Holocaust Denial
PART I: DEMOGRAPHICS
CHAPTER
1
The number of
Jews counted in the Polish census of 1931 was 3,113,900.1 Estimates of the Jewish
population in 1939, the year Poland was invaded by Germany and the Soviet Union, place the population between 3.3 to 3.5 million. In The Dissolution of Eastern European Jewry (hereafter
cited in the text) Walter Sanning tried to depopulate
He did this by
citing a statement in a publication by
The official Polish figures for the years 1931-1937 place total Jewish emigration at 109,716. These figures were published in 1940, before the Holocaust, so that Sanning could not claim they were "politically motivated". The figures also gave a breakdown as to which countries the Polish Jews immigrated.4 A Jewish emigration of the size claimed by the Institute would surely have been noticed. However, there is no mention of such a large scale emigration in any of the studies dealing with Polish Jews in the inter war years from 1919-1939.5 When figures are cited, the official ones are used.6 A study of minorities in Poland during the inter war years also cites the official Polish emigration figures.7 It is probable that few, if any, are even familiar with the Institute's numbers.
Sanning did not take into consideration that there were simply not enough outlets for a Jewish
emigration of the size claimed.8 Most Polish-Jewish immigration from
1931 onwards was to
Faced with an overwhelming amount of evidence that the Polish-Jewish emigration of 100,000 annually could not have taken place, most scholars would probably relegate the Institute's statement to a footnote. At the very least, any serious writer who wanted to use such a number would ask the Institute how it obtained its figures and where these alleged emigrants went. It is obvious that Sanning never did this. However, this writer did make such an inquiry of the Institute. The Institute's reply failed to shed any light on its figures.10
This would
not be the first time that Sanning seized at a number,
no matter how tenuous,
and used it as authority while ignoring all contrary evidence. He would usually
justify his sources by stating that they were "Zionist" or "Jewish". He
incorrectly called the Institute "pro-Zionist"11 (p. 32) and stated
that its figures were right while the official figures are subject to doubt. However, Sanning could not trace these emigrants to any country. He simply said they
went to
After creating
a fictitious emigration from
Sanning had to attempt to place as many Polish-Jews into the
Information
from the Census of Religious Bodies shows 4,770,647 Jews in the
Sanning then quoted an article by American Jewish demographer Dr. Mark Wischnitzer
published in 1944 where he estimated the Jewish population at 5,199,200.19 Sanning states (p. 161) that the rise by 429,000 from the
1937 United States Census of Religious Bodies is "much too large for any
possible natural increase." But Wischnitzer never said that the increase was
due solely to natural causes. In fact the number Wischnitzer
used came from the American Jewish
Yearbook. The increase
was the result of immigration of 149,344 from 1937-1943 and estimated natural increase
of 279,209.20 The estimated natural increase over a six year period is quite
reasonable when compared to the natural increase over the previous years. Moreover, Sanning's
use of Wischnitzer is instructive. In 1942 Wischnitzer had
traced the migration of
Jews from
Finally, Sanning quoted a statement made in 1943 by Assistant Secretary of State Breckenridge
Long that a majority of the 580,000 refuges who entered the
Sanning also made much of the fact of Long's
statement that many Jews had entered on visitor visas, the implication being
that they were still here and
not included in the immigration figures. However, the total amount of Jewish and non-Jewish aliens
admitted on visitor visas from
For all of his
speculation about Jewish immigration into the United States from 1933-1943 Sanning was unable to offer evidence of any unrecorded
Jewish entrants much less Jews from Poland.26 A close reading of his
book reveals that he arrived at nearly all of his numbers by using the above type of selective quotations
coupled with unsubstantiated guesswork.
Polish Deportations
In September
1939 the
Sanning had now reduced the number of
Jews under German control to 757,000. However, he believed that the actual
number was lower. He based this on an article in the Universal
Jewish Encyclopedia which stated that the Joint Distribution Committee had provided aid to 630,000 persons. Sanning writes (p. 44) that "[m]any more Jews than that simply did not exist in
German controlled former Polish territory". Before analyzing Sanning's
claims, his statement concerning the Joint Distribution Committee should be examined because it sets the stage for how he used his sources
and arrived at his conclusions. The committee was obviously limited as to the
amount of people it could assist, and the Universal
was never claiming or attempting to give the impression that aid was
reaching only those Jews who remained in the German occupied sector of
"In the German occupied
area about 1,725,000 Jews were subjected to the full force of German fury. Some
250,000 lost their lives during the 12 months after the outbreak of the war. At least an equal number were
uprooted from their homes. They, together with the remaining Jews of Poland, were herded into ghettos,
beaten, driven from their homes, dragged into forced labor gangs and reduced to beggary. Once again starvation and disease took
their toll. The death rate in the
"Throughout this tragic
period the network of institutions which the J.D.C. had built up in
Sanning's calculation that there were
2,633,000 Jews in
Following the
invasion two significant Jewish population movements took place. The first was from German
controlled
More Jews did not flee because they were prevented from doing so by the Soviets. The Germans would force entire Jewish communities across the borders but they were shipped back to the German side.33
The second
major Jewish population movement, and the most important for the purposes of this study, were
the deportations from Soviet-Poland into the
Sanning quoted three Jewish individuals (p. 42) that 1 million Jews were deported. The best known is Rabbi Aaron Petchinik who wrote that in June 1940 1 million Jews were deported in two days. Sanning also quoted one Jacob Zukerman to the same effect. However, an examination of Zukerman's testimony before a congressional committee reveals that he states the 1 million movement took place at the beginning of 1940, the February 1940 deportation.34 A second witness gave the committee the impression that the 1 million could have been deported in April 1940 since he mentions the spring of 1940. Thus, according to these three witnesses up to 3 million Jews were deported. Sanning is the only writer on this topic to take the 1 million number seriously. He also quoted the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia which in 1942 believed that 600,000 Jews had been deported, and another source who gave the number 500,000. This is how Sanning arrived at a total deportation of 750,000 Jews.
Significantly, he ignored other Jewish estimates which placed the number much lower. An early Tel Aviv source placed the total deported Jews at between 50,000-70,000,35 the Institute for Jewish Affairs stated that 100,000 Jews were affected ,36 the World Jewish Congress placed the number at 300,000 " while the highest number of 400,000 came from the American Jewish Committee.38
The sources which have been
accepted by historians to determine the number of deportees have been Polish.
As was noted above, Sanning had quoted two witnesses before a congressional committee as giving the number of 1 million Jews. However, Sanning ignored the committee's findings. The committee reported that the total amount of deportees was 1,692,000.40 The committee did not give a breakdown of these deportees. However, this number corresponds exactly to a study done by the Polish military in 1945. The percentage of Jews in the deportations was 19.4% or 328,000.41
Another
prominent Polish study that historians rely on was done by the Polish Embassy in the
The official Soviet figures on the total amount of all deportees, including Jews, was 388,000.46 However, historians have rightfully ignored these figures just as they have the claim that 1 million Jews were deported. Sanning also ignored this source, but was willing to quote Stalin (p. 73) as an authoritative source for certain population movements when it served his purpose.
Sanning also argued that 100,000 Jews, many of whom were Polish, made their way to
The Jews in
Soviet occupied
The total
amount of Jews who came under German control in
Following the
war between 240,000 and 250,000 of the deportees returned to
This means
that there were between 2.8 and 3.1 million Jews under German control who are unaccounted for. Since Sanning, like other deniers, could not explain what happened to
these Jews, he manipulated his sources to create non-existent population movements out of
The Ignored Evidence on Polish Jews
Sanning writes (p. 44) that German sources do not say anything about the number of Jews under German control. "Of course the Germans spoke of millions of Jews in the occupied Polish territory but their figures were not based on a census, not even on estimates". This is blatantly false. Sanning simply ignored all of the German evidence because it proves that his numbers are fictitious. The process of what happened to Polish-Jews has been detailed elsewhere.52 This study will examine some of the key demographic evidence ignored by Sanning.
Although most
studies focus on deportations of Polish Jews to the death camps, it is
important to note that many Polish-Jews were never deported because they died
in the ghettos. This occurred because the Germans decided to concentrate Jews into highly
restricted areas. Not surprisingly this caused many Jews to die from diseases such as typhus, cholera, hunger and general
deprivation. This is a subject totally ignored by deniers. In the
The average
food rations for Jews in 1940 was 413 calories daily and 253 daily calories in 1941.
However, Germans in
"Investigations carried out by this [medical] department have shown that the greater part of the population received only some 600 calories while the normal requirement is 2,200 calories. The people are so exhausted that they may become an easy prey to typhus. The number of cases up to date has reached 40%".57
The President
of the Board of Food and Agriculture at a meeting of the heads of the Departments in the General
Government on
"Supplies for the existing populace, whose numbers have been swelled
by the arrival of 1.5 million Jews, should cease. The 300,000 Jews who are working as laborers or in some other capacity in the German interest should be issued with the rations specified for Jews, augmented as may
be necessary from time to time to maintain their working capacity. The I rest of the Jews, who number some 1.2 million, should no longer be
issued with foodstuffs of any kind."58
Frank then
entered the following in his diary: "The fact that we have Condemned to starvation death 1.2
million of Jews — let it be merely mentioned in passing. It is self- evident
that the possibility of the Jews not dying from starvation will hasten — it is
hoped — anti Jewish measures."59
Elsewhere he notes: "Food supplies for the ghetto are insufficient. To this must be added the lack of
soap and the communal living in small confined spaces. According to the
reported state, 2,405 cases of typhus have been noted till now. The actual
figure however is much higher."60
His most revealing entry was from a speech on
"We must destroy the Jews wheresoever we should meet them. . .The Jews are also most detrimental to us as gluttons."
"We cannot shoot 3.5 million Jews, neither can we poison them. We shall have to take steps however designed to extirpate them in some way. . . How and where it will happen will be decided by special department which we must form and install."61
The
rounding-up of Jews in
The
The Stroop and Katzman reports irrefutably belie Sanning's contention that the German sources say nothing about the number of Jews under German control and that German figures were not based "even on estimates". Both reports give considerable detail that the German authorities in charge of the "evacuations" were aware of the magnitude of the situation.
The most
important piece of evidence on the disappearance of the Jews is the Korherr
Report. Dr. Richard Korherr was a statistician with
the Third Reich and was commissioned by Heinrich Himmler,
who was given overall
authority by Hitler to implement the "Final Solution" of the Jewish problem in
There were two
reports. The second one stops at
Korherr could not give a complete breakdown of all the Jews. He
acknowledges that his
data is incomplete, especially with regard to Soviet Jews. However, he did have some data on
Polish-Jewish deportations.
In the first report he lists 1,449,692 Polish-Jews under the following heading as of
My where they are at the time of his writing. These are nearly twice as
many Jews as Sanning claimed were in
His reference
to passing through the "camp" is instructive because his figures show only 9,127 Jews in
concentration camps as of December 31. 1942. After receiving the report Himmler
wrote on
"What is of primary importance to me at the moment is that as many Jews be transported to the East as is humanly possible."
The language
of transporting Jews to the East was quite prevalent in 1942 and 1943. In the
minutes of the Wannsee Conference of
"The emigration program has now been replaced by the evacuation of the Jews to the East as a further solution possibility, in accordance with previous authorization by the Fuhrer. . .
"Under proper direction the Jews should now in the course of the Final Solution be brought to the East in a suitable way for use as labor. . .in which task undoubtedly a great part will fall out through natural diminution..."
"The evacuated Jews are brought first group by group into the so called transit ghettos, in order to be transported from there farther to the East."67
The following
year Martin Luther, a member of
On June 19,
1943 Himmler's hand written record of his discussions
with Hitler states that the latter said that the "deportations of the Jews
must go on regardless of any unrest it may cause during the next three or four months, and that it must
be carried out in an all-embracing way". On
This is the
German evidence that Sanning ignored because he could
not explain it. Jews from
Holocaust
historian Yitzhak Arad used a variety of sources,
including train
transport records, to trace 1.5 million Polish-Jews to the three Polish camps of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka through July 1943. The dates of transport, origins of the transports
and amount of people involved are given.74 His numbers up to
"German railway records have been cited as evidence that hundreds of thousands of Jews were exterminated at Treblinka.. While there is little doubt that these documents are genuine, and that they confirm transports of Jews to Treblinka, they are not proof of an extermination program..."
"As already mentioned the balance of evidence indicates that Treblinka II — along with Belzec and Sobibor — was a transit camp, where Jewish deportees were stripped of their property and valuables before being transferred eastward into German occupied Soviet territories."75
This is a rather remarkable admission.
The authors do not explain by Jews who are going to be deported eastward
are being stripped of their property. Wouldn't they need their belongings at
the resettlement? There are a series of German documents which deal
with the vast quantities of valuables and clothing seized from Jews
in Operation Reinhard.
Much detail is given about the items, quantity, value and storage.
However, no details are provided about the people from whom the
items were taken.76 Many of these documents are stamped
"Secret". One document, signed by the head of the Economic
and Administrative Main Office, speaks of "old garments"
seized as the result of "Jewish resettlement that have been sent
from the camps of
In fact, the real meaning of "resettlement" becomes clear when the document states that prior transportation problems to the Ukraine "prevented the delivery of old clothing intended for the racial Germans there".77 Another document signed by Odilo Globocnik, who implemented Operation Reinhard, mentions one thousand boxcars of textiles and other valuables seized.78
The two
deniers cannot explain where these Jews are being deported to because the
railway records end at Treblinka, Belzec
and Sobibor. Moreover, Treblinka
was a constructed camp site by the Germans, not an established town. There was no transport
from Treblinka to the
One of the two
deniers' sources for these deportees being sent to the
Butz and others
who have offered this resettlement theory have never attempted to explain the mechanics of
resettling such a large group of people. Where
were they housed and fed? Did the Germans build towns in the
Moreover, the resettlement of millions of people would not have gone unnoticed. Yet, there is not a single document relating to such a resettlement. Even if all of the documents were destroyed, as Butz contends, many people would have known the specifics of such a program. It would have taken hundreds, if not thousands, of Germans to have carried out the resettlement and at least as many people to have been involved in the building projects. Yet, no one has ever come forward to testify about such a resettlement. This is strange since it would have made an ideal defense at the Nuremberg War Crimes trials and subsequent trials. Certainly the high ranking Nazis would have known the specifics of such a policy. In fact, former high ranking transportation specialists in Germany during the war did not offer Soviet resettlement as a defense in post-war trials, though none of them seems to have admitted that they knew the real purpose for the train transports.83 As will be shown in Chapter 6, no war crimes defendant offered resettlement as a defense, even those who denied any knowledge of the Holocaust.
In Chapter 2
it will be shown that the Germans were busy exterminating all Jews under their control in
the
Moreover, it is beyond credulity
to believe that the Germans would have been willing to expend the resources needed for such a resettlement. As was shown
earlier, Jews were subject to reduced food rations. It was also German policy to seize Jewish
belongings. How is it that the
Germans, who were so concerned about preserving their resources, and so
unconcerned about Jewish starvation and living conditions, would undertake a resettlement project
that would have drained
Much evidence
about the specifics of the Nazi policy was destroyed. Otto Globocnik, who
was in charge of Operation Reinhard, wrote a "Top Secret" memo on
"With regard to the complete final accounts of "Operation Reinhardt" I must add that all vouchers should be destroyed as soon as possible, as has been done in the case of all other documents pertaining to this operation."85
SS men who participated in Operation Reinhard had to sign an oath of secrecy not to discuss it "because the process of the evacuation of Jews is a subject that comes under "Secret Reich Document" in accordance with censorship regulation. . ,"86 What could have been so secretive about an "evacuation" that such an oath would be required?
It is known
that as early as 1942 certain orders known as "Fuhrer Ordinances" were never to be
seen by outsiders. The orders were destroyed in what was officially called "Handling of
Effacement".87 In 1945, as the Allies were closing in on
"All files, particularly the secret ones, are to be destroyed completely. The secret files about. . .installations and deterring work in the concentration camps must be destroyed at all costs. Also the extermination of some families, etc. These files must under no circumstances fall into the hands of the enemy, since after all they were secret orders by the Fuhrer".88
The "deterring work in the concentration camps" and which "families" were being "exterminated" is not specified.
The German evidence
which has survived clearly shows that there was no Soviet resettlement policy. A document
dated
"Since July 22nd one train a
day with 5,000 Jews goes from
Nothing about
the
"Two trains daily from the
One train daily from the
One train daily from the north Zullon district to Belzec. One
train daily from the
central
One would
think that if there was a plan to transport Jews into the
One of the actual
transport lists was published in 1961.94 It is entitled "Transportation Schedule No.
567" dated
(Sonderplan). There is a heading for "Special
Orders" [Besondere Anordnungen] which states that the destination for the 2,000 Jewish "resettlers" is Treblinka. The instructions for the transport are quite
detailed. However, nothing is said about
the
2,400 Jews from
A detailed
report on a transport of 8,200 Jews to Belzec was
filed by the Security
Police for trains in 1942. The report is entitled "Resettlement from Kolomea
[in
The purpose
for these transports was known by some. That the term transportation to the East
did not mean the
"Do you think that they will be housed in settlement villages in the Ostland? . . .why all this bother? We can't do anything with them in the Ostland or Reichskommissariat either: Liquidate them yourselves."97
The Reichskommissariat Ostland and Reichskommisariat
A German Army publication in 1940 quoted Himmler as saying:
"All races, and particularly the Jews, will be
sent to the General government in the
future. This means that some 500,000 - 600,000 Jews will be transferred there
[from Reich areas of
Once again,
there is no mention of resettlement in the occupied Soviet territories. On July 19, 1942 Himmler sent out a memo stating that the entire Jewish population of
Poland's General Government be "resettled"
by December 31, 1942 because a "total cleansing "is necessary and therefore to be carried out."99
Nine days later he sent out a
"top secret" memo staling that "[t]he occupied territories will
be purged of Jews. The Fuhrer has
charged me with the execution of this very
difficult order."100 However, if all of the General
Government's Jews were to be "resettled", while all territory
(including Soviet territories) under German
control were to be "purged" of Jews, where were they to be
"resettled?" The answer had already been provided in January 1942
when
By 1943 the
"Final Solution" policy was in full force. In a speech on February 24th Hitler announced:
"The struggle will not end with the destruction of Aryan mankind but with
the extermination of Jewry in
[Himmler] I am transmitting herewith to you a press dispatch on the accelerated extermination [Ausrottung] of the Jews in Occupied Europe."103
The answer to
what was happening to the Jews was in the Korherr
Report. In the first report he gives a breakdown of "evacuations from Reich territories including the
Eastern territories" from various countries up to
In September 1939 the head of the security police wrote that "a distinction must be made between those who may be dealt with in the usual way and those who must be given special treatment. The latter case covers subjects who...are suitable for elimination, without respect for persons, by merciless treatment (namely, by execution)".104 One week later a memo on a staff meeting at the Reich Security Main Office indicates the sections which are responsible for special treatment. In the text and subheading the word "execution" is placed in parentheses next to "special treatment".105 A Himmler memo of February 20, 1942 states: "Special treatment is carried out by hanging".106 A later memo issued by Reich Security states: "The aim of application of special treatment is above all the intimidation of foreign labor... The execution must take place on the scene. . ."107 A memo issued for the Chief of Security Police Kommandos for concentration camps states: "Executions must not be carried out near the camp... The Kommandos are required to keep records of the completed special treatments. . . As regard to carrying out of the executions..."108 A memo labeled "Secret" from the SS in Munich in early 1942 states that 2009 Soviet prisoners "have been placed for "Sonderbehandlung"".108a
The
"special treatment" caused consternation in some quarters. German
General Kube, who witnessed such actions in the
Soviet occupied territories,
was dismayed. Kube's reservations were summarized by Reich Commissioner Lohse in a memo of
"The fact that the Jews receive special treatment [sonderbehandelt werden] requires no further discussion... Just imagine the enemy finding out about such incidents and making capital of them!. . . "It is, however, possible for cruelties to be avoided and for those liquidated to be buried. I myself do not think that locking men, women and children in barns and setting fire to the latter is a suitable method for combating partisans, even if one wishes to exterminate [ausrotten] the population."109
Kube's protests,
however, brought resentment from those carrying out the "special treatments". In a
memo dated
"I was again and again faced
with the fact that my men and I were reproached for barbarism and sadism, whereas I did nothing but fulfill
my duty. . . It was our fault that the reputation of
A report from
the German occupied
to about 3.000."111
Use of poison
gas was also a method of special treatment. The following memo of
The S-vans were
mobile gas chambers which patrolled the Soviet occupied territory. The technical problems of the
gassing were discussed in
a "Top Secret" memo of
"The application of gas is usually not undertaken correctly. In order to come to an end as fast as possible, the driver presses the accelerator to the fullest extent. By doing that the persons to be executed suffer death from suffocation and not by dozing off as was planned."113
The link of
poison gas to special treatment is further illustrated in a memo of
Particularly
interesting is a memo of
The meaning of
"evacuation" is made clear within the Korherr
Report. In the first
report it is stated that the "evacuation of [the Jews] in the Russian territories" and the Baltics is 633,300. Deniers who claim that Polish Jews were being evacuated to the
The meaning of the term evacuation was made clear in a letter by Dr. Ernst Wetzel, head of the policy board of the Racial Policy Office, to Reich Commissioner Heinrich Lohse in October 1941:
"I herewith let you know that Herr Brack, head of the Fuhrer's Chancellery, has declared to be inclined to cooperate in the establishment of the localities required as well as of the gassing apparatuses [vergasungsapparate]. . .For the time being Jews are being evacuated from the Reich proper.. .in order later on to be deployed for labour... As the situation is there are no objections to the liquidation of Jews with the Brack method if they are incapable of work."118
Victor Brack had been one of the prime movers of Hitler's euthanasia policy in which 71,000 Germans, Jews and non-Jews, who were aged or ill were killed.
Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda and confidant, made the following entry in his
diary on
"Beginning with
Probably the
best known use of the word evacuation being equated to killing was made by Himmler
in his Posen speech of
"I am referring here to the evacuation of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish people. This is one of those things that is easily said: "The Jewish people are going to be exterminated .." this is an unwritten and never to he written page of glory in our history. . . "We had the moral right. We had the duty towards our people to destroy this people that wanted to destroy us... Because we have exterminated a germ, we do not want in the end to be infected by the germ and die of it."120
Two days later Himmler stated:
"What about the women and children? I have decided that this too requires a clear answer. I did not consider that I should be justified in getting rid of the men — in having them put to death, in other words — only to allow their children to grow up to avenge themselves on our sons and grandsons."121
Another
favorite term used for killing was "resettlement".122 A German report on an action in
"Orders are that Jews are to be "resettled". This takes place as follows: the Jews are ordered at short notice to report to specific collecting points 'with their best clothes and their jewelry. . . They are led away [after depositing their belongings] from the road and liquidated. The situations that arise in the process are so horrifying that they cannot be described. The effects on the German squads are inevitable — the executions can
usually only be carried out under the influence of alcohol."123
Another report from
In October
1942 the authorities in the
The use of code words
for a secret action is not unusual. In Germany, experimental work in the development of poison
gas for warfare during World War I and after was undertaken by the
"Technical Committee for the Destruction of Noxious
Creatures" founded in 1917. The work was done under the cover of attempting to eliminate
agricultural insects.126
Similarly, the German
euthanasia program against the ill and elderly, which claimed 71,000 lives from 1939-1941, was
carried out under the auspices of "The Charitable Foundation for the Transport of
Patients." The
patients were "transported" to killing centers.127 Recently declassified British intelligence
intercepts of German radio messages in 1941 reveal the extent that the Germans
sought to conceal the killing of Jews. Up until September 13, there were many
radio intercepts of mass killings in the
The Nazi use
of code words has led deniers to claim that these words did not mean killing even though
the above discussion can leave no doubt as to their meaning in the Korherr
Report and elsewhere. Thus, when Arthur Greiser, who was part of Operation
Reinhard in Poland, informed Himmler that "action for the
special treatment of about 100,000 Jews in
my province that has been approved by you. .." it is clear that he means killing.129
Ironically, it may have been Hans Frank who anticipated that there would
someday be a denial movement when he
wrote in his diary on August 2, 1943: "We started here [in Poland] with 3.5 million [Jews] and now only insignificant
working parties are left. As for the
remainder — we shall say some day — they migrated".130
One of the arguments
that frequently arises among deniers is that the term "Final Solution" meant the
resettlement of Jews in