Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Supplement 3: A Response to a Major Critique of Holocaust Revisionism
economic plants were built in the U.S. during the Thirties. 611 In this case, “Vergasung”
arises in the same way it did at the outset of this discussion, that is, in fuel
gas generation, because the sludge cannot be burned without the application of
some auxiliary fuel, at least for preheating. Indeed, sludge gas is a highly convenient
energy source in such a process. 612 A postwar development was incineration
using oil as fuel in an “Ölvergasungsbrenner.” 613
I have not located the Vergasungskeller in the sewage plants. Rather, I have
listed five senses in which generation of, or treatment with, a gas comes up in
sewage technology. I have not found the term “Vergasungskeller” or “Vergasungskammer”
in the German literature on wastewater treatment, but that is not necessary.
The document in question was not written by a sewage engineer; it was written
by a construction engineer for the information of another construction engineer,
and the author never imagined that half a century later people would be poring
over his hurried note. Nevertheless, I still favor the first interpretation offered,
namely, that the Vergasungskeller was a generator of fuel or town gas intended
for general use.
Only the study of complete engineering plans for the camp could settle this
question. Alas, that may be difficult. Some of the documentation provided to
Pressac by the Auschwitz State Museum (the Panstwowe Muzeum Owicim, or
“PMO,” whose help Pressac copiously acknowledges) had earlier been provided
to the Auschwitz State Museum by the Israelis. 614 I assume the Israelis also have
some documents they will not part with. In response to my inquiry for more information
about the sewage treatment plants, the Museum replied to me, on August
26, 1991, that it “has several construction plans” of the plants, one of which
is reproduced in Pressac’s book, but that “abundant documentation on the construction
of the sewage treatment plants in Birkenau you will find in the Central
State Archives in Moscow.” Thus, precisely locating the Vergasungskeller may be
a big job. 615 At this point, the only thing that seems assured is that the Vergasungskeller
was not in the crematory building.
The War Refugee Board Report
On April 7, 1944, two Slovakian Jews, Walter Rosenberg and Alfred Wetzler,
escaped from Auschwitz-Birkenau after two years’ captivity there. Their escape
was reported on April 9 in a Gestapo telegram to Berlin and elsewhere. 616
611
612
613
614
615
616
K. Imhoff, “Schlammverbrennung,” Gesundheits-Ingenieur, Vol. 59, No. 40 (1936), pp. 583-587.
K. Imhoff (1943), cited above, pp. 218f.
H. Wulf, “Die Verbrennung von Schlämmen mit Ölvergasungsbrennern,” Brennst.-Wärme-Kraft,
vol. 16, No. 8 (August 1964), pp. 397ff.; O. Pallasch and W. Triebel, eds., Lehr- und Handbuch
der Abwassertechnik (Berlin and Munich, 1969), vol. 3, p. 193.
Pressac, p. 331.; R. Faurisson, Journal of Historical Review, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Summer 1991), p. 156.
In his Introduction to the new American edition of Hitler’s War, David Irving says that “the diaries
of Himmler have vanished – partly said to be in Moscow and partly known to be in Tel Aviv,
Israel; Chaim Rosenthal, a former attaché of the Israeli Consulate in New York, obtained the
Himmler diaries by the most questionable means.” See The Journal of Historical Review, Vol. 10,
No. 4 (Winter 1990-1991), p. 402. See also the IHR Newsletter, No. 83, November 1991, pp. 2-3.
T. Iwaszko, “Häftlingsfluchten aus dem Konzentrationslager Auschwitz,” Hefte von Auschwitz,
423