Deceit & Misrepresentation The Soap Allegations Why should it matter whether or not human soap was made from the
corpses of Nazi Germany's victims? Whether Nazi Germany, or even one
Nazi, made human soap or attempted to make human soap does not change
the fact that Hitler attempted to exterminate European Jewry and
murdered between 5 and 6 million of them.
Compared with this monumental crime, the soap allegations can be seen
as trivial.
Yet, the revisionists attach special importance to this question,
hoping thereby to cast doubt on the Nuremberg proceedings and on the
Holocaust itself.
For example, Mark Weber writes:
It is worth emphasizing here that the "evidence" presented
at the Nuremberg Tribunal for the bogus soap story was no less
substantial than the "evidence" presented for the claims of
mass extermination in gas chambers.
[32]
Bradley R. Smith:
If
Bauer
and
Lipstadt
are right, who supplied this false evidence
about human soap to the Court? Why? Was the Court bamboozled about other
anti-German atrocity stories? Which ones? The gas chambers maybe?
[33]
Carlos Porter:
The human soap accusation is particularly important because it was
upheld in the judgement at Nuremberg on the same page (IMT I-252) as
gassing millions of Jews and cutting their hair off to make human hair
mattresses.
[34]
(Emphasis in original.)
(Actually, the statement about the killing of millions is on the
first two lines of I-253, and has nothing to do with the statement about
mattresses on I-252 -- but in any case, why would the page number be the
least bit important?)
As has already been pointed out several times
above, the IMT did not
"uphold" or "confirm" the soap allegations that
these revisionists are talking about. Nor does it really matter whether
or not the Nazis actually made human soap -- it does not affect, in any
way whatsoever, the facts of the Holocaust.
Nor was the quantity or quality of the evidence for soap production
in any way comparable to that of mass gassings: three testimonies and a
few corroborating pieces of evidence is in no way comparable to the
overwhelming stream of physical evidence and testimonies from the
perpetrators and other witnesses of gassings and other facets of the
Holocaust. To even try to draw the comparison is ludicrous.
But what the revisionists' writings on the soap allegations
demonstrate is their usual techniques of anti-scholarship: deceit,
denial, and misrepresentation. They misquote; they omit what contradicts
their preconceived notions; and they offer nothing substantial to refute
or disprove the statements of Mazur, Witton, and Neely. Then, they take
their distorted case and say that it is only the beginning of "revisionist"
historical successes: if the soap, why not the gas chambers?
Nowhere is this clearer than in the words of
Greg Raven:
The main front on which the revisionist battle is being fought is
to correct the Holocaust story. Here, the years since the publication
of the first Journal have seen remarkable retreats
from the standard Holocaust story, which used to include soap made
from Jewish corpses, gas chambers at Dachau, and all manner of
fiendish methods of murder (including nuclear devices). Revisionists
have convincingly demonstrated virtually every facet of the
traditional Holocaust tale to be untrue, or at least wildly
exaggerated, resulting in a inexorable whittling down of the
"accepted" Holocaust story to a tiny fraction of what it
once was. Even so, the "six million" figure remains,
indicating that there is yet more work to be done.
[35]
(Emphasis Nizkor's.)
We still cannot say with certainty whether or not human soap was made
at the Danzig Anatomical Institute. There are three affidavits from
three people who worked there to that effect, and corroborating physical
evidence. That is not sufficient to establish human soapmaking for
certain, but neither can it be dismissed out of hand.
Unlike the "revisionist scholars" cited in this rebuttal,
we will continue to investigate, examining all the evidence
before reaching a conclusion, rather than adopting their practice, which
is to develop their prejudices and then look for evidence to support
them.
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The Techniques of Holocaust Denial
Part 6 of 6
Conclusion