25 June 1999
In addition to: "No holes, no « Holocaust »!", one may add:
"And no light, no smoke, no stench",
in accord with Dr Maurice Rossel, member of the International Committee of the Red Cross who, in September 1944, visited the Commandant of the Auschwitz camp (see "Sur Auschwitz, un document capital de la Croix-Rouge internationale", Ecrits révisionnistes (1974-1998), p. 219-224, as published in Mémoire en défense, 1980, p. 241-247).
This morning in the Washington Post (p. C1, C8) there appeared a long article by Mark Fisher, "The Truth That Can Only Hurt", reviewing Claude Lanzmann's recent "documentary" film A Visitor from the Living, about the above-named Dr Rossel. Extracts:
Lanzmann moves in, his short, calm questions presented like invitations to a dance, with all the proper flourishes and courtesies.
"Did you know you were in an extermination camp?"
"I didn't know the scale it had reached", Rossel says, and for the first time, he is looking off, just slightly away.
"Did you see a light glimmering?" It seems the Poles in nearby villages have told Lanzmann that they saw this light from Auschwitz, this reflection of horror.
"I saw none, no smoke," Rossel says.
"No stench?"
"No stench."