Ditlieb Felderer
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[Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

Book
Anne Frank's Diary, A Hoax by Ditlieb Felderer

Quotes
Felderer was upset that people were being deliberately conned and fooled into believing the extermination story. He noted that the fact that one could be imprisoned for challenging the story did not make people very free to conduct investigations. It would make them fearful. This fear, said Felderer, was what the authorities wanted because without fear they could not control people. (19-4528) [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

He felt he had done his work. He had stated that if anyone found anything wrong with it, they should let him know. During all of these years nothing had happened. He no longer found the issue to be challenging. It had been confirmed for him that there were no gas chambers for human beings and that the buildings were faked. He wanted to go on to other things. Felderer didn't want to devote the rest of his life to this concocted trash. The earth was too beautiful for him for that. (20-4875) [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

Upon request by the Crown, Felderer read another of his flyers entitled "Three Jewish Contributions to Western Civilization." These contributions were the atomic bomb, developed by Robert Oppenheimer, the hydrogen bomb, developed by Edward Teller and the neutron bomb, developed by Samuel Cohen. All three men were Jews. Felderer testified the flyer said a lot about certain people who had developed these terrible weapons. [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

Museum officials eventually admitted to Felderer that the entire "gas chamber" at Auschwitz I was rebuilt in various stages to "help" tourists understand what occurred. (18-4298) Felderer concluded that there had never been any gas chamber at Auschwitz I and that the building had been nothing more than a crematory and morgue, later altered in 1943 to an air-raid shelter with a surgical room. Felderer advised Zündel of his conclusions. (19-4356) [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

Felderer showed a slide of inmates fencing. This photograph was another which came from the Dürrfeld records in the American archives. Dürrfeld believed that the camp had been a decent place where inmates could, in their free time, pursue sports such as fencing, boxing and swimming. To Felderer, the idea that Auschwitz was also a death camp, as well as a place where sporting events were carried on, was ludicrous. (19-4406, 4407) [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

Felderer discovered two delousing buildings in Birkenau, which he testified, were probably kept secret and off-limits to the public because they explained the so called "selection" procedure at the ramp by Dr. Mengele and other camp doctors. Males were sent to delouse in a separate building from the women and children. (19-4378 to 4381) The selection procedure also involved a visual determination of the health of incoming prisoners. It was in the interest of the camp authorities not to spread disease. If people were sick and needed to be treated, the camp had hospitals. (20-4765 to 4768)The Auschwitz Museum today did not deny that incoming prisoners were deloused. Hair was cut off from both males and females because it harboured lice. It was also saved and used for various manufacturing needs during the war. (19-4381) Hair on display at Auschwitz today, however, was depicted as being the hair of gassed victims. (19-4381, 4382)
    Felderer showed a slide of an outside wall of the delousing building in the women's camp which indicated a significant blue colour. Felderer was told by Auschwitz officials that the blue staining resulted from the use of Zyklon B. (19-4383) Felderer believed the colour got on the walls when mattresses which had been deloused inside the building were then taken outside for airing, leaned against a wall and beaten for a length of time to get any Zyklon B out of the material. The powder material which was the inert carrier of the Zyklon B would stick to the wall and produce the distinct blue colouration. Felderer noted that this blue colour was not found in the alleged gas chamber at Auschwitz at all. (19-4383, 4384)
    The delousing buildings, which were not open to the public, contained autoclaves used to decontaminate materials using steam. (19-4384, 4385) Rooms inside the building also indicated blue staining, which Felderer concluded was authentic and not simply painted on afterwards. Felderer told Zündel that the discovery of the delousing buildings was a tremendous step in their investigation. The blue staining was the Zyklon B mark and it was astonishing that this colour was not found in the buildings where it was claimed people were gassed to death using Zyklon B. (19 4376, 4387, 4388)
    Posters on the walls of the delousing building warned inmates that "One Louse Means Your Death" and "To be Clean is Your Duty." Felderer testified the Nazis were very fearful of lice because they brought great epidemics into the camps. (19 4392)  [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

Also included in the private collection were gas masks and filters used by the Germans while fumigating the camp with Zyklon B. Felderer indicated that Zyklon B was sold in Sweden prior to the Second World War as an insecticide to kill lice, rats and bugs. In Auschwitz, it was used for the same purpose. Piper told Felderer that the camp had copies of the special instructions which the exterminators followed during the fumigation process, such as how the gas mask was to be worn, the complications of the gas and the required airing of the room. Felderer was very curious as to why the gas masks and other related items were not in the main display at Auschwitz. His conclusion, which he related to Zündel, was that when one talked about gassing, one did not want the people to realize that there were technical problems involved with it. Instead, one wanted to portray to the people that there was really nothing much to it and that it could be done very quickly. (18 4317, 4318) [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

In this private collection, Felderer was astonished to discover that the cremations carried out at Auschwitz were done in a manner no different than was done in Sweden today. The body to be cremated was identified by a numbered tag placed on the body before cremation. After cremation, the ashes were placed in a plastic bag and the tag tied to the bag. The bag was then placed in an urn and either placed in a wooden casket or mailed to next-of-kin. Felderer showed slides of the bags, urns and tags held in the private collection. These were shown to Felderer and the procedure explained to him by Dr. Szymanski. (18-4318, 4319) [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

Aerial photographs taken of Auschwitz by the Americans during the war were released by the CIA in 1979 in a book entitled The Holocaust Revisited: A Retrospective Analysis of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Complex. Using slides of these photographs, Felderer pointed out to the jury the main buildings in the camp, including the electrified fence, the alleged gas chamber, Commandant Hoess's house, the administration buildings, the swimming pool, the hospital block, the gynecological block (as children were born at Auschwitz), the SS hospital, blocks where inmates learned a trade such as sewing and the two largest buildings in the camp, the kitchen, and the theatre. (18-4255 to 4259) Close-up slides of the aerial photographs indicated that the alleged gas chamber in Auschwitz I was about 30 metres from the SS hospital building. (18-4260) Felderer was told by people in the town of Auschwitz that during the war people could obtain special permission to take tours of the camp on special days. [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

A map taken from a book by former Auschwitz inmate Maximillian Kobler was, to Felderer's knowledge, the only map of the camp to indicate the theatre as a theatre, and to label the alleged gas chamber, not as a gas chamber, but as a crematory, which, in Felderer's opinion, it actually was. [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

The kitchen in Auschwitz I, one of the largest buildings in the camp, had twelve chimneys and included a dietary section, a bakery and a butchery. The kitchen also had flush toilets which were unknown to that part of Europe at the time. Soviet soldiers who captured the camps thought they were places to wash their hands because they had never seen flush toilets before. Felderer told Zündel that it didn't make sense that one of the biggest buildings in an alleged extermination camp was a kitchen. [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

The theatre in Auschwitz I was used by the inmates to put on plays and contained a stage and musical instruments. Felderer decided to investigate the large building after an Auschwitz tour guide told him the building was unimportant and was only used by the Germans to put garbage into. Museum officials Piper and Czech later confirmed to Felderer that the building was used as a theatre during the war. Survivor accounts such as Fania Fenelon's Playing for Time also spoke of the Auschwitz orchestra. A large blow-up of a photograph of the orchestra playing during the war was displayed at the Auschwitz Museum at the main entrance. Felderer also showed a slide of a Ukrainian choir singing in what Felderer believed was the theatre building. The photograph was taken from the Dürrfeld file of the United States Archives. Dürrfeld, who had worked at Monowitz, was later charged with war crimes and entered the photographs in his defence.1 (18-4270 to 4273) [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

The swimming pool at Auschwitz I was located inside the electrified fence and measured 25 metres long, 6 metres wide, and 3 metres deep. Slides depicted the two starting blocks, the mount for the springboard and the showers. Piper told Felderer that the pool had been used to rehabilitate inmate patients and as recreation. There was never any denial by the Auschwitz Museum administration that the pool was there during the war and aerial photographs taken by the Allies confirmed its existence. Felderer requested Auschwitz officials to provide him with the blueprints of the pool but without success. Some literature of Holocaust survivors referred to this swimming pool and how it was used for water polo. One such survivor who had written about the pool was a person named Kreuz. (18-4258, 4275 to 4278; 20-4713) [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

Inmates were sometimes also allowed to swim in the nearby Sola River. Felderer obtained this information from interviews with Jehovah's Witnesses who had been interned in the camp and from "survivor" accounts. (18-4264) [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

At Auschwitz today tourists were shown documentary films taken by the Soviets at the liberation of the camp in the same room where inmates had watched films during the war. Piper told Felderer that the seats in the cinema were identical to those used by the inmates. (19-4413) [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

Just inside the main gate of Auschwitz was a building used during the war as a brothel for the inmates. It was not a secret that the camp had a brothel; it was mentioned in books and its existence was confirmed by the Auschwitz Museum officials. Felderer first heard about the brothel during his work for the Jehovah's Witnesses. Today, the building housed the museum's archives and library. Felderer joked with Piper, whose office was in the building, about how it felt to work in a brothel. Piper had blushed and laughed about it. (18-4266, 4267) [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

The alleged gas chamber was located next to the SS Hospital building and the Gestapo buildings. There were two entrances to the alleged gas chamber. (18-4279) The first door, which had a peephole in it, opened into a small vestibule. Anyone looking through the peephole did not see into the alleged gas chamber, but saw only a concrete wall approximately one and a half metres away. (18-4294, 4299) Felderer testified that the peephole had significance in exterminationist literature because the Nazis were supposed to have watched with great pleasure as the people died. (18-4295)
    The doors to the alleged gas chamber were not iron or airtight as was also claimed in exterminationist literature. The doors were made of wood with simple handles and locks. One door had a pane of thin glass in it. (18-4295, 4296) Both doors opened inward. Felderer pointed out that the exterminationist literature described people rushing to the doors in an attempt to escape death, and piling up to the ceiling. He questioned how the Nazis could have opened the doors after each gassing when they opened inward - the pile of corpses would have prevented it. "It was to me not a very ingenious way of building and making a door," said Felderer. (18-4296, 4297)
    Felderer asked Auschwitz Museum officials why people about to be gassed inside the room never broke the glass in the door to get out. The usual answer was that no one had ever asked them those types of questions before. To Felderer, these things indicated that the room was not one where millions of people were gassed. (18-4296) [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

Slides of the vents on the roof of the alleged gas chamber, through which the Zyklon B was allegedly thrown, showed them to be very shoddily made wooden contraptions. (18-4282) Photographs of these four vents from the inside of the alleged gas chamber indicated very rough workmanship; the reinforcement iron bars in the concrete roof were clearly visible in some slides. Felderer testified that this shoddiness flew in the face of exterminationist literature which insisted that these vents were scientifically devised airtight openings. When asked about the vents, Piper later conceded that they were made around 1947. [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988 

There were no shower heads in the alleged gas chamber at Auschwitz although it was claimed that the gas in most instances entered through shower heads. (18-4287) There were drainage openings, however, which seemed to indicate that two toilets were once located in the room. (18-4289) Infrared film showed that there were once several partitions in the room. (18- 4299, 4300) Felderer received blueprints from the Auschwitz officials which showed how the building looked at different stages. In the beginning, it had actually been a crematory with two furnaces and a morgue. After Birkenau was completed, cremations were carried out at the crematories in that camp while the crematory at Auschwitz I was converted into a hospital shelter in the case of an air raid. Partition walls were put up in the morgue (the alleged gas chamber) to create four small rooms, one of which was a surgery room. (19-4354, 4355) [Ditlieb Felderer] The 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zündel -- 1988