Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Chapter 4: Auschwitz
behandlung, we may say that, while one can certainly raise questions regarding
the authenticity of the relevant documents, it is nevertheless the case that even if
all of the relevant documents are assumed authentic, they do not require an “extermination”
interpretation of those that apply to Auschwitz. That the term Sonderbehandlung
had more than one meaning within one agency of the German
government is not very peculiar. For example, I understand that, within the Central
Intelligence Agency, “termination” can mean execution or assassination in
certain contexts. However, the term obviously could also be applied to the dismissal
of a typist for absenteeism.
The point in paragraph 7 of the Höss affidavit about endeavoring “to fool the
victims into thinking that they were to go through a delousing process” is, of
course, a logical one because anybody on entering a German camp went through a
delousing process such as Höss described in the affidavit and in his testimony –
disrobe, shave, shower. 218 Again we are offered a fact for dual interpretation.
The Crematories
The last subject in paragraph 7 is the cremations; it is a big one. According to
Höss and all other accounts of exterminations, Birkenau cremations took place in
trenches or pits prior to the availability of the modern crematory facilities there. 219
It is claimed that the new crematories were intended for extermination of Jews,
but we have suggested a more routine purpose in the preceding chapter (pp. 79,
120). Let us review their history.
The construction was well into the preliminary stages of planning and ordering
early in 1942 and this fact, in itself, makes it difficult, to say the least, to believe
that they were related to any extermination program orders by Himmler in the
summer of 1942. The construction plans for four structures containing crematory
furnaces are dated January 28, 1942. 220 On February 27, 1942, the head of the
construction department of the WVHA, SS Colonel (later Lieutenant General) Dr.
Ing. Hans Kammler, an engineer who also supervised the design of the German
V-rocket bases and the underground aircraft factories, visited Auschwitz and held
a conference at which it was decided to install five, rather than two (as previously
planned), crematory furnaces, each having three muffles or doors. 221 This matter,
therefore, was not left to the ingenuity of Höss. In the extermination legend, however,
Höss definitely gets credit for the Zyklon. The fifteen muffles to be installed
in each of the structures or buildings were ordered from Topf and Sons, Erfurt, on
August 3, 1942. 222 The ovens were of the standard type which Topf (still in business
in Wiesbaden in 1962) sold. Fig. 26 is said to be a photograph of one of the
218
219
220
221
222
IMT, vol. 11, 400-401.
IMT, vol. 11, 420; Central Commission, 87-88.
Central Commission, 83-84; Rassinier (1962), 85-86. Rassinier does not cite a source, so he presumably
got it from Central Commission.
Reitlinger, 157-158; Hilberg, 565; NO-4472.
Central Commission, 83; Rassinier (1962), 86; NO-4461.
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