated
that Leichenkeller II was blown up before the camp changed hands,
although this
was suggested by the text. The CIA was a secret organization with a
vested
interest in the gas chamber story, so he certainly did not believe they
would
deny it. (20-4880)
Felderer testified that politically he was totally aloof. He had never
voted for
a political party in his life and didn't intend to do so. (20-4882)
Felderer himself had received garbage and diapers at his own address
before
publishing the "Anne Frank Museum" flyer. He took it with a grain of
salt and a
smile on his face. (20-4886)
The medical examinations which he had undergone were involuntary.
(20-4886)
During the past few years, Felderer testified, he had become an
instructor of
dancing, given music lessons and sold music which he had written.
(20-4887)
1 During this testimony, defence counsel Doug Christie had to ask Judge
Thomas
to advise people in the court room to remain quiet. Thomas told the
court room
spectators that if they found the testimony "distasteful, unpleasant or
emotionally draining", they were free to leave. 2 Documents introduced
by
Browning from the National Archives of the United States all bore red
ribbons. 3
Ditlieb Felderer. Anne Frank Diary: A Hoax? (Taby: Bible Researcher,
1978)
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