THE RUDOLF REPORT

11. HUNTING GERMAR RUDOLFissue is not really the actual numbers, but the intention behind thedeed. My belief at that time was that Hitler had planned to exterminatethe Jews, and had done whatever had been necessary to accomplishthis goal. The actual ‘how’ and ‘how many’ were of secondary importance.From the student’s style of argument, it was clear that he hadstrong political motives for his way of thinking. He spoke of the use ofthe ‘Auschwitz bludgeon’ against the political right, and in particular,against his party. His mixture of political objectives and scientific argumentationmade me skeptical. I could not take his arguments at facevalue, because I was unable to trust him. I silently reproached him forhis political involvement, believing that he was no longer willing orable to distinguish between truth and falsehood, between the justifiedand the unjustified.I have forgotten his exact arguments and conclusions. Perhaps I dohim an injustice, but I still retain a bitter taste of his unbending, politically-motivatedway of thinking. It is possible that this is merely animpression I had, because at the time, I thought of all NPD members asextremists with dishonest intentions. It is therefore possible that itwasn’t the NPD member who had a distorted view of things, butrather, that I saw him distortedly by my own prejudices. That questionwill never be answered.Politics prevents doubtWhat can one say today about that event? Although I had dealtwith this Holocaust ‘denier’ and was well aware of the reality of thepolitical misuse of the ‘Auschwitz bludgeon’ against the political rightor right-wing oriented people, this did not lead to my doubting thetruth of the usual historical version of the National Socialist persecutionof the Jews. The reason was that I could not, and cannot, take seriouslyany position maintained for obviously political reasons.In the years that followed, I devoted myself chiefly to my studies;in 1986, I had entered the demanding graduate phase of my studieswith subsequent preparation for the Diplom examination. 535 During thisperiod, I abandoned all political activity and withdrew from my workwith German refugee organizations and with my student fraternity.This was due not only to my academic work load, but also because I535 Regarding its difficulty, the German Diplom is almost an equivalent to an Anglo-Saxon PhD.303