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 Charles Provan at our 2002 Cincinnati Real History Weekend, holding a photograph of SS Judge Konrad Morgen testifying at Nuremberg. Provan died Monday, December 10, 2007. DAVID IRVING reports: WE ARE truly sorry to report the sudden and unexpected death on December 10, 2007 of our good friend Charles Provan in Pennsylvania. He leaves a wife, Carol Marie, and nine children, of whom the oldest, Tobias, is "a chip off the old block," as we English say. We had already earmarked Charles as a leading speaker at the 2008 Real History weekend in Cincinnati. Late this last October he wrote to us, gracious as ever: "I would like to apologize to you for my unintended delay to your gracious invitation inviting me to speak. I am very embarrassed at my delay in replying to your invitation, and most sincerely am sorry for my awful delay. If your invitation still stands, I most eagerly accept. In fact, at the time you invited me, I composed a list for a tentative speech, and then forgot to reply. I hope that you will forgive me this delay, and I hope the invitation still stands. "I feel bad for you about Paul Grubach. I myself was the subject of one of his continuous harangues, which went on seemingly forever -- envelope after envelope addressed to myself as 'Chuckarooski' Provan as I recall! At least you have not been addressed as "Davidooski" (I cringe at the thought!) By the way, have you seen Michael Hoffman's defense of you written to Grubach? If you would like, I could send a copy to you for your perusal. "PS. Have you ever seen Hermann Höfle's interrogation at the National Archives? He mentions that he spend a lot of time in the east building roads, with nothing about his activities at T,B, or S." "Höfle," I replied, "evaded trial at Vienna by committing suicide in the wing I was later housed in. I still think there is a 20 percent chance that his decode is a very clever forgery. Grubach is an asshole." World War II specialists bookseller Lance Frickensmith reports: Chuck Provan passed away last evening! I had been trying to contact him when his wife told me. Pass the word, and perhaps memorialize him in some way for all his unreserved help. He was a truly great guy ! Cards and assistance can be sent to Chuck's widow Carol Provan at
Flowers can be sent to Marshall Marra's Funeral Home in Monongahela, Pennsylvania. Condolences to Carol and the children can be telephoned to (724) 258 3419 Mark Weber of the Institute for Historical Review writes: THANK you for your touching tribute to Charles Provan. I'll miss him. He was an extraordinarily decent man. Along with so many others, I greatly appreciated his positive attitude, his keen and probing mind, his courage and his generous spirit. CHARLES D. PROVAN HAS DIED Michael A. Hoffman II writes: I AM at a loss for words. I only wish at this juncture to notify the Christian and revisionist communities, that Charles D. Provan of Monongahela, Pennsylvania has passed away from natural causes. He was approximately fifty-two years of age. He leaves behind his widow, Carol and nine children, some of them quite young. He was predeceased by his eldest son, Matthias. The loss to this writer is incalculable. Chuck was one of my best and closest friends and one of the finest Christian men it has ever been my privilege to know. He had a great love for and obedience to God. His knowledge of the Old and New Testaments was vast and he was one of the best and most learned modern critics of the Talmud, having published a great deal of material on that subject in the pages of Rev. Herman Otten's Christian News newspaper. More recently he has been writing columns for Christian News on Old Testament exegesis. He was the author of two books, "The Bible and Birth Control" and "The Church is Israel Now." Chuck assisted me in my research but to say that is an understatement, since he was a pillar upon whom I depended. He was a tremendous influence on my views. His kidneys failed a few years ago and his sister donated one of her kidneys to him. The transplant surgery was a success. I believe it took place about three years ago. He was on anti-rejection drugs however, and recently they seemed to play havoc with his immune system. He developed a severe case of shingles last month. He recovered almost completely from the shingles about two weeks ago and then over this past weekend he came down with what appeared to be the flu. He went to bed fatigued last night and died peacefully in his sleep. I ask you to do two things:
I will tell you more about this fine man and non-pareil scholar in the future. For now suffice it to say that the loss to me is more than words can express, but I submit to God's will. Michael A. Hoffman II SEE articles he wrote at IHR.org and this one summarised below: Jan. 2001 Charles Provan, independent researcher and author, presented a lively dissection of the "testimony" of Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, a physician at Auschwitz-Birkenau whose memoir has been widely cited for decades as proof of mass killings in gas chambers. The US edition of his "memoir," Doctor at Auschwitz, has remained in print for many years, and continues to sell well. In debunking Nyiszli's "eyewitness testimony," Proven cited numerous documents and other historical evidence unearthed in years of patient research. Among his most flagrant false claims, Nyiszli declared that four million Jews were killed at Birkenau Krema II alone. He also claimed that the Germans used "Zyklon A" to kill pests, and "Zyklon B" to kill Jews. This is nonsense, Provan pointed out, noting that Zyklon B was simply the trade name for a commercially produced pesticide that was widely used throughout Europe before, during and after World War II. As Provan pointed out, there are major differences in the various language editions of Nyiszli's "memoir." He also noted that Nyiszli was a member of the Communist Party of Romania until his death there in 1956. From The Journal of Historical Review, May-June 2000 (Vol. 19, No. 3), pages 2-11. New Light on Dr. Miklos Nyiszli and His Auschwitz Book by Charles D. Provan In 1951, portions of a memoir attributed to a former inmate of Auschwitz, Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, appeared in France. Nyiszli's account caught the eye of another former prisoner of the Germans during the Second World War, Professor Paul Rassinier. He was struck by the exaggerations and absurdities of Nyiszli's story, which allowed the reader to conclude that the Nazis had gassed twenty-nine million people at Auschwitz over four and a half years, and that the gas chamber at Birkenau had been one meter wide. |