Letters to David Irving on this Website

Unless correspondents ask us not to, this Website will post selected letters that it receives, and invite open debate.

Yannis Natsinas, of Luxembourg, asks (Monday, September 20, 2004) how the Nazi Gauleiter of the region died in 1945.

What happened to Gauleiter Gustav Simon?

I WONDER if you have any specific information on the death of Gauleiter Gustav Simon, head of the war-time administration of Luxembourg as well as (if I correctly understand) Gau Moselland which included Koblenz and Trier.

He was recognised and arrested by the Brits on Dec 13, 1945 and is said to have committed suicide on Dec 18, 1945 to avoid being transferred to Luxembourg where we was to be tried (and might well have been sentenced to death and executed) for his wartime behaviour.

Yesterday I saw a Luxembourgish documentary ("Heim ins Reich. Wei Lëtzebuerg sollt preissisch ginn...," a Luxembourgish production) on that period and this included the testimony of a resistance fighter who said that, in fact, Simon was killed by Luxembourgish resistance fighters (former resistance fighters I suppose, since by then the occupation of Luxembourg had come to an end) who were specifically sent (he did not say by whom) to kill Simon.

Apparently this story has been told before (I found a reference to it on the internet) but there are no details as to who might have ordered the killing (the government?) and why (presumably they could have tried and hanged him in Luxembourg anyway).

Would you know anything more about this, and if so would you be willing to share it with me? You may reply by e-mail or via your site, which I read from time time even if I disagree with much of what it contains.

Yannis Natsinas
A reader from Luxembourg

Churchill urges FDR and Stalin to agree to the summary execution of "50-100" captured enemy leaders; Sept 17, 1944

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Rather oddly in the circumstances this inquirer prefaced his request for information with these words:

LET me first of all make no bones about my opinion about your writings. I agree with the UK court ruling that you are a Holocaust Denier, and I think your historical work is fatally flawed in the sense that you draw the wrong conclusions from your sources and manipulate them to make them say what you want them to say.

I'm not just writing to offend you, there would be no purpose in that, you hold your views and I'll hold mine. But I just wanted to set the record straight.

Having said the above, I cannot deny that you have vast knowledge of events and details of Nazi Germany and World War II. It is because of this that I'm asking for your help, although I freely admit that in view of my opinion you would be well within your rights to refuse it. Still, there's no harm in trying. . .

Nevertheless, Mr Irving replied:

I CARE not whether you agree with the Six-Million-Dollar Smear that I am a Holocaust Denier; it is rubbish. Since the Butler and Hutton inquiries, we all know what to make of the independence of British High Court judges.

2. On the case of Gauleiter Simon himself I know nothing. However

(a) The expert on on all the Gauleiters is Karl Höffkes who wrote a book on them, Hitlers Politische Generale. Write to him. He may know:

Herrn Karl Höffkes

Höferweg 43

46286 Dorsten

Germany

0172 210 40 27 mobile | 2542 951 395 fax 

(b) In October 1944 Churchill tried to get approval from Stalin, having already obtained it from Roosevelt, for the summary execution of the top Nazis upon capture. I don't know if Simon was on the list, but Himmler, Prützmann and a number of others were, and died in disputed circumstances. More I cannot say. Good luck with your researching,