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Unless correspondents ask us not to, this Website will post selected letters that it receives and invite open debate. |
Ivan Brkich of Queensland, Australia, asks important questions on behalf of students at his college about the Holocaust.
Norway and the Holocaust
Subject: The Holocaust Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 23:06:14 +1000 From: "IVAN BRKICH" <> To: <[email protected]>
Dear Mr. Irving
My Year 11 Modern History class at Varsity College on the Gold Coast Queensland Australia is studying a Unit in Modern History called Nationalism and Internationalism. Nazi Germany is the focus of this study. We have examined the totalitarian and nationalistic characteristics of Germany during this time. Naturally, we have also investigated the Holocaust. During this investigation, I have endeavoured to present opposing viewpoints with the intent that the students determine/assess the reliability of evidence. Presenting opposing viewpoints to traditionally accepted viewpoints found in textbooks has been difficult given that the websites we have wanted to access whilst at school have been designated as aggressive sites and access to these sites has been denied to us.
Hence, the reason for my email. My class has compiled the following email and would appreciate a response from you at your earliest convenience. Due to the fact that I cannot email you from school, I am emailing you from my personal email address.
Their letter is as follows:
We are a Year 11 Modern History class currently studying
Totalitarian Nationalism with a particular focus on Nazi
Germany. We are writing to gain your feedback on a number
of issues/beliefs that have arisen during the course of
our study. While traditional texts have portrayed the
Jews as victims of a repressive Nazi regime, revisionist
sites on the internet have cast doubt and confusion
amongst the students within the class in relation to
several topics.
We would like clarification on the following areas:
- Gas Chambers: We watched a video of an
interview you had with Mike Willisee on 'A
Current Affair' some ten years ago during which
you debated a Ms Kitty Altman (an Auschwitz
survivor) who insisted that the gas chambers existed.
During this interview, you made the claim that
crematoriums do not smoke and challenged the
Australian public to visit their local crematoriums to
see for themselves. While this may be true now due to
advances in technology, crematoriums today are quite
different to what they were during The Second World
War. Is it not feasible that the crematoriums such as
those used by the Nazis did indeed smoke. How do you
account for the gas chambers in evidence at Auschwitz?
How do you account for all the images that clearly
depicted the use of gas chambers? On what basis do you
dispute the existence of gas chambers when Rudolph
Höss himself admitted to setting up
extermination buildings and using Zyklon B as a method
of execution at Auschwitz? Höss makes the claim
that one of the greatest assets of Auschwitz was
"building our gas chambers to accommodate 2000 people
at a time." (Nuremberg Document PS 3868). How do you
explain this? We have also watched a Sidney
Bernstein video called 'Genocide' (which
highlighted the existence of the gas chambers) and an
account by Rudolph Höss (Nuremberg Document
PS-3868) also appears to confirm the existence of gas
chambers. Can you please comment on this? How do you
account for Allied troops' claims that ash from the
sky was falling on them as they approached some of the
extermination camps? How do you account for the
quantities of Zyklon B found at the various 'death
camps'?
- Number of Deaths: In your 1995 interview
with Ron Casey, when asked what was your
estimate of the number of Jews killed during Hitler's
regime, you stated, "A minimum of 1 million and a
maximum of 4 million Jews killed. Depending on what
you mean by killed." Taking the worst case scenario
ie: your figure of 4 million killed, what number died
from (1) diseases (2) starvation, (3) gassing and (4)
various extermination methods accepted by revisionists
such as firing squads? What sources/evidence are you
referring to when you are determining your figures?
For what reason(s) is there such a large discrepancy
between the figures that you provide in relation to
the Holocaust and the figure used in history
textbooks? From the sources we have viewed in
textbooks, the number of Jews killed is said to be
approximately 6 million. Our studies have given us
reason to believe that 68% of the Jewish population
perished during World War 2. In our textbook, it is
stated that 88% of the 3,300,000 Jews living in Poland
were executed which greatly exceeds your minimum
estimate of 1 million. Can you please explain how you
came by your figure of the number of Jews who were
executed?
- Zyklon B: The history textbooks, videotapes
and various internet sites reaffirm the use of Zyklon
B in the gassing of Jews and others. R. Höss
refers to Zyklon B during his Nuremberg
trial during which he graphically explained the
gassing procedure, i.e. how long it took the prisoners
to die and what happened to the bodies afterwards. Can
you please comment on this? The revisionist sites that
we have visited claim that Zyklon B was used to
delouse prisoners and to control the vermin within the
camps. Do you have any evidence of this whereby
Höss and other camp commandants make specific
reference to such uses of Zyklon B to control the
problem in their correspondence with their superiors?
We have also read that, after experiments, it became
clear to German officials that Zyklon B could be used
to exterminate undesirables more effectively than
other methods that were being used such as firing
squads. Please comment. Furthermore, you have based
much of your rejection of the use of Zyklon B for
gassing purposes on scientific evidence although none
of this is referenced. Can you please provide this
scientific evidence or direct us to where it can be
found? Finally, during the Willisee interview, you
stated, "there is no significant trace of cyanide gas
found in the remains of the gas chambers." Is this an
acknowledgement of the existence of gas chambers? You
also claimed that an independent had reported that
these findings had been supported by the findings of a
Polish team of investigators. What were their
qualifications? Who asked them to investigate and
submit a report? To whom did they report? Where can
their report be found?
- Method of Execution: According to sources
such as our textbook, Inquiry 1, by Brian
Hoepper (et al), and the website Body Disposal
at Auschwitz; The End of the Holocaust Denial
(http://www.holocaust-history.org/auschwitz/body-disposal/)
, evidence suggests that the method of execution did
indeed involve gas chambers. The testimonies of the
survivors appear to substantiate the claim yet, during
your interview with Willisee, you reject the use of
gas chambers and allege that other methods were used.
Can you please provide evidence which allowed you to
come to this conclusion?
Can you please reply asap as our class continues to debate these issues and others as we analyse the evidence we are coming across from a variety of sources?
This ends the email compiled by my students. They are eagerly awaiting your response. I thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide my students as they struggle to come to terms with 'the truth'.
David Irving