Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Arthur R. Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century
ported on his strenuous subsequent efforts to contact Nyiszli and determine
whether or not he actually existed; the only person who seemed unquestionably to
exist was translator Kremer. 230 An English translation of Richard Seaver, foreword
by Bruno Bettelheim, was published in New York in 1960 under the title
Auschwitz. Nyiszli was obviously dead by then because it is specified that the
copyright is held by “N. Margareta Nyiszli.” As is the usual practice with deceased
authors who held doctor’s degrees, the title page of a doctoral thesis, by
“Nicolaus Nyiszli,” Breslau 1930, is reproduced in the 1960 NY edition. The
book was republished in French and German editions in 1961.
According to Rassinier, it is difficult enough to reconcile the numbers in the
various editions, but it is not even possible to get internal consistency in one edition.
In the 1960 edition we read (page 55) that the 60 muffles could reduce “several
thousand” corpses per day. Further on (page 87) we are told that “when the
two (burning pits) were operating simultaneously, their output varied from five to
six thousand dead a day, slightly better than the crematoriums,” but then later on
(page 92) we learn that Crematories II and III could alone dispose of at least
10,500 per day. This is total confusion.
The writings attributed to Nyiszli also commit what I consider the basic witness-disqualifying
act; they claim gratuitous regular beatings of initially healthy
prisoners by the SS (e.g. pp. 25, 27, 44, 57); it is known that this was not the case.
Aside from possible humanitarian objections to such beatings, the prisoners were
a source of income to the SS. Many were the complaints, on the part of the SS,
against various forms of alleged Farben mistreatment. On the other hand, for security
reasons, the SS discouraged fraternization between guards and prisoners.
The SS guard was ordered to maintain “distance” (Abstand) from the prisoners,
not even talking to them unless absolutely necessary. This regulation was of
course difficult to enforce and the regular and very frequent infringements of it
produced memoranda from Pohl to the camp commanders ordering appropriate
and systematic instruction of the guards. 231
Despite a certain amount of SS guard brutality as reported by authors of other
books, Cohen does not report such experiences at Auschwitz and remarks that the
“reception ceremony” for his transport “passed without violence.” However, he
mentions a specially constructed wooden table used for beating prisoners on the
buttocks. This was a formerly regulated mode of punishment of prisoners who
committed various offenses in the camps; “intensified” beating was defined as
whacking on the naked buttocks. 232
When an Auschwitz witness starts claiming regular gratuitous beating, he may
be telling the truth on some matters, but one must reject his general credibility.
On the basis of the available evidence, the best assumption is that there were
30 muffles available at Birkenau in the spring of 1943, and 46 a year later. Before
leaving the subject of the number of muffles, we should remark that there are certain
ambiguities in the documents relating to the crematories. The most obvious is
230
231
232
150
Rassinier (1962), 245-249.
DuBois, 221. NO-1245.
Cohen, 81, 125. See also Fyfe, 159, and Appendix D here.