Saturday, February 26, 2011

Mattogno, Graf & Kues on the Aktion Reinhard(t) Mass Graves (4)

Last updated on 02.03.2011 due to corrections in Part 1, which affect the estimated volume of Sobibór grave # 4 mentioned in sections 3.6 and 3.7.


Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

3. Mattogno et al’s Claims and Arguments

3.5 Groundwater Pollution

3.6 The "Actual" Surface of the Graves

3.7 Density of Corpses in the Graves

3.8 Conclusion



3.5 Groundwater Pollution

In a German-language online pamphlet preceding their Sobibór book, Mattogno, Graf and Kues tried to take their readers for a ride, arguing that the depth of the mass graves identified at Sobibór by Prof. Kola (grave # 4 is about 5 meters deep, grave # 3 up to 5.80 meters, see section 2.2) is not compatible with the high groundwater level in the camp’s area. They deliberately misrepresented an excerpt from Prof. Kola’s report about his Sobibór investigation to claim that excavations in a well "not far from the graves" supposedly had to be stopped at a depth of 3.60 meters because of a ground water stream.[142] What Prof. Kola actually had written was that excavation in the well had to be stopped at a depth of 5.00 to 5.10 meters because of underground waters that had started appearing at a depth of 3.60 meters[143].

Friday, February 25, 2011

Mattogno, Graf & Kues on the Aktion Reinhard(t) Mass Graves (3)

Last updated on 02.03.2011 due to corrections in Part 1, which affect estimates about the volume of and corpse density in the Sobibór mass graves and considerations regarding the area of the Treblinka mass graves.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 4

3. Mattogno et al’s Claims and Arguments

3.3 Capacity of the Graves

3.4 Soil Removed from the Graves


3.3 Capacity of the Graves


The mass graves identified by Prof. Kola at Bełżec were way too small to take in the bodies of all the camp’s victims, Mattogno claimed in his Bełżec book. He wrote [95]:

On the basis of experimental data, the maximum capacity of a mass grave can be set at 8 corpses per cubic meter, assuming that one third of them are children.260 Hence, the alleged 600,000 corpses at Bełżec would have required a total volume of (600,000÷8=) 75,000 cubic meters. The average depth of the graves identified by Professor Kola is 3.90 meters. Assuming a layer of earth 0.3 m thick to cover the graves, the available depth would be 3.60 meters.261 It follows that the burial of 600,000 corpses would have required an effective area of (75,000÷3.6 =) approx. 20,800 square meters. On the other hand, the surface area of the graves identified by Kola is 5,919 square meters and their volume 21,310 cubic meters, theoretically sufficient to inter (21,310×8=) 170,480 corpses – but then where would the other (600,000 – 170,480 =) 429,520 corpses have been put?


Thursday, February 24, 2011

Mattogno, Graf & Kues on the Aktion Reinhard(t) Mass Graves (2)

Last updated on 02.03.2011 due to corrections in Part 1, which affect Table 3.2.1 in section 3.2.

Part 1

Part 3

Part 4

3. Mattogno et al’s Claims and Arguments

3.1 Nature and Purpose of Archaeological Investigations

3.2 Human Remains Found


3.1 Nature and Purpose of Archaeological Investigations

In his book about Bełżec, Carlo Mattogno tried to present the archaeological investigations carried out in the area of that camp by Prof. Kola in 1997-1999 as a (failed) attempt to "furnish the ‘material proof’ of the alleged extermination at Bełżec". Prof. Kola is supposed to have been hired in order to obtain corroboration of eyewitness testimonies through physical evidence, and the reason why he restricted his work on the mass graves to core drilling instead of excavating the graves and exhuming the corpses, according to Mattogno, was a concern – motivated by the core drilling results - that excavation would lead to conclusions incompatible with the historical record of Bełżec extermination camp[43].

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Mattogno, Graf & Kues on the Aktion Reinhard(t) Mass Graves (1)

Last updated on 02.03.2011 (corrections in Table 2.1.1 and related considerations, leading to corrections in Table 2.2.1)

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

1. Introduction

The largest single Nazi killing operation against European Jewry, known as Aktion Reinhard(t), centered around three camps on Polish soil that were exclusively built for and dedicated to the systematic killing of human beings. According to the most recent data available, these three camps accounted for about 1,394,000 deaths [1]. All known evidence indicates that much of the remains of these camps' victims still lie under the ground once occupied by these camps, especially in what is left of the huge pits that were used to bury the corpses of those murdered before it was decided to cremate them.

Thursday, February 03, 2011

Mass Graves and Majdanek

In their Majdanek screed, Mattogno and Graf acknowledge that bodies were unearthed at Krepiecki, 12km from Majdanek:
the Polish-Soviet Commission, in its search of the camp grounds and Krepiecki Forest, discovered 467 bodies and 266 skulls, which were subjected to forensic analysis. The Commission also discovered 4.5m3 of ashes and bones

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

French Military Witness in Kaunas (Kovno)

Fifteen days after the Soviets liberated Kaunas in August 1944, the city was visited by Colonel Pierre Pouyade of the Normandie-Niemen regiment of the the Free French Air Force. Five months later, Pouyade was interviewed in Egypt and gave an account describing "heaps of corpses of men, women, and children in the streets and in ruined cellars." Reports of his account can be seen here and here

Racist Violence by Miami Police in the 1920's: the Leslie Quigg Case

See New York Times archive articles here and here and here and here

Racist Violence in Fort Myers, FL, 1895

On 9th December 1895, The New York Times reported:
WAR AGAINST FLORIDA NEGROES; Twelve Drowned While Fleeing from Their Persecutors -- Alleged Conspiracy Against Owners of Cotton Groves.

TAMPA, Fla., Dec. 9. -- Nearly 200 negroes have arrived here from Lee County, having been driven out by whites.
The article reported that 200 'negroes' who were working for orange grove owners in Fort Myers were taken by a white mob at gunpoint to the wharf and left unfed for 48 hours until a steamer took them to Tampa. The article speculated that this was a conspiracy to drive the grove owners from their land, allowing the conspirators to buy the groves cheaply.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Lynchings in Florida, 1881-1935

In 1911, the New York Times printed this racist apologia by Gov. Emmet O'Neal of Alabama. The NYT had taken an interest in lynching previously, as in these 1895 editorials here and here. This blog article therefore links primarily to NYT articles that reported lynching. The table below contains links to articles concerning 36 lynchings that took place in Florida between 1881 and 1935:

More «Evidence for the Presence of "Gassed" Jews in the Occupied Eastern Territories» (2)

Part 1

Lithuania

TK postulates that any French Jews in Lithuania prior to the transport from Drancy to Kovno and Talinn on 15 May 1944 must have reached that destination via Auschwitz-Birkenau or Sobibór, the documented destinations of most deportees from France. As pointed out in part 1, deportations of Auschwitz concentration camp inmates as laborers would be a plausible explanation if one is to assume that witnesses were not simply misled by rumors or otherwise mistaken or saying something that Soviet interrogators (according to historian Andrew Ezergailis, quoted by TK, the Soviets falsely claimed that 240,000 Jews had been sent to Latvia and murdered there) wanted to hear.