Day 17: Tuesday, 8th February 2000

Table of Contents

Part I: Initial Proceedings (1.1 to 1.26)

Transcription Details 1.1-1.26

Part II: Professor Christopher Browning, Day 2 (2.1 to 114.3)

Section 2.1 to 21.15

Professor Browning questioned on an SS document regarding stolen Jewish property. 2.1-7.7

Documentation on the amount of stolen property and on Operation Reinhardt. 7.8-12.3

Irving and Browning on our accuracy in determining the amount of Holocaust victims.12.4-17.11

Number of those killed at smaller camps like Treblinka, Sobibor, and Chelmo. 17.12-21.15

Section 21.16 to 40.20

Atmosphere of open scholarship on the Holocaust and other scholars who hold that Hitler did not order the Final Solution, such as Monson and Broszat. 21.16-25.14

Systematic nature of the Holocaust and the Madagascar solution. 25.15-31.26

Intentionalism versus functionalism on the origins of the Holocaust, whether the war was ideological or conventional. 32.1-40.20

Section 40.21 to 62.3

Whether Hitler’s Kommissar Order indicates that the war is, for him, ideological. 40.20-46.8

Jodl and Hitler and the Commissar order regarding ideology. 46.9-50.20

Open shooting license given at the conference of July 16th, 1941.50.21-55.17

Inference to Hitler’s orders on the Final Solution through Hitler’s meetings with generals and with Himmler, and the lack of a “smoking gun” document. 55.18-62.3

Section 62.4 to 81.4

Adolf Eichmann’s character, “the banality of evil.” 62.4-64.6

Eichmann’s disputes with testimony of Hoess, and the reliability of that testimony. 64.7-70.5

Reliability of testimony in interrogation and in trail when one’s life in on the line. 70.6-74.4

On Chelmno, authenticity of a document from Greiser. 74.5-81.4

Section 81.5 to 97.22

Logistics of the gas truck killings at Chelmno. 81.5-86.7

Irving’s use of the Weidenfeld edition’s translation. 86.8-91.19

Total number of books by Irving at Harvard library. 91.20-93.12

Decoded message on the dispatch of Zyklon. 93.13-97.22

Section 97.23 to 108.14

Regular reports to Hitler of the killings evidenced by the Einsatzgruppen document August 1st, 1941. 97.23-100.26

Jewish population and number of Jews deported from France. 101.1-103.1

What qualifies as Holocaust denial or bad scholarship. 103.2-108.14

Browning’s comment on Rademacher. 108.15-111.24

Wetzl not charged despite knowledge of the killings. 111.25-114.4

Part III: Professor Christopher Browning, Day 2, continued, Afternoon Session (114.4 to 210.25)

Section 114.5 to 128.22

Whether Yad Vashem welcomes open scholarship on the Holocaust. 114.5-118.3

Prof Raul Hilberg cuts out the claim that Hitler ordered the Final Solution. 118.4-123.5

Browning’s notion of the “signals and incitements” given by Hitler to bring about the Holocaust, but lack of any definitive order. 123.6-125.12

Browning’s visits to concentration camps. 125.13-128.22

Section 128.23 to 145.20

Conditions in the prison cell holding Eichmann. 128.23-129.23

Speech on Dec 16th 1941, from the Hans Frank dairy. 129.24-136.8

Testimony of Hans Frank at Nuremberg and the Wannsee conference. 136.9-139.24

Implicit but transparent references to killing the Jewish people in the Wannsee conference. 139.25-145.20

Section 145.21 to 165.17

Goring’s authorization to Heydrich and Browning’s transcription of Westerman report Sept 14th 1942. 145.21-153.25

Irving’s purpose for attacking the credibility of Kurt Gerstein and eyewitnesses in general. 153.26-156.12

Credibility of Eichmann’s testimony. 156.13-160.21

Credibility of Kurt Gerstein. 160.22-165.17

Section 165.18 to 182.13

Browning’s representation of Gerstein’s testimony. 165.18-171.23

Gerstein’s conversations with Pfannenstiel. 171.24-176.8

Gerstein’s credibility and historians’ dependence on him as an eyewitness. 176.9-179.5

Evidence from Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, and its implication for Auschwitz. Irving finishes with his questioning of Prof. Browning.179.6-182.12

Section 182.13 to 201.25

Browning re-examined by Rampton. Whether a security mark is necessity for all documents that refer to elements of the Final Solution. 182.13-188.9

Korherr report March 23, 1943 on numbers of people subjected to Sonderbehandlung and Hans Frank’s estimate.188.10-192.18

Situation report number 80, Sept 11, 1941, on the translation of Schrecken as ‘rumour.’ 192.19-197.8

Number of Jews killed in the Soviet Union, determining Hitler’s knowledge of their deaths. 197.9-201.25

Section 201.26 to 210.25

Numbers killed by the gas trucks. 201.26-205.15

Browning’s selection from Hans Frank testimony, dates on the Wannsee conference. 205.16-208.6

Browning further cross-examined by Irving on gassing as opposed to shooting or poisoning, and security details of documents. Browning stands down as witness. 208.7-210.25

Part IV: Closing Proceedings (210.26 to 214.21)

Scheduling for the following expert witnesses. 210.26-214.21