Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Arthur R. Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century
page 184 of his book, the changes in crematory construction plans that were made
in summer 1942. He invites us “to imagine” an ordinary village in considering
these crematories. Why should one try What Pressac would have us ignore at this
point is the virtual hellhole of catastrophic epidemic at Auschwitz. Dishonesty on
this scale is rare; only a spinner of the “Holocaust” yarn could hope to get away
with it. 576
At first I considered this a most shocking instance of intellectual dishonesty.
Continuing to read, I noted that on page 187 he does mention the typhus epidemic,
and then, on page 188, I found the prize of the whole book. On that page
Pressac finally offers a relation of the measures being taken at Auschwitz against
typhus to the alleged extermination of the Jews. He wrote there:
“The SS used the extermination of the Jews, about which their superiors
had a general knowledge, without being informed of the practical details, to
hide the terrible hygienic conditions in the camp, and to cover up their enormous
consumption of gas for disinfestation purposes.” (Pressac’s emphases.)
The SS therefore must have hidden the catastrophe from Himmler during his
visit to the camp on July 17-18, 1942. (My guess is that Himmler suggested, or at
least informally approved, the quarantine order that was issued on July 23.)
Since the typhus epidemics cannot be ignored, Pressac mentions them on subsequent
pages. On one he notes: “it was necessary at all costs to stop the epidemic,”
while on another he ludicrously writes that in mid-September, almost two
months after the quarantine order, “the deaths caused by the typhus epidemic were
becoming a real problem” – the great understatement of the book. 577 That, which
every minimally discerning reader will see, a presumptive link between the epidemics
and crematory construction, is evaded. Here Pressac argues an extraordinary
role for the crematories by maintaining that final approval for construction
rested with the RSHA (the security/police branch of the SS), rather than the
WVHA (the camp administration agency). If true, all that is indicated is some
procedural point, or perhaps the generally acknowledged inequality of the two departments.
578 Pressac makes no effort to convey the full horror of the typhus epidemic
of 1942. These reluctant admissions of a typhus catastrophe amount to evasions
performed in order to strengthen, in the reader’s mind, the “industrial extermination”
interpretation of the crematories. Pressac in fact thus engages in
whitewashing the true horrors of Auschwitz.
Pressac’s reluctant and dispersed acknowledgment of the typhus epidemics
could be viewed as yet another instance of a feature that has bothered every reviewer
of the book: its poor organization. Many times I have come back to the
book to reread some point I remember having read somewhere, only to find that
the point is not at all where, logically, it ought to be, but rather in some unex-
576
577
578
412
Pressac, pp. 217-218, repeats this amazing evasion. On p. 384 he hurriedly suggests a very weak
relation between crematory construction activity and the epidemics.
Pressac, pp. 188, 202.
Nobody believes Oswald Pohl was equal in influence to Reinhard Heydrich while the latter was
alive. It was RSHA head Ernst Kaltenbrunner who, toward the end of the war, issued the order
opening the camps to the International Red Cross. See p. 63.