Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Chapter 3: Washington and New York
port. 162
Both authors of the first two sections of the WRB report (the first two young
Slovakian Jews) acquired identities at Eichmann’s trial in 1961. Two witnesses
testified regarding the report, and it was offered in evidence with the explanation
that the first two young Slovakian Jews were Alfred Wetzler (or Weczler) and
Rudolf Vrba (ex Rosenberg or Rosenthal, then resident in England). The document
was rejected on the grounds that certain contradictions in the figures offered
required further explanation. Therefore, late in the trial, the prosecution produced
an affidavit by Vrba. The affidavit explains how Vrba arrived at the impressively
detailed figures regarding the transports to Auschwitz, which are the main feature
of the WRB report. His affidavit gives the impression that, while he got assistance
from various people, he was solely responsible for drawing up the figures, and he
does not give the name of or even mention his companion who supposedly escaped
with him in April 1944. He mentions a Philip Müller, who helped him
somewhat with his figures, because Müller “is apparently the only survivor alive
at present.” Vrba’s affidavit was rejected by the court on the grounds that there
was no excuse for the prosecution not bringing him to Jerusalem to testify. 163
Vrba appeared again at the Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt in 1964; his book I
Cannot Forgive (with Alan Bestic), also appeared in 1964, shortly before his
Frankfurt appearance. Vrba’s companion in his supposed escape appeared, too;
Alfred Wetzler was said to have been the other young Slovakian Jew. Wetzler
was (in 1964) a 46-year-old civil servant in Czechoslovakia, who had arrived at
Auschwitz on April 13, 1942, and been given registration number 29,162. He had
been a block registrar at Birkenau. Vrba was identified as a 40-year-old biochemist
living in England, who had arrived at Auschwitz on June 30, 1942, and been
given registration number 44,070. He had also been a block registrar at Birkenau.
They had, they said, escaped on April 7, 1944, and made their way to Bratislava,
Czechoslovakia, where they made their report to the Jewish elders and also to the
Papal Nuncio. The report was smuggled to Budapest by Rabbi Weissmandel. 164
The 1964 story differs, therefore, from that which was told to the authors of
the IMT staff evidence analysis in 1945. The most serious apparent contradiction,
however, is in the credit for the reporting of the figures related to the transports to
Auschwitz. Vrba, in his 1961 affidavit (which did not mention Wetzler) and also
in his Frankfurt testimony, presented himself as being primarily responsible for
the figures. The WRB report, on the other hand, while it attributes the figures to
both men, present the figures in the first section of the report, whose author is
supposed to be Wetzler.
Vrba does not explain, in his 1964 book, why he waited 16 years to talk about
his escape from Auschwitz and his delivery of the statistics that were eventually
published by Washington. His book follows roughly the story of the WRB report
with a few contradictions of varying degrees of importance. For example, in the
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163
164
Reitlinger, 115n, 182, 590-591.
Eichmann, session 52, M1, N1, W1-Aal; session 71, Ff1; session 72, I1-M1; session 109, J1-L1,
R1, S1. The affidavit is reproduced by Vrba & Bestic, 273-276.
Naumann, 290-291; Langbein, vol. 1, 122-125; vol. 2, 968, 971.
125