Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Arthur R. Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century
“Vergasungskeller” is LK 1 and that a “slip”, indeed “enormous gaff” (sic),
caused the author of the document to betray the true purpose of LK 1, referring to
it as a “gassing cellar” (although the usual German word for such a concept is
“Gaskammer”). On no known set of engineering drawings is a “Vergasungskeller”
indicated. 679
Many of those who would have us believe that there were homicidal gas
chambers at Auschwitz insist on this interpretation. An interesting exception has
been the Austrian-born Raul Hilberg. He cites and even quotes from NO-4473 in
the “Killing Center Operations” chapter of The Destruction of the European Jews,
but he is silent on the “Vergasungskeller”.
In my 1976 book The Hoax of the Twentieth Century, I offered that the Vergasungskeller
was a part of the crematorium building devoted to generating a combustible
gas for the ovens. 680 This interpretation was linguistically correct and
could be technically correct, depending on the design of the ovens. The primary
meaning of “Vergasung” is gas generation or carburetion, i.e. turning something
into a gas (a “Vergaser” is a carburetor). A secondary meaning is application of a
gas as in fumigation or in gas warfare. It is also the word Germans use today to
refer to the alleged gassing of Jews; however, they use “Gaskammer” rather than
“Vergasungskammer” or “Vergasungskeller” for the facility imagined to have accomplished
this. Such usage also applies in the literature on fumigation. 681
By 1989, Robert Faurisson realized that my original interpretation was wrong,
and later in 1989, Pressac 682 conclusively showed that it was wrong, based on the
design of the cremation ovens. In 1991, Faurisson offered a theory 683 that the Vergasungskeller
was a storage area for fumigation supplies within LK 3.
In 1992, I showed that there were many ways “Vergasung” can come up in
sewage treatment technology and offered that the Vergasungskeller might be
found in the sewage treatment plant next to the crematorium. However, I favored
the interpretation that the Vergasungskeller was simply a facility for generating
fuel gas for the camp. 684 NO-4473 suggests, but does not require, that the Vergasungskeller
was located within the crematorium building.
The purpose of this note is to offer another interpretation, which I now believe
679
680
681
682
683
684
444
dation, NY, 1989, p. 548. The reader should understand that the title of this book is misleading, as
the only real “gas chambers” whose “technique and operation” are discussed are fumigation gas
chambers. The homicidal gas chambers are only imagined, based on alleged “criminal traces”, a
few of which are dealt with here, directly or indirectly. It is common to refer to this book in discussion
of Auschwitz because it is the greatest single published source of reproductions of original
documents and photographs for the camp.
Pressac (1989) pp. 211, 217, 432, 548.
Chapter 4 herein.
An example of the two usages is in one paragraph in Nationalsozialistische Vernichtungslager im
Spiegel deutscher Strafprozesse, Adalbert Rückerl, ed., Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich,
1977, p. 12, where we are told that “Judenvergasung” (Jew gassing) took place in “Gaskammern”.
About the same distinction in usage held in the fumigation field, as can be inferred from
F. Puntigam et al., Blausäuregaskammern zur Fleckfieberabwehr, Berlin, 1943.
Pressac (1989) pp. 106-113, 222-225, 548.
R. Faurisson, Journal of Historical Review, vol. 11, no. 1, Spring 1991, pp. 55ff.
A.R. Butz, Journal of Historical Review, vol. 13, no. 3, May/June 1993, pp. 27-31.