Learning Tools

Myth/Fact Sheets

• Auschwitz and Gas Chambers
• Crematory Capacity
• Anne Frank
• Kristallnacht
• Dresden

Auschwitz and Gas Chambers

• Auschwitz "Gas Chambers" were really air raid shelters

  CLAIM: The gas chambers at Auschwitz were just air raid shelters equipped with gas-tight doors to protect the people sheltering inside from poison gas.

  RESPONSE: However, closer examination of the materials on order and in use inside the gas chambers and the immense distance between the SS barracks and the gas chambers in Birkenau belie the claims of deniers. These were homicidal gas chambers.

• "Gas Chambers" could not have been used for gassing

  CLAIM: Holocaust deniers argue that if there were no holes in the roofs then the structures were not gas chambers and Auschwitz was not an extermination camp. If Auschwitz was not an extermination camp, then the Holocaust did not happen.

  RESPONSE: However, extensive evidence of the gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau remains. Cremas 2 and 3 had holes in the roof for the introduction of Zyklon-B into the gas chamber below. Eyewitness and photographic evidence documents these holes, and a recent study has proved their precise location.

• There were holes in the roof of the gas chambers

  CLAIM: Brian Renk, of the deniers' Institute for Historical Review, claims that no one has been ". . . able to find physical evidence of Zyklon-induction holes at the site, or a single reference to them in the camp's voluminous design and construction records . . ."

  RESPONSE: Despite the fact that the wire-mesh introduction columns can't be found today, their existence is confirmed by eyewitness accounts-both perpetrator and survivor-and by a surviving German documents that lists them in an inventory.

• Auschwitz-Birkenau was not a killing center

  CLAIM: Auschwitz-Birkenau was not a killing center. Collections of camp death certificates (Auschwitz Death Books) list a total of only 69,000 deaths -- all from natural causes.

  RESPONSE: The Auschwitz Death Books only list 69,000 deaths because they do not include the more than 900,000 men, women and children who were sent directly to the Auschwitz gas chambers from the railroad car transports without being registered.

• The "Gas Chamber" in Auschwitz I is a fake for tourists

  CLAIM: Auschwitz Museum officials have confirmed that the alleged gas chamber in Auschwitz I (the Main Camp) is a fake.

  RESPONSE: Crematorium 1 (Crema 1) in the Main Camp is not a "fake" but an authentically restored space meant to be a memorial and symbolic representation of all the gas chambers and crematoria in the Auschwitz camp complex.

• Hitler never ordered the Holocaust

  CLAIM: No order signed by Adolf Hitler authorizing the 'Final Solution' has ever been found. Since Hitler as supreme ruler signed other orders, the absence of a "Holocaust" order proves that it never happened.

  RESPONSE: Although it is true that no document signed by Hitler authorizing the entire murderous campaign we call the Holocaust has been found, historians point to the convergence of evidence from all levels of the Nazi hierarchy that demonstrate Hitler's complicity in every facet of this murderous undertaking.

• Scientific tests prove the "Gas Chambers" never existed

  CLAIM: Objective science, represented by the Leuchter Report: The End of the Line? The First Forensic Examination of Auschwitz proves the non-existence of the Holocaust.

  RESPONSE: Despite claims to objective truth, the Leuchter Report isn't "exact science." Leuchter's methods were fatally flawed and his conclusions false. The fact that even "insignificant traces" were found in the ruins of the gas chambers after all these years of being exposed to the elements is proof that there WERE gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Crematory Capacity

• No evidence of open-air burning pits has ever been found in Auschwitz-Birkenau

  CLAIM: Carlo Mattogno, an Italian Holocaust denier, used complicated calculations to allegedly 'prove' the ovens at Auschwitz-Birkenau couldn't possibly have cremated some 1.1 million bodies.

  RESPONSE: Historical evidence shows that when the available ovens at Auschwitz-Birkenau couldn't handle the load, open-air pit burning was used. Photographs from the air and on the ground show the open-air pit burning process and eyewitness evidence supports them.

• Breakdowns and Maintenance must have reduced the Nazi's ability to cremate bodies

  CLAIM: The crematory ovens at Auschwitz-Birkenau were inoperable for long periods of time due to maintenance and breakdown, thereby reducing the number of bodies that could be burned in total.

  RESPONSE: the ovens did suffer breakdowns and they did need maintenance. The use of some ovens was discontinued by German decision and others were destroyed in a prisoner uprising. However, when there were more bodies than could be burned in the crematoria, the Germans used open air pits which could burn thousands of bodies at once.

• No authentic contemporary documents speak about the capacity of the ovens at Birkenau

  CLAIM: There are no authentic, contemporary documents that speak about the capacity of the ovens at Birkenau.

  RESPONSE: Holocaust deniers refuse to accept the Germans' own documentation about the capacity of the ovens. They denounce this authoritative evidence as forgeries.

• The crematoria ovens at Auschwitz couldn't have disposed of the remains of the 1.1 million Jews

  CLAIM: A major denier theorized that since modern crematoria ovens can cremate one body in 1.25 hours, or 19.2 bodies in 24 hours that must mean it was the same at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Based on this observation and allowing for down time for maintenance and repairs, he concluded that 'only' 85,092 bodies could have been cremated.

  RESPONSE: The authorities in Auschwitz were not concerned about respect for the dead and clearly did not abide by civilian laws of cremation. They burned multiple bodies at one time, continuously pushing in more to keep the fires hot.

• There never was enough coke (coal) at Auschwitz-Birkenau for cremating over 1,000,000 bodies

  CLAIM: While questioning Robert Jan van Pelt during his slander trial against Professor Deborah Lipstadt, David Irving pointed to a plastic water bottle and asked, "Do you really, sincerely believe that you can burn one body with enough coke that you could fit into one of these waters bottles, is that what you are saying?"

  RESPONSE: We will probably never know exactly how much coke was delivered to Auschwitz or how much was required in the cremation process. Furthermore, the cremation of multiple bodies at the same time, continuous usage of the ovens, the use of alternate fuels and open-air burning pits make the question irrelevant.

Anne Frank

• The living situation in the Secret Annex as described in Anne Frank's diary was impossible

  CLAIM: The living situation in the Secret Annex as described in Anne Frank's diary was impossible.

  RESPONSE: Hidden in a landing accessed by a swinging bookshelf in a small office, the residents had some close calls during their 25 months in hiding, but they took care to be quiet and give no signs to the outside world that they were living there during the times people were present in the building.

• Parts of Anne Frank's diary are written in ball point pen

  CLAIM: Parts of Anne Frank's diary are written in ball point pen, while that technology was not available until after the war.

  RESPONSE: Anne wrote the body of her diary with a fountain pen. The only ball point pen ink traces are two loose notes written by someone else and put with the papers later and some page numbers written on the sheets during the compilation process.

• The Diary of Anne Frank is a Forgery

  CLAIM: Anne Frank's diary is a forgery written by her father, Otto Frank, for monetary gain. One denier, calling her diary a "novel," wonders how a teenage girl could have written that "maturely."

  RESPONSE: Physical testing of the notebooks, papers, and ink Anne used found that they are all authentic to the time. Furthermore, the handwriting and printing in the diary is the same as that in other writings known to have been penned by Anne Frank.

Kristallnacht

• Kristallnacht violence and damage were greatly exaggerated by the Jews themselves in order to get sympathy

  CLAIM: Deniers consistently downplay the loss of Jewish life, the savage assaults on their persons, and the extent of the destruction of Jewish property in order to minimize the suffering of the Jews.

  RESPONSE: Between November 9 and 10, 1938, however, hundreds of synagogues were burned, thousands of Jewish businesses and homes were destroyed, at least 91 Jews were murdered and many others were assaulted and seriously injured. Over 20,000 male Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps where they were maltreated and terrorized.

• Kristallnacht perpetrators were appropriately punished in courts of criminal law

  CLAIM: Rudolf Hess, the head of the Nazi party and a member of Hitler's inner circle, "ordered the Gestapo and the party's court to delve into the origins of the night's violence and to turn the culprits over to the public prosecutors."

  RESPONSE: In fact, Nazi leaders successfully prevented the vast majority of offenders from being prosecuted. Only the cases of two men were sent to the criminal court system, both for the crime of 'race mixing' which the Nazis found repugnant. All other crimes-up to and including the murder of Jews-were simply forgiven or ignored.

• 'International Jewry' caused the Kristallnacht pogrom

  CLAIM: 'International Jewry' funded Herschel Grynszpan's assassination of Ernst vom Rath and then used vom Rath's death as an excuse to start the Kristallnacht pogrom. They did so for the purpose of embarrassing the German government and to get international sympathy to open the doors for Jewish immigration, especially to Palestine.

  RESPONSE: Herschel Grynszpan wasn't supported by 'International Jewry' or LICA. He bought the gun with his own money and went to the embassy where he shot vom Rath on his own. His first lawyer was provided by LICA at the request of his relatives and paid for by a defense fund raised in the United States. It was initiated by Hitler, set in motion by Goebbels, executed by the Gauleiters and the Stormtroopers under their control.

• When Hitler found out about the Kristallnacht pogrom he tried to stop it

  CLAIM: When Hitler found out about theKristallnacht pogrom he was "livid with rage." He summoned Josef Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda, to his apartment and "made a terrible scene."

  RESPONSE: Adolf Hitler did not try to stop the pogrom. He authorized Goebbels to get it started. Other Nazi officials in Hitler's inner circle and their subordinates sent out clarifying instructions throughout the night giving directions on how best to conduct the pogrom -- not stop it.

• Adolf Hitler didn't know about and didn't authorize the Kristallnacht pogrom

  CLAIM: Hitler did not approve of the Kristallnacht pogrom and did not know about it until it was well under way.

  RESPONSE: Given the verifiable fact that Hitler was informed about the earlier disturbances at his meeting with Goebbels, he must have authorized the larger attacks on Jews, their property and their businesses.

Dresden

• As many as 250,000 people were killed in the Dresden air raid

  CLAIM: Between 100,000 and 250,000 people died in allied air raids on the historic German city of Dresden. This is at least as criminal as Auschwitz.

  RESPONSE: Definitive research shows that the death toll in Dresden was around 25,000. Irving exaggerates the death toll in Dresden while minimizing the death toll in Auschwitz in an attempt to make Allied and Nazi atrocities seem equivalent. They were not.

• Dresden was an undefended cultural city of no of military or industrial importance

  CLAIM: the Allied bombing of Dresden was a war crime and an atrocity because it was an undefended cultural city of no military or industrial importance.

  RESPONSE: However, Dresden was a legitimate military target. It was a key railroad junction and therefore an important transit point for military traffic.