October 6, 1997

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

I have had a lot of good feedback on my praise for CODOH - in fact, Mr. Bradley himself wrote back: ". . . when you tout something, you tout it good!" so I thought I'd tout some more.

Today's ZGram is written by CODOH's editor, Richard A. Widmann, and tells us a bit more about that intriguing "gas chamber" door I mentioned before.

Here's Richard:

"It has been nearly a year since my last Communication. In that time, much has changed, for the better. The CODOH website is stronger than ever and revisionist research is taking off all around the world.

The primary battle for revisionists today is one for intellectual freedom. With every new revisionist advance, we see dark forces moving to censor, imprison, and outlaw our writings, our authors, and our scientists.

Still, I believe that time is on our side. The incredible advances in technology alone have made our ability to distribute the truth greater than ever.

I am proud to present for the very first time anywhere a brand new article by the intrepid researcher, Samuel Crowell for your reading enjoyment. For those of you yet unaware of Mr. Crowell's work, he is the author of two massive works, "Technique and Operation of German Anti-Gas Shelters in World War II," http://www.codoh.com/incon/inconpressac.html,

and

"Defending Against the Allied Bombing Campaign," http://www.codoh.com/incon/inconabr.html

Mr. Crowell's research has revealed that the single piece of "evidence" on display at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the replica of a "gas chamber" door from Majdanek, is nothing but the door to a standard German Air-Raid Shelter.

CODOH has established a new webpage to challenge the USHMM on that very point.

http://www.codoh.com/USHMM.HTM L

And now, I proudly present Mr. Crowell:

THE HOLOCAUST: TIME FOR REASON

by Samuel Crowell

For the past 50 years or so we have witnessed the growth of a series of narratives surrounding the undeniable destruction of many European Jewish communities in the 1930's and 1940's. While no one denies that Nazi Germany was a major player in this process, or that many Jews suffered, died, or were killed, there has been a tendency to focus attention on a particularly horrific aspect of the Jewish ordeal: mass extermination in homicidal gas chambers.

For most of us the gas chamber claims are not really very important and we attach about as much significance to them as we do to other aspects of World War Two history. But a problem has come up in the last ten years or so because of people who have attempted to question various aspects of the Holocaust -- including the gassing claims.

Instead of having these claims rationally discussed, there has been much talk about outlawing the simple expression of doubt about these claims. In fact, this has already happened in several European countries, and it looks like Britain might follow suit.

If that happens, the US and Canada can't be far behind.

I think this is very dangerous because no society can call itself free when it suppresses discussion of stifles free expression. So I investigated the revisionist claims about the Holocaust and I found out something interesting.

The gas tight doors that were supposed to be specially designed for extermination gas chambers were in fact ordinary German steel doors for air raid shelters. The doors were gas tight to protect against enemy gas attacks (which never happened), and they were equipped with peepholes so the fire wardens and civil defense officials could check on the inhabitants of a shelter without having to go inside.

In fact, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has even put one of these standard German bomb shelter doors on display, supposedly as a "gas chamber" door.

This fact has certainly never been recognized by historians or by self-appointed custodians of Jewish history and Jewish destiny. As it stands, the display is simply an embarrassment, because it shows the extent to which irrationalism and prejudice have been allowed to infect the study of recent history.

Those who claim that a bomb shelter door must be a gas chamber door are on the same level of superstitious projection as those people in the Middle Ages who insisted that the bony spike from a narwhal's head was in fact the horn of a unicorn.

Of course, some people will now say that the Germans improvised bomb shelter doors for exterminations. But that won't wash. The kind of doors that were at Majdanek, like the one on display at the USHMM, have handles both inside and outside, and the building also has other telltale air raid shelter fixtures: gas locks that were added on to the outside, interior wooden struts to absorb bomb impact.

More important, what applies to the "gas chambers" at Majdanek also applies to the supposed "gas chamber" fixtures at Auschwitz Birkenau.

The time has come to reevaluate the specific claims concerning the Holocaust. The alternative is the progressive erosion of the basic human right of free speech and free expression.

Indulgent acceptance of tales told by survivors who doubtless suffered greatly cannot be continued. Otherwise the very real suffering, as well as the triumph of survival of the Jewish people, runs the risk of being trivialized by the insistence on aspects of the story that belong in children's fairy tales but not in history books.

Reason must now be fearlessly applied to the Holocaust, and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum can begin by explaining: WHY DO YOU HAVE AN ORDINARY GERMAN BOMB SHELTER DOOR ON DISPLAY?" (emphasis added)

Thought for the Day:

"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without
bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival.

There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

( Winston Churchill )

Comments? E-Mail: irimland@cts.com

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