Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Arthur R. Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century
peeking out from the woodpile is an important factor in demolishing his credibility,
in addition to the others mentioned in Chapter 3 (pp. 124-128). Moreover, it
would be difficult for Vrba to claim a faulty memory comparable to Stäglich’s,
because the raid supposedly occurred at a uniquely crucial point in Vrba’s life.
Documentary Evidence
Returning to the immediate subject, we now review the evidence which is offered
for exterminations of Hungarian Jews. It is mainly documentary.
We will essentially disregard the IMT affidavit (2605-PS) of Kastner, given
September 13, 1945. Kastner was a Hungarian Jew who was in contact with
Eichmann and associates in Budapest in 1944. His affidavit declares that 475,000
Hungarian Jews had been deported by June 27, 1944. It also gives a general “history”
of the entire extermination program, said to be based on things told Kastner
by SS Colonel Kurt Becher and SS Captain Dieter Wisliceny. That he enjoyed the
confidence of these men is entirely possible, however, because in 1954, as an influential
member of Ben-Gurion’s Mapai party in Israel, he was accused by another
Hungarian Jew of having been a collaborator of Becher, one of Eichmann’s
superiors in the SS operations in Hungary. The resulting libel actions, with verdicts
against Kastner, generated a major political crisis in Israel whose catastrophic
consequences were averted by the assassination of Kastner in 1957. 281 Kastner
was another victim of the hoax.
Wisliceny, Eichmann’s subordinate in Hungary, also gave an affidavit on November
29, 1945, and supporting testimony at the IMT on January 3, 1945. 282 The
affidavit is another English-language job with, e.g., the obscure (for a German)
expression “heads” for people in transports. In Wisliceny’s story there were written
orders, given in early 1942 by Himmler, to exterminate the Jews. The orders
were addressed to, among others, the “Inspector of Concentration Camps” who,
according to the later testimony of Höss, was not intended by Himmler to know
anything about the program.
The major evidence is a collection of reputed German Foreign Office documents.
In March 1944, one Dr. Veesenmayer of the Foreign Office was sent to
Hungary as “plenipotentiary” to act for the German government, supplementing
the activities of special Ambassador Ritter. Veesenmayer communicated a great
deal with the Foreign Office in Berlin via telegram. A document, NG-2263,
shown in Fig. 30, is typical of those which are said to be one of these telegrams,
taken from Foreign Office files. As a telegram received at the Foreign Office, it
naturally does not have Veesenmayer’s signature. The endorsements consist in the
Foreign Office stamps that have been used, and the handwritten notation on the
left which says that the document is to be filed under “Hungary” (Ungarn) and is
281
282
190
Reitlinger, 421-422; Hilberg, 528; Rassinier (1962), 229-230; Sachar, 463-464; John & Hadawi,
vol. 2, 36n.
IMT, vol. 4, 355-373; U.S. Chief of Counsel, vol. 8, 606-621.