Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Chapter 6: Et Cetera
the people who took part in this conversation kept the tape or whether the
tape was erased and re-used for other recordings.”
The defense challenged the accuracy of the documents, claimed that the majority
of marginal corrections were not included in the document, and further
claimed that if Sassen himself could be brought to court to testify, it could be
proved that:
“[…] he changed and distorted what was said by the accused, to suit his
own aims. He wanted to produce a propaganda book; this can be proved, how
the words were distorted.”
However, the prosecution assured the court that if Sassen were to come to Israel,
he would be put on trial for his SS membership.
The court decided to admit the photostats of the 83 pages in Eichmann’s hand,
but the prosecution, finding during the course of the rest of the trial that there was
virtually nothing in the 83 pages that it could use, made another bid very late in
the trial and finally managed to get accepted into evidence the excerpts of the
typewritten document which carried handwritten corrections. Life magazine,
which apparently received the same material from Sassen, treated all of it as unquestionably
authentic. 327
We close this short discussion of the Eichmann trial by reporting Eichmann’s
reaction to the allegation, widely publicized, that at the end of the war he had declared
that he would “jump gladly into the grave” with the knowledge that five or
six million Jews had been killed. Eichmann testified that he had, indeed, made a
bitter remark such as this to his staff at the end of the war, but that the five million
killed were not “Jews” but “enemies of the Reich,” i.e. enemy soldiers, principally
Russians. While his defense strategy entailed not contesting the general reality of
the extermination program, he insisted that he was in no position to know even the
approximate number of Jews killed, and that all remarks attributed to him in this
connection (e.g. Höttl’s affidavit) are falsely attributed. 328
West German Trials
The trials held in West Germany during the Sixties are barely worth mentioning
and, moreover, rather difficult to study, on account of the obscurity of the defendants
involved. The most publicized, of course, was the “Auschwitz trial” of
1963-1965, and a few words are perhaps in order.
This group of war crimes trials, of which the Auschwitz trial was the most
prominent, was held for political reasons in the aftermath of the hysterical publicity
surrounding the capture of Adolf Eichmann. One of the first victims was Richard
Baer, successor to Höss and last commandant of Auschwitz, who was arrested
327
328
Eichmann, session 72, Aal-Kk11; session 73, A1-R1; session 74, Hh1-Iil; session 88, L1-P2 and
appendices; session 104, T1-V1; session 105, W1-Z1; Life (Nov. 28, 1960), 19+; (Dec. 5, 1960),
146+.
Eichmann, session 85, J1-K1, T1-U1; session 87, M1-O1, Y1; session 88, G1-H1.
229