Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Arthur R. Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century
people went to their deaths singing.” The relatives of these Jews got mail from
them dated March 23 or 25, but it is claimed that the mail had been written on
March 1 and post-dated, in obedience to German orders.
This procedure was repeated with another group of Jewish families, 5,000
people who arrived from Theresienstadt in December 1943 and whose quarantine
was due for expiration in June 1944. Some men were put to work. According to
what are said to be surviving records, in May 1944 two thousand were on the employment
list, 1,452 were still in quarantine, and 1,575 were considered “in readiness
for transport” (“Vorbereitung zum Transport”), which Reitlinger considers to
mean in reality “waiting for the gas chambers.” This was repeated a second time
with a group of Theresienstadt families which arrived in May 1944. 197 Since these
people were put into “quarantine,” it is a certainty that their quarters had been disinfested
with Zyklon just prior to their moving in and perhaps at periods while
they were living there. Now we are asked to believe that the Germans planned to
kill them with the same chemical product later on!
Essentially the same story was repeated in IMT testimony. 198 The presence of
such material in the WRB report is no mystery. Whatever was happening to the
Theresienstadt Jews in 1943-1944 was fairly well known in Europe. In October
1943, when 360 Jews were deported from Denmark, they were sent to Theresienstadt,
“where the Danish king could be assured of their safety.” 199 We noted on
page 99 the Red Cross visit of June 1944; the Red Cross involvement with Theresienstadt
receives further treatment in the next chapter. In a 1945 visit, the Red
Cross reported transfers to Auschwitz in 1944, adding no sinister interpretations.
To describe the Theresienstadt Jews as “in readiness for transport” just before
their quarantine was to expire was perfectly logical, because it is known that
many Theresienstadt Jews were being deported East. A source sponsored by the
Israeli government, who had been at Theresienstadt, reports that from 1941 to
1944 the Germans were transporting Jews to such places as Minsk in Russia and
Riga in Latvia. One must have passed by quite a few “extermination camps” to
travel from Theresienstadt to those cities. The source also reports that young
Theresienstadt Jews were eager to volunteer for transports to Auschwitz as late as
August 1944. 200 Rabbi Leo Bäck has claimed that somebody escaped from
Auschwitz in August 1943 and made his way back to Theresienstadt, where he
told Bäck of gassings. Bäck has explained why he told nobody else of this at the
time. So that explains how it was possible that all those people were so eager to
go to Auschwitz in their “ignorance” – at least that is what we will no doubt be
told. 201
The part of the Auschwitz legend touching on the Theresienstadt Jews is obvious
nonsense even without contrary evidence, however. It is not believable that
the Germans would quarter for six months at Birkenau each of three distinct
197
198
199
200
201
140
US-WRB (1944), pt. 1, 19-21, 37-38; Reitlinger, 182-183; Blumental, 105.
IMT, vol. 6, 218.
Reitlinger, 183.
Yad Vashem Studies, vol. 7, 109, 110n, 113.
Reitlinger, 181-182; Boehm, 292-293.