Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

When Did It Start
Chapter 4: Auschwitz
Paragraph 6
It will be seen in Chapter 7 what the “final solution” of the Jewish question
meant. Höss claims that he “was ordered to establish extermination facilities at
Auschwitz in June 1941.” Thus, he reaffirms the date given in paragraph 4 and his
testimony in support of the affidavit reaffirmed this date again; there seems no
doubt that Höss was knowingly and deliberately given the summer of 1941 as the
start and that no slip is involved here. Also, Höss testified that, at the time of the
Himmler order, the Inspectorate (Glücks) was “immediately subordinate” to
Himmler. This could only have been true prior to March 1942, at which time
Oswald Pohl, chief of the WVHA (paragraph 3), took over the Inspectorate and
Glücks started reporting to Pohl, who reported to Himmler. Prior to March 1942,
the Inspectorate seems to have been an orphan organization and may have reported
to Himmler, although it had connections with both Heydrich and Jüttner’s
Operational Main Office (Führungshauptamt). Höss, of course, was familiar with
these administrative arrangements, because in late April 1942 Pohl had held a
meeting of all camp commanders and all leaders of the Inspectorate for the specific
purpose of discussing them. 177
Despite all this, Reitlinger insists that Höss meant the summer of 1942, not
1941, for certain reasons that will be seen later and also for other reasons. First, an
obvious implicit claim of Höss‘ affidavit is that the visit to Treblinka took place
after large deportations of Warsaw Jews to that camp. Höss confirmed this point
explicitly in another affidavit. That puts the Treblinka visit in 1942. Second, according
to Reitlinger’s sources, the first large transports (2,000) of Jews to Birkenau
date from March 1942, when “the small gassing installation in Birkenwald had only
started to work.” 178 Actually, such arguments only increase the confusion, if we are
also told that Höss received the extermination orders in the summer of 1942.
These are simply the sorts of contradictions that one should expect to emerge
from a pack of lies. However, for the sake of discussion we should accept that
Höss really meant the summer of 1942 and continue on to other matters. By any
interpretation, however, Höss says that there were three other extermination
camps at the time of the Himmler order, that he had visited Treblinka and that this
camp had been exterminating for one half year. That puts the beginning of the gas
chamber exterminations in early 1942 if we accept Reitlinger’s point.
The Alleged Gassings and Zyklon
One must agree that gassing with carbon monoxide is inefficient. The source
of the carbon monoxide was supposed to have been the exhausts of a diesel en-
177
178
Hilberg, 556-560; Reitlinger, 107ff; documents R-129, NO-719 and 1063(F)-PS in NMT, vol. 5,
298-303.
Reitlinger, 109, 115.
135