Charles Biedermann
[back]
Holocaust
revisionism
Historians
The other expert called by the prosecution (who had taken the stand before
Browning) was Charles Biedermann, a Swiss citizen, a delegate of the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and, most importantly, the
director of the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Arolsen, West Germany.
The ITS has an unbelievable wealth of information about the fate of individual
victims of National Socialism and, in particular, of former concentration camp
inmates. I believe that it is at Arolsen that one could determine the real
number of Jews who died during the war. The prosecution did not benefit from
this experts testimony. On the contrary, the defense scored numerous points on
cross-examination. Biedermann recognized that the ICRC had never found any proof
of the existence of homicidal gas chambers in the German camps. The visit by one
of its delegates to Auschwitz in September 1944 had done no more than conclude
the existence of a rumor on that subject. To his embarrassment, the expert was
obliged to admit that he was wrong in attributing to the National Socialists the
expression "extermination camps." He had not noticed that this was a term coined
by the Allies.
Biedermann said that he was not
familiar with the ICRC reports on the atrocities undergone by the Germans just
before and just after the end of the war. In particular, he knew nothing about
the terrible treatment of many German prisoners. It would seem that the ICRC had
nothing about the massive deportations of German minorities from the east,
nothing on the horrors of the total collapse of Germany at the very end of the
war, nothing about summary executions and, in particular, the massacre by rifle,
machine gun, shovels and pickaxes, of 520 German soldiers and officers who had
surrendered to the Americans at Dachau on April 29, 1945 (even though Victor
Maurer, ICRC delegate, was apparently there).
The International Tracing Service
included among those "persecuted" by the Nazis even indisputably criminal
prisoners in the concentration camps. He relied on the information supplied by a
Communist organization, the "Auschwitz State Museum." Beginning in 1978, in
order to prevent all Revisionist research, the International Tracing Service
closed its doors to historians and researchers, except for those bearing a
special authorization from one of the ten governments (including that of Israel)
which oversee the activity of the International Tracing Service. Henceforth the
Tracing Service was forbidden to calculate and publish, as it had done until
then, statistical evaluations of the number of dead in the various camps. The
annual activity reports could no longer be made available to the public, except
for their first third, which had been of no interest to researchers.
Biedermann confirmed a news story
that had filtered out in 1964 at the Frankfurt trial: at the time of liberation
of Auschwitz, the Soviets and the Poles had discovered the death register of
that complex of 39 camps and sub-camps. The register consisted of 38 or 39
volumes. The Soviets keep 36 or 37 of those volumes in Moscow while the Poles
keep two or three other volumes at the "Auschwitz State Museum," a copy of which
they have furnished to the International Tracing Service in Arolsen. But neither
the Soviets nor the Poles nor the International Tracing Service authorize
research in these volumes. Biedermann did not even want to reveal the number of
dead counted in the two or three volumes of which the ITS has a copy. It is
clear that, if the content of the death register of Auschwitz were made public,
it would be the end of the myth of the millions of deaths in the camp.
The Zündel Trials (1985 and 1988) by ROBERT
FAURISSON
The prosecution did not benefit from this experts testimony. On the contrary, the defense scored numerous points on cross-examination. Biedermann recognized that the ICRC had never found any proof of the existence of homicidal gas chambers in the German camps. The visit by one of its delegates to Auschwitz in September 1944 had done no more than conclude the existence of a rumor on that subject. To his embarrassment, the expert was obliged to admit that he was wrong in attributing to the National Socialists the expression "extermination camps." He had not noticed that this was a term coined by the Allies. The Zündel Trials (1985 and 1988) by ROBERT FAURISSON
The International Tracing
Service included among those "persecuted" by the Nazis even indisputably
criminal prisoners in the concentration camps. He relied on the information
supplied by a Communist organization, the "Auschwitz State Museum." Beginning in
1978, in order to prevent all Revisionist research, the International Tracing
Service closed its doors to historians and researchers, except for those bearing
a special authorization from one of the ten governments (including that of
Israel) which oversee the activity of the International Tracing Service.
Henceforth the Tracing Service was forbidden to calculate and publish, as it had
done until then, statistical evaluations of the number of dead in the various
camps. The annual activity reports could no longer be made available to the
public, except for their first third, which had been of no interest to
researchers. The Zündel Trials (1985 and 1988) by ROBERT
FAURISSON