Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Arthur R. Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century
of the fact that Crematoria II and III, with their large concrete cellars, were obviously
ideal for adaptation as air raid shelters. Indeed, when this problem is looked
at from the point of view of defense against air raids it seems there was no better
choice at Auschwitz. The German authorities responsible for providing air raid
shelters would have insisted that the necessary embellishments be made to these
structures, which were far more suited to such purposes than, e.g., Crematorium I
at the Stammlager, which despite being above ground was converted to an air raid
shelter after it was taken out of service as a crematorium in July 1943. 689 My reading
of some of the relevant chemical warfare literature convinces me that Crematoria
II and III were conceived of by the Germans as having this additional role.
I have never seen the word “Vergasungskeller” in a lexicon; indeed I have
seen it only in discussions of NO-4473! 690 I have seen two German-Russian dictionaries,
one a military dictionary, that say “Gaskeller” means “gas shelter”. 691
However, we should not consider ourselves bound to dictionaries on this. If one
asks the question: In a World War II military context, what might “Vergasungskeller”
and/or “Gaskeller” mean I think that “gas shelter” is the answer that
comes naturally to mind and that other meanings are somewhat strained. Of
course, other meanings come naturally to mind in non-military contexts.
As a personal example, I can report that I have been unable to find the term
“control lab” (or “control laboratory”, “controls lab”, “controls laboratory”) in my
IEEE Standard Dictionary of Electrical and Electronics Terms (edition of 1972),
although every university Dept. of Electrical Engineering in the USA has a “control
lab,” and that is how we normally refer to such a place. I have also been unable
to find the term in an unabridged Webster’s, in an on-line version of the Oxford
English Dictionary, and in several other dictionaries I have.
If this interpretation of the Vergasungskeller of NO-4473 is correct, then we
should view all three cellars in Crematorium II as air raid shelters, with only one
being provided with the additional measures to make it effective as a gas shelter.
That could only be LK 1, since NO-4473 implies it is not LK 2, LK 3 was very
small and, conclusively, because LK 1 was the only one of the three provided
with a gas-tight door. 692 Moreover, while all parts of the building had motor
driven air extraction systems, it appears that only LK 1 had a motor driven air intake
system. 693
The extermination legend claims that homicidal gas chambers existed at
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Pressac (1989), pp. 132f, 144, 156f. The engineering drawings Pressac reproduces are dated 21 &
24 September 1944, but I do not know the actual date of the conversion. Pressac erroneously
places the first Allied air raid on 13 September 1944; it was on 20 August 1944.
Dictionaries are somewhat politicized, so do not assume that “Vergasungskeller” will never appear
in one that defines it as equivalent to “Gaskammer”. For example my Deutsches Wörterbuch,
G. Wahrig, ed., Bertelsmann Lexikon-Verlag,1973, defines “Gaskammer” only as something
for killing people in concentration camps with poison gas, although the word was used in
the fumigation field long before World War II. The justification that would be claimed for defining
“Vergasungskeller” thus is that it was used that way in NO-4473! Orwell, anyone
L.F. Parparov, ed., Nemetsko-Russkii Voennyi Slovar, Voenizdat, Moscow, 1964. A.A. Lepinga
and N.P. Strakhovoi, eds., Nemetsko-Russkii Slovar, Sov. Entsiklopediia, Moscow, 1968.
Pressac (1989), 223, 231.
Pressac (1989), 284ff, 290f, 355-374.