Leuchter Report

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The so-called Leuchter Report from 1988 is a Holocaust denial written as a court opinion and distributed in book form . The American Fred A. Leuchter claims in it that no mass murder of people could have taken place in the gas chambers of the National Socialist extermination camps because of the alleged lack of cyanide traces . The report was intended to exonerate the Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel as a defendant in a court case in Canada , but it failed to serve its purpose. Instead, the author was convicted of an impostor who wrongly pretended to be an engineer and expert on execution techniques and toxic substances .

The dissemination of the “Leuchter Report” is a criminal offense in the Federal Republic of Germany as hatred of the people .

Emergence

In 1988, Ernst Zündel, who was then living in Toronto , Canada , was charged under the False News Act for his holocaust-denying activities. Zündel tried to make the public use this process to his advantage. He commissioned Leuchter to act as an expert to check whether gassings had taken place in the gas chambers of the Nazi extermination camps.

Leuchter stayed with his wife, an interpreter, a cameraman and a draftsman for three days in Auschwitz-Birkenau and one day in Majdanek . His research was not authorized by the authorities or the museum management. He took rock samples from the walls of the remains of former gas chambers and disinfestation chambers . His wife and the interpreter said they were careful at the entrances to warn him that someone might notice the illegal activities. On the first day in the main camp Auschwitz there was too much activity and no evidence could be gathered. The Leuchter Report is thus based on rock samples that were taken from unknown parts of the building in two days without scientifically controllable methods.

Main theses

Zyklon B was the trade name of a highly effective insecticide . It consisted of a carrier material in the form of pellets , kieselguhr or cardboard that was impregnated with hydrocyanic acid (HCN) and released it as a gas at a low temperature. In contact with iron and concrete, Zyklon B forms cyanide compounds. Since the so-called disinfestation chambers, which had been set up in the Auschwitz concentration camp for delousing clothing, contained higher concentrations of cyanide compounds than in the gas chambers of crematoria I (= located in the main camp Auschwitz I ) and II to V (= located in Subcamp Auschwitz-Birkenau), Leuchter made the claim that no human gassings could have taken place in the gas chambers of the crematoria. In his opinion, if such large amounts of Zyklon B were needed for such small lice, poisoning people would have required even more hydrogen cyanide, and the concentration of cyanide compounds in the human gas chambers should have been significantly higher.

Zyklon B can form an explosive mixture with air. The gas chambers were in the immediate vicinity of the crematoria. Leuchter explained that the use of Zyklon B in the gas chambers of the crematoria was impossible because the combination of Zyklon B with extreme heat triggered its explosive properties.

Zyklon B takes several hours to evaporate. Eyewitnesses report that the gas chambers were evacuated about 30 minutes after the gassing. Leuchter concluded that the reports could only be inventions. The high toxicity of the gas presupposes that the premises are ventilated for at least 10 hours. Thus, the evacuation of the gas chambers 30 minutes after the gassing would have meant the certain death of the evacuation team.

refutation

The chemist Richard J. Green, together with Jamie McCarthy, refuted the Leuchter Report in a lawsuit brought by David Irving .

Leuchter's conclusion from the concentration of the cyanide compounds is generally not accepted. Hydrocyanic acid is significantly more toxic to warm-blooded animals (and humans are included) than it is to lice. Clothing infected by vermin therefore had to be exposed to the gas for considerably longer and in considerably higher concentrations. In order to kill lice, the gas is used in a concentration of up to 16,000 ppm (parts per million, corresponding to 1.6%) for a duration of up to 72 hours. On the other hand, even 300 ppm over a period of 15 minutes are fatal to humans.

In contrast to delousing, smaller amounts of hydrogen cyanide were used in the gas chambers of the crematoria for a shorter period of time. Therefore, the hydrogen cyanide released could only form a few cyanide compounds when people were gassed.

The disinfestation chambers intended for delousing had remained intact at the end of the war. The SS tried to blow up the gas chambers of the crematoria more or less successfully (parts of crematorium II and III have been destroyed, crematorium IV and V are ruins) in order to hide them from the advancing Red Army . The destroyed buildings were thus exposed to the weather for over 40 years, and their walls were partially washed out considerably.

The gas chamber of Crematorium I in the main camp Auschwitz has been preserved. After the construction of the Birkenau subcamp, its function as a gas chamber was superfluous and a protective bunker was built from it. After the war, the original version of the gas chamber was rebuilt for visitors to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Its walls also contain traces of cyanide compounds; the low concentration can be explained by the fact that this gas chamber was only in operation for a short time and was converted into a protective bunker. The lower concentrations are therefore to be expected in gasification chambers for several reasons and therefore no indication that the gasifications could not have taken place.

Leuchter's conclusions with regard to the risk of explosion are not recognized because an air-cyclone B mixture is only explosive if the concentration of cyclone B is correspondingly high. Hydrocyanic acid at a concentration of 300 ppm (0.03%) is fatal to humans after a few minutes; however, the minimum concentration of hydrocyanic acid required for an explosion is 56,000 ppm (5.6%). The gas mixture used for the killing could therefore be used in the immediate vicinity of the crematoria without the risk of explosion.

With regard to the observed period of time after the murder and the evacuation of the gas chambers, Leuchter's statement is criticized in that the gas chambers were equipped with ventilation systems (suction devices that were supposed to detoxify the room in a short time after the gasification process by Zyklon B). The toxicity was known from many years of experience with delousing items of clothing, which is why precautionary measures were taken that made it unnecessary to take a longer out of service. In addition, gas masks were often used when clearing the gas chamber.

The maximum workplace concentration currently valid for hydrogen cyanide is 10 ml / m³ = 10 ppm = 11 mg / m³. This value falls below this value very quickly in closed rooms when air from the environment enters the room. In addition, hydrogen cyanide boils at 25.7 ° C under normal conditions and therefore behaves like a vapor in the vicinity of this temperature range . A permanent stay of the substance inside the gas chambers over a longer period was therefore not to be expected at any point in time. An evacuation after 30 minutes is therefore not an indication of an invention, but completely compatible with the technical conditions of the gas chambers.

In 1994 the Forensic Institute in Krakow carried out a detailed study on this subject. According to this study, soluble cyanides were detectable in both the disinfestation chambers and the gas chambers using a precisely calibrated method . Comparative samples from non-fumigated buildings in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp did not contain these cyanides. The washout by rain was also examined and taken into account.

Judicial evaluation

The Canadian court classified Leuchter's report and his oral testimony as untrustworthy overall. In his judgment, the presiding judge stated:

“It is his opinion expressed in the report that there have never been gassings or executions there. In my opinion and after what has been said here, it is beyond his ability to be able to represent such an opinion in a well-founded manner ... He lacks the competence to judge what could or could not be done in the places mentioned, as he in claims his report across the board. "

Zündel was convicted under the Canadian false news law for “spreading false news”, that is, for his holocaust-denying activities.

reception

Many history revisionists and Holocaust deniers referenced or are referring to the "Leuchter Report". The former NPD chairman Günter Deckert translated the text into German and invited Fred Leuchter to give lectures in Germany. After events at which he and Leuchter denied the Holocaust, he was convicted of sedition by the Federal Court of Justice in 1994. The verdict was preceded by acquittals in previous instances. They led to Holocaust denial being included as a specific criminal offense in Section 130 of the Criminal Code.

David Irving distributed the "Leuchter Report" in Great Britain in 1989 and wrote an approving preface to it. In the following years he often appeared together with Leuchter as a Holocaust denier. He planned to make the Leuchter Report 1991 the main topic of an international meeting of Holocaust deniers in Munich ("Leuchter Congress"). The meeting was banned. Leuchter was charged with sedition and denigration of the memory of the deceased and arrested, but released on bail. He then fled to the USA.

Richard Williamson , former Bishop of the Pius Brotherhood , has been referring to the Leuchter Report since 1988 for his repeated Holocaust denials.

On June 15, 1989, another pamphlet by Leuchter with the title: The second Leuchter Report was published by Ernst Zündels Samizdat (Hamilton, Ontario) . Dachau, Mauthausen, Hartheim. In it he also tried to dispute the technical feasibility of the local mass murders of Jews and the disabled ( NS-Kötungsanstalt Hartheim ) with pseudoscientific arguments. However, this font did not get the same response as the first.

The Rudolf report published in 1992 by the chemist Germar Rudolf was intended to support the theses of the Leuchter Report, but was refuted in detail by Richard Green and other experts and assessed as pseudoscientific.

At about the same time, Walter Lüftl , President of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Engineers, published the text “Holocaust. Faith and Facts ”. The text became known as the "Lüftl-Report" and argues partly similar to the Leuchter Report. The chemist Josef Bailer refuted the central points of the Lüftl report.

In an interview in 1994, the historian Ernst Nolte stated that the Leuchter Report might be significant for historical science, since Leuchter was the first to examine the gas chambers for traces of cyanide. Although the report is not to be regarded as a scientific investigation, it is “an approach” because traces of cyanide are almost indestructible. He indirectly agreed with Leuchter's assertion that all traces of cyanide were missing and that science had yet to explain this. However, Georges Wellers (1990) and Werner Wegner (1991) had already refuted this claim. Wegner's essay on this was published in a book in which Nolte had also published an essay.

literature

refutation
  • Josef Bailer: The "revisionists" and chemistry. In: Brigitte Bailer-Galanda , Wolfgang Benz , Wolfgang Neugebauer (eds.): Truth and "Auschwitz Likes". To combat “revisionist” propaganda. Deuticke, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-216-30124-9 .
  • Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Dimensions of the genocide. The number of victims of National Socialism. Oldenbourg, Munich 1991, ( sources and representations on contemporary history 33, ISSN  0481-3545 ).
  • Jean-Claude Pressac : Auschwitz. Technique and operation of the gas chambers. Beate Klarsfeld Foundation 1989 ( online ).
  • Jean-Claude Pressac: The Auschwitz Crematoria. The technique of mass murder. Piper, Munich et al. 1994, ISBN 3-492-03689-9 .
  • Markus Tiedemann: “Nobody was gassed in Auschwitz.” 60 right-wing extremist lies and how to refute them. License issue. Omnibus, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-570-20990-3 .
  • Werner Wegner: No mass gassings in Auschwitz? On the criticism of the Leuchter report. In: Uwe Backes , Eckhard Jesse , Rainer Zitelmann (eds.): The shadows of the past. Impulses for the historicization of National Socialism . Propylaen, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1990, ISBN 3-549-07407-7 , pp. 450-476.
  • Georges Wellers: The "Leuchter Report" on the Auschwitz gas chambers. In: Dachauer Hefte No. 7/1991, pp. 230–241.
classification
  • Deborah Lipstadt : Denial of the Holocaust. Right-wing extremism with method. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1996, ISBN 3-499-60101-X ( Rororo 60101 Rororo non-fiction book ).
  • Brigitte Bailer-Galanda et al. (Ed.): The Auschwitz deniers. "Revisionist" historical lie and historical truth. 2nd Edition. Elefanten Presse, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-88520-600-5 ( Antifa Edition ).
  • Jürgen Zarusky : Denial of the Holocaust. The anti-Semitic strategy after Auschwitz . Federal Examination Office for Writings Harmful to Young People Current - Official Bulletin. Annual conference, Marburg, 9./10. November 1999.

Web links

Part 1 ,
Part 2 ,
part 3

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. the analyzes of Jean-Claude Pressac in Auschwitz: Technique and operation of the gas chambers. , Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, New York 1989. Online at holocaust-history.org ( Memento of the original from June 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.holocaust-history.org
  2. ↑ see also: The Leuchter Report, Holocaust Denial & The Big Lie at the Nizkor project
  3. ↑ Polish Report on Cyanide compounds, Auschwitz-Birkenau , Nizkor Project, 1996 (English)
  4. ↑ quoted from Holocaust reference: The Leuchter Report (1st part)
  5. ^ Christian Mentel: Deckert case. In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus Volume 4: Events, decrees, controversies. KG Saur, 2011, ISBN 3110255146 , pp. 119f.
  6. ↑ Torben Fischer, Matthias N. Lorenz: Lexicon of 'coping with the past in Germany. Debate and discourse history of National Socialism after 1945. Transcript, Berlin 2009, ISBN 3899427734 , p. 90
  7. ^ Christian Mentel: Leuchter, Fred Arthur. In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus Volume 4: Events, decrees, controversies. 2011, p. 478
  8. ↑ Robert Treichler (Profil.at, March 2009): Hunt for Holocaust denier Williamson: Why the bishop does not have to go to prison.
  9. ↑ Wolfgang Benz: Denial of Reality as an Anti-Semitic Principle , in: Antisemitismus in Deutschland, dtv, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-423-04648-1 , p. 125.
  10. ^ Richard J. Green, Jamie McCarthy: Chemistry is Not the Science: Rudolf, Rhetoric, and Reduction. ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 1999, updated July 28, 2000, accessed April 20, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.holocaust-history.org
  11. ↑ Josef Bailer: The "revisionists" and the chemistry In: Brigitte Bailer-Galanda, Wolfgang Benz and Wolfgang Neugebauer (eds.): Truth and "Auschwitz lie". Deuticke, Vienna 1995. PDF, approx. 66 kB ( Memento from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Rudolf Augstein, Friedjof Meyer, Peter Zolling (Der Spiegel, October 3rd 1994): A historical right of Hitler? The fascism interpreter Ernst Nolte on National Socialism, Auschwitz and the New Right
  13. ↑ Wolfgang Ayaß / Dietfrid Krause-Vilmar : With arguments against Holocaust denial. The denial of the National Socialist mass murders as a challenge for science and political education , Wiesbaden 1996, 2nd edition 1998, footnote 54.