Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Arthur R. Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century
immediately to the east or to the west of the town Monowitz. If the former, they
were four or five miles from Auschwitz I and, thus, people at that camp, at Birkenau,
and a fortiori at Raisko and Osiek would never have smelled the chemical
industry (which was very modest in size compared to a typical American cracking
plant). If the Farben plants were immediately to the west of the town, it is possible
that people at Auschwitz I might have gotten a whiff now and then when peculiar
wind conditions prevailed, but that could not qualify as a pervasive stench. Thus,
close consideration of the point shows that Christophersen and Stäglich should not
have experienced the stench of industrial origin to any extent that they would recall
thirty years later. Moreover, the trial at which the pervasive stench was a pervasive
feature of witness testimony was the Farben trial, at which most of the
Auschwitz related defense witnesses and almost all of the prosecution witnesses
were people who either lived near or worked at the Farben plant. Thus, they did
indeed experience a stench and testified correctly in this respect, adding only an
erroneous interpretation of the stench.
Back to the ‘Gas Chambers’
The final subject in paragraph 7 is the gas chambers that, except for Höss’
early sealed up huts, are supposed to have been integrated into the crematory
buildings. Reitlinger and Hilberg take different approaches to making this claim.
Reitlinger interprets NO-4473, whose translation is presented above as it appears
in the NMT volume, as evidence for a gas chamber in Crematory II. This is a result
of mistranslation.
The crematories at Auschwitz are frequently referred to as “gas ovens” but this
is hardly informative since, with the exception of electric crematories which enjoyed
a brief existence during the Thirties, all modern crematories consist of “gas
ovens,” a fuel-air mixture, which may be considered a “gas,” is introduced into
the oven to start, control and finish the burning. The fuel used may be “gas,” town
gas or some sort of liquefied gas is popular. Such a crematory is termed “gasfired”
on account of the use of gas as a fuel. Other types are “oil-fired” and “coke-
(or coal-)fired,” but all are “gas ovens” because in all three cases it is a fuel-air
mixture which is injected under pressure into the oven. 240
The customary German word for the concept in question here is Gaskammer,
but the word in NO-4473 which was translated “gas chamber” is Vergasungskeller,
which Reitlinger also mistranslates as “gassing cellar.” 241 Now the word Vergasung
has two meanings. The primary meaning (and the only one in a technical
context) is gasification, carburetion or vaporization, i.e., turning something into a
gas, not applying a gas to something. A Vergaser is a carburetor and, while Vergasung
always means gasification in a technical context, it usually means, specifically,
carburetion in such a context.
240
241
154
Polson, 137-146.
Reitlinger, 158-159.