AUSCHWITZ: PLAIN FACTS - Holocaust Handbooks

112 Germar Rudolf (ed.), Auschwitz: Plain Facts9. Three Further Notes to my Reply to Jean ClaudePressac9.1. Jean Claude Pressac and Robert Jan van PeltJean-Claude Pressac’s work on Auschwitz 79 has just been translated successivelyinto German 80 and English. 81 These two translations are rich in revelationsas to both the work and the personality of J.-C. Pressac, pharmacist ofLa-Ville-du-Bois (département of Essonne, France).In the German translation, the author once more revises downwards his estimationof the number of dead at Auschwitz. In 1989, he evaluated the numberof the gassed alone at a figure between “1,000,000 and 1,500,000,” 82which let it be assumed that, for him, the total number of dead must be somewherefrom 1,500,000 to 2,000,000. In 1993, in the book to which I wrote areply, Pressac reduced the total of dead to 775,000 (rounded up to 800,000),of whom, he specified, 630,000 Jews gassed (Les Crématoires…, p. 148). Inmy Réponse, I announced that this downward revision would probably be followedby another downward revision. I wrote in a footnote:“I have been informed by a reliable source, which I cannot disclose,that Pressac intends, when he can, to reduce the total of deaths at Auschwitzto 700,000, if and when the disposition of the public seems ready forthis new reduction.” (note 4 at the bottom of pages 13-14.)However, in the German translation Pressac sets the number of dead atAuschwitz at 630,000 to 710,000 – in round numbers – of whom, he specifies,470,000 to 550,000 Jews gassed. (Die Krematorien…, p. 202).The English translation is more interesting still. To begin with, the text nolonger contains any estimation of the total number of dead or of the gassed!I know, but cannot reveal my source here either, that Pressac met with difficultieswhen seeking to publish his book in English in the United States. He79 J.-C. Pressac, Les Crématoires d’Auschwitz. La Machinerie du meurtre de masse, CNRSéditions, 1993, viii-156 pp. and 48 pages photographic section.80 J.-C. Pressac, Die Crematorien von Auschwitz/Die Technik des Massenmordes, Munich/Zurich,Piper Verlag, 1994, xviii-211 p.81 J.-C. Pressac with Robert-Jan Van Pelt, “The Machinery of Mass Murder at Auschwitz,”chapter 8 (p. 183-245) of the collective work published by Israel Gutman and Michael Berenbaum,Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, published in association with the UnitedStates Holocaust Memorial Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 1994, xvi-638pp.82 J.-C. Pressac, Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers, New York, BeateKlarsfeld Foundation, 1989, 553 p.