Debating the Holocaust - A New Look at Both Sides

Description

This is a book about the Holocaust, and about two competing views of that event. On the one hand we have the traditional, orthodox view: the six million Jewish casualties, the gas chambers, the cremation ovens and mass graves. Traditional historians have thousands of surviving witnesses and the weight of history on their side. On the other hand there is a small, renegade band of writers and researchers who refuse to accept large parts of this story. These revisionists, as they call themselves, present counter-evidence and ask tough questions. They are beginning to outline a new and different narrative. Thus there has emerged something of a debate -- a debate of historic significance. This is no peripheral clash between two arcane schools of thought, regarding some obscure details of World War II. It is about history, of course, but it also speaks to fundamental issues of our time: freedom of speech and press, the operation of mass media, manipulation of public opinion, political and economic power structures, and the coercive abilities of the State. It is an astonishingly rancorous and controversial debate, with far-reaching implications. Introduction PART I – SITUATING THE HOLOCAUST DEBATE Chapter 1: The Great Debate The Core of Revisionism Four Myths Who’s Who in the Debate And in the Other Corner... Chapter 2: Truth versus Lies The Traditional Story "Shocking and Strange" A Question of Evidence The Nuremberg Trials Chapter 3: On the Origin, and Future, of the “Six Million” Holocaust by Numbers A Most Remarkable History The Saga Continues Revisionist Death Figures World Jewish Population Another Theory Chapter 4: Breaking It Down: The Death Matrix The Hilberg Matrix Coming into Focus Life (and Death) in the Ghettos The Einsatzgruppen PART II – DEATH CAMPS IN FOCUS Chapter 5: Chelmno and the Nazi Camp System The Language of Mass Murder The Missing Hitler Order Gas Chambers Galore Death Camp Chelmno Further Issues Disposing of the Bodies A Chelmno Death Matrix Traditionalist Replies  Chapter 6: The Reinhardt Camps (I): Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka Orthodoxy and Estimated Fatalities Camp Structure and Maps Chapter 7: Reinhardt (II): The Diesel Story Electrocution, Steam, Diesels, Chlorine... The Diesel Story Gerstein, Reder, and the Diesel Exhaust More Problems with Gerstein More Problems with Reder Traditionalist Reply Chapter 8: Reinhardt (III): The Vanishing Bodies Disposing of the Evidence Burying the Bodies Exhuming and Burning Traditionalist Replies Excavations (I) - Belzec Excavations (II) - Sobibor Excavations (III) - Treblinka A Better Account Closing the Camps, Tracking the Deportees The End of the Line Chapter 9: Majdanek The Death Matrix The Seven Chambers of Majdanek Chapter 10: Auschwitz The Essentials of the Auschwitz Story—The Main Camp Birkenau—Alleged Extermination Camp Estimated Fatalities The Death Matrix Death Matrix (Part I): The Gas Chambers Star Witnesses Gassing Capacity and 'Actual' Usage The Mechanics of Gassing No Holes? "Fixing a Hole..." The Leuchter Report Death Matrix (Part 2): Body Disposal Furnaces and Capacity The Hungarian Operation Air Photo Evidence A Revisionist Auschwitz PART III – THE FUTURE OF THE DEBATE Chapter 11: “Storytellers Supreme” The Problem of the Witnesses Elie and Viktor From Bad to Worse Moving Ahead: A Revisionist Holocaust Chapter 12: Hoax? Fraud? Conspiracy? A 'Jewish Conspiracy'? Covering All the Bases Media Dominance Dominance in Government Exploiting the Holocaust A New World Order Epilogue Appendix A: Calculation Assumptions Appendix B: Major Death Camp Witnesses—Pro and Con Bibliography General Index