Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Supplement 3: A Response to a Major Critique of Holocaust Revisionism
Although my information was not complete, it is – as we shall see – satisfactory
for the present purpose. Another problem is the significance of the ca. 69,000
deaths recorded in the death certificates of the (incomplete) “death books” announced
by the Soviets in 1989. Fortunately, this is not important for the present
purpose. I continue to maintain that the total number of “ordinary” deaths at
Auschwitz from 1940 through January 1945 is “in the range 100,000-150,000,
probably closer to the former, because the camp population was small in 1940-
1941 and by 1944 the Germans had made some progress against typhus.” 581 As
we shall see, this total is not the crucial point.
The totals for Buchenwald and Dachau, camps in Germany rather than Poland,
are fairly well established. The International Tracing Service report of 1977 specified
36,550 for Buchenwald and 31,951 for Dachau. In each case, though, the figure
does not include an undetermined number of “persons who died shortly before
the liberation and during the evacuation transports.” 582
The cremation facilities at the two camps are also fairly well known. Buchenwald
had a six-muffle crematory, installed in 1942, and perhaps two additional
muffles installed earlier. Moreover, Buchenwald had access to the civilian crematories
that existed in nearby Weimar. Dachau had a two-muffle crematory before
1942, when a four-muffle crematory was constructed. 583 We may therefore assume
that Buchenwald and Dachau had at least six muffles each.
At first it may appear that, by comparison, Auschwitz had an excessive number
of muffles: while the number of “ordinary” deaths at Auschwitz was about
three to four times those at Buchenwald and Dachau, there were about eight times
as many muffles. However, when the calculation is done correctly, it can be seen
that Auschwitz in fact had less relative cremation capacity.
The figures for total deaths at the two camps in Germany have entirely different
interpretations from those for Auschwitz. The latter was evacuated under generally
orderly conditions in January 1945. Consequently, the Auschwitz total,
whatever it is, does not include “ordinary” deaths during the complete chaos of
spring 1945. The worst period for Auschwitz was not 1945, but 1942, when its
crematory construction project was defined.
By contrast, most of the deaths in the camps in Germany proper were in 1944
and the chaotic first four months of 1945 during the disintegration and final collapse
of German industry. Concentration camp personnel knew that any plans for
fundamental expansion of cremation capabilities that might have been drawn up
in 1944 stood little chance of being implemented. Indeed, such construction was
scant in 1944 and 1945. All significant and effective decisions about crematory
construction were in fact made before 1944 and could have been determined only
by conditions existing prior to 1944. Consequently, in order to judge German intentions
regarding the construction of crematories, we must look to the 1942-1943
581
582
583
The Journal of Historical Review, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Fall 1989), pp. 369f. (My review of Arno
Mayer’s book, Why Did the Heavens Not Darken)
A. de Cocatrix, “The number of victims of the National Socialist persecution,” Arolsen: International
Tracing Service, April 1977.
See p. 163; see also Pressac, pp. 94f, 106.
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