[Article originally published to UseNet on October 12, 1991, by d9bertil@dtek.chalmers.se (Bertil Jonell), posting from the Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. knm]

On Wednesday the eighteenth of September 1991, the Swedish National Television aired a documentary by Michael Schmidt called 'Warheit Macht Frei'. I believe that certain parts of it are of interest to the net and may shed a little light upon the background of some subjects that have been discussed on several newsgroups lately.

The text below will be attributed thus: The narrator's lines are contained within parentheses "()". Descriptions on what happens on the screen are contained within less- and more-than signs "Scene:". [HTML note: Scenes are prefaced here with "Scene:". knm] Other attributions by name or function (e.g. "Interviewer"). My comments will be contained within brackets "[ ]". The text below is from the most interesting parts of the documentary. The parts that aren't included are those that only talk about neo- nazism in Germany.

Background: Michael Schmidt is a German journalist who managed to infiltrate and document the neo-nazi movement during the last two years. According to background articles in the press when it was sent he did this by simply asking Michael Ku"hnen if he could document the neo-nazi movement. Kühnen accepted and since Kühnen had accepted Schmidt, his associates did too.

-bertil-

(Munich, 21st of April 1990. The day after Hitler's birthday. Löwenbraukeller. Eight hundred persons have been gathered to hear what they want to hear. They are waiting for David Irving, who is going to say it: Nobody was gassed in Auschwitz in the third reich. History is revised, forged)

Scene:Michael Kühnen, leader of the German neo-nazis until his death in April 1991, and the rest of the audience applauds.

(But among the audience are guests that throw a different light over this seemingly respectable gathering.)

Scene: Camera focuses on one person in the audience

(A living legend, a hero among the neo-nazis of today, General Otto Ernst Remer. He was adviser to the former leader of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, he sold German weapons to Syria, but above all, General Otto Ernst Remer was the man that tracked down the persons who on the 20th of July 1944 conspired to assassinate Hitler. As a reward he was appointed commander of Hitler's personal guard.)

Scene: Old German black and white newsreel shows Remer parading in front of gathered troops, one arm held high in a nazi salute.

Narrator of the Newsreel:

"Major Remer, commander of the guard battalion "Berlin", distinguished himself during the squashing of a small, hostile to the nation, honourless clique and was immediately promoted to Colonel by the Führer."

Remer talking to the troops:

"Today we are thankfully political soldiers!"

Scene:Back to today and an interview with Remer

Scene:picture of the pamphlet " Journal of Historical Review", the listed contents on the front page are:

Carlo Mattogono: Auschwitz: A Case of Plagiarism,
Carlo Mattogono: Two False Testimonies from Auschwitz,
William Grimstad: Autopsying the Communist Corpse,
James J. Martin: A "Good War" It Wasn't.
Reviews:
Why I survived the A-bomb,
Sacrifice at Pearl Harbour,
Broken Alliance: The Turbulent Times between Blacks and Jews in America.
Historical News and Comment:
A Visit of Auschwitz,
An interview with General Ernst Otto Remer,
A "Diatribe" in honour of Dr. Alfred Schickel,
Alois Brunner talks about his past.

[Brunner is one of the most notorious Nazi war criminals still at large. He lives in Damascus and the Syrian government has refused to extradite him to Germany or France. In an telephone interview 1987, he told the Chicago Sun-Times that he regretted nothing of what he had done, that he would do it again, and that all Jews "deserved to die because they were the devil's agents and human garbage."]

( The Institute of Historical Review in California has as its goal to whitewash Hitler and deny the hideous crimes of Nazism. Remer is one of their international contacts and Remer himself is very proud of his contacts around the world.)

(And he spreads his thoughts to people he claims not to know...)

Scene:Home video of Remer talking to a gathering in front of a red banner with a white circle and the gothic letters "FAP"

Remer on video:

"In your hard political struggle, harder yet than ours, you must keep your mind on becoming a disciplined, responsible, and immovable circle of comrades! An Elite among the new German youth!"

Scene:Applauds and shouts of agreement

(He doesn't want to speak about todays neo-nazis, but this video shows clearly that he is one of them)

Scene:The gathered people Remer spoke to sing Deutchland Deutchland Über Alles

The Swedish Television added a translation of what they sing:

"Germany, Germany, everywhere! The Reich shall again be reborn!"

Gathering ends with:

"Long live today's NationalSocialist movement in Germany. Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!"

Scene:The gathered people perform the nazi salute

(Back to Munich. The main speaker, David Irving, is watching over the proceedings. The Institute for Historical Review is there to document and preserve for posterity those that absolve Nazi-Germany from all guilt, and claim that any warcrimes never happened, those that want to rewrite history, the so called "Revisionists". They claim that there never were any gaschambers and that the holocaust of the Jews never happened.)

Scene:Front page of the book "Highlights of the 9th International Revisionist Conference". There are pictures of David Irving, Fred Leuchter and several others on the front cover

Institute for Historical Review representative:

"We do video productions for the Institute when we have conferences"

Speaker on conference:

"We welcome Manfred Roeder, Michael Kühnen and their group of youths."

(A convicted terrorist and a neo-nazi is welcomed, but this man wants to avoid all publicity.)

Scene:Man in background shown, several photos of him are also shown

(His face looked familiar but where from? He has some aquarelles with him and allows them to be filmed, but he himself wants to avoid the camera)

Scene:A cardboard folder filled with paintings by Adolf Hitler shown

(There are few pictures of this man, but this time he is caught unawares)

Scene:The camera zooms out from a painting in the folder and focuses on the man's face

Man cuts him off:

"I'm not connected with any organization. I just.... I'm sort of a collector."

("Mr. Carter's" real name is Anthony Hancock and he is a bookprinter. He prints books for the National Front and supplies the whole world with nazi propaganda. Now he is awaiting trial for forgeries and cheque-frauds in the millions of pounds.)

Scene:Picture of British paper with picture of Hancock in an article saying essentially what the narrator just said.

Scene:Picture of pamphlet in red with the title "Did Six Million Really Die?", the subtitle "The Truth At Last" and, in the corner in gothic letters "Historical Fact No 1".

("Did Six Million Really Die?", Hate literature from Hancock's printing shop.)

Man (Hancock):

"I'm just a friend of a friend, you know. And I collect antiquarian books. Books on WWII and pre-war. I'm just a general collector."

Scene:Hancock blinks at Schmidt and grins

Scene:Three persons in jackass masks carry a placard saying: "Ich Esel, glaübe noch immer alles was man mir so erzält!!"

("I'm a Jackass who always believes what I am told!!" The holocaust of the Jews is ridiculed and mocked. This is nothing new.)

Scene:picture of similar placard carried by a person in a jackass mask in a neo-nazi demonstration

(Hamburg 1978. Christian Worch, Kühnens right hand is overseeing the demonstration.)

(Munich again: Another of Kühnens comrades, Evald Althan, is giving orders. Behind him the chief of security, the same Christian Worch. He also organized a conference with Irving in northern Germany. Here is also the skinhead leader of Riehfeldt, Thomas Heinkel. Three top figures in the neo-nazi movement. All of them attending to Irving.)

Scene:Cut to Haguenau, France. A building bearing a large sign saying "National"

[LePens Fronte National?]

(This is a small town called Haguenau in France. The pictures were taken by a neo-nazi and was never intended for publication. The so called Revisionists are gathered.)

Scene:Home video showing a gathering. Robert Faurisson and Ernst Zündel are talking to them.

( Robert Faurisson, professor in literature in Lyon. Claims to sympathise with the left. 1991 sentenced to a fine of 100,000 francs for having publicly denied the nazi crimes against humanity. Behind him Ernst Zündel. German-Canadian. Sentenced to prison in Canada 1988 for "spreading false information". He spread pamphlets and books printed at Anthony Hancock in England. Some time ago he commissioned a report that scientifically tries to prove that the gaschambers in Auschwitz never could have existed.)

Zündel:

"Why should we respectable Germans wallow in this pigsty of diabolic and mean lies that this Jewish rabble have distributed?"

[ Zündel uses the word 'Judenpack'.]

( Christian Worch is also in Haguenau. Also there, of course, is the next speaker, David Irving, the historian.)

Scene:Laughter from the audience

Irving continues:

"The one-man gaschamber looked like a sedan-chair, camouflaged as a telephone booth. Now, how did one fool the poor victim to enter this gaschamber? A telephone bell was rung inside and the privates said: I think it is for you!"

Scene:More laughter from the audience

[Cut out are details on neo-nazi military training, neo-nazi contacts with old nazis, neo-nazi attempts at infiltrating the EC-parliament, and a Swedish neo-nazi group suspected of stealing police weapons to use in a "racial war".]

Scene:Picture of relational chart over neo-nazi organizations in Sweden, and some organizations that they have tried to infiltrate.

(Common to all these organizations is that they spread their propaganda through local radio. The most famous was "Radio Islam", Publisher: Ahmed Rami, formerly Moroccan officer, formerly Swedish convict that nowadays prefers to look like a highly educated, controversial, serious researcher in political science, but reveals himself the same second he is challenged.)

[sic!]

Scene:Rami switches to Swedish translated for Schmidt by someone off-camera.

[I translates what Rami says directly from Swedish to English, and add what the translator tells Schmidt when there is a difference]

Translator to Schmidt:

"I must have the right to say: You are a liar when you say what you say, without being punished."

[sic!]

Translator to Schmidt:

"He looks upon you as a victim of brain-washing."

(It was the autumn of 1990. Kuwait was occupied by Iraq. The US sent troops to Saudi. The world held it's breath. This is a draft for an agreement between the government of Iraq and the Anti-Zionist Legion in Germany, led by Lieutenant Michael Ku"hnen. Here prerequisites are listed for putting an armed volunteer corps of one hundred neo-nazi soldiers at the service of Iraq, to "fight the zionist, US- imperialist aggression." Then a hundred more are to follow from Great Britain and the USA. Prior to transport to Iraq they are to gather in Copenhagen or Stockholm.)

Scene:The document is shown. It says, in German, what the narrator said it said.

[Demonstration in favour of Rudolph Hess shown. The ex-East German neo-nazis meet their colleagues from ex-West Germany for the first time.]

Scene:The end of the Munich meeting. A speaker declares its motto to be 'Warheit Macht Frei' (Truth gives liberty). During the singing of the German national anthem several persons in the audience perform the nazi salute, but cease when they see the camera. Afterwards a demonstration is shown where General Otto Ernst Remer, neo-nazi leader Michael Kuühnen and David Irving participates.

("Warheit Macht Frei". During more than two years, Michael Schmidt was confronted with their truths. But finally he found an old SS-officer, in Denmark. One of them, connected to the NSDAP-AO and the Revisionists. Wanted in Germany. He had worked in Auschwitz and written a book about it. He admitted that their truths were just fantasies: Thies Christophersen.)

[ NSDAP-AO, NSDAP was the old original German Nazi party. AO means Exile Organization. Headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska and headed by Gary Lauck. The part of the documentary that exclusively is about the neo-nazis talks about it several times.]

(In the report Auschwitz is described rather as a summercamp than an extermination camp.)

Scene:Picture of book in German. Title: "Kritik, die Stimme des Volkes" ("Critic, The voice of the People") and containing the article "Die Auschwitz-Luüge" ("The Auschwitz-Lie") by Thies Christophersen.

(This book has become the bible of those who want to deny the truth. But Christophersen admits that he knowingly warped the truth. The book doesn't mention any gaschambers so therefore they don't exist, the argument goes.)

Scene:The documentary ends with the following words:

"Now we can't say that we weren't warned."

The original plaintext version of this file is available via ftp.

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