THE RUDOLF REPORT

ule of law. Article 19 states: 4347. ZYKLON B FOR THE KILLING OF HUMAN BEINGS“The Tribunal shall not be bound by technical rules of evidence. Itshall adopt and apply to the greatest possible extent expeditious and nontechnicalprocedure, and shall admit any evidence which it deems tohave probative value.”while Article 21 states:“The Tribunal shall not require proof of facts of common knowledgebut shall take judicial notice thereof [...]”For a correct evaluation of Holocaust testimony of the witnessesand the confessions of the defendants, it is essential to pay attention tothe boundary conditions under which the so-called NSG trials wereheld 435 and continue to be held. 4367.3.1.2. Eyewitness FantasiesWhat is the credibility of the eyewitness testimonies as to content?Reference should be made at this point to a few detailed works on thisproblem. 437 The following is a closer examination of three of the morefrequently quoted eyewitnesses: Rudolf Höß, former camp commandantat Auschwitz, Richard Böck, a camp SS man of subordinate rank,as well as Henryk Tauber, former inmate and member of the “Sonderkommando”in crematorium II in Birkenau.The Höß statements may be consulted in the Broszat edition andread as follows: 295“Maintaining the fire at the ditches, pouring the collected fat [overthe burning bodies …] They ate and smoked while dragging corpses[…]” (p. 126)“The bodies were doused first with oil residues, and later withmethanol […] He also attempted to destroy the bodies with explosives,[…]”(p. 157ff.)434 Reprinted in its entirety in T. Taylor, The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials, Little, Boston1992, pp. 645ff.; probably the best analysis of the trial itself was written by Alexander vonKnieriem, Nürnberg. Rechtliche und menschliche Probleme, Klett, Stuttgart 1953.435 NSG = National-Sozialistische Gewaltverbrechen; National Socialist violent crimes.436 See, in this regard, Manfred Köhler (alias G. Rudolf), “The Value of Testimony and ConfessionsConcerning the Holocaust”, in: E. Gauss (ed.), op. cit. (note 22), pp. 85-131 (online:www.vho.org/GB/Books/dth/fndvalue.html).437 E. Kern, Meineid gegen Deutschland, Schütz, Pr. Oldendorf, 2 1971; E. Gauss, Vorlesungen…,op. cit. (note 43); Jürgen Graf, Auschwitz… , op. cit. (note 43); also: M. Köhler, op. cit. (note436).199