AUSCHWITZ: PLAIN FACTS - Holocaust Handbooks

Robert Faurisson, Reply to Jean-Claude Pressac on the Problem of the Gas Chambers 89Meurtre de Masse des Juifs et l’Epidémie de Typhus” (The Beginning of themass murder of Jews and the typhus epidemic) (p. 41). As will be seen, in theformer instance the truth precedes the lie and in the latter the lie is followed bythe truth. In the first title, in effect, a real contract (the “Mogilev contract”)concerning cremation ovens is used to lend credibility to the lie of the executiongas chambers of Auschwitz and, in the second, the lie of the executiongas chambers of Auschwitz is propped up by the reality of the typhus epidemicsthat ravaged the camp. Let us add that here Pressac exploits, in his customaryway, the confusion already existing in the minds of too many readers betweencremation ovens and the “gas chambers,” as well as between thecorpses of typhus victims and those of the “gassed.”As for the body of words formed by the title and subheading of his book, itillustrates just this type of deceit: in Les Crématoires d’Auschwitz. La Machineriedu meurtre de masse, the title is true and the subheading is a lie. Playingon the reader’s confusion of “crematories” with “murder,” Pressac hasloaded the dice.5.5. Substitution of “(Homicidal) Gas Chamber” for “Morgue”The author’s most frequently used deception consists in substituting theexpression “gas chamber(s)” for “morgue(s)”; he does so whenever the opportunityarises. For example, he writes:“On March 10 [1943], Schultze and Messing tested the inflow and outflowof the ventilation systems of the crematory II gas chamber for sixteenhours. Apparently, the installation was not yet correct, for Messing workedthere another eleven hours on the 11 th and another fifteen hours on the 13 th– n. 227.” (p. 73)Note 227 makes reference to a document whose text is not provided; thisdocument reveals that the work of the two men was obviously not done in ahomicidal gas chamber but in a morgue that Pressac has decided to christen“homicidal gas chamber.” He dares to add: “There were tests carried out withthe insertion beforehand of Zyklon B.” If he does not support this assertionwith a reference to any source, it is because the proximity of note 227 sufficesto lend an appearance of seriousness to a pure invention.5.6. Substitution of “(Homicidal) Gas Chamber” for“Disinfection Chamber”Another form of deceit consists in citing documents on the disinfection gaschambers and letting the reader believe that it must be a question of homicidalgas chambers. On the subject of a certain foreman, he writes: