The Lüftl Report

An Austrian Engineer's Report on the
"Gas Chambers" of Auschwitz and Mauthausen

In March 1992, a prominent Austrian engineer made headlines when a report
he had written about alleged German wartime gas chambers was made public.
Walter Luftl concluded in his controversial report, "Holocaust: Belief and
Facts," that the well-known stories of mass extermination of Jews in gas
chambers at the wartime camps of Auschwitz and Mauthausen are impossible
for technical reasons and because they are incompatible with observable
laws of nature. Luftl further characterized the often-repeated stories of
Jews being gassed with diesel engine exhaust (at Treblinka, for example) as
a sheer impossibility.

Luftl, 59, is a court-recognized expert engineer and heads a large
engineering firm in Vienna. On the basis of a well-established reputation
as a particularly precise and exact specialist, he was chosen to serve as
president of the Austrian Engineers Chamber (Bundes-Ingenieurkammer), a
professional association of 4,000 members.

In spite of his reputation, he was obliged to resign as president of the
engineers' association in the uproar that followed news reports about his
iconoclastic report. A leading official of the governing People's Party
expressed fear that Luftl's report could harm Austria's image abroad.

A few days later, Austrian police raided Luftl's residence, turning it
inside out in a "Stasi"-like search for possibly "incriminating material"
that might show that he had violated a recently enacted law that makes it a
crime in Austria to deny the "National Socialist crimes against humanity."

To insure that Luftl is not brought into any further legal jeopardy, it
should be stressed that his report is published here (for the first time in
English) without the author's authorization or cooperation. The text has
been slightly edited, and the editor has added some clarifying words in
brackets.

Luftl's report is further authoritative confirmation of the findings of
American gas chamber expert Fred Leuchter, who testified about his on-site
investigation of the supposed "gas chambers" of Auschwitz, Birkenau and
Majdanek in the 1988 trial of German-Canadian publicist Ernst Zundel. (A
deluxe illustrated edition of _The Leuchter Report_, with a foreword by
Robert Faurisson, and an introduction by David Irving, is available from
the IHR for $20.00, plus $2.00 for shipping.)

Luftl's report also corroborates Leuchter's findings from his 1989
investigation of the supposed extermination "gas chamber" at the Mauthausen
camp. (This "Second Leuchter Report" was published in the Fall 1990 IHR
Journal)
The Editor

Holocaust: Belief and Facts

Introductory statement by the author:

The following remarks are intended neither to threaten the democratic
order that has prevailed in the Republic of Austria since 1945, nor to
advocate or promote the reintroduction of National Socialism. These
remarks are intended solely to correct one-sided presentations of
historical events, and to do so taking into consideration the laws of
nature and technical limits, which are of course beyond dispute both
politically and historically.

These remarks are not intended to "quibble over the number of victims" or
to "defame the victims." Rather, they are intended to serve as a
scientific clarification of the number of possible victims on basis of
technical and organizational considerations. These remarks are also
intended to encourage further investigation into the actual events and the
search for truth.

Because "Holocaust literature" tends to be so one-sided, it is
unfortunately not possible to provide a "balanced presentation" here. A
critical examination of the limited area of the overall topic under
discussion has shown that the accounts of "eyewitnesses" in particular have
been immensely exaggerated and unbelievable; so much so that a balancing of
the discussion appeared indispensable. The impossible does not become any
"truer" when it is claimed by many people. In cases of contradiction
between witness testimony and objective proof, the latter takes precedence
in every modern constitutional state. In the case of the "Holocaust,"
though, this has obviously been otherwise.


1. FOREWORD

The author would like to anticipate the proposed introduction of Section
283a of the Criminal Code [of Austria], according to which "the offense...
[has been] committed whenever a person denies the FACT that millions of
human beings, especially Jews, were systematically exterminated in a
genocidal way in the concentration camps of the National Socialist regime."
Such a legal provision could have the effect of rendering the following
remarks punishable, in spite of the fact that they are based on scientific
considerations treated in a manner subject to experimental duplication.


What is the Holocaust?

In the view of those who believe -- or cause others to believe -- in the
[Holocaust], mass gassings, especially of Jews, were carried out in the
concentration camps of the Third Reich. Above all in Auschwitz (hence the
term "Auschwitz Myth"), four million Jews were gassed. [The Nuremberg
Tribunal "established" that four million PEOPLE (Jews and non-Jews) had
been KILLED (by all means) at Auschwitz.] Currently, though, unimpeachable
sources are seeking to reduce this [sic] figure to 1.5 million. On
mathematical grounds alone, the "symbolic figure of Six Million" should be
reduced by 3.5 million. Of course, such a reduction does not lessen the
[gravity of the] crime in any way, because even one victim is one too many.

All the same, the question remains whether mass gassings took place at
all, or could possibly have taken place.

Insofar as possible, the author has carefully examined many reports of
"eyewitnesses," as well as "confessions" of SS men. If one examines the
"eyewitness" testimony, doubts still persist, even if one believes
everything that appears in the Holocaust literature. These doubts become
even greater when one studies the "confessions" of those who were later
found guilty [of crimes].

The author does not "deny" anything. (In proper legal terminology, this
should really mean "to dispute.") He does not wish to minimize or glorify
anything. To use a currently fashionable phrase, he wishes only to
"inquire into" [the truth of] the "Auschwitz myth."

The author wishes to focus on the critical core of the "Auschwitz myth":
the technical possiblities of industrial mass killing with Zyklon B.


Zyklon B is the Cornerstone of the Auschwitz Myth

If Zyklon B is unsuitable for use in "deliberate genocidal
extermination," then the entire Auschwitz extermination story ["Auschwitz-
Mythos"] falls apart. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.


The War of Belief

Because the Auschwitz extermination story ["Auschwitz-Mythos"] has so far
not been subjected to scientific analysis, the discussion has been
dominated by belief. Even intelligent, well-educated people believe in the
"atrocities confirmed by many eyewitnesses." In doing so, they forget that
in any modern constitutional state, forensic evidence and documentary proof
carry more weight than witness testimony.

Witnesses may err; their memories may deceive; witnesses may exaggerate
their own importance and repeat hearsay. Witnesses have also been known to
lie. Even the "confessions" of allegedly guilty individuals (which may be
extorted through torture or obtained through promises of lesser punishment)
are worthless without the support of objective proof. Anyone who doubts
this should check Solzhenitsyn... [In _The Gulag Archipelago_, Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn cites the case of the Bavarian Jupp Aschenbrenner, who
"confessed" to serving in a German wartime murder commando. Only later, in
a camp in 1954, was he able to prove that at the time of the alleged
crimes, he was in Munich learning to be a welder.]

All the arguments against the Holocaust [story] will be meaningless if
people are not willing to accept the truth. In the words of Schopenhauer:


Nothing is more galling
Than to fight with facts and arguments
Against an adversary
In the belief
That one is dealing with his understanding,
When in reality
One is dealing with the wil,
Which obdurately closes its mind to the truth.
One must understand that reason
Applied against the will
Is like seed sown on a bare rock
Like light arrows against armor,
Like the stormwind against a beam of light.


Nothing can be done for those who do not want to face the truth. But
perhaps, after reading the following, some will be ready to WANT to
comprehend.


The Gas Chambers

According to the Holocaust literature, the victims were "packed" into the
gas chambers and then poisoned with hydrogen cyanide (Prussian Blue) vapors
from Zyklon B. The bodies were burned in crematory ovens, and the ashes
were strewn on hillsides or in water.


Organizational Problems

Because certain organizational problems arise even in mass extermination
-- for example, varying killing capacities of the gas chambers or varying
crematory capacities in disposing of the bodies -- it should be obvious even
at this point that events cannot have transpired as described in the
Holocaust literature. We shall nevertheless limit our discussion to the
essentials.


The Handling of Zyklon B

What is Zyklon B? Zyklon B is a pest control agent, the active
ingredient of which is Prussian Blue (hydrocyanic acid, HCN).

Hydrocyanic acid is a highly toxic, highly flammable liquid that
vaporizes at 25.7 degrees Celsius. The vapors released upon evaporation
are lighter than air (density: 0.95). The ignition point of hydrocyanic
acid is 535 degrees Celsius, but the acid can be ignited at temperatures as
low as -17.8 degrees Celsius. The explosion point in air at 20 degrees
Celsius ranges from 5.4 to 46.6 percent by volume percent, or between 60
and 520 grams per cubic meter (m3).

Among other uses, gaseous hydrogen cyanide is used as a fumigant gas.

What is the effect of hydrogen cyanide gas on human beings?

-- 10 ml/m3 is harmless over an eight-hour exposure;

-- 90 ml/m3 is dangerous or fatal upon protracted exposure;

-- 80-270 ml/m3 is rapidly fatal. Alcohol, even if consumed in only
small quantities prior to exposure, dangerously enhances the effects of
cyanide gas.


For safe handling, hydrocyanic acid is absorbed in diatomite (following
the admixture of an irritant for safety purposes), and is stored and
transported in air-tight metal cans. The product is generally used within
three months. Because the Zyklon B manufacturing facilities were totally
destroyed in bombing attacks in early 1944, gassings with Zyklon B could
not have taken place after the summer of 1944.

The trade weight of the cans was 100, 200, 500, 1000, and 15000 grams HCN
content. The total weight of a can corresponds to approximately three
times the HCN content.

Hydrocyanic acid vapors are not released immediately after the cans are
opened. The evaporation of Zyklon B requires as many as 32 hours or as few
as six hours, depending on whether the ambient temperature ranges from five
to 30 degrees Celsius. The evaporation rate is not exactly proportional to
time.


The Gassing Procedure According to the Holocaust Literature

The victims were led to the gas chambers, which were disguised as shower
baths, and were deceived by being handed soap and a towel. But what for?
Who takes a shower holding a towel in his hands? But let's not detain
ourselves with such trivia.

It is said, for example, that a hundred victims were packed into a
chamber of 20 square meters, that is, five persons per square meter.
(Witnesses sometimes speak of as many as 25 victims per square meter.) At
five persons per square meter, the victims wouldn't even be able to soap
themselves, due to lack of space. So what would they need the soap for?
Soap was a commodity in short supply, but was permitted to fall on the
floor unused, and become unusable. But let's move along.

The doors of the 2.5 meter-high chamber were hermetically sealed. An SS
man wearing a gas mask threw in Zyklon B, a mixture of hydrocyanic acid and
irritant (added as a warning substance, since some people cannot smell
hydrocyanic acid, the odor of which peculiarly resembles that of bitter
almonds) absorbed in a carrier substance, from a can containing 200 grams
of HCN in each case, from above. (This is the usual procedure described in
the Holocaust literature. According to some sources, it was done
differently only at Mauthausen.) The mixture fell to the floor, and the
hydrocyanic acid began to escape. The gassing procedure normally lasted 15
to 20 minutes. (According to some sources, it lasted from five to as long
as 30 minutes.)

Assuming that the floor temperature was 25 degrees Celsius (which is
quite warm, since the gas chambers were mostly cold, damp cellars), let us
also conservatively assume a gassing time of one half hour. After one half
hour, there would have been at most 16 grams of HCN in the air of the
chamber. The volume of air would be 44 cubic meters. (That is, 50 cubic
meters, minus the volume of the victims, estimated at six cubic meters,
assuming an estimated average body wieght of 60 kilograms per person, which
would mean a volume of 6 cubic meters for the victims.) The hydrocyanic
acid content in the air of the chamber would thus have been 363.6 mg/m3.
(That is, 16,000 mg/44 m3 = 363.6 mg/m3.) That certainly would have been
enough to kill them. (That is, 270 ml/m3 x 1.23 = approximately 330
mg/m3.)

The one hundred victims would now therefore be dead, if we assume that
the hydrocyanic acid did not condense on the cold ambient surfaces inside
the room--perhaps the room was pre-heated to a comfortable temperature.

At this point, the "chief of the gassing operation" looked through a
peephole in the door to see whether any of the victims showed signs of
life. But just how he could have done that at Mauthausen, looking through
a peephole 1.20 meters above the ground in a door that is only 1.68 m high,
is a matter that merits further study.

How could he see anything when the victims were "packed together," and
therefore could not fall down even in the remotest corners of the room?
Nevertheless, after a brief look, the SS executioners turned on the
ventilators to air out the gas chamber. And here we hit the first snag.
The ventilators must, of course, have been exhausters. For them to work
(that is, to exchange the air in the chamber), the gas chambers would have
to have been equipped with air intake channels and chimneys equipped with
blowers. Nothing of this sort has ever been found in any [alleged
homicidal] gas chamber!

Are the Nazis supposed to have caused all of this equipment to disappear
without a trace in the confusion of defeat? Apart from that, some
concentration camps were liberated intact by the Allies.

The ventilation lasted 30 minutes, and, finally, the door was opened (!)
to determine whether the room was gas-free. "The gassing chiefs, wearing
gas masks" carefully held up a strip of [chemically sensitized] paper
inside [the chamber]. When the room was free of gas, the doors were opened
and the BLUE [skin-colored] corpses were taken by prisoner members of the
crematory work team to the morgue, or straight to the crematory. (However,
any textbook on toxicology will confirm that the skin color of victims of
hydrocyanic acid poisoning is RED.) Then the gas chambers--heavily soiled
with blood, excrement, and vomit--were cleaned.

What is the evidence against such a procedure? Zyklon B!

Holocaust writers have overlooked the fact that, during the ventilation
process, Zyklon B would still have retained 92 percent of its hydrocyanic
acid content, and would thus continue merrily on its way, releasing
hydrocyanic acid gas. At 25 degrees Celsius, it would continue to do so
for fully 15 1/2 hours, and even longer yet at lower temperatures.

Of course, one could have sent work team members into the gas chamber
wearing gas masks and protective clothing to remove the Zyklon B [carrier
material], which would at that point still be only partially gas-free. But
just how they could remove this [carrier material] from the midst of the
tightly packed piles of corpses covered with excrement, vomit and blood,
defies explanation.

The bodies could have been removed, and the gas chamber then cleaned,
only by men wearing gas masks and protective clothing. But this would mean
a huge pile of excrement, vomit, and similar material, thorougly
contaminated with 184 grams of hydrocyanic acid (which would still continue
to evaporate, although slowly.) But the remaining 184 grams of hydrocyanic
acid would still be enough to kill approximately 3,000 persons (at 0.001
gram per kilogram, assuming an average body weight of 60 kg per person).

This is the flaw in the Holocaust literature!

How did they get rid of the remaining Zyklon B from the midst of the one
hundred corpses, without lengthy ventilation periods, and without causing
mass deaths outside the gas chamber?

The procedure described above might have worked at Mauthausen, if people
were really gassed at intervals of weeks or months. If we are to believe
Hans Marsalek, the Mauthausen "historian," an interval of 17 months elapsed
between the fourth and fifth gassings at Mauthausen (April 17, 1943, and
September 25, 1944). But at Auschwitz, people are said to have been gassed
[continuously] on an industrial basis.

In fact, Zyklon B is utterly unsuited for purposes of systematic mass
murder. It can be used to FUMIGATE, and it could be used to gas a group of
persons occasionally. But for time considerations alone, quasi-industrial
killing would simply be impossible.

Although the Prussic (hydrocyanic) acid contained in Zyklon B can, of
course, kill quickly and certainly, the handling requirements for Zyklon B
and the circumstances involved rule out any significant use for the mass
killing of people. This eliminates Zyklon B as a direct instrument of the
Holocaust. The "eyewitness accounts" in this regard are false. The
witnesses could never have seen an actual gassing. The events described
never took place.

There remains the possiblity of Zyklon B being used as a carrier material
for hydrocyanic acid in gas generators.

The description of the [gassing] procedure given during a trial before
the German district court [Landesgericht] at Hagen suggests the existence
of a gas generator of almost ingenious simplicity of design. (The evidence
for gassing in the Mauthausen camp was provided by the document archives of
the Austrian Resistance Center [DOeW].)

In this case, Zyklon B was not thrown in from above. (Even though this
is what a commemorative plaque tells us, Marsalek reports it differently.)
Why this brilliant procedure was never used in other concentration camps
remains a mystery. At Mauthausen, the gas generator consisted of a sheet
metal box with a lid, in which a hot brick (that had been heated in the
open fire of the crematorium) was laid. This means that the SS could have
gassed people only when bodies were already being burned. Zyklon B was
then strewn onto this hot brick. But because of the temperature, this
would mean an explosively rapid vaporization of the gas, resulting in an
explosion of the HCN itself.

This version of gas generation may clearly be relegated to the realm of
fairy tales. But it was believed by the Hagen district court, just like
the fairy tale of BLUE (actually, RED) victims of hydrogen cyanide
poisoning. [The red coloring is confirmed, for example, in: _Allgemeine
und spezielle Pharmakologie und Toxikologie_ (Dr. W. Forth, et al., eds.),
Mannheim, 4th ed., p. 645.]

Nothing is known of any other gas generators.


Summary

An absolutely unabridged study of the problem must conclude that, by and
large, the views of the so-called "Revisionists"--the so-called "deniers"--
are far more in line with the laws of nature, logic, and technical
realities than the accounts in the Holocaust literature (in which,
moreover, scientifically verifiable data is generally lacking). When, as
an exception, verifiable data is given in the Holocaust literature, a
critical examination of such data leads to absurd results (25 persons per
square meter, and so forth).

The decisive error in the Holocaust literature is the belief that the
hydrocyanic acid contained in Zyklon B could be fully released in the
alleged time span of 15-30 minutes required for the gassing, and that the
carrier material would simultaneously and completely vaporize like a moth
ball. The [fact of the] residue of Zyklon B makes the Auschwitz
extermination story ["Auschwitz-Mythos"] obsolete.


2. THE GERSTEIN REPORT: AN "EYEWITNESS REPORT" OF MASS GASSINGS

Preliminary note: The "Gerstein Report" discussed here is the
"confession" of an "informed" SS man, and is a cornerstone of the Holocaust
literature. It should therefore be critically examined for its technical correctness with regard to the reported mass gassing.

Note: The quotations [from the "Gerstein Report" given] here are from the
book Der Nationalsozialismus: Dokumente, 1933-1945 , W. Hofer, ed., Fischer, 1957, pp. 307-311.

First of all, this writer has made a remarkable observation: the terms
"Zyklon B" and "mass gassings with hydrocyanic acid" appear nowhere in the
entire chapter [about persecution and extermination of Jews]. Didn't Hofer
think that they were worth mentioning in 1957?

According to the book Judenfeindschaft: Darstellung und Analysen
["Hostility to Jews: Description and Analysis"], (K. Thieme, ed.), Fischer,
1963 (p. 277), Gerstein was assigned "...to pick up 100 kilograms of
hydrocanic acid. Gerstein carried out the order, and became an eyewitness
to the extermination of Jews in the concentration camp at Belzec..."
Apparently he must have left the hydrocyanic acid in his luggage once he
got there, because [according to Gerstein] he witnessed a gassing [there]
with carbon monoxide.

Was the Zyklon B story invented between 1957 and 1963? This is a
possible subject of research for contemporary historians! But back to the
"eyewitness."

Gerstein relates:

...The rooms are five by five meters, and 1.90 meters high...The SS
forced 700-900 people into 25 squre meters, 45 cubic meters. [Actually:
47.5 cubic meters.] The doors close...The people are to be put to death
with diesel exhaust gas. But the diesel doesn't work!...Yes, I see
everything! And I wait. My stop watch has recorded everything
perfectly. Fifty minutes, 70 minutes, the diesel still won't start! The
people wait in their gas chambers. In vain. We hear them cry, sob...
After two hours and 49 minutes--the stop watch has registered everything
--the diesel starts...Another 25 minutes go by...After 28 minutes, only a
few of them are still alive. Finally after 32 minutes, all are dead...

"Eyewitness" Gerstein never saw a gassing. He produced an absurd
confession, perhaps to alert others that this atrocity story was extorted
out of him. This writer wonders why the people who have used this
confession never examined it in its physical and physiological aspects.
They overlooked that any confession requires technical examination. A
confession can become a liability if used without examination. The
Gerstein Report is a particularly important indication of the incorrectness
of the Holocaust literature. Nothing reveals the absurdity of this
"eyewitness report" more than an examination of the verifiable facts
described.

There were [according to Gerstein] 700-800 persons -- that is, an average
of 750 persons--in the chamber, weighing an average of 60 kilograms, and
with a density of approximately one [sic], a volume of 45 cubic meters
(m3).

How the people could be "packed" into a room measuring 47.5 cubic meters
is a mystery. Such an attempt would be absurd and unthinkable. At the
most, ten persons can fit into one square meter. (Using rather slender
persons, experimentation has usually yielded a result of eight persons.)

Two hundred and fifty persons displace 15 cubic meters, which means an
air volume of 32.5 cubic meters (47.5 - 15 = 32.5). The breathing time
volume (BTV) of those people will amount, on the average, to 7.5 liters per
minute. Therefore, 250 people will require 250 x 60 x 7.5 / 1000 = 112.5
cubic meters of air to breathe in one hour. In 32.5 cubic meters of room
space, this air, therefore, will pass through the lungs of the people shut
up in that room 3.45 times in one hour. It will therefore take 17 minutes
and 20 seconds for the air to pass through their lungs once.

Dry air contains approximately 21 percent oxygen and only traces of
carbon dioxide. Exhaled air contains approximately 15 percent oxygen and
4.4 percent carbon dioxide, as well as six percent water vapor. After 34
minutes and 40 seconds, the air will have been passed through their lungs a
second time, and will now contain approximately ten percent oxygen, but
already eight percent carbon dioxide. After a (hypothetical) third passage
through the lungs, the air in the chamber would contain approximately five
percent oxygen, but at least eleven percent carbon dioxide, after only 52
minutes.

But unconsciousness and anoxia would have appeared after 30 to 45
minutes. And five minutes of anoxia means brain death.

Therefore, the people in the "gas chamber" could not, first of all, have
waited two hours and 49 minutes for the diesel engine to start. Nor could
they have cried and sobbed after 50 minutes of hopeless waiting. They
would certainly have been dead by that time. And how could 700-800
people--assuming they could be packed or forced into the chamber at all--
have breathed at all if they were "packed together"? They would have been
unconscious soon after the doors closed, and in another five minutes they
would have been dead.

The Gerstein Report is no report, but a whopping lie. This "eyewitness"
(or rather, those who told him what to write, or who made it up themselves)
was lying! As shown by the calculations given above, this "eyewitness" is
quite obviously lying.


3. MASS GASSINGS WITH DIESEL ENGINE EXHAUST GAS

In addition to the "Gerstein Report," there are a number of reports that
describe the "genocidal extermination of millions of people, particularly
Jews" in gas chambers in the concentration camps of the National Socialist
regime, as well as reports of so-called "gas vans." In addition to Prussic
acid [HCN] gas, which came from the pest control agent Zyklon B, carbon
monoxide from diesel exhaust gas was [reportedly] also used.

It is true that carbon monoxide is a dangerous poison. The many
unemployed people in Vienna who, during the 1930s, used illumination [coal]
gas (which contained carbon monoxide) to commit suicide were very well
aware of that. [On the toxicity of carbon monoxide, see, for example:
Allgemeine und spezielle Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, Dr. W. Forth, et
al., eds, Mannheim, 4th ed., pp. 643-645.]

The toxicity of carbon monoxide is undisputed. As always, though, the
question remains: How could this dangerous poison have been applied to the
victims in a quasi-industrial manner?

First, permit me to digress: According to the Holocaust literature,
submarine motors and tank diesel engines are supposed to have been used.
These details are intended to enhance the credibility of the claims. It is
nevertheless worth noting that submarine motors, or any other kind of
ship's diesel engines, were not readily available, and that German tanks --
incomprehensibly, due to the greater fuel consumption and considerably
greater danger of fire in the event of a direct hit -- were exclusively
equipped with spark-ignition (gasoline) engines. The only diesel motors
available would have been those from captured tanks after the beginning of
the Russian campaign. However, their use would hardly have been advisable
due to the difficulty of obtaining spare parts. But that is beside the
point, only a noteworthy detail.

What the Holocaust writers have obviously overlooked is the fact that
diesel motors are particularly unsuited for the efficient production of
carbon monoxide (CO). The SS would have gone over to spark-ignition
[gasoline] engines immediately after the first attempts to kill the victims
with diesel exhaust gases. Spark-ignition engines can certainly produce
eight-percent carbon monoxide by volume with poor idle adjustment, but
diesels are practically CO free.


Table of exhaust components in percent by volume

carbon water oxygen hydrogen nitrogen carbon
dioxide monoxide
CO2 H2O O2 H2 N2 CO

Spark-ignition engines

idle 6.5-8 7-10 1-1.5 0.5-4 71 4-6
full throttle 7-13 9-11 0.1-2 0.1-1 74-76 1-4

Diesel engines

idle 3.5 3.5 16 --- 77 0.05!
full throttle 5.5-7 7 10-12 0-0.1 77 0.1-0.3!

air inhaled 0 21 79
air exhaled 4 6 15 75


As this table clearly shows (it is the "idle" column that is important
here), spark-ignition [gasoline] engines deliver up to 120 times as much
carbon monoxide (CO) [as diesel engines], and diesel exhaust gases cannot
produce enough CO.

And something else is interesting here: This table includes information
about the content of air inhaled and exhaled during ordinary breathing. If
the reader compares these figures with those of diesel exhaust gases, he
will quickly notice that this [diesel exhaust] is less toxic. The amount
of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is also poisonous gas, is less, the amount
of carbon monoxide (CO) is negligible, and the amounts of oxygen and
nitrogen are nearly the same. Just what does this mean in plain language?

It means that nobody can be gassed with diesel exhaust. Instead, victims
would more readily suffocate from using up the oxygen in the "gas tight"
chambers. In fact, if diesel exhaust gas is introduced into the chamber,
the people inside would actually receive more oxygen than they would from
breathing the air in the closed chamber after it was passed twice through
their lungs!

This [twice-breathed] air would have only ten percent oxygen left in it,
but would already contain eight percent carbon dioxide. The oxygen content
would continue to drop as the people [in the chamber] continue breathing,
and the carbon dioxide (CO2) content would continue to rise. Anoxia
(oxygen deprivation) would occur very quickly, and five minutes after that,
the end would come quickly through brain death.

The victims--who would otherwise die quickly--would easily live longer as
a result of "gassing" with diesel exhaust, because of its high oxygen
content. This means that the diesel engine is not suited for quick
killing, assuming this could be done at all. On the other hand, if the
victims were gassed with exhaust from spark-ignition engines, death would
come much more quickly as a result of oxygen deprivation and the high
carbon dioxide (CO2) content than death by carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning.

Any executioner would have chosen spark-ignition [gasoline] engines to
suffocate victims in the gas chamber: the first time he tried a diesel
motor, it would quickly become obvious that he had chosen the wrong method
of execution.

Furthermore, a diesel motor with a five liter displacement running at
1000 revolutions per minute would create an overpressure of one (1)
atmosphere after ten minutes in a 50-cubic meter (m3) large air-tight
chamber, and two (2) atmospheres after 20 minutes. That's more than the
air pressure inside an automobile tire. This means that after ten minutes,
there would be twelve tons of pressure against the "gas chamber door," and
24 tons after 20 minutes. (The measurements of the door at Mauthausen are
72 x 166 cm.) How long would it take to blow open the door?

This proves that the testimonies about mass killings with diesel exhaust
gas (such as given in the Gerstein Report) are objectively untrue. They do
not stand up to scientific examination.


4. THE FLAMES FROM THE CHIMNEYS

In the Holocaust literature one can often read reports of eyewitnesses
who saw dense smoke coming from the chimneys of the crematories in German
concentration camps. Inmates also often saw flames "many meters long"
shooting out of the chimneys. People with especially good eyesight even
saw such phenomena from as far away as 20 kilometers from Auschwitz.

Mauthausen "historian" and state official [Hofrat] Hans Marsalek writes
(in the book Das war Mauthausen, p. 14, point 18, "Bunker"):


...Below the bunker was the first crematorium. Its fire burned day and
night, and the glare of the flame shooting out of the chimney could be
seen far away in the Danube valley...


All these "eyewitnesses" (who are now commonly referred to as
"contemporary witnesses") are telling conscious untruths when they report
such things, unless they are the victims of an optical illusion. Only they
themselves know if they are lying.

The origin of such tales is obvious, even if those who speak loosely
without any technical knowledge achieve exactly the opposite effect by it:
they are thinking of an open fire, which burns higher as more wood is put
on it. This is supposed to make the story of mass cremations--of more and
more people--appear more credible. These people confuse a midsummer
bonfire with a crematory oven.

First, we will make two demands upon the reader's knowledge of geometry
and sense of logic:

1. Geometry: From a distance of 20 kilometers, even over the
Neusiedlersee [Neusiedl Lake] (which is quite flat), the influence of the
curvature of the earth is enough to cut off any possible visual contact
between the eye of the observer and any high chimney or high flame, even
from a high vantage point (such as the roof of a railroad car, since the
"eyewitnesses" were railroad workers). In the vicinity of Auschwitz,
furthermore, there were gently rolling hills, which were nevertheless
sufficient to shield the installations from view.

2. Logic: Why did the Germans lay a smoke screen over the "Hermann Goring
Works" in Linz, and order strict blackouts if, at the same time, (according
to Marsalek) "...the glare of the flame shooting out of the chimney could
be seen far away in the Danube valley..."? This would have been a beacon
for US bombers. (I can just hear the co-pilot reporting to the pilot:
"John. I see the lights of Mauthausen straight ahead! Now five degrees
[to the] west for Hermann!"). Nobody can believe this.

Turning now to technology, because objective proof is always far more
conclusive than witness testimony.

In the book Bauentwurfslehre ["Textbook on Construction Design"] by
Ernst Neufert (Ullstein Fachverlag, 1962), p. 423, one can read:

Cremation takes place in special ovens which are coke-fired,
electically-fired (cremation of a body requires about 45 Kw of energy),
or gas-fired...[and is] entirely free of smoke [Staub] or odor.

(This puts an end to the fairy tales of noticeable odor of the cremated
corpses!)

[The cremation] takes place in dry air heated to 900-1,000 degrees
[Celsius], that is without the flame coming into contact with the dead
[body]. The oven is heated before-hand for two to three hours, and the
cremation process itself requires between an hour and a quarter and an
hour and a half.

(See aso the Meyer and Brockhaus standard reference works.)

Thus, technology also establishes that the crematory capacity could never
have kept pace with the number of bodies in the "genocidal mass gassings of
millions of people," and that therefore the bodies could NOT have been
disposed of in sufficient quantity by burning.

That no "flame many meters high" could shoot out of the chimney should be
clear to anyone who has ever watched the burning of wood in an open
fireplace, or who watched the grilling of pieces of meat (a preliminary
stage of cremation) on a charcoal fire.

Contrary to popular belief, corpses are not combustible materials.
Cremation of bodies requires large quantities of fuel. (With a wooden
coffin of 40 kilograms, and assuming 50 percent total efficiency of
combustion, 45 kilowatts [of electrical energy] corresponds to about 15
kilograms of coke, or eight cubic meters of natural gas.)

The cremation of four million people using coke would alone require at
least 50 kilograms [per body], which would mean about 200,000 tons of coke!

It is also senseless (and technically impossible) to speak of cremating
several corpses at the same time in the same oven (witnesses have claimed
as many as ten bodies at a time!), because this would exceed the capacity
of the oven.

And what about the flames? Coke is a short-flamed fuel. The flame could
not even exceed the confines of the burning chamber. In addition, there is
a short exhaust channel, the flue, between the oven and the chimney. The
chimney only comes after that. So, using [such] short-flamed solid fuels,
there wouldn't be any "flame." At most, there would be exhaust fumes at a
temperature of 180 degrees Celsius. Otherwise, the chimney would soon be
ruined. Therefore, after traversing eight or ten meters of chimney, no
flame could be visible outside. (The chimney length is determined by the
required draw, not the length of the flame.) Not even a reflection would
be visible because it would be lost in the flue. I always wonder why the
judges who believed such testimony never at least asked a chimney sweep
about this, even if they didn't consult an expert. Only "contemporary
historians" and a series of courts have ever accepted these tales of
"contemporary witnesses" about "flames many meters high" shooting out of
the crematoria chimneys.

On this subject as well, it might be noted that the objections of
"Revisionists" are far more in harmony with the laws of nature and
technology than the tales of the Holocaust writers.


5. MASS GASSINGS IN MAUTHAUSEN

Before dealing with the question of whether a [homicidal] gas chamber
existed at Mauthausen at all, a few facts--based on unimpeachable sources--
should first be noted. The following sources have been used:

A) Hans Marsalek, Die Geschichte der Konzentrationslager Mauthausen
["The History of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp"] (Vienna: 1974 and
1980)
B) Hans Marsalek, Giftgas in Mauthausen ["Poison Gas in Mauthausen"]
(Vienna: 1988)
C) Hans Marsalek, Mauthausen: Fuhrer durch die Gedenkstatte
["Mauthausen: Guide to the Memorial Site"] (Vienna)
D) Martin Gilbert, Auschwitz und die Allierten (Munich: 1982) [English-
language edition: i]

The following statements are taken from the above sources:

According to H. Marsalek, Giftgas in Mauthausen, p. 15:
On November 19, 1943, 38 Soviet citizens were GASSED.
According to H. Marsalek, Die Geschichte der Konzentrationslager
Mauthausen, p. 227: On November 19, 1943, 38 Soviet citizens were SHOT.

If those aren't contradictions, what is?

According to H. Marsalek, Giftgas in Mauthausen (1988), p. 15:
1. Gassing on May 9, 1942: 231 Soviet prisoners of war.
But according to H. Marsalek, Die Geschichte (1974/1980), it was only
208.

2. Gassing on October 24, 1942: 261 Czechs.
But according to H. Marsalek, Die Geschichte (1974/1980), it was only
128.

3. Gassing on January 26, 1943: 31 Czechs.
But according to H. Marsalek, Die Geschichte (1974/1980), it was only 15.

4. Gassing on April 17, 1943: 59 Soviet citizens and five Poles.

5. Gassing on September 25, 1944: 138 Soviet citizens and one Pole.
But according to H. Marsalek, Die Geschichte (1974/1980), it was only 110
Soviet citizens.

And so forth.

To sum up here:

According to H. Marsalek, Giftgas in Mauthausen (1988), the sum total,
up to September 9, 1944, is 726 persons.
But, according to H. Marsalek, Die Geschichte der Konzentrationslager
Mauthausen (1974 and 1980), the sum total, up to September 9, 1944, is 526
persons.

It is worth noting here that more than 17 months elapsed between the
fourth and fifth gassings.

We are further given to understand--from H. Marsalek, Die Geschichte der
Konzentrationslager Mauthausen -- that Zyklon B was already delivered on
September 22, 1941, and was again delivered on July 7, 1942, on April 28,
1943, July 1, 1943, and November 5, 1943, in the amount of 240 kg of
cyanide content for each delivery.

Zyklon B was therefore already being delivered long before the
[homicidal] "gas chamber" was [supposedly] put into operation, and was
thereafter delivered in quantities exceeding the requirement for executions
in a "gas chamber" by many thousands of percent. This may be proven by the
following calculations:

The fatal dose would amount to 180-270 ml/m3, or 220-330 mg/m3. (Source:
Supplement [Beilage] ./D, Merkblatt M 002 der Berufgenossenschaft der
chemischen Industrie, p. 9.)

The volume of the "gas chamber" was approximately 35 cubic meters (3.70 x
3.90 x 2.46). Subtracting a volume of approximately two cubic meters for
the people to be gassed, the chamber therefore contains a volume of 33
cubic meters of air. Assuming a CERTAIN fatal dose of one gram per cubic
meter (or about 3 to 4.5 times as much as would really be required to
kill), per gassing 33 grams are required, or 1.1 grams of hydrocyanic acid
per person. Assuming five grams per person--conservatively assuming a 22
percent degree of efficiency of the cyanide content in Zyklon B for
purposes of yielding cyanide gas--the 2,481 persons (according to H.
Marsalek, _Giftgas_) could have been killed 10 to 20 times over with 12
kilograms. So why did they deliver more than one ton between September 22,
1941, and November 11, 1943, even though only 526 persons could have been
gassed up to September 25, 1944, according to H. Marsalek, _Die Geschichte
der Konzentrationslager Mauthausen_? Or was the Zyklon B used only for
delousing and pest control? The actual requirement for the certain killing
of 526 persons is about one half kilogram.

According to H. Marsalek, Giftgas in Mauthausen, p. 233:

On August 19, 1944, 457 (or 456) Jewish prisoners were sent to Auschwitz.
On August 28, 1944, 419 arrived [at the camp].

And according to M. Gilbert, Auschwitz und die Allierten, p. 362 [or,
Auschwitz and the Allies, p. 308]:

A train with 417 [or 429] persons arrived at Auschwitz from Mauthausen on
August 22, 1944. Of this number, 93 were transferred to the work camp, and
326 were gassed.

A close look at the above reveals something remarkable. The question
arises: Why did the Nazis, who possessed a properly functioning gas chamber
at Mauthausen (but one which, at this point in time, apparently had not
been used for 17 months), first transport the 326 Jews for three (or nine)
days to Auschwitz, and then immediately gas them? Why didn't they gas them
right away in Mauthausen?

According to H. Marsalek, Giftgas in Mauthausen, p. 15:

The gassing operations in Mauthausen first really began in earnest on March
23 (or 27), 1945. Up until April 28, 1945, there were nine gassings, and
up to the period between May 9, 1942, and February 19, 1945, also only
nine.

According to H. Marsalek, Die Geschichte der Konzentrationslager
Mauthausen, gassings took place on just 18 days, with 1,980 victims. But
according to H. Marsalek (the same author), in Giftgas in Mauthausen,
there were 2,481 victims!

In H. Marsalek, Mauthausen: Fuhrer durch die Gedenkstatte, p. 12, a
document is cited. This is a communication from the SS Economic and
Administrative Main Office (WVHA), dated Nov. 10, 1943, to the commandants
of the concentration camps. Among other things, it reads:

The bordello and the crematories are not to be shown during camp
visits. These installations are not to be mentioned to persons visiting
the camp...

Aparently, then, EVERYTHING ELSE could be shown and mentioned to
visitors. Logically, then, a GAS CHAMBER, if one existed, could be shown
and talked about; otherwise, it would have been included in the
prohibition.

Since we cannot assume that the SS ever showed a [homicidal] gas chamber
to the inspectors of the International Red Cross, it is permissible to
conclude that none existed.

Conclusions

Why was Zyklon B delivered for a year prior to the [alleged homicidal]
gassings? Obviously, for pest control and delousing! Delousing chambers
are in Mauthausen even today, but there is no structure capable of being
used as a [homicidal] gas chamber.

Why was nobody gassed for 17 months even though there [supposedly] was a
working gas chamber? Why did they send hundreds of people during this
period to Auschwitz for gassing? Obviously, in fact, because nobody was
ever gassed in Mauthausen as part of any "systematic genocide."

Why would a gas chamber be built if, during a period of more than three
and a half years, it was used on only 18 days, and if the adjacent
installation--where people were shot in the back of the neck (according to
H. Marsalek in _Giftgas in Mauthausen_)--worked three times as efficiently?

The answer is that the room shown today as a gas chamber was never used
for that purpose, and--for technical and physical reasons--never could have
been used for that purpose. It was very probably the shower room for the
crematory personnel, although its use as a morgue cannot be excluded.

Anyone familiar with the danger involved in handling hydrocyanic acid gas
(which is explosive and extremely toxic) must wonder why the SS
executioners didn't use carbon dioxide gas--which is easier to handle and
completely harmless to the executioner--to kill the prisoners who were
allegedly poisoned with Zyklon.

Any textbook on physiology confirms that in the event of anoxia (oxygen
deprivation), disturbances of brain functioning appear after five seconds,
followed by unconsciousness after 15 seconds, and brain death after five
minutes. This is how animals are put to sleep, painlessly and surely. It
also works with people.

But according to Marsalek (in _Giftgas in Mauthausen_, p. 10), instead of
blowing carbon dioxide (CO2) into the "gas chamber," the Nazis sprinkled
Zyklon B onto a brick heated on a shovel in the crematory oven to generate
cyanide gas!


6. CARBON MONOXIDE GAS IN FLASKS

The allegation is also found in Holocaust literature that gas chamber
victims were suffocated using carbon monoxide (CO).

In Hans Marsalek's work, _Vergasungsaktionen im Konzentrationslager
Mauthausen: Die Gaskammer im Schloss Hartheim_ ["Gassings Actions in the
Mauthausen Concentration Camp: The Gas Cahmber in the Hartheim Castle"],
pp. 21 ff., we read:


...People were apparently first gassed in Hartheim with carbon monoxide
gas on June 6, 1940...New supplies of steel flasks with poison gas...were
provided...Poison gas streamed through this pipe, which was always blown
in from a steel flask located in the next room...


This allegation can also be found in the indictment of the Prosecuting
Attorney of Linz, dated July 20, 1947 (3 St 466/46).

In Simon Wiesenthal's book, _Doch die Morder Leben_ (Droemer Knaur), 1967
[US edition: _The Murderers Among Us_], p. 385, on the photo of the site
diagram of Hartheim Castle, the gas flask storage area [Gasflaschenlager]
is marked, right next to the "gassing area" [Vergasungsraum].

(Interestingly, Wiesenthal refers in this book to eleven million people
supposedly gassed [sic] by the Nazis. As part of the downward trend, this
figure has been reduced to six million. The figure continues to fall, and
because of the recent subtraction of three million from the Auschwitz
figure, the grant total must now be three million.)

That this diagram is actually a forgery fits, of course, with the general
pattern. ([Specifically:] Captions and, therefore, room designations, were
not made with a typewriter. Instead, the diagram designations were made
with standard script or block letters. And a "gas chamber" with a window
is technical nonsense. The handwritten word "crematory" has been added to
the words "oven room," apparently to criminalize the heating system. Given
the lack of space, the question of precisely how the bodies were
[supposedly] brought into the ovens is a matter worthy of some
consideration. And the word "Sektierkammer" [dissection chamber] was
obviously added by someone who is not entirely familiar with the German
language.)

Gassing by means of carbon monoxide from flasks is technical nonsense.
Carbon monoxide (CO) could only have been filled and stored in high
pressure steel flasks, which would have been extremely expensive to fill,
and even more expensive to transport. Anyone engaged in quasi-industrial
mass killing could generate carbon monoxide in large quantities by simply
using a spark-ignition (gasoline) engine, with a suitably "bad" (but for
this purpose quite logical) carburetor adjustment. With just one liter of
gasoline, and set at idle, such an engine can deliver many cubic meters of
[deadly] exhaust in a very short time. This exhaust would not have any
oxygen content, but would have eight, ten, 15 or even 20 percent carbon
monoxide content. It would also be produced cheaply and on the spot, and
at a fraction of the cost of the fuel required for the transport of any
"gas flasks."

Once again, it must be stated that the Nazis may have been criminals, but
they were certainly not stupid enough to use approximately one hundred
liters of gasoline to produce a quantity of carbon monoxide that they could
easily have manufactured on the spot using a couple of liters of gasoline.

In addition, carbon monoxide was produced in chemical plants and was a
basic element for [the production of] synthetic gasoline. If for no other
reason, the story of "carbon monoxide in flasks" for mass killing appears
improbable because of the energy required to compress it, transport it in
filled high pressure flasks, and then release it later at atmospheric
pressure during use.

Thus, the last remaining cornerstone of the mass gassing story is
relegated to the class of technical fairy tales rather than scientifically
proven fact. This applies to gassings whether by:

--hydrocyanic acid used in the manner described above (that is, by
throwing in Zyklon B from above),

--exhaust gas from diesel engines, or

--carbon monoxide in flasks,

whether in stational "gas chambers" or in so-caled "gas vans."

The mass gassing story is certainly not a "fact of common knowledge"!

Had the Nazis really wished to "gas" (or, more accurately, to
"suffocate") people on a quasi-industrial basis ("systematic genocide"),
they certainly would have turned to carbon dioxide gas (CO2), which would
have been absolutely harmless to the executioners and cheap to produce,
instead of hydrocyanic acid (HCN) in Zyklon B or carbon monoxide (CO).

Anyone who does not believe this should take care to read the newspaper
accounts of frequent accidents with fermentation gas which occur every year
in the springtime in Austrian wine cellars.

Carbon dioxide kills quickly, painlessly and surely.


7. THE ATTEMPTED REFUTATION OF THE LEUCHTER REPORT

Leuchter states that "the gas chambers at Auschwitz were not used to kill
human beings with Zyklon B, because they could not be heated and had
insufficient ventilation installations."

In this regard, the author H. Auerbach, writing in a statement on "The
So-Called Leuchter Report," issued in November 1989 by the [semi-official
German] Institut fur Zeitgeschichte ["Institute of Contemporary History"]
in Munich, stated:


Leuchter fails to consider that even in a much larger room (Note:
compared to a US execution gas chamber), this temperature (of evaporation
of hydrogen cyanide) would be reached very quickly if it were packed full
of people, and that therefore no heating at all is required.


Like so many Holocaust writers, Auerbach is mistaken.

An experiment was carried out by this writer to simulate the heating of a
chamber by human beings.

The dimensions of the chamber were as follows: Floor area: 5.43 square
meters. Height: 2.45 meters. Volume: 13.30 cubic meters. Surface area:
33.70 meters. The chamber floor was tiled, as were the walls up to a
height of 1.50 meters. Above that height, the walls were of wood section
covering, with a wood section ceiling. Because of the large wood surface,
the chamber is far easier to heat than the "gas chambers" shown as tourist
attractions at Auschwitz. The chamber took an hour to heat using an 1.8 Kw
electric convection heater, after which the room was "ventilated" for 30
minutes.

The nearly square chamber had one outside wall (outdoor air temperature:
20 degrees Celsius), and three inside walls (inside air temperature: 22
degrees Celsius).

The rise in temperature (Celsius) is shown in the following table (with
figures founded off):


Time Air Floor Wall 1.35 m Wall 1.75 m

Beginning 22 22 22 22

30 min. 38.5 24 28 31
60 min. 42.5 25 30 32

Heating stopped
30 min. [later] 22 22 22 22

Ventilation stopped


Since according to the laws of nature, warmth flows from areas of higher
temperature to cooler areas, and the standard "average body temperature" is
approximately 33-34 degrees Celsius (_Physiologie des Menschen_,
Schmidt/Thews, Springer, 1987, p. 655), the figures measured in the
simulation (at summer temperatures) are well above those that could be
attained in the middle of the year in an unheated "gas chamber." Even [in
a room] with people "tightly packed crushed together," an air temperature
in excess of 30-32 degrees Celsius would not be attained. In addition, the
gassings are supposed to have taken place quickly and on a quasi-industrial
basis.

Consequently, the wall temperatures would rise only slightly (hence the
possibility that the hydrocyanic acid would condense on the walls), and the
floor temperature would hardly rise at all. Nor would the bare feet of the
victims warm the floor to any appreciable extent, because the temperature
of the arch of the foot is only 27-28 degrees Celsius, and the temperature
of the soles is practically identical to the floor temperature. Therefore,
rather than warming the floor to any measurable extent, the victims would
suffer from cold feet.

According to the Holocaust literature, Zyklon B was normally thrown in
from above. This means, naturally, that it would land on the floor (which
even in summer was colder than 26 degrees Celsius). As a result, the
hydrocyanic acid contained in the Zyklon B would not vaporize quickly, but
would instead evaporate more or less slowly (from six to 32 hours, at five
to 30 degrees Celsius). This is precisely the secret of the success of
Zyklon B as a pest control agent: a nearly even yield of the active
ingredient over long periods of time depending on the temperature.

To achieve the rapid killing described in the Holocaust literature, the
SS therefore would have had to incorporate floor heating installations into
the "gas chambers" in order to be able to use them as [homicidal] gas
chambers.

And there is another detail: rapid and effective ventilation would have
required not just mechanical ventilation, but suitable air intake channels.
Without an air intake, using ventilators alone, the deadly air-gas mixture
could never have been exhausted from the gas chamber. If this were
attempted, the ventilator would reach a "suction limit" and run empty.
That is, it would deliver nothing, but would instead simply maintain a
certain partial vacuum [Unter-druck] in the chamber. Deadly hydrogen
cyanide (HCN) would continue to evaporate for many hours, and the
concentration in the air of the chamber would thereby become more and more
rapidly fatal. How the room [removal] work team could work without heavy
breathing equipment and protective clothing, only a "witness" can explain.
Science can provide no answer.

Rather, science shows that:


a) Leuchter is correct, even though he provided no detailed scientific
proof in his report, and


b) Holocaust writers are telling stories which cannot withstand
scientific scrutiny.


8. EPILOGUE

Holocaust writers now face a dilemma.

The weapon for the "systematic genocidal extermination of millions of
people, especially Jews" must now be abandoned if one looks at the facts
instead of concentrating on belief.

No weapon, no crime. What now?

Mass murder with diesel exhaust gases (in 32 minutes, according to
Gerstein) is a sheer impossibility for reasons of time alone. This can be
proven experimentally, even today, with a couple of brave men. Therefore,
the [stories of] "gas chambers with diesel engines" and "gas vans"
["gaswagen"] can only be disinformation. The "witnesses" make objectively
false statements, and the "confessions" are clearly false. The laws of
nature apply both to Nazis and anti-fascists. Nobody can be killed with
diesel exhaust gas in the manner described.

Mass murder in the manner described, with Zyklon B and with carbon
monoxide, cannot have taken place, either, because it too would violate the
laws of nature, and because the necessary technical and organizational
prerequisites were lacking.

Experimental killings with Zyklon B may have taken place. After fifty
years, this cannot be ruled out with certainty. But such experiments would
have resulted in deaths among the executioners, and the recognition that
something like the [supposed] Mauthausen shooting installation would be
more logical and safer.

A similar recognition would have come very quickly in any experiment
using diesel exhaust gases ("get rid of that diesel and get us a spark-
ignition engine"), if there had ever been any "gas chambers with diesel
engines" or "gas vans" ("generator gas" from "wood gas" trucks would have
been more logical). The Nazis may have been criminals, but they certainly
were not stupid enough to use diesel motors and Zyklon B in the manner
described.

The crematories could never have disposed of the number of victims: this
may be considered proven by engineering science. Bodies are not a
combustible material. Their cremation requires a great deal of time and
energy.


In light of what is now known, ther are no "facts of common knowledge"
[or "judicially noted" facts] with regard to the Holocaust. The facts
given above should be elaborated to a higher degree of proof by
specialists, and preferably by court-recognized experts. Such a study will
certainly produce amazing results, which will radically alter the basic
views of many people.

Objective proof will refute the testimony of perjured "witnesses" and the
"confessions" of "criminals."

Judges and historians must draw the appropriate conclusions, and a whole
generation of "contemporary historians" will sit on the ruins of their
worldview, much as the Marxists today sit on the ruins of their Marxist
ideology.

In court trials of "Revisionists," therefore, "contemporary historians"
should never be the only ones permitted to determine the "facts" of the
Holocaust. There must be interdisciplinary cooperation with scientists and
technicians.


Any legal provision that seeks to hinder or even penalize scientific
investigation of the Holocaust (such as section 283a of the Austrian
criminal code) would amount to a state-ordered reign of terror against the
human spirit.

Should actual investigation of the Holocaust prove the "deliberate
genocide" to be a fact, the discussion will then be at an end, among the
"Revisionists" as well. Who could wish to oppose discussion of the
Holocaust, on any grounds, let alone attempt to choke discussion using
criminal law?

Who is there who could abolish freedom of thought and the rule of law,
without opening himself to the suspicion of trying to exert improper
influence by suppressing discussion?

Is "1984" coming after all--through the back door?


[end of article]

[The Journal of Historical Review]

In Austria, as in other European countries, the struggle for freedom of expression and historical truth continues -- with victories as well as setbacks.

In March 1992, a prominent Austrian engineer made headlines because he had written a detailed essay, "Holocaust: Belief and Facts" that rejects key elements of the Holocaust gas chamber story.

In his essay Walter Lüftl presents detailed technical arguments to support his conclusion that the well-known stories of mass extermination of Jews in gas chambers at the wartime camps of Auschwitz and Mauthausen are impossible. Such claims are incompatible with the laws of nature, explains Lüftl, a court-recognized expert engineer who heads a major engineering firm
in Vienna.

Often-repeated allegations of Jews being gassed with Zyklon B or with diesel engine exhaust (at Treblinka, for instance) could not possibly have taken place as some "eyewitnesses" claim, concludes Lüftl. Similarly absurd, he writes, are often-heard stories about flames "shooting" from crematory chimneys at Auschwitz-Birkenau. In fact, crematory chimneys simply do not produce flames of any kind. (The complete text of the "Lüftl Report" was published, in English translation, in the Winter 1992-93 Journal of Historical Review.)SEE ABOVE

Newspapers both inside and outside Austria lost no time assailing the engineer. Typical was a sarcastic attack by a Holocaust survivor named Koenig in the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post. Without actually seeing it himself, Koenig castigated the report of "Walter Luftel" as "disgusting and abhorrent." In refutation, Koenig did offer one bit of documentary evidence: "a photograph of an invoice sent by the Degesch Co. of Frankfurt to Herr Obersturmführer Kurt Gerstein in Berlin." (This well-known invoice simply confirms delivery of Zyklon B, a widely used disinfestation agent.)

In the wake of such public attacks, Lüftl was obliged to resign as president of Austria's 4,000-member association of professional engineers. In April 1992 he was charged with violating the section of Austria's criminal code that makes it a crime to "deny, grossly play down, approve of, or seek to justify... National Socialist genocide or other National Socialist crimes against humanity." A short time later the charge was amended, and he was accused instead of violating the criminal code section against attempts to
revive or restore National Socialism.

In a June 1993 order explaining the amended charge, Vienna's District Criminal Court declared that Lüftl had attempted, "in a way that appears to be scholarly, to refute important historical facts of the National Socialist killing machinery," and to make available his report to others whom "he must have known" would use it "publicly to whitewash and justify the National Socialist killing machinery."

In Austria "Holocaust denial" is punishable by up to ten years imprisonment. In Germany this crime can bring a punishment of up to five years in prison. Such laws reflect the favored status of Jews in Austria and Germany these days. Comparable laws do not exist to punish persons who "deny" crimes of Soviet Russia, Communist China, Zionist Israel, or any other regime.

As part of its investigation, police raided Lüftl's residence, turning it inside-out in a search for additional "incriminating" evidence.

Responding to the accusations, Lüftl defended his essay as responsible, serious and scholarly, and pointed out that he did not deny National Socialist crimes as such but dealt only with some technical aspects of "Holocaust" killing methods.

Victory

In June 1994 the case ended with an important victory for the cause of free speech and truth in history. Vienna's District Criminal Court ordered the termination of legal proceedings against Lüftl.

Austria's Ministry of Justice acknowledged that it was unable to find evidence to show that Lüftl had written his essay with an intention to promote National Socialism. Authorities affirmed that, on the contrary, he had written his report "for purely scholarly motives." (In Austria, as in Germany, "scholarly" or "scientific" work is exempt from the laws against "neo-Nazi" or anti-Semitic writings.)

Some people, of course, were disappointed with the outcome. Dropping the case against Lüftl, said the director of the "Document Archives of the Austrian Resistance," is "a severe setback in fighting Holocaust denial" and a "license for all future Holocaust deniers." He expressed concern that "in the future the right-wing extremists will spread their National Socialist propaganda under the cover of a scholarly report."

Confirmation

Lüftl's report provides further authoritative confirmation of the findings of American gas chamber expert Fred Leuchter, who carried out the first on-site forensic examination of the supposed execution "gas chambers" at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and at other sites. He concluded that the supposed gas chambers at these sites were never used to kill people as alleged, and could not have been used for this purpose. Leuchter testified on his investigation in the 1988 "Holocaust trial" in Toronto of German-Canadian Ernst Zündel,
and his "Leuchter Report" has been widely circulated. (For more about Leuchter, his investigation and persecution, as well as the corroborating studies of others, see the Winter 1992-93 Journal.)

More recently, the findings of Lüftl, Leuchter and others have been
confirmed by Germar Rudolf, a chemist associated with Germany's prestigious Max Planck research center. (See the Nov.-Dec. 1994 Journal, pp. 14-5.)
A detailed report about the Lüftl case appears in Grundlagen zur Zeitgeschichte, a valuable 400-page large-format anthology. (For more about this work, see the May-June 1995 Journal, p. 43).

While Walter Lüftl's legal troubles appear to be over, this case is not. A one-page report about the engineer's essay and travails in the Austrian magazine Aula (July-Aug. 1994) brought swift legal action. As a result of this article, headlined "Laws of Nature are Valid for Nazis and Anti-Fascists," the magazine's business manager was charged with "grossly playing down... National Socialist crimes against humanity." The court was not persuaded by the defendant's plea that he was responsible only for the magazine's business affairs, and that during the period in question he was away on vacation. In August 1995 a court in Graz fined him $24,000, and
imposed a ten month prison sentence, suspended for three years. He is appealing the sentence.

Lachout and the "Müller Document"

At the same time that authorities were abandoning their case against Lüftl, legal proceedings were also dropped against Emil Lachout, another Austrian who had been charged because he publicly contested the Holocaust extermination story.

On the witness stand in the 1988 Zündel "Holocaust Trial," Lachout testified about the "Müller document," ostensibly a circular letter issued by the Military Police Service in Vienna, Oct. 1, 1948. It reports that Allied investigation commissions had established that no one was ever killed by poison gas in Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen and several other German wartime camps, and that "confessions" by "witnesses" about such gassings were obtained by torture.

Serious questions have been raised about the authenticity of this document, and its origin has not yet been definitively established. (For more about the "Müller document," including the complete text in German and English, see the Spring 1988 Journal, pp. 117-127.)

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This article is taken from The Journal for Historical Review, PO Box 2739, Newport Beach, CA 92659, USA, Vol 15, Number 5, September-October 1995, p. 30-31. <ihr@ihr.org>

ARTICLE 19. <Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.>The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948, in Paris.

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