THE RUDOLF REPORT

GERMAR RUDOLF · THE RUDOLF REPORTby Robert Faurisson, then Professor of French, Greek and Latin, and ananalyst of documents, texts, and witness statements at the University ofLyon II. He began to question the standard historical version of theHolocaust after he had made numerous critical studies concerning witnesstestimony and on documents that supposedly supported the claimsof mass-murder. In 1978 for the first time, he advanced the argumentthat “there had not been one single gas chamber under Adolf Hitler”. 34Later he supported this claim with physical, chemical, topographic,architectural, documentary, and historical arguments. He described theexistence of the homicidal gas chambers as “radically impossible”. 35At the end of 1979, the largest French daily newspaper, Le Monde, decidedto publish Professor Faurisson’s provocative thesis, so he wasgiven the opportunity to summarize it in an article. 36 The establishmenthistorians reaction was characteristic 37 and is best illustrated by a passagefrom a declaration signed by Pierre Vidal Naquet and 33 otherresearchers: 38“One may not ask how such a mass-murder [of Jews] was possible.It was technically possible, because it happened. This is the obligatorystarting-point of every historical investigation of this subject. We simplywant to call into memory this truth: There is no debate over the existenceof the gas chambers, and there must not be one.”Such a dogmatic explanation is equivalent to a capitulation, whichwas well understood. Hence, they reconsidered their standpoint andwent back to the drawing board.Over the years that followed, establishment historians took up thequestions raised by Robert Faurisson and others, at least to some ex-3435363738Cf. in addition to arguments in the works in note 33 also R. Faurisson, “Es gab keine Gaskammern”,Deutscher Arbeitskreis Witten, Witten 1978.R. Faurisson, “Le camere a gas non sono mai esistite”, Storia illustrata, 261 (1979), pp. 15-35(online: abbc.com/aaargh/fran/archFaur/RF7908xx2.html); Engl.: “The Gas Chambers: Truthor Lie?” The Journal of Historical Review, 2(4) (1981), pp. 319-373 (online:www.vho.org/GB/Journals/JHR/2/4/Faurisson319-373.html); cf. Faurisson, “The Mechanicsof Gassing”, JHR, 1(1) (1980) pp. 23ff. (online:abbc.com/aaargh/engl/FaurisArch/RF80spring.html); Faurisson, “The Gas Chambers ofAuschwitz Appear to be Physically Inconceivable”, ibid., 2(4) (1981), pp. 311ff. (online:www.vho.org/GB/Journals/JHR/2/4/Faurisson312-317.html)“‘Le problème des chambres à gaz’ ou ‘la rumeur d’Auschwitz’”, Le Monde, Dec. 29, 1978,p. 8; see also “The ‘problem of the gas chambers’”, JHR, 1(2) (1980), pp. 103-114 (online:ihr.org/jhr/v01/v01p103_Faurisson.html).Cf. the documentation on numerous articles and letters in R. Faurisson, Mémoire…, op. cit.(note 33), pp. 71-101.Le Monde, Feb 21, 1979.30