Resistance

GERMAR RUDOLF, RESISTANCE IS OBLIGATORY1. Concentration Camp Stutthofa) By way of introduction I may state the following about this book:The study authored by Carlo Mattogno and Jürgen Graf about theconcentration camp Stutthof is the first monograph ever writtenabout that camp. 181 As such it is without competition, even unique. Itis based on primary sources (contemporary documents) which theauthors have found and photocopied while visiting several easternEuropean archives, foremost that of the Stutthof museum. Hence thebook follows the primacy of the archive, as it exists among historians.It moreover includes as secondary sources mainly Polish studiesof the communist era, since almost no other studies exist about thisrelatively small camp. Western literature, on the other hand, is mentionedonly in passing, because it frequently has only the nature oftertiary sources, as for instance the synoptic works by Hilberg 182 orKogon/Langbein/Rückerl, 80 and because it is mostly based on mereanecdotal material, that is to say witness statements, hence obviouslynever made systematic recourse to documents of eastern archives.Stutthof is furthermore mentioned only marginally in these books.b) I will now discuss some of the charges made by the BPjM: 183In their indexing decision they claim that the book would make “unfoundedassertions,” which itself is an unfounded assertion by theBPjM. After all, Mattogno and Graf have substantiated their statementswith documents and publications. The BPjM’s statement iscorrect, though, that the authors take “reference almost exclusively(mostly to Polish documents),” which according to them proves thatthe book’s claims are unfounded. But it is exactly this referring toprimary sources stored in Polish archives, i.e. to documents of theGerman camp administration during World War II, as well as toPolish secondary literature which conforms exactly to the definitionof scientific works! Next the BPjM alleges that the book “rarely containssources backing a claim,” although they had just determined181 Jürgen Graf, Carlo Mattogno, Das Konzentrationslager Stutthof und seine Funktion in dernationalsozialistischen Judenpolitik, 2nd ed., Castle Hill Publishers, Hastings 2004(www.vho.org/dl/DEU/kls.pdf); Engl. ed.: Concentration Camp Stutthof and its Function inNational Socialist Jewish Policy, Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago 2003(www.vho.org/GB/Books/ccs).182 Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of European Jews, Quadrangle Books, Chicago 1961; Holmes &Meier, New York 1985; Yale University Press, New Haven/London 2003.183 Decision no. 5960, 9 March 2001; published in the German federal government’s journal announcingregulations and rulings Bundes-Anzeiger (BAnz) 64, 31 March 2001.166