Dear Editor:
In his column of Aug. 18 Doug Collins doubted that five or six
millions Jews were killed in the Holocaust by citing the names of a
number of utterly discredited supporters of his position.
The claims of David Irving, Paul Rassinier, Robert Faurisson, Fred
Leuchter, and Arthur Butz collapsed during cross examination at
Zundel’s trials or under the scrutiny of historians outside the
courtroom.
The answer to Collins’ own question why they continue their campaign
can be found in Deborah Lipstadt’s book “Denying the Holocaust: The
Growing Assault on Truth and Memory” (1993).
Short work can be made of Collins’ other citations. That Churchill
hardly mentioned the Holocaust only demonstrates a deficiency as a
historian.
Scholars have proven that the Red Cross never provided a figure of
300,000 after the war.
Yehuda Bauer and Raul Hilberg, who were selectively quoted or
slandered by Collins in his column, as well as other admirable
writers on the subject such as Martin Gilbert, Leni Yahil, Lucy
Dawidowicz, Michael Marrus and Christopher Browning are agreed on a
number higher than five million even if less than six.
The German historian H. Krausnick overwhelmingly documented the
murder of approximately 2.3 million Jews by the Einsatzgruppen,
referred to obliquely by Collins, and the figures for the
extermination camps are 3,550,000 even allowing a low number for
Auschwitz (Chelmno, 150,000; Belzec, 600,000; Sobibor, 200,000;
Maidanek, 200,000; Treblinka, 900,000; Auschwitz, 1,500,000).
By this widely accepted reckoning the total is 5,750,000.
Any doubter of mass gassings at Auschwitz should examine the
extraordinary documentary assembled by Jean-Claude Pressac,
“Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers” (1989).
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia released a vast
number of captured German documents from Auschwitz and scholars have
microfilmed the archives of German and collaborationist governments
in eastern Europe.
We will soon have more precise (probably also higher) numbers and
many gaps in the history will be filled, but certainly not in
support of the falsifiers cited in obstinate ignorance by Collins.
Leonidas E. Hill
John S. Conway
Dept. of History, UBC
Vancouver
Source: The North Shore News, Sunday, November 7, 1993
