{Draft copy of work-in-progress} The Auschwitz Gambit: The Four Million Variant Previous to 1992, anyone who publicly doubted the 4.1 million"gassing" deaths at Auschwitz was labeled an anti-Semite, neo-nazi skinhead (at the very least). Quietly, because of revisionist findings, the official figure was lowered to 1.1 million. No mention of that missing 3 million. (Foner) On May 12th, 1945, a few months after the liberation of Auschwitz, a Soviet State Commission reported that not less than four million people were murdered there (Reitlinger, 499). This number was displayed at the Auschwitz State Museum until 1991, when it was lowered to 1.1 million (Cattani, 19). The total death toll for the Holocaust, however, stayed at about six million. Mainstream historians, it seemed, were caught in a bind. Had three million fewer people died in the Holocaust? And if so, why hadn't historians reevaluated their own figures? Holocaust deniers soon capitalized on this apparent contradiction, both in _The Spotlight_ (see above) and in the ad sent to many college newspapers by Bradley Smith's "Committee For Open Debate on the Holocaust" (4): The Auschwitz State Museum has recently revised its half-century-old claim that 4 million humans were murdered there. The Museum now says maybe it was 1 million. But what proof does the Museum provide to document the 1 million figure? None! The communist propagandists who manage the museum have put on display piles of hair, boots and eyeglasses, etc. While such displays are effective propaganda devices, they are worthless as historical documentation for "gassings" or a program of "extermination." Meanwhile, Revisionists want to know where those 3 million souls have been the last 45 years. Were they part of the fabled Six Million? And again in a _Spotlight_ article about Holocaust 'revisionist' David Cole's trip to Auschwitz: (Foner) Like most Americans, since his youth Cole had been instructed in the "irrefutable fact" that homicidal gassings had taken place at Auschwitz. The number of those so executed - also declared irrefutable - was 4.1 million. Then came the Leuchter Report in 1988. This was followed by a "re-evaluation" of the total deaths at Auschwitz (down to 1.1 million). As a budding historian - and a Jew - Cole was intrigued. And in the Holocaust denial magazine _The Journal of Historical Review_ (Luftl): In the view of those who believe--or cause others to believe--in the [Holocaust], mass gassings, especially of Jews, were carried out in the concentration camps of the Third Reich. Above all in Auschwitz (hence the term "Auschwitz Myth"), four million Jews were gassed. [The Nuremberg Tribunal "established" that four million PEOPLE (Jews and non-Jews) had been KILLED (by all means) at Auschwitz.] Currently, though, unimpeachable sources are seeking to reduce this [sic] figure to 1.5 million. On mathematical grounds alone, the "symbolic figure of Six Million" should be reduced by 3.5 million. Of course, such a reduction does not lessen the [gravity of the] crime in any way, because even one victim is one too many. Holocaust deniers would have people believe that the Auschwitz State Museum's death toll of four million was a widely accepted idea, and that any revisions in this number should also lower the total dead from the Holocaust. Deniers often claim that this revision is largely due to the efforts of 'revisionist scholars', and then use this as evidence that the stories of mass murder at Auschwitz are a hoax. Deniers also claim that anyone who dared to question the four million figure was "labeled an Anti-Semite, neo-nazi skinhead (at the very least)". By accusing their opponents of slander, deniers can simultaneously tarnish the reputations of real historians, and also invoke a "conspiracy" that suppresses "the truth". Conspiracy theorizing is another common denier approach, and they use it to explain why their "startling facts" have been ignored for so long. Deniers almost always overstate the "Four Million Variant", as they would like to portray Holocaust historians as a repressive, Jewish dominated cadre that rigidly enforces the "dogma" of four million dead at Auschwitz. As is often the case, our "revisionist scholars" have things more than a little askew. "The Four Million Variant" is the fallacious notion that a change in the Auschwitz Museum's figure pokes a major hole in mainstream Holocaust history. Taking each aspect of the "Four Million Variant" individually shows just how wrongheaded this notion is: "The four million figure at Auschwitz was a widely held notion." This is clearly false. In a quick survey of nineteen historical references (see appendix, section 4.2a) only two listed the total Auschwitz dead at four million (Kogon, Der SS Staat, 157; Friedman, 14). One of these, Friedman's "This Was Oswiecim: The Story of a Murder Camp," was published in 1946, well before more reliable estimates were available. Most list figures from 1 to 2.5 million, and they arrived at these figures in a variety of methods . Some quoted Kommandant Ho"ss's testimony (2.5 million) and others attempted to piece together how many people were arrived at Auschwitz minus any survivors, while still others used available pre and post war census data. In fact, to find many sources that do list four million dead, one has to find books published behind the iron curtain (see appendix). Other authors derided the Tribunal's four million figure as an absurd example of Soviet propaganda. (Reitlinger, 500; Sweibocka, 287-288). For example, Gerald Reitlinger's _The Final Solution_ discussed the source of the State Museum's figure and why he found it ludicrous: ...The Red Army did not arrive [at Auschwitz] till January 26th. They found 2,819 invalids in the three camps, whom they spared no pains to nurse back to health. In due course a Soviet State Commission arrived and on May 12th the world was presented with its findings. 'However, using rectified coefficients for the part time employment of the crematorium ovens and for the periods when they stood empty, the technical expert.commission has ascertained that during the time that the Auschwitz camp existed, the German butchers [sic] exterminated in this camp not less than four million citizens of the U.S.S.R., Poland, France, Jugoslavia [sic], Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Hungary, Holland, Belgium, and other countries.' The world has grown mistrustful of 'rectified coefficients' and the figure of four million has become ridiculous. Unfortunately, Russian arithmetic has blurred the stark and inescapable fact that 800,000 to 900,000 human beings perished in Auschwitz, its gas chambers and its camps. There are probably too many incalculable factors to make a closer estimate of the number of Auschwitz victims possible...(Ibid., 499) Reitlinger's book was published in 1968, well before the deniers claim the figure fell into disfavor, and twenty years before 'revisionist scholars' began challenging the figure. Another issue is the denier notion that anyone who dared to stray from the "Four Million" was labeled an anti-Semite and then hounded into submission by some mainstream historians, the media, or Jews. This soon becomes a laughable idea once one sees the wide-ranging estimates in the mainstream literature. If no one dared question the Soviet Commission's "four million", one must wonder why Reitlinger would be so bold as to call it 'ridiculous', and also why so few historians believed that figure. More recently there have been attempts to accurately the number dead at Auschwitz. Franciszek Piper of the Auschwitz State Museum published a study called "The Number of Victims" in _Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp_. The study outlines his investigation into the total Auschwitz death toll, and how he reached his estimate of 1.1 million, effectively debunking the old Soviet figure. (see below) "The four million figure was changed due to 'revisionist' findings." This is clearly fallacious, as the revised figure is actually more in tune with the estimates of credible historians than the Soviet Commission's count. If anything, it was the easing of cold war tensions that allowed reexamination of the four million total rather than the research of 'revisionist historians.' In fact, it was a study begun in 1980 by Franciszek Piper, head of the Historical Department at the Auschwitz State Museum that finally displaced the Museum's four million figure (Catani, 14). Piper collected all available documentation on how many deportees arrived at Auschwitz, and subtracted from this all known transfers, releases, and escapees to arrive at his estimation. Here are his calculations: Deportees to Auschwitz: 1,300,000 Transfers: -212,820 Released prisoners: -1,500 Escapees: -500 Liberated Prisoners: -8,000 --------- Total Dead: 1,077,180 Or about 1.1 million dead, which is not that different from Hilberg's estimate of one million dead at Auschwitz (Hilberg, 572). Piper concluded that this figure is a minimum estimate, as this does not account for victims not listed in the records, particularly those who were killed immediately upon arrival. After the study's completion in 1986, Piper's findings were confirmed by a panel of historians appointed by Poland's Ministry of Culture (Catani, 14). Shortly thereafter, the official death toll at the State Museum was lowered to 1.1 million. "Since the Auschwitz State Museum lowered its death toll to one million, the total number of Holocaust victims should be reduced by about three million. Again, this is false. Few (if any) historians ever believed the Museum's four million figure, having arrived at their own estimates independently. The museum's inflated figures were never part of the estimated five to six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, so there is no need to revise this figure. Conclusion Holocaust deniers often misstate a historical fact to confuse and confound an otherwise naive reader, and the "Four Million Variant" is no exception. Each piece of this denier puzzle is flawed, from the contention that the number killed at Auschwitz was protected as an "irrefutable fact" to the existence of some cabal that slanders all those who question this figure. Deniers often use the "Four Million Variant" as a stepping stone to leap from an apparent contradiction to the idea that the Holocaust was a hoax, again perpetrated by a conspiracy. They hope to discredit historians by making them seem inconsistent. If they can't keep their numbers straight, their reasoning goes, how can we say that their evidence for the Holocaust is credible? One must wonder which historians they speak of, as most have been remarkably consistent in their estimates of a million or so dead (See Hilberg, 572; Dawidowicz, 191; Sweibocka, 287-288). In short, all of the denier's blustering about the "Four Million Variant" is a specious attempt to envelope the reader into their web of deceit, and it can be discarded after the most rudimentary examination of published histories. Appendices Historical sources and the Auschwitz death toll estimates Appendix A: Auschwitz Death Tolls in Western Sources "Auschwitz" _The World Book Ency clopedia_. Chicago: World Book, 1980. (2.5 million) Bauer, Yehuda. _A History of the Holocaust_. New York: F. Watts. 1982. p 215. (1.5 to 3.5 million.) Yeduha Bauer. "Danger of Distortion, Poles and Jews alike are supplying those who deny the Holocaust with the best possible arguments" _Jerusalem Post_., 30 Sep 1989 (1.6 million) Bauer, Yehuda. "Foreword", in Mu"ller', Filip. _Eyewitness Auschwitz_. New York: Stein and Day, 1979, xi. (said exact figure unkown, but estimated 3.5 million.) Billig, Joseph. _Les camps de concentration dans l'economie du Reich hitlerien_. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1973. pp 101-102. (2 million) Dawidowicz, Lucy. _The War Against the Jews_. New York: Bantam Books, 1979, p 191. (1.1 million) _Encyclopedia Judaica_, Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1974. p 855. (1 to 2.5 million) Friedman, Filip. _This Was Oswiecim: The Story of a Murder Camp_. Translated from the Yiddish original by Joseph Leftwich. London: The United Jewish Relief Appeal, 1946, 14. (from four to five million.) Gilbert, Martin. _Atlas of the Holocaust_. New York: Pergamon Press, 1988. (Total Polish dead at 3 million.) Hilberg, Raul. _The Destruction of the European Jews_. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1961, 572. (1 million) Ho"ss, Rudolf. _Death Dealer: The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant of Auschwitz_. ed. by Steven J. Palusky, transl. by Andrew Pollinger. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1992, p 391 (1,130,000 total.) Kamenetksy, Ihor. _Secret Nazi Plans for Eastern Europe_. New Haven: College and University Press, 1961. p174 (About 2.5 milion) Kogon, Eugene. _Der SS Staat_. Berlin, 1974, 157. (3.5 to 4.5 million.) Lane, Arthur Bliss. _I Saw Poland Betrayed: An American Ambassador Reports to the American People_. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1948: "They [the Nazis] had no compunction in massacring over three million Polish Jews in the asphyxiation chambers of Oswiecim and Majdanek." (Lane, 39) (Lane was US Ambassador to Poland from 1944-1947, until resigning over the betrayal of Poland and appeasement of the Soviet Union.) Piper, Franciszek. "The Number of Victims" in _Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp_. Washington D.C and Bloomington: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Indiana University Press, 1994. Chapter Four. (1.1 million) Polaikov, Leon. _Harvest of Hate_ Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1956, 202. (2.3 million) Reitlinger, Gerald. _The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945_. South Brunswick: T. Yoseloff, 1968, 500. (Between 800,000 and 900,000) Sweibocka, Teresa. _Auschwitz: A History in Photographs_. Bloomington and Warsaw: Indiana University Press and Ksiazka I Wiedza, 1993, 287-288. (1.1 to 1.5 million) Weiss, A. "Categories of Camps, Their character and Role in the Execution of the Final Solution of the Jewish Question," in _The Nazi Concentration Camps_, Jerusalem: Yad Veshem, 1984, 132. (1.2 to 2.5 million.) Wellers, Georges. "Essai de determination du nombre de morts au camp d'Auschwitz" _Le Monde Juif_, Oct-Dec 1 1983, 127-59, (1.6 million.) Appendix B: Studies from Poland, former East Germany, and former Czechoslovakia: These generally cite the findings of the Soviet Commision (four million), the Supreme National Tribunal in Poland (2.8 to 4.0 million) or the testimony of Auschwitz Kommandant Rudolf Ho"ss. "Brestrafung der Verbrecher von Auschwitz," in _Auschwitz: Geschichte und Wirklichkeit des Vernichtungslagers_. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowolt, 1980, 211. (2.5 to 4.0 million) Czech, D. "Konzentrationslager Auschwitz: Abriss der Geschichte," in _Auschwitz: Geschichte und Wirklichkeit des Konzentrationslagers_. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowolt, 1980, 42. (2.5 to 4 million) Dunin-Wasowicz, Krzysztof. _Resistance in the Nazi concentration camps, 1933-1945_. Warsaw: PWN-Polish Scientific Publishers, 1982, 44. (2.5 - 4 million) Madajczyk, Czeslaw. _Polityka III Rzeszy w okupowanej Polsce; okupacja Polski, 1939-1945_. Warsaw: Panstwowe Wydawn Naukowe, 1970, 293-94. (2.8 to 4 million) _Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 1939-1945: informator encyklopedyczny_. Warsaw: Panst. Wydaw. Naukowe DSP, 1979, 369. (2.5 to 4 million.) Work Cited Bezwinska, Jadwiga, Ph. D., and Danuta Czech M.A. KL Auschwitz seen by the SS: Hoess, Broad, Kremer. Howard Fertig Inc., New York, 1984. Cattani, Alfred. "Auschwitz: Controversy Over the Numbers" _News Weekly_, 11 May 1991 Dawidowicz, Lucy. _The War Against the Jews_. New York: Bantam Books, 1979 Foner, Samuel P. "Major Historical Fact Uncovered" SPOTLIGHT Vol. XIX, Number 2, January 11, 1993) Friedman, Filip. _This Was Oswiecim: The Story of a Murder Camp_. Translated from the Yiddish original by Joseph Leftwich. London: The United Jewish Relief Appeal, 1946 Hilberg, Raul. _The Destruction of the European Jews_. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1961. Luftl, Walter. "The Luftl Report: An Austrian Engineer's Report on the 'Gas Chambers' of Auschwitz and Mauthausen," _The Journal of Historical Review_, Vol. 12, Number 4 (Winter 1992-93) Piper, Franciszek. "The Number of Victims" in _Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp_. Washington D.C and Bloomington: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Indiana University Press, 1994. Poliakov, Leon. Harvest of Hate: The Nazi Program for the Destruction of the Jews of Europe. Syracuse University Press., 1956. Pressac, Jean-Claude. Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers. Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1989. Reitlinger, Gerald. __The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945_. South Brunswick: T. Yoseloff, 1968. Smith, Bradley. "Campus Ad Campaign Goes Forward," Institute for Historical Review (IHR) Newsletter, April, 1992, No. 86 --------------. Letter to Editor, Anarchy Magazine Sweibocka, Teresa. _Auschwitz: A History in Photographs_. Bloomington and Warsaw: Indiana University Press and Ksiazka I Wiedza, 1993. TWC: Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals - Washington, D.C. U.S Government Printing Office, 1949-1953
Home ·
Site Map ·
What's New? ·
Search
Nizkor
© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012
This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and
to combat hatred.
Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.
As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may
include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and
provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist
and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.