Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Arthur R. Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century
given the power to “act independently upon his own responsibility.” Everybody
knew that meant executions of partisans and persons collaborating with partisans.
The dirty task was assigned to four Einsatzgruppen of the SD, which had a total
strength of about 3,000 men (i.e. of the order of 500 to 1,000 men per group).
Knowledgeable authorities, incidentally, have accepted that such anti-partisan operations
were necessary in the Russian theater, where the enemy had no regard for
the “rules.” 347
We have had occasion to note in several instances that Jews did, in fact, pose a
security menace to the German rear in the war. The Red Cross excerpt makes this
quite clear. The task of the Einsatzgruppen was to deal with such dangers by all
necessary means, so we need not be told much more to surmise that the Einsatzgruppen
must have shot many Jews, although we do not know whether
“many” means 5,000, 25,000 or 100,000. Naturally, many non-Jews were also
executed.
However, the claim goes beyond this and asserts a dual role for the Einsatzgruppen;
they were charged not only with keeping the partisan problem under
control but also with exterminating all Jews (and gypsies). Common sense alone
should reject the notion that the Einsatzgruppen, which had a total strength of
about 3,000 men, as a matter of general policy, spent their time and effort pursuing
objectives unrelated to military considerations. We are again offered a fact for
dual interpretation.
The story is that there was no written order to exterminate the Jews, but that
the Einsatzgruppen commanders got their orders orally and at different times. Ohlendorf
commanded Group D in southern Russia, and he got his orders orally
from Streckenbach in June 1941. Rasch of Group C, operating to the immediate
north of Ohlendorf, did not get his orders until August 1941. Groups A and B operated
around the Baltic states and to the south-east of the Baltic States, respectively,
and were commanded by Stahlecker and Nebe, respectively. 348
The main evidence for exterminations is a huge amount of documentary evidence
which is simply funny. There is the celebrated document 501-PS, which the
Russians possessed at a show ‘trial’ that they staged in December 1943. 349 One
part is said to be a letter to Rauff in Berlin, written by an SS 2nd Lieutenant
Becker. This is apparently the only document claimed to be signed by Becker,
who is said to have been dead at the time of the IMT trial. It reads: 350
“The overhauling of the Wagen by groups D and C is finished. While the
Wagen in the first series can also be put into action if the weather is not too
bad, the Wagen of the second series (Saurer) stop completely in rainy weather.
[…] I ordered the Wagen of group D to be camouflaged as house trailers. […]
the driver presses the accelerator to the fullest extent. By doing that, the persons
to be executed suffer death from suffocation and not death by dozing off
as was planned.”
347
348
349
350
242
Veale, 220-224; Reitlinger, 83, 198; Dawidowicz, 125.
Reitlinger, 82-84, 199-201; Hilberg, 187-188, 194-195.
Reitlinger, 213.
IMT, vol. 3, 560; vol. 26, 102-105. Poliakov & Wulf (1955), 140ff.