Right now some CODOH Revisionists are wondering if Rudolf Vrba aka Walter Rosenberg "was really at Auschwitz-Birkenau in the first place". The notion that he was not is patently absurd.
The detailed report authored by Auschwitz escapees Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler in 1944 goes far beyond what had been previously published about the camp - there is no rational way how Vrba and Wetzler could have provided these numerous details other from their own inside knowledge. Both proved their detailed knowledge on Auschwitz once again in their testimonies on witness stand under cross examination at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial.
The telegram reporting their escape of 7 April 1944 to the German police forces can be found here. Revisionist Enrique Aynat has raised some doubts about its authenticity as "it surprised me that they offered no marks of identification for the prisoners, not even their camp register numbers". But in the same file Aynat was studying, there is a telegram reporting an escape just the day before also not providing these features. Hence, it was obviously the practice at this specific time. The (local) police may have been informed about further details seperately.
Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler were according to their insider knowledge on the camp clearly prisoners of Auschwitz and the inaccuracies in their sketch of crematoria 2/3 reflect their limiting knowledge and memory on the operation of these specific facilities.
__________________________________________________________
Update from 23 August 2014.
In the mean time, somebody commented on the last paragraph above as follows:
Hence, the sketch in the report was prepared by themselves (either because they lost the plan during their escape or because they did not had one with them in the first place). Whether they were passed on information on the crematoria by members of the Jewish Sonderkommando, a Soviet POW named Wasyl, members of the resistance or other prisoners does not at all contradict what I explained that the inaccuracies in their sketch of crematoria 2/3 reflect their limiting knowledge and memory on the operation of these specific facilities. Whoever supplied them with information on the crematoria, did not provide more accurate details on the layout of crematoria 2 and 3 - or Vrba/Wetzler did not properly remember it when the report was prepared.
Bob goes on:
Bob says:
Unfortunetly for Bob, things are not that easy to dismiss the drawing as evidence (which - again - is only of minor significance anyway, compared to Müller's testimony at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial). Somebody (that may have been the editor or Filip Müller) considered the crosses on the drawing as gas introduction ports. But since he had removed the crosses from the undressing room, it is not at all clear why he did not remove also some crosses from the gas chamber (if he thought there were less than four gas openings) or why he did not add some more crosses throughout the room (if he thought there were more than four gas openings). Obviously, he believed there were something like 3-4 gas openings in the room. If this person was Filip Müller himself, then we have some evidence.
Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler were according to their insider knowledge on the camp clearly prisoners of Auschwitz and the inaccuracies in their sketch of crematoria 2/3 reflect their limiting knowledge and memory on the operation of these specific facilities.
__________________________________________________________
Update from 23 August 2014.
In the mean time, somebody commented on the last paragraph above as follows:
"That´s false and Hans knows this very well. Vrba claims he or both of them prepared the sketch using information from Sonderkommando[5] and Filip Müller was one of his best sources.[6] Wetzler claims the sketch was prepared by some Soviet PoW named Wasyl.[7] And finally, Filip Müller claims to have been the one who handed the sketch to Wetzler.[8]"It would have been helpful if the poster Bob had checked out the relevant Auschwitz State Museum's monograph (Henryk Świebocki, London was informed...):
"Alfred Wetzler states that....they lost the roll with the sketch of the crematorium when they were shot at in Porabka (see statement Wetzler, page 36, 42)...Rudolf Vrba contradicts the statement categorically that they had any material with them during the escape and that the reports were prepared from their memory and without the use of notes (APMO, correspondence with Rudolf Vrba, number Wyd. 571/30/89: letter from 24 November and 18 December 1989)."(my translation, from Henryk Świebocki, London wurde informiert..., p. 41)
Hence, the sketch in the report was prepared by themselves (either because they lost the plan during their escape or because they did not had one with them in the first place). Whether they were passed on information on the crematoria by members of the Jewish Sonderkommando, a Soviet POW named Wasyl, members of the resistance or other prisoners does not at all contradict what I explained that the inaccuracies in their sketch of crematoria 2/3 reflect their limiting knowledge and memory on the operation of these specific facilities. Whoever supplied them with information on the crematoria, did not provide more accurate details on the layout of crematoria 2 and 3 - or Vrba/Wetzler did not properly remember it when the report was prepared.
Bob goes on:
Neither Wetzler nor Vrba ever set a foot into the crematoria (let aside the oven room), there is no reason why they should have nessecarly known about the exact number of ovens or their layout in the oven room. There ain't had open door days in Auschwitz. It depends on who supplied them with what details and what extent they could still remember from these talks/materials.
"Especially if one considers they were allegedly not able to remember at least number of ovens or their arrangement in a row instead of circle and all of this in the course of some 16 months in Birkenau!"
Bob says:
I already pointed out elsewhere that Filip Müller's book Sonderbehandlung has to be taken with a pinch of salt and that "Müller has also provided a more valuable and significant cross-examined testimony 14 years earlier at the Frankfurt Auschwitz [trial]...", where he "confirmed his later description of the gas introduction".
"Needless to say, that Hans is among those who used Müllers´s plan with errors as a support for the story about introduction holes, despite not even being in officially correct arrangement (zig zag pattern). Unfortunately for him, little crosses in the Müllers´s plan is only a plagiarized drainage system from Ota Kraus and Erich Kulka also marked by little crosses."
Unfortunetly for Bob, things are not that easy to dismiss the drawing as evidence (which - again - is only of minor significance anyway, compared to Müller's testimony at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial). Somebody (that may have been the editor or Filip Müller) considered the crosses on the drawing as gas introduction ports. But since he had removed the crosses from the undressing room, it is not at all clear why he did not remove also some crosses from the gas chamber (if he thought there were less than four gas openings) or why he did not add some more crosses throughout the room (if he thought there were more than four gas openings). Obviously, he believed there were something like 3-4 gas openings in the room. If this person was Filip Müller himself, then we have some evidence.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please read our Comments Policy