Newsgroups: alt.revisionism,soc.history,soc.answers,alt.answers,news.answers
Subject: HOLOCAUST FAQ: The "Leuchter Report" (2/2)       
Summary: Research guide to the Leuchter Report
From: The Nizkor Project 
Reply-To: kmcvay@nizkor.org
Followup-To: alt.revisionism
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Keywords: Leuchter

Archive-name: holocaust/usa/leuchter/part02
Last-modified: 1999/12/23

              The Leuchter Report: A Layman's Guide
            Holocaust Denial & The Big Lie (Part Two)

 2.06   Doors of Gas Chambers Too Weak to Prevent Escape.....11
 2.07   They Would Not Have Used Zyklon-B for Gassing........11
 2.08   The gas chambers were never sealed, or...............12
 2.09   The gas would have killed everyone outside when
        ventilated...........................................14
 2.10   Where did all the ashes from the cremations go.......14
 2.11   People who dropped the gas into the gas chamber would
        have been killed by it...............................15
 2.12   The Auschwitz death list doesn't show all those
        people were killed...................................15
 2.13   Why would there be a swimming pool at a death camp...15
 2.14   The high water table made it impossible to burn
        bodies in ditches....................................15
 2.15   How did witnesses to the gassings survive............16
 2.16   Toxicity of fumes from a diesel engine...............18
 2.17   There were not enough Jews in Europe to account for    
        six million victims..................................18
 2.18   The "myth" of the Holocaust was created solely for
        the financial benefit of Israel......................20
 3.00 Leuchter's credibility.................................21
 3.10 Leuchter's perjury in Canadian court...................21
 3.20 Leuchter's credibility among American prison admins....24
 4.00 Research Sources & Other Useful Appendices.............24
 4.10   Recommended Reading..................................25
 4.20   Abbreviations Used in Citations......................25
 4.30   Glossary.............................................25
 4.40   Works Cited..........................................25


[Leuchter]                                                     [Page 11]

 2.06 Doors of Gas Chambers Too Weak to Prevent Escape

   Holocaust denial asserts that the doors of the "alleged" gas chambers
   were much too weak to withstand the pressure of people trying to
   escape death from inside the chambers.

   Since none of the Kremas remained in their original state (Bunker I &
   II and Kremas II,III,IV and V destroyed, and Krema I modified) there
   is no physical evidence as to what the doors of the extermination gas
   chambers looked like.  However, a door which probably belonged to an
   extermination gas chamber was discovered in the camp's building yard;
   it is massive, and reinforced with iron bars.  Furthermore, the small
   peephole is protected from the inside with a strong metal grid,
   probably installed so the victims would not break the glass in the
   peephole.

   Those making this claim present pictures of doors for the delousing
   chambers, which were not fortified, presumably on the assumption that
   viewers are too inept to notice the switch.  For a photograph of a
   door probably used in an extermination gas chamber, see Pressac
   (486).  (Get pub/holocaust/gifs/aukdoor.gif)

 2.07 They would not have used Zyklon-B for gassing

   Holocaust denial often claims that if the Nazis had intended to kill
   people by lethal gassing, they would have used something other than
   Zyklon B.

   Zyklon-B was in use at Auschwitz as a delousing agent, and was thus
   readily available.  The Nazis had experience in its safe use as well,
   which made it even more attractive.

      In addition, Zyklon B was easy to ship and to store, which also
      made it attractive to the SS, who ordered enough of it, as Ho"ss
      pointed out in his testimony, to kill two million people.
      Yitzhak Arad mentions Christian Wirth's rejection of Zyklon-B
      for use in exterminations: Wirth developed his own ideas on the
      basis of the experiences he had gained in the Euthanasia
      program.  Thus, in Belzec he decided to supply the fixed gas
      chamber with gas produced by the internal-combustion engine of a
      motorcar.  [He] rejected Cyanide B which was later used at
      Auschwitz.  This gas was produced by private firms and its
      extensive use in Belzec might have aroused suspicion and led to
      problems of supply.  He therefore preferred a system of
      extermination based on ordinary, universally available gasoline
      and diesel fuel.  (YVS XVI, 211)

   In a letter requesting for a truck to bring Zyklon-B to Auschwitz,
   the standard camouflage term "resettlement of Jews" is used to refer
   to extermination.  Another such document asks for "material for
   special treatment" - another term used to disguise extermination
   (Get ~/gifs/resett.gif; also Pressac, 557.  For more examples of
   the camouflage terms noted, see file of original Nazi documents).


[Leuchter]                                                    [Page 12]

      Radio message 13 SS Garrison Radio Station Auschwitz Origin WVHA
      [SS economic administration head office]

      Received 2nd October 1942 in the Kommandantur of Auschwitz
      Concentration camp

      The movement authorization for one 5 Ton truck with trailer to
      Dessau and back in order to pick up material for the
      resettlement of the Jews, is hereby accorded.

      The authorization is to be given to the driver.

                        Liebehenschel
                    SS Lieutenant Colonel
              Permanent representative of the head
              of the service with the rank of Waffen SS
              Lieutenant General

      For file

      Head of the radio station

   When camp adjutant R.  Mulka was asked by Judge Hofmeyer what
   "material for the resettlement of the Jews" meant, he answered "well,
   sure.  Zyklon-B" (The Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt, 11 Sep.  1964).

 2.08 The gas chambers were never sealed... or there was no provision
      to exhaust the gas from them... or there was no way for the
      guards to release the pellets into them, or....

   As stated earlier, the extermination chambers were dynamited by the
   SS when they deserted the camp.  There is therefore no direct
   evidence of what they looked like when they were in operation other
   than a few photographs taken by the Allies and the SS during the war
   (See Brugioni; Get ~/gifs/krema3.gif for view of Krema III taken
   during the war, from the air).  The construction plans do include the
   air extraction systems, as one readily sees (in krema3.gif and
   others) and the air extraction system is mentioned in many documents.
   Some of the ventilation openings are still visible in the ruins of
   the gas chambers.  The plans even include the shower heads that were
   placed in the gas chamber to mislead the victims (Get ~/gifs/ auplan.gif).

   It is a sad reflection on Leuchter's integrity and ability to use
   logic to see that he admits the Kremas were demolished, yet continues
   to claim he can deduce from their current state how they looked in
   1944, before they were blown up!  The following is a verbatim excerpt
   from his cross-examination by Mr.  Pearson, in the Zundel trial:


[Leuchter]                                                     [Page 13]

      Q. Crematoria III has been demolished.

      A. Um, there are still parts of Crematoruim III there, but for
         the most part, the roof of the alleged gas chamber has crumbled
         and is all lying in bits and pieces in the basement of what would
         have been the alleged gas chamber.

      Q. So, it's no longer subterranean?

      A. That's correct. There's a hole in the ground.

      Q. With respect to the gas chambers at Crematorium IV and V,
         those are totally demolished.

      A. With the exception of the foundation, yes.

      Q. So, all that was there for you to examine was the foundation
         of the building.  Is that right?

      A. That is correct.
      
   Leuchter admits that the roof of the gas chamber of Krema III was all
   blown up and collapsed, and that Krema IV and V are gone except for
   the foundation!  As for Krema II, his testimony is also intriguing:

      Q. So, the gas chamber facility itself is presently underground?

      A. Parts of it are and parts aren't.

      Q. All right.  And the parts that are underground, I take it that
         the roof is no longer whole; is that right?

      A. Um, one of the roofs is broken into several pieces but it's
         essentially whole.

      Q. It's broken in several pieces but it's essentially whole?

      A. I mean it's not fragmented.

      Q. How many pieces?

      A. Three, I believe. I say that only to indicate that it's not
         fragmented. There are large slabs left of the roof.

      Q. Right. And it's collapsed.

      A. It's dropped several feet. It's partially collapsed.

      Q. Is there dirt over it? Is it subterranean?

      A. In some places there are dirt over it and some places there's
         no dirt.

[Leuchter]                                                     [Page 14]

      Q. All right. And that's with respect to Crematorium II?

      A. That's correct.

   Even more incredible is to see what Leuchter writes in his report:

      "Evidence as to Krema function is non-existent since Krema's I
      oven has been completely rebuilt, Kremas II and III are partially
      destroyed with components missing, and Kremas IV and V are gone".

   "Are gone"!  Yet, he can still conjecture about how they functioned
   before being destroyed...

   The pictures of the gas chambers in their current state appear in
   Pressac.  They are totally demolished and there is no way a
   reasonable person would claim to be able to conclude anything about
   how they functioned before they were destroyed.

   Leuchter further ridicules himself by stating that the gas chambers
   were never sealed and that using cyanide gas inside them would be
   dangerous. But, he admits that the gas was used in them (for delousing
   purposes, as he claims). This is absurd, of course; if they were not 
   sealed, introducing the gas into them would be dangerous no matter what
   the purpose was. This obvious contradiction alone is reason enough to
   discard the "Leuchter report".

 2.09 If the gas chambers were ventilated, the gas would kill people
      outside.

   Nonsense; it is all a question of concentration.  Once the gas is
   released into the atmosphere, its concentration drops and it is no
   longer dangerous.  Also, HCN dissipates quickly.  The execution gas
   chambers in US prisons are also ventilated directly into the
   atmosphere.  Furthermore, if this argument would hold for the
   extermination chambers, it would hold for the delousing chambers as
   well, and one would have to conclude that no delousing chambers
   existed either.

 2.10 If so many people were actually killed and cremated, where is
      all the ash?

   After a person is cremated, quite a small amount of ash remains - it
   fits in a small urn, or a box.  This means that ashes of thousands of
   people fit into one truck.  The ash was either scattered around in
   fields, buried, or - in Auschwitz, for instance - dumped into a
   river.


[Leuchter]                                                     [Page 15]

 2.11 The people who dropped the Zyklon-B into the chambers would have
      died from the gas themselves.

   Utter nonsense.  Like those who used the Zyklon-B in the delousing
   chambers, the SS men who carried out the gassings utilized gas masks.
   (The mind boggles at the realization that a "gas chamber expert" could
   not figure this out.)

 2.12 The death lists from Auschwitz do not show that any people were
      gassed, and point to a smaller number of victims.

   This is because those lists refer only to those who where assigned
   serial numbers.  The majority of people transferred to the camp were
   classified as "unfit for work" and gassed immediately.  This fact is
   noted, for instance, in a report written by top SS officer
   Franke-Gricksch to Himmler (Get pub/camps/auschwitz/gricksch.rpt;
   & ~/auschwitz.faq1, which discusses the registration process).  These
   people were not registered anywhere, and no one recorded their names.
   (Testimony of Polish prisoner Aloiz Oskar Kleta, Shelly, p.  284;
   Fertig, 12; Fleming, 174.  Also, see testimony of Henryk Tauber,
   Pressac, page 488, as to how the SS routinely burned documents
   regarding the number of victims.

 2.13 There was a swimming pool in Auschwitz, hence it could not have
      been an extermination camp.

   Indeed, a water reservoir in Auschwitz I (the main camp) was
   converted to a swimming pool which was used by the camp's staff.
   Other means of entertainment for the SS personnel existed - a band
   composed of prisoners, and a brothel (which some prisoners were
   permitted to use).  How this "proves" that Auschwitz was not an 
   extermination center is beyond the author of this text.

 2.14 Much of the area of Auschwitz has a high water table, therefore
      corpses could not be burned in ditches.

   There are pictures of these ditches with corpses burning in them
   (See pub/holocaust/gifs for available photographs) . During
   the period in which Auschwitz was active, the SS had the area
   drained; as can be seen today, the drainage, which has not been
   maintained since 1945, has deteriorated and the water level had
   risen.  Furthermore, the ditches were not used all the time, but only
   when there were not enough furnaces to cremate the victims or during
   the extermination of the Hungarian Jews, when so many people were
   murdered daily that the furnaces could not handle the amount of
   corpses.  The "incineration ditches" are known to have been active in
   October-November 1942 and the summer of 1944, which do not coincide
   with the period the snow melts and the water level rises.


[Leuchter]                                                     [Page 16]

 2.15: How come eye witnesses to the gassings survived? Why didn't
       the Nazis kill them?

   The answer is rather simple - the SS did kill almost all of them.
   After the war, for instance, there were about 70 survivors from
   Treblinka (more than 700,000 victims, see also file with excerpts
   from ruling of German courts - get pub/camps/aktion.reinhard/reinhard.faq1
   and ~/reinhard.faq2).  These survivors escaped from the camp,
   mostly during the rebellion they carried out.  Same for Auschwitz:
   nearly all the members of the "Special Commando" who saw the gassings
   and had to carry out and cremate the victims, were killed by the SS,
   but a small number of them escaped, mostly during the rebellion of
   October 1944.  Another factor is the fact that in the end of the war
   Auschwitz was in total chaos - the Soviets were approaching fast, and
   they even bombed the camp.  Thus there was no time to kill all the
   occupants, and some were transferred to camps within Germany.  Many
   of them died in those forced "death marches".

 2.16: Fumes from a diesel engine are not toxic enough to kill
       people.  (This claim is made with regard to the death camp of
       Treblinka - see file with ruling of German courts on this.  In
       other death camps, gasoline engines were used. The method of
       killing was simple - people were crammed into the gas chambers,
       and the exhaust of powerful engines was pumped into them).

   Nonsense.  In a closed chamber, of course diesel fumes will kill.
   There was actually a study on this, and its results are reported in
   "The Toxicity of Fumes from a diesel Engine Under Four Different
   Running Conditions", by Pattle et al., British Journal of Industrial
   Medicine, 1957, Vol 14, p.  47-55.  These researchers ran a few
   experiments in which various animals were exposed to diesel fumes,
   and studied the results.

   In the experiments, the exhaust of a small diesel engine (568 cc, 6
   BHP) was connected to a chamber 10 cubic meters (340 cubic feet) in
   volume, and the animals were put inside it.  In all cases, the
   animals died.  Death was swifter when the intake of air to the engine
   was restricted, as this causes a large increase in the amount of
   carbon monoxide (CO) that is emitted.  (See, for instance, "diesel
   Engine Reference Book", by Lilly, 1985, p.  18/8, where it is stated
   that at a high air/fuel ratio the concentration of CO is only a few
   parts per million but for lower ratios (25:1) the concentration of CO
   can rise up to 3,000 ppm.  It is very easy to restrict the air intake
   - the British researchers did so by partially covering the air intake
   opening with a piece of metal.)

   Even in cases where the CO output was low, the animals still died
   from other toxic components - mainly irritants and nitrogen dioxide.

   Now, the diesel engines used in Treblinka were much larger - they
   belonged to captured Soviet T-34 tanks.  These tanks weighed 26-31
   tons (depending on the model) and had a 500 BHP engine (compared to a

[Leuchter]                                                     [Page 17]

   mere 6 BHP in the British experiments).  The volume of the
   extermination chambers in Treblinka is, of course, a factor.  But the
   chambers' volume was about 60 cubic meters (2040 cubic feet); this is
   6 times more than those in the British experiments, but the
   difference in the size of the engines is much larger than a factor of
   6.

   It should be remembered that what matters in CO poisoning is not the
   concentration of CO, but the ratio of CO to oxygen.  In a small,
   gas-tight room, crammed full of people, oxygen levels drop quickly,
   thus making death by CO poisoning faster.  As noted, other toxic
   components in the fumes further accelerate mortality.

   The SS was aware of the fact that cramming as many people as possible
   into the gas chamber, thus leaving no empty spaces, would accelerate
   mortality.  This is evident, for instance, from a letter regarding
   "gassing vans" (used in the Chelmno extermination camp and other
   locations) sent to SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Walter Rauff, 5 June 1942.
   The letter is quite long (more of it is reproduced in the file of
   original Nazi documents), but here is the relevant part (Nazism,
   document 913).

   "2) The vans are normally loaded with 9-10 people per square meter.
   With the large Saurer special vans this is not possible because
   although they do not become overloaded their maneuverability is much
   impaired.  A reduction in the load area appears desirable.  It can be
   achieved by reducing the size of the van by c.  1 meter.  The
   difficulty referred to cannot be overcome by reducing the size of the
   load.  For a reduction in the numbers will necessitate longer period
   of operation because the free spaces will have to be filled with CO.
   By contrast, a smaller load area which is completely full requires a
   much shorter period of operation since there are no free spaces."

   Another gruesome testimony to the "science of gassing" developed by
   the SS is the letter from Dr August Becker to SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer
   Rauff, 16 May 1942 (Nazi Conspiracy, 418)

      The application of the gas is not undertaken correctly.  In
      order to come to an end as fast as possible, the driver presses
      the accelerator to the fullest extent.  By doing that the
      persons to be executed suffer death from suffocation and not
      death by dozing off as was planned.  My directions have now
      proved that by correct adjustment of the levers death comes
      faster and the prisoners fall asleep peacefully.  Distorted
      faces and excretions, such as could be seen before, are no
      longer noticed.

[Leuchter]                                                     [Page 18]

   Additional information was published to several UseNet newsgroups in
   November of 1993, in which smullins@ecn.purdue.edu quotes Holtz (see
   Recommended Reading section) and Elliot.  A quick scan of the data
   clearly shows the difference in oxygen and carbon monoxide levels
   found in diesel exhaust under different fuel-air mixture conditions:

      Exhaust gas composition of a diesel engine, running at the correct
      fuel-air ratios (% by volume):

      O2: 1.5% 
      CO2: 13.5% 
      CO: 0.5% 

      Exhaust gas composition of a diesel engine running at a fuel-air
      ratio of 0.094 (% by volume):

      O2:	0.3%
      CO2:	10.2%
      CO:	6.0%

   The data clearly demonstrates that simply restricting the air intake
   of the engine, any diesel engine will produce sufficient CO to be
   clearly and rapidly fatal (6% CO represents roughly 60,000 ppm). This
   data (Holtz & Elliot) appeared in "Transactions of the ASME" in early
   1941, and was probably known to the Nazis.

   Mr. Mullins has also published an article to UseNet which deals with
   Berg's "The Diesel Gas Chambers: Myth Within a Myth," (Get pub/
   orgs/american/ihr/jhr/jhr.v5n1), and which demonstrates not only how 
   diesel engines can quickly produce highly toxic levels of gasses, 
   but which uses Berg's own references to do so. (Get
   pub/orgs/american/ihr/diesel.001 for the full article.)

 2.17 There were not enough Jews in Europe to account for the number
      of 6 million victims

   This claim is ridiculous, as attested to by all population statistics
   of that time, including the numbers of Jews appearing in many
   original Nazi documents...  for instance:

   Extracts from the minutes of the Wannsee conference, January 20 1942,
   regarding the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" [Trials of War
   Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals - Washington, U.S
   Govt.  Print.  Off., 1949-1953., Vol.  XIII, p.  210]
   --------------------------------------------------------------- 
   [...]

      II.  At the beginning of the meeting the Chief of the Security
      Police and the SD, SS Lieutenant General Heydrich, reported his
      appointment by the Reich Marshal [Goering] to service as
      Commissioner for the preparation of the Final Solution of the
      European Jewish Problem....


[Leuchter]                                                     [Page 19]

      In the course of this final solution of the European Jewish
      Problem, approximately 11 million Jews are involved.  They are
      distributed among individual countries as follows:

      A. Original Reich Territory [Altreich]         131,800
         Austria                                      43,700
         Eastern territories                         420,000
         Government General [Nazi occupied Poland] 2,284,000
         ..
         ..
         ..
         The Netherlands                             160,800
         ..
         ..
         Rumania, including Bessarabia               342,000
         ..
         ..
         Hungary                                     742,800
         USSR                                      5,000,000
         ..
         ..
         White Russia, excluding Bialystok           446,484
         [Many countries deleted for brevity]

                                       TOTAL over 11,000,000

      Under proper direction the Jews should now in the course of the
      Final Solution be brought to the East in a suitable way for use as
      labor.  In big labor gangs, with separation of the sexes, the Jews
      capable of work are brought to these areas and employed in road
      building, in which task undoubtedly a great part will fall out
      through natural diminution.

      The remnant that finally is able to survive all this - since this
      is undoubtedly the part with the strongest resistance - must be
      treated accordingly since these people, representing a natural
      selection, are to be regarded as the germ cell of a new Jewish
      development.  (See the experience of history).

      In the program of the practical execution of the Final Solution,
      Europe is combed through from the West to the East.

   The claims often made by Holocaust deniers about emigration of Jews
   after the war are preposterous.  For instance, there were 370,000
   Jews in Palestine in 1937, and 600,000 in 1948.  The numbers arrived
   at by the Anglo-American committee for studying the Holocaust are the
   following:


[Leuchter]                                                     [Page 20]

   (Conclusions of the Anglo-American committee for studying the Nazi
   genocide inflicted on the Jews of Europe, with exact breakdown,
   country by country.)
   
      Numbers of missing Jews (post-war minus pre-war):

      Germany -          195,000
      Austria -           53,000
      Czechoslovakia -   255,000
      Denmark -            1,500
      France -           140,000 
      Belgium -           57,000
      Luxemburg -          3,000
      Norway -             1,000
      Holland -          120,000
      Italy -             20,000
      Jugoslavia -        64,000
      Greece -            64,000
      Bulgaria -           5,000
      Rumania -          530,000
      Hungary -          200,000
      Poland -         3,271,000
      USSR -           1,050,000

      Less dispersed refugees (308,000)

      Total number of Jews that were exterminated = 5,721,500
      -------------------------------------------------------

   Some estimates are lower, and some are higher, but these are the
   magnitudes in question.  Recent evidence shows that the number of
   ex-USSR victims was actually underestimated.

   About 6 million non-Jewish civilians were killed by the Nazis -
   mostly in Poland and Yugoslavia.

 2.18   The "myth" of the Holocaust was created solely for
        the financial benefit of Israel

   Holocaust denial often asserts that the sole reason that the
   "Holocaust hoax" has been promulgated was that it created a financial
   windfall for the State of Israel. Deborah Lipstadt provides this
   information in "Denying the Holocaust": 

   "Israeli officials detailed their claims against Germany in their
   communique of March 1951 to the Four Powers, and this document became
   the official basis for the reparations agreement. It contained an
   explanation of Israel's means of calculating the size of the
   reparations claim. In the communique Israeli officials explained that
   Nazi persecution had stimulated 'a second Jewish exodus' of close to
   five hundred thousand. Based on the size of this exodus, Israel
   determined the amount of the reparations it would request:


[Leuchter]                                                     [Page 21]

      The government of Israel is not in a position to obtain and
      present a complete statement of all Jewish property taken or
      looted by the Germans, and said to total more than $6 thousand
      million.  It can only compute its claim on the basis of total
      expenditures already made and the expenditure still needed for
      the integration of Jewish immigrants from Nazi-dominated
      countries.  The number of these immigrants is estimated at some
      500,000, which means a total expenditure of $1.5 thousand
      million. 

   It seems hardly necessary to point out that since the money the state
   received by based on the cost of resettling _survivors_, had Israel
   wanted to increase the amount of reparations it obtained from Germany
   it would have been in its interest to argue that fewer than six
   million had been killed and that more had managed to flee to Israel."
   (Lipstadt, 57)

 3.00 Leuchter's "credibility," or rather, his lack of same.

 3.10 Leuchter's claims during his Zundel testimony, and the reality
      of his perjury, Leuchter's admission that he is not an engineer
      (in American court), court order to quit publishing "reports"
      which claim engineering expertise.. (For an extensive examination
      of Leuchter's reception as an "expert witness" in a Canadian
      court, get pub/people/l/lipstadt.deborah/lipstadt.005. For the 
      Washington Post article discussing the Leuchter Consent Decree, 
      in which he admitted that he was not an engineer, and agreed to stop
      disseminating 'reports' which identified him as such, get
      pub/people/l/leuchter.fred/washington-post.0691.)

   In his article of January 11, (Spotlight, "Major Historical Fact
   Uncovered," January 11, 1993), Foner discusses the Canadian trial of
   Ernst Zundel, and tells us...

   Zundel went looking for an expert on executions, particularly
   gassings.  He found Leuchter, who specializes in the design and
   fabrication of execution hardware used in prisons throughout the
   United States.  (Foner, 3)

   Although Leuchter is touted by Neo-Nazi publications and Holocaust
   deniers as an "expert," Mr.  Leuchter's own testimony at the Zundel
   trial made it clear that he was neither an expert nor a credible
   witness.

   The following is taken from Leuchter's testimony at the Zundel trial
   (Douglas Christie, Zundel's attorney is the questioner) - following
   the testimony are verbatim quotes from two American prison officials,
   which were obtained after Leuchter's testimony at the trial.  We
   believe you will have no difficulty in determining the value of Mr.
   Leuchter's credentials after considering both:

      Q: And what is your relationship with the operation of those
         facilities [i.e.  gas chambers] in those two States [California
         and North Carolina]?

      A: We consulted with both States, California primarily on a heart
         monitoring system to replace the older type mechanical diagraph
         stethoscope that's presently in use.  We will be shipping to them
         shortly and installing a new heart monitor for both chairs in
         their gas chamber.


[Leuchter]                                                     [Page 22]

      Q: You are consulted by the State, I understand?

      A: Yes, Juan Vasquez.

      Q: I see.  And in North Carolina?

      A: North Carolina.  My discussions and work was with one Nathan
         Reise, and he had some work done by their maintenance personnel on
         their gas chamber two years ago, and they had a problem with the
         gasket on a door leaking.  At which point, we discussed it with
         him and recommended remedial procedures to change the gas chamber.

      Q: And he consults you in regard to those matters?

      A: He does.

   What do those two facilities have to say about the matter?  First,
   the warden at San Quentin (California) responds:

      "I can inform you, however, that San Quentin has not contracted
      with Fred A.  Leuchter, Jr.  for the installation of a heart
      monitoring system or for any other work." Signed: DANIEL B.
      Vasquez, Warden (California)

   Next, we offer the comments from North Carolina prison officials:

      "I discussed your request with Mr.  Nathan A.  RICE, Former
      Warden, and he stated that he vaguely recalled a telephone
      conversation between him and a gentleman professing to be an
      expert on execution chambers.  Mr.  Rice further states that the
      gentleman called him for the purpose of selling a lethal injection
      machine...

      Also, our records do not support that Mr.  Leuchter performed
      either consulting or any service...I can attest that the planning
      and work was performed by the Department of Correction Engineering
      Section and our institution maintenance department." Signed: Gary
      T.  Dixon, Warden (North Carolina)

   We discover, then, that neither California nor North Carolina have
   consulted with Leuchter regarding their gas chambers.  Leuchter was
   incapable of even getting the names of the wardens right, and clearly
   lying about his "professional" relationships with them.

   The only other state with which Leuchter has alleged consulted
   regarding gas chambers is Missouri.  Yet, even thought Leuchter has
   allegedly "designed" a gas chamber for the state, we have to take his
   word for it since that gas chamber was never built nor installed and,
   in fact, Missouri does not have an operational gas chamber to this
   day even though Leuchter had allegedly designed one for them over 4
   years ago.  We would like to hear from anyone who has contacted
   authorities in the State of Missouri regarding this matter.


[Leuchter]                                                     [Page 23]

   An article in the Washington Post sheds additional light upon
   Leuchter's legal problems, and his status as an engineer:

      BOSTON, June 17 - Fred A.  Leuchter Jr., a self-styled expert in
      the machinery of death who parlayed his reputation as a builder
      of killing equipment into a second career as a proponent of
      "Holocaust revisionism," has admitted that he is not an
      engineer.

      Made in a consent decree filed with a Massachusetts court last
      week, his admission should deal a blow to the movement holding
      that the Nazi extermination of 6 million Jews and others during
      World War II was a hoax or an exaggeration, according to experts
      in the field.

      Leuchter, 48, of suburban Malden, was to face trial later this
      month on charges of practicing engineering without a license, a
      violation of Massachusetts law.  But on June 11, he signed a
      consent agreement with the board that licenses engineers.

      In it, Leuchter acknowledged that, "I am not and have never been
      registered as a professional engineer" and that he nevertheless
      had represented himself as an engineer in dealings with various
      states that use the death penalty and to which he supplied
      equipment or advice.

      The agreement also requires Leuchter to stop disseminating
      reports in which he purports to be an engineer, most
      significantly a document known as the "Leuchter Report."

      That report, widely circulated by revisionists, asserts that gas
      chambers at Nazi concentration camps in Auschwitz, Birkenau and
      Majdanek could not have been used for mass killings because they
      were not big enough nor well ventilated or sealed.  The
      assertion is based largely on chemical analysis of materials
      scraped surreptitiously from walls of those chambers by Leuchter
      during a visit to Poland in February 1988.

      Sally Greenberg, an attorney with the Anti-Defamation League of
      B'nai B'rith in Boston, which was instrumental in bringing
      Leuchter to the attention of Massachusetts authorities, welcomed
      the settlement.

      "It's a blow to Holocaust revisionism because he has been the
      guru of the revisionists," she said.  "Now, he has as much as
      admitted that he is not qualified as an engineer to comment on
      the 'myth' of the Holocaust.  It's essentially an admission that
      he's the charlatan and phony that we always knew he was."
      ("Holocaust Revisionist Admits He Is Not Engineer." The
      Washington Post. Get pub/people/l/leuchter.fred/leuchter.02 for 
      the complete text.)


[Leuchter]                                                     [Page 24]

 3.20 Leuchter's "credibility," or rather, his lack of same, among 
      American prison administrators

      On July 20,1990, Alabama Assistant Attorney General Ed Carnes
      sent a memo to all capital-punishment states questioning
      Leuchter's credentials and credibility.  Carnes stated that not
      only were Leuchter's views on the gas-chamber process
      'unorthodox' but that he was running a shakedown scheme.  If a
      state refused to use his services, Leuchter would testify at the
      last minute on behalf of the inmate, claiming that the state's
      gas chamber might malfunction.   According to Carnes, Leuchter made 'money on both sides
      of the fence.' .  Describing
      Leuchter's behavior in Virginia, Florida, and Alabama, Carnes
      observed that in less than thirty days Leuchter had testified in
      three states that their electric-chair technology was too old
      and unreliable to be used.  In Florida and Virginia the federal
      courts had rejected Leuchter's testimony as unreliable.  In
      Florida the court had found that Leuchter had 'misquoted the
      statements' contained in an important affidavit and had
      'inaccurately surmised' a crucial premise of his conclusion
      .  In Virginia, Leuchter provided a
      death-row inmate's attorney with an affidavit claiming the
      electric chair would fail.  The Virginia court decided the
      credibility of Leuchter's affidavit was limited because Leuchter
      was "the refused contractor who bid to replace the electrodes in
      the Virginia chair ." (Lipstadt,
      170)

 4.0 Research Materials & Sources

   Vera Laska provided an extensive list of assets for those interested
   in Holocaust research, which was included in the Auschwitz FAQ.  I
   recommend it as an excellent starting point for anyone wishing to do
   serious research into the Reinhard camps.  (Get pub/camps/auschwitz
   /auschwitz.faq2)

   In addition, you may obtain our 25-part Holocaust bibliography by
   using the Nizkor Web, http://www.nizkor.org. You'll find them
   in http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/bibliographies and
   http://www.nizkor.org/bibliographics, which provides links to reviews
   and information about how to order books.

[Leuchter]                                                     [Page 25]

 4.1 Recommended Reading

   A German language version of this FAQ is now available at
   URL http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/l/leuchter.fred/leuchter.faq.de.

   For those wishing to learn more about the extermination facilities at
   Auschwitz-Birkenau, we suggest that you begin with our two-part
   Guide, by reading AUSCHWITZ AUSCHWITZ.FAQ1 and AUSCHWITZ.FAQ2,
   which contains a comprehensive list of sources. The Auschwitz
   FAQs are available on the World Wide Web at URL
   http://www.nizkor.org/faqs/auschwitz/

   A wide range of educational material, including videotape, lesson
   plans, books and other teaching material is available via
   http://www.nizkor.org/bibliographies/ssss.shtml.

   "Cyanide Toxicity".  Agency for Toxic Substances and 
   Disease Registry, U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services.   
   in _American Family Physician_, Vol. 48, no 1, July 1993.

   Elkins, Hervey B. The Chemistry of Toxicology.  New York: John 
   Wiley and Sons Ltd. 2nd (c) 1959

   Two recent (September, 1995) articles in UseNet's
   alt.revisionism provide extensive documentation regarding
   spurious claims made by deniers. These articles, by 
   Brian Harmon, may be retrieved as:

   http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/camps/auschwitz/cyanide/hcn-spurious-claims

   Mr. Harmon's articles provide specific citations from the
   two references to cyanide toxicology noted above.

   Markiewicz, Jan, et. al. A Study of the Cyanide Compounds
   Content in the Walls of the Gas Chambers in the Former
   Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps. Cracow: Institute of
   Forensic Research, 1994. 
   (http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/orgs/polish/institute-for-forensic-research/)

   Meeussen, Johannes C. et. al. "Dissolution Behavior of Iron Cyanide
   (Prussian Blue) in Contaminated Soils." Environmental Science and 
   Technology. 1992, 26, pp 1832-1838

   Reitlinger, Gerald.  _The Final Solution:  The Attempt to 
   Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945_.  (South 
   Brunswick, New Jersey) c 1961.

   Truth Prevails: Demolishing Holocaust Denial, published by the Beate
   Klarsfeld foundation and Holocaust Survivors and Friends.  ISBN
   1-879437-00-7.

   Denying the Holocaust. Deborah Lipstadt provides extensive discussion
   relating to Leuchter's lack of expertise or credentials - see Work
   Cited.         

   The Holocaust archives are available via anonymous ftp, from
   ftp.nizkor.org, and via the World Wide Web, at www.nizkor.org. 
   Because of the ease with which Web browsers retrieve software,
   reaching the archives via the Web is the preferred means of
   access.

 4.2 Abbreviations Used in Citations

   (For a list of abbreviations which may have been used in this
   document, Get pub/camps/auschwitz/reference.term.)

 4.3 Glossary

   Krema: a unit containing a homicidal gas chamber and furnaces for
          disposing of the bodies.  Auschwitz had five such installations.
          See http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/camps/auschwitz for images.

 4.4 Works Cited

   Borkin, Joseph. The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farbin. London & 
   New York: Collier Macmillan Publishers (London) and The Free Press,
   a division of Macmillan Publishing, 1978.
 
   Brugioni, Dino A., and Robert G.  Poirier.  The Holocaust Revisited:
   A Retrospective Analysis of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination
   Complex.  (Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C.) February
   1979.

      The paper includes aerial photographs of the Auschwitz-Birkenau
      complex in operation during WWII.  A summary of their analysis is
      included in the paper.  These photos corroborate eyewitness
      accounts/Nazi documentation on camp operations.


[Leuchter]                                                     [Page 26]

      You can obtain a copy from the US gov't through the following
      sources:

         National Technical Information Service
         5285 Port Royal Road
         Springfield, VA 22161

      or:

         Photoduplication Service
         Library of Congress
         Washington, D.C. 20540

      Use the report number(#st 79-10001) and the document number
      (NTISUBE28002) to speed service along.  The document # is
      particularly important.

   Feig, Konnilyn G. Hitler's Death Camps. LOC D810.J4 F36, 1981

   Foner, Samuel P.  "Major Historical Fact Uncovered" SPOTLIGHT Vol.
   XIX, Number 2, January 11, 1993)

   Hilberg, Raul.  Commandant of Auschwitz (London: Weidenfeld and
   Nicholson, 1959)

   Klarsfeld, Serge.  The Holocaust and Neo-Nazi Mythomania, as quoted
   in Feig.

   Shelly, "Secretaries of Death", Edited and Translated by Lore Shelly,
   Shengold Publishers INC., NY 1986

   Fertig, Howard.  The History of KL-Auschwitz.  New York: 1982

   Fleming, Gerald.  Hitler and the Final Solution.  University of
   California Press, 1984

   Lipstadt, Deborah. Denying The Holocaust. New York: Macmillan, 1993.
   Toronto: Maxwell MacMillan Canada. ISBN: 0-02-919235-8

   Merck Index. Ninth Edition, 1976.

   Mueller, Filip.  "Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas
   Chambers", as cited by both Feig and Hilberg.  Museum w Oswiecimu.
   "KL Auschwitz seen by the SS Hoess, Broad, Kremer," 2nd.  ed., 1978

   Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Vol. III. Washington,
   D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946

   Nazism: A History in Documents and Eye Witness Accounts, Vol.2

   Pressac, J.C.  Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas
   Chambers.  New York: Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1989


[Leuchter]                                                     [Page 27]

   "Holocaust Revisionist Admits He Is Not Engineer." The Washington Post,
   June 18, 1991, FINAL Edition. Christopher B. Daly
   
   YVS XVI. Yad Vashem Studies, XVI. "Operation Reinhard": 
   Extermination Camps of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka. 
   Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1984
   (Online at http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/orgs/israeli/yad-vashem/)

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