Revisionists
who are spending Christmas 2008 in prison
Wolfgang
Fröhlich
Justizanstalt
Wien-Josefstadt
Wickenburggasse
18-22
A-
1082 Vienna
AUSTRIA
Gerd
Honsik
Justizanstalt
Wien-Josefstadt
Wickenburggasse
18-22
A
-1082Vienna
AUSTRIA
Vincent
Reynouard
V.H.O.
BP 256
B-1050
BRUXELLES 5
BELGIUM
Rechtsanwalt
Sylvia Stolz
JVA
Heidelberg
Oberer Fauler Pelz 1
D-
69117 Heidelberg
GERMANY
Germar
Rudolf
Schloss
1
D-72108
Rottenburg
GERMANY
Ernst
Zündel
J.V.A.
Mannheim
Herzogenried
Str. 111
D
- 68169 Mannheim
GERMANY
_________________________________________________________________________
2008
Christmas Greetings from Fredrick Töben
Prior
to my becoming a POM, prisoner of Her Majesty, during October and November
2008, I had spent a day with Willis Carto, that American octogenarian who
has towered over the Revisionists as the man-behind-the scene for more than
half a century.
Willis
has now reached the point where he confesses that in his twilight years he
can’t do anything else but to continue the work he began so many years
ago. I said to him that I wanted to get away from the Holocaust-Shoah
rubbish because it’s a death cult which does not imbue anyone with any
life-giving impulses.
Not
even the so-called Holocaust survivors seem to like their role, especially
when the material benefits that come with it stop to flow, i.e. when Germany
refuses to pay any more reparations.
One
of my new maxims that kept me sane while resting for 50 days was: “It,
too, will pass”, and that came directly from Willis Carto who, together
with his wife Elisabeth, have had to endure the sniping of the enemy from
without as well as from within.
Hence
my September-December 2008 trip overseas aimed to broaden my perspective by
writing a book about an 85-year-old man in South Africa who is a direct
descendant of Napoleon’s wife. Willis saw the sense in this because that
has also been his aim – to focus on more important issues than just this
Holocaust-Shoah issue as his The
Barnes Review magazine illustrates, much as Horst Mahler has
been pushing the legal limits of the enshrined Holocaust dogma by extending
its concept into a full-blown political perspective – Germans who still
want to be Germans! That there are Germans who still want to be Germans came
to the fore with Dirk
Zimmermann who, on the day Sylvia Stolz’s trial began, walked into
his local police station to
enact a Selbstanzeige – self-indictment/self-accusation.
He
states that he could not tolerate it anymore to witness the injustices
facing even barristers defending their clients in court when they, too, are
charged under Section 130, thereby obstructing them in their exercise of
their legal duties.
And
so Dirk Zimmermann, a 36-year-old happily married family man, began his
challenge of Section 130 of the Criminal Code that prohibits doubting the
legally-sanctioned Holocaust-Shoah narrative. He sent Germar Rudolf's Lectures
on the Holocaust to three German public figures, then turned
himself in to the police for having violated Section 130. Eight months ago I
placed his talk on YouTube and am happy to report that to date http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72dHps9pYSc
it has had 18,214 hits.
This
action is a conscious act because Zimmermann demands he has a right to
doubt, and seeing Sylvia Stolz on 14 January 2008 carried out of court and
imprisoned for three and a half years confirmed that he had morally,
socially and legally acted correctly. To date legal officials have not as
yet acted on his matter, but in this respect Kevin Käther has had more
success.
The
Berlin public prosecutor has taken Mr Käther to court giving Mr Käther the
opportunity to use arguments that challenge the obviousness of the
Holocaust-judicial notice, whereby judges refuse to look into the factual
matters, much like my Judge Landau did when he began my August 5-7 2008
trial with the statement: ‘It is not for me to find whether the Holocaust
happened or not’! – see Newsletter
424.
And
there is also the other side of the coin as the following reports clarify
how difficult it is to get unbiased coverage in the world media. The
Holocaust dogma is firmly anchored within financial parameters and like the
car industry today needs to be propped up with extraordinary measures in
order to survive the scrutiny of Revisionists. In this battle Revisionists
also have to overcome victors’ justice!
The
various articles covering my London trial reveal what forces/interests we
have to overcome in order to see clearly that ‘nation-denial’
is another hurdle we are confronting, and surprisingly Melani Phillips
in her article, below, sees the dangers that my case highlighted: “It
is not bigots like Fredrick Toben who pose the biggest threat to our
freedom, but the EU and its incendiary doctrine of nation-denial”.
Then,
the report on the conference at the University of Marburg details how an eye
witness found first evidence for Holocaust! Let’s briefly reflect on this:
almost three-score-and-ten years later there is still 1. No evidence of the
murder weapon, 2. No written order that started the alleged extermination
process and 3. No justification for claiming that six million Jews were
exterminated.
In
similar fashion to what we are doing, the Honourable Louis Farrakhan, of the
Nation of Islam, exposes and spells out some unpleasant historical facts at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLxQ1gQnStA
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDgy9KpWhU8
I
am still recovering somewhat from the 50 days away from home and a lot of
work still awaits my attention, especially the next book cries out to be
written. The title is already half-fixed: A
POM FOR 50 DAYS.
Once
again let me repeat my gratitude, as expressed on our Adelaide Institute
website on 6 December 2008, to all who helped make my important London
mission a success: Thank you to all those individuals who publicised my
imprisonment in emails, newsletters, on websites, at public meetings, wrote
letters to judges, politicians and media commentators, and to me personally
in prison. It all helped to spread the cause of freedom of expression
without which life is not worth living.
Somewhat
flippantly I stated to a friend that I was merely the right man at the right
time to push the cause a little further, and I think the London outcome has
Holocaust enforcers worried.
Especially
before the final outcome in the Australian Jewish News I noted commentators already speculated how
my almost certain German imprisonment would impact on my case in Australia.
Well,
at least it’s official and the world media ran the headline: ‘Töben
flees UK after winning extradition fight’.
But what a lot of nonsense this suggestion is because I have no
fear!
Public
Prosecutor Andreas Grossman gloated he would have me in Mannheim at the
beginning of 2009, and I say let him bring it on because I can then reveal
to the world his moral and intellectual bankruptcy, that he is someone who
is a legend in his own mind, a bureaucrat who dines on mere puffery -
crudely, an underachiever who is able to exercise some power that is at the
pinnacle of moral decline, is life-denying and full of self-deception/false
consciousness. ‘Herr
Grossmann, strengen Sie sich an, werden Sie ein Mann!‘
Were
it not for your support, then of course I don’t think I would still be
doing this kind of work. For that continued support I thank you and until
January 2009 all the very best to you for this Christmas and New Year
festive season.
Fredrick
_________________________________________
Australian 'Holocaust denier ' arrested at Heathrow claims he is victim of
witch-hunt
By James
Slack Last updated at 5:04 PM on 02nd October 2008
Holocaust
denier Dr Frederick Töben,
who was arrested at Heathrow airport
A leading holocaust denier who runs a website insisting the Nazis did not
murder millions of Jews will face an extradition hearing tomorrow after
being arrested as he flew into Britain. Dr Fredrick Töben was seized at
Heathrow at the request of the German authorities for publishing
'anti-Semitic and/or revisionist' material between 2000 and 2004.
Dr Töben - who claims to be facing a 'witch-trial' - has committed no crime
in Britain, where Holocaust denial is not an offence. But, under the terms
of a European Arrest Warrant designed to fast-track extraditions, the
Australian citizen can be held in the UK pending possible deportation to
Germany - where he faces five years in prison.
Crown Prosecution Service lawyers will appear at City of Westminster
Magistrates' Court tomorrow to make a case on behalf of the German
authorities that Dr Töben should be removed.
Appearing in court shortly after he was arrested at Heathrow on Wednesday,
Dr Töben, 64, claimed the 'Germans are out to get me', and said he was the
victim of 'legal persecution'.
Dr Töben said: 'It’s a witch-trial mentality in Germany concerning this
matter, which is not the case in England yet.
'You should let me go because this is persecution and you should not demean
the court by accepting this application from [the German court].
'The whole procedure is an abuse of process. I see this matter as a legal
ambush. You would be subjecting me to a legal process you cannot defend
yourself against.'
The charges against Dr Töben relate to material published between 2000 and
2004.
He was arrested in transit from America to Dubai, the court was told.
Tina Whybraw, speaking on behalf of the German authorities, said that he was
accused of committing the offences in Australia, Germany and other
countries.
Opposing bail, she said: 'It is our assertion that this man would fail to
surrender if you were to grant him bail.'
She said that, when police boarded the aircraft, Dr Töben had moved seats
'to avoid detection' and told officers 'you can’t arrest me on British
soil'.
The German-born historian is the founder and director of the Adelaide
Institute, a Holocaust denial group.
In a disclaimer on his website, he writes: 'If you wish to begin to doubt
the Holocaust-Shoah narrative, you must be prepared for personal sacrifice,
must be prepared for marriage and family break-up, loss of career, and go to
prison.'
He spent seven months in a German prison in 1999 awaiting trial for charges
under Holocaust law, which forbids incitement and 'insulting the memory of
the dead'.
After being found guilty and sentenced to ten months’ jail, he was
released a day later when a supporter posted bail, and fled the country.
Dr Töben also faces jail in Australia for breaching a Federal Court order
in 2002 to remove material that it found 'vilified Jewish people'.
In August, he denied 28 charges of contempt of court brought by the Council
of Australian Jewry, which claimed that the website still contained
'virulent anti-Semitic' material including that there were no homicidal gas
chambers at Auschwitz and that the Holocaust was 'the world’s filthiest
blood libel'.
The European Arrest Warrant, which came into force in 2004, abolished the
principle of 'dual criminality' that existed under old extradition laws.
This allowed people to be extradited for something that is not a crime here,
as long as it is a criminal offence in the country requesting removal.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1065958/Australian-Holocaust-denier-arrested-Heathrow-claims-victim-witch-hunt.html
________________________________________
Holocaust denier David Irving compares British justice to Nazi Germany in
court outburst
By Rebecca
Camber Last updated at 12:58 AM on 04th October 2008
Support: Irving, left, was at court to fight Gerald Töben's extradition to Germany
Disgraced historian David Irving yesterday compared British justice to that
of the Third Reich.
The Holocaust revisionist launched his outburst as he attended court to
support his friend Gerald Töben, 64, who was arrested on a German
extradition warrant during a stopover at Heathrow.
Töben is accused of publishing internet material between 2000 and 2004 that
‘denies, approves or plays down’ the Holocaust, which is illegal in
Germany.
Outside Westminster Magistrates' Court, Irving, 70, said: ‘This type of
procedure demeans our society in that the Germans and Austrians can dictate
to us what we feel and can say and what we read and write. They lost that
right in 1939.
‘If the British soldiers in Normandy who went to the beaches in 1944 could
see what happened today, they would not have gone 40 yards up the beach.’
Irving, who was jailed in Austria in 2006 for denying the Holocaust, plans
to invite Töben to stay at his home in Windsor if he is granted bail next
week.
He went on: ‘I disapprove of some of his views but he has the right to
express them, just as people disapprove of my views but my books and views
are suppressed.
‘It’s like living in Nazi Germany. What we have seen here today is like
Nazi Germany, but in pinstripe suits.’
Last night D-Day veteran Roland Jefferson, 83, who landed on Juno Beach in
June 4, 1944, said: ‘Irving is a lunatic and I’m not happy with his
comments that are bound to make a lot of veterans angry.
'The Holocaust was dreadful and everyone who bravely fought on D-Day
recognises that.
__________________________________
Holocaust-denial law and the attempted extradition of a man
for publishing antisemitic material
Melanie
Phillips
m.phillips@dailymail.co.uk
Last updated at 12:06 PM on 06th October 2008
Later
this week, a London magistrates' court will hear a bail application in an
extradition case which should be ringing alarm bells.
A
German-born Australian citizen, Fredrick Töben, was arrested as he passed
through Heathrow by British police acting under an EU arrest warrant issued
by the German authorities.
The Germans have accused him of publishing antisemitic Holocaust-denial
material on his Australian website.
The
train tracks at Birkenau [So what?- ed]
There
is no doubt that the views expressed by Toben, a notorious falsifier of
history who was previously sentenced to nine months' jail in Germany for
breaching its Holocaust- denial law, are vile. He says, for example, that
there is no proof that Hitler systematically exterminated the Jews and that
Auschwitz was merely a 'transit camp'.
As
a Jew, I am acutely alive to the vicious potential of denying the Nazis'
attempted extermination of the world's Jews. Such lies are used to whip up
hatred against the Jewish people by effectively accusing them of fabricating
claims of genocide. There is no question that this not only denies the
historical evidence of Hitler's 'Final Solution', but also subjects Jews
round the world to further hatred and persecution. Holocaust-denial is,
indeed, a modern form of Jew-hatred.
But,
through gritted teeth, I have to say that I am totally against the
extradition of this man and appalled at the political and legal developments
that have brought these moves about.
There
are two fundamental issues at stake here. First is the threat to the
principle of freedom of speech. Second is the erosion of Britain's power to
uphold its own historic commitment to that principle.
Freedom
of speech is a bedrock of our society. Sure, it's not absolute; but we limit
it only in the most rare of circumstances where it poses a direct threat to
individuals, such as inciting or encouraging people to violence.
A
group of Jews are escorted from the Warsaw Ghetto by German soldiers. [A
classic fudged photo – the boy survived the war. - ed]
For
similar reasons, we also outlaw incitement to racial hatred. But we draw a
distinction, for example, between inciting hatred of people for what they
inescapably are, which we rightly treat as a crime, and inciting hatred of
their views, which we see as part of the cut and thrust of a liberal
democratic society. That's why there was such uproar over the new crime of
incitement to religious hatred.
It's
because of this respect for debate that this country has never criminalised
Holocaust-denial.
Odious
as it is, it is an interpretation of history - and one which in
any event defies easy categorisation.
True,
it's an interpretation that used to stir up hatred against Jewish people.
But once you argue that it should therefore be made a crime, there's no end
to it.
After
all, you could make exactly the same point that the current vilification of
Israel and the denial that it is the victim of aggression in the Middle East
has led to an upsurge in violence and prejudice against Jews worldwide.
Even
more fundamentally, classic English literature is stuffed with anti- Jewish
stereotypes and attitudes. But no one would suggest that expressing such
opinions about Israel should therefore be made a crime, or that such
literary classics should be censored.
Prisoner held in a Nazi concentration camp [So what?]
In
a free society, the proper antidote to the dissemination of lies is the
expression of the truth. The arch Holocaust-denier David Irving was jailed
for this crime in Austria. Did that expunge his poison? Of course not; if
anything, it helped him pose as a martyr.
What
was more effective was surely the destruction of his ideas in a British
courtroom when he chose to bring a libel action - which
rebounded against him by discrediting his claim to be a 'historian' and
ending with his denunciation by the trial judge as a 'pro-Nazi polemicist'.
That
is the British way of doing things. But what is so disturbing about the
Toben case is that we may be forced to become accomplices to a view which is
inimical to our own.
If
Töben is extradited, this will mean that Britain will be treating as a
criminal suspect someone who is accused of behaviour which is not regarded
as a crime in this country.
That
breaches an ancient principle of our law - which we so
regrettably junked when we signed up to the European arrest warrant.
Moreover, it is not just foreigners but British citizens who in theory can
now be arrested in the UK and extradited to a country which accuses them of
committing a crime there which is not treated as a crime here.
This
is part of the attempt to create a 'corpus a European body of criminal law,
which is in turn a key element of the EU vision of a unified super-state
whose inhabitants all subscribe to the same principles.
But
we do not. Both Germany and Austria have a very particular reason for
criminalising Holocaust-denial. Given their appalling history, they are
understandably terrified that it will help bring about a revival of Nazism.
They
are entitled to reach such a conclusion and enshrine it in their own law.
But equally, we should be entitled to say that we don't share this view. By
signing up to the European arrest warrant, however, we have removed that
most precious privilege.
Even
if Töben is not extradited - and there is a view that the
wording of the Extradition Act may provide him with a loophole -
the EU arrest warrant remains a threat to our liberties.
A
wax figure of Adolf Hitler is pictured in a mock bunker at the German
'Madame Tussauds' in Berlin [Certain people can’t get enough of Adolf
Hitler – ed]
Its
scope is dangerously imprecise. Under its terms, people can be extradited to
a country which accuses them merely of 'racism and xenophobia'. But these
prejudices are notoriously difficult to define.
Indeed,
those who object to the EU arrest warrant and the EU project itself as an
attack on national sovereignty are themselves routinely accused of
xenophobia.
It
is surely not fanciful, therefore, to imagine an Orwellian scenario in which
such people may themselves be extradited and prosecuted - for
warning against the very abuse of power that may put them in the dock.
Holocaust-denial
falls into the category of 'hate-crime' which has become such a fixation
among Left-wingers and an article of faith within the EU. These zealots
appear to believe that hatred and prejudice can be expunged from the human
heart through the exercise of the law.
Like
other utopian fantasies, however, far from ushering in a new era of
tolerance and enlightenment, this creates the very illiberalism it purports
to oppose.
David Irving was jailed for three years for a speech he made denying the
existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz [Then he recanted – ed]
More
and more arrests and prosecutions are taking place against people who are
deemed to offend against 'hate speech' - simply because they are
preaching Christianity, denouncing immorality or even, in one consummately
ironic case, scrawling on a wall 'Free speech for England'.
And
all this against the background of the campaign by certain Muslims who seek
to outlaw even the term 'Islamic terrorism' in order to shut down debate
about that particular threat.
This
sinister encroachment of hate crime into English law has little to do with
preventing harm and more to do with an abuse of power. And the EU has put
rocket fuel behind it.
It
is this erosion of fundamental liberties and denial of national differences
at the heart of the EU project which is behind the current alarming rise of
neo-Nazi parties in countries such as Austria - which jailed
David Irving for Holocaust-denial.
It
is not bigots like Fredrick Töben who pose the biggest threat to our
freedom, but the EU and its incendiary doctrine of nation-denial.
m.phillips@dailymail.co.uk
_______________________________________
Holocaust denier free after Berlin abandons efforts to extradite him from UK
By Allan
Hall Last updated at 9:08 PM
on 20th November 2008
Dr Frederick Töben convinced British authorities that they had no right to
send him to Germany
A
rabid Holocaust denier who was arrested in the UK on a warrant issued by
Germany is to walk free after Berlin abandoned its efforts to extradite him.
Germany
wanted Dr Frederick Töben to stand trial over his repeated claims that the
murder of six million Jews in the Nazi Holocaust was a lie.
Such
statements are forbidden under the German constitution and punishable with
long jail terms. But Töben - arrested at Heathrow Airport last month -
convinced British authorities they had no right to send him on to Germany if
he had committed no offence under British law.
Germany
launched an action at the High Court in London but it was revealed on
Thursday that it has now been withdrawn.
Töben's
solicitor, Kevin Lowry-Mullins, said he has also signed a consent order with
the German Government to end the case.
Lawyers
acting for the German Government had argued that Töben, 64, the founder and
director of the revisionist Adelaide Institute, should be extradited to face
trial for posting claims on its website that there was no mass murder of
Jews by the Nazis.
Daphne
Wickham, a judge at Westminster Magistrates Court, ruled that the warrant
used to arrest the Australian as he travelled from America to Dubai was
'vague and imprecise'.
Töben
was unable to raise the imposed £100,000 bail, and remained in custody
awaiting the German appeal.
Mr
Lowry-Mullins said: 'The offence is not made out in the UK. If Dr Töben had
been extradited back to Germany for Holocaust denial, which does not exist
as an offence in this country, then we would have found ourselves in a
situation where hypothetically, the Iranian Government could have asked for
all the gay Iranian asylum-seekers to be extradited back to Iran.'
Mr
Lowry-Mullins confirmed that Dr Töben was still in the UK waiting for the
return of his passport. A spokesman for the Justice Ministry in Berlin
confirmed the appeal was at an end but gave no further details.
German-born
Frederick Töben emigrated to Australia in 1954 with his family when he was
just 10. But he took with him the seed-germ of hatred for the Jews as
practised by the Nazis he admired.
Töben
came from the Wesermarsch area of peat bogs in northern Germany where his
family were farmers.
In
Australia he never forgot the 'old country' and grew up with a vicious
hatred of Jews that he disguised as an academic interest in 'debunking the
Holocaust myth'.
He
completed a doctor of philosophy at the University of Stuttgart in 1977 and
subsequently taught at various secondary schools and colleges in New
Zealand, Germany, Rhodesia and Nigeria.
In
1994, he established the privately-run Adelaide Institute which teamed up
with other arch-Holocaust deniers throughout the world such as Ernst Zündel
of Germany and David Irving in the UK.
Toben
called the Holocaust 'a lie perpetuated by the Holocaust Racketeers, the
corpse peddlers and the Shoah Business Merchants'.
He
further asserts that 'the current US government is influenced by world
Zionist considerations to retain the survival of the European colonial,
apartheid, Zionist, racist entity of Israel'.
While
he similarly denies being an anti-Semite or a white supremacist, he is a
favourite among white supremacist organizations such as Storm Front.
In
1999 he was imprisoned for nine months at Mannheim Prison for breaching
Germany's Holocaust Law, Section 130, that prohibits anyone from 'defaming
the dead'.
Töben
still refuses to concede that the Holocaust as asserted by mainstream
historians ever occurred, rather asserting that mass killings took place on
a much smaller scale. 'The state of Israel is founded on the Holocaust lie,'
he also said.
One
of his institute's biggest publicity campaigns was conducted on the eve of
the Australian premiere of the movie Schindler’s
List.
In
April 1999, Toben was arrested in Germany and sentenced to ten months'
imprisonment for denial of the Holocaust. He only served seven months, and
was then released upon paying a $5,000 bond.
Fredrick
Töben responds:
By
labelling me rabid Alan Hall is the hater who unashamedly defames those with
whom, for whatever reason, he locks horns. He seems to care little for basic
moral values that urge us to seek clarification of a massive defamation
action perpetrated by those who push the Holocaust-Shoah line, which is pure
hatred against Germans, i.e. that Germans systematically exterminated
European Jewry in homicidal gas chambers. To date this just remains a
defamatory statement with no reality content. Those who uphold this line of
reasoning cannot meet the Revisionist argument that Germans never
exterminated anyone, and so these liars and slaves have to rely on the heavy
hand of the law to silence their critics by imprisoning them. This is a
clear example of moral and intellectual bankruptcy with which Alan Hall
seems to be afflicted, a most unfortunate character trait. Fortunately I
grew up during a time when we chanted: Sticks and stones may break my bones
but words will never hurt me, and so name-calling leaves me unmoved.
I
reject the sloppy thinking that suggests journalists and others must
denigrate Revisionists in order to get the message across because this
implies such individuals are selling-out their own moral values for the sake
of getting a story.
___________________________________________________
Holocaust
'denier' to stay as appeal for extradition to Germany is dismissed by High
Court
By Daily
Mail Reporter Last updated at 1:35 AM on 25th November 2008
Holocaust
denier David Irvin arriving at court in support of Gerald Fredrik Töben,
who is to stay in the UK after an appeal for extradition was dismissed
.The
High Court yesterday dismissed an appeal against a ruling that blocked the
extradition to Germany of suspected Holocaust denier Gerald Fredrik Töben.
German
authorities wanted the 64-year-old Australian historian, who was arrested at
Heathrow Airport on his way to Dubai, to
stand
trial for allegedly publishing anti-Semitic material on the Internet between
2000 and 2004.
The Mannheim district court sought his extradition through a European Arrest
Warrant.
District
Judge Daphne Wickham, sitting at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court,
ruled the warrant invalid and described the particulars of the accusations
against Dr Töben as 'vague and imprecise'.
The German authorities launched an appeal, arguing the judge had gone wrong
in law.
But
yesterday Lord Justice Latham and Mr Justice Blair, sitting at London's High
Court, announced that the German authorities had consented to the appeal
being dismissed.
Later
Dr Toben's solicitor Kevin Lowry-Mullins said he did not think a fresh
warrant would be issued, and the announcement was likely to be the end of
the matter.
He
said: 'They will not be pursuing the matter because they have been advised
by the Crown Prosecution Service there are a number of hurdles to get over,
which means they will have enormous problems taking it any further.'
The
case caused alarm in Britain about freedom of speech because, unlike in
Britain, Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany and offenders can face jail
sentences.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1089128/Holocaust-denier-stay-appeal-extradition-Germany-dismissed-High-Court.html
…
and now some propaganda from the German and British media, which contains
assertions that Revisionists have long ago shown to be just that, warmed up
war-time propaganda…
______________________________________
Witness
found first evidence of Holocaust
Reported
by Manfred Hitzeroth, Oberhessische
Presse, 4 December 2008
Translated
by Prof. James Damon
The
International Conference on the Occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the
Formation the Convention on Genocide began
yesterday in the Aula at the University of Marburg.
Whitney
Harris
Yesterday,
96-year-old Whitney Harris captured the attention of around 200 convention
participants with a fascinating history lesson.
The American lawyer reported that as a member of the prosecutorial team
during the Nuremberg Show Trials in 1945 and 1946, he played a crucial role
in prosecuting German “War Criminals”, especially in the
cross-examination of Hermann Göring.
Calm
and collected, with steady sonorous voice, the tall and erect white-haired
man presented a warning against war. His speech covered a historical arc
from the killing fields of Verdun to the “suicide” of Hitler’s
personal emissary Rudolf Hess in 1987.
Hess
was the last of the “war criminals” incarcerated at Spandau Prison. He
had been sentenced to lifelong imprisonment by the victorious Allies in the
Nuremberg show trials, which were patterned after the precedent setting
Moscow show trials of the 1930s.
Harris
took his audience along on a sentimental journey that ended at the gallows.
As representative of American Chief Prosecutor Robert H. Jackson, Harris
officiated at the executions of the eleven principal “war criminals.”
Instead of execution by firing squad, as is customary with captured enemy
leaders, the Allies chose death by hanging.
Harris
described in detail how the life’s path of former Reich Foreign Minister
Joachem von Ribbentrop led to the hangman, and what were his last words.
Harris
also remembers his interrogation of SS-man Otto Ohlendorf in the
preliminaries leading to the Nuremberg Show Trials, in which he found hints
of alleged mass murders of Jews, the first “evidence” of
“Holocaust.”
Rudolf
Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, was captured while the show trials were
already underway, and it was Harris’ job to oversee his interrogation.
After
three days of interrogation under torture, which included a threat to hand
his wife over to the Russians, [not mentioned in German article - FT]
he confessed to all the charges against him, including the murders of two
and a half million Jews.
Harris
made it perfectly clear that “along with Adolf Hitler and SS leader
Heinrich Himmler, Höss was responsible for genocide.”
The
Mission of the Convention
.
Until
Saturday, around 200 experts from all over the world will busy themselves
with the Convention on Genocide, which was established by the United Nations
on 8 December 1948.
In
his opening address, Marburger President Volker Nienhaus declared: “This
convention is an attempt avoid bad things like holocausts.”
The Convention was initiated by the Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin (1900 –
1959) whose family were among the victims of “Holocaust.”
The mission of the Convention is punishment of acts such as war, that are
committed with intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religiously
defined group, completely or in part.
In
conjunction with Harris’ address, several circles discussed historic
sequence and the development of the Convention in the wake of the Nuremberg
Show Trials.
The
researchers also discussed how the subject of genocide is handled
differently in different countries. They discussed the various tribunals in
which war atrocities had been prosecuted in Ruanda, Cambodia and Yugoslavia.
It
is also a goal of the Conference to provide stimulus for future
international cooperation with the Convention on Genocide.
______________________
Zeitzeuge
fand ersten Beweis für Holocaust
von
Manfred Hitzeroth, Oberhessische
Presse , 4 Dezember 2008
Eine
internationale Konferenz an der Marburger Universität zum 60. Jahrestag der
Verabschiedung der Völkermord-Konvention hat gestern begonnen.
Gestern begann die internationale Konferenz zum 60. Jahrestag der
Etablierung der Völkermord-Konvention in der Alten Aula.
Marburg.
Mit einer eindringlichen Geschichtsstunde schaffte es gestern nachmittag der
96-jährige Jurist Whitney Harris, rund 200 Teilnehmer der internationalen
Tagung in seinen Bann zu ziehen. Als Zeitzeuge berichtete der US-Amerikaner
unter anderem davon, daß er im US-Stab der Ankläger gegen die deutschen
Hauptkriegsverbrecher bei den Nürnberger Prozessen in den Jahren 1945 und
1946 besonders beim Kreuzverhör von Hermann Göring eine entscheidende
Rolle spielte.
Mit
sonorer und fester Stimme, aber zugleich ruhig und gefaßt, hielt der
hochaufgeschossene weißhaarige Mann am Rednerpult in der Alten Aula der
Universität ein mahnendes Plädoyer gegen den Krieg. Dabei spannte er in
seiner Rede einen historischen Bogen von den Opfern des Ersten Weltkriegs
auf den Schlachtfeldern bei Verdun bis zum Selbstmord des ehemaligen Hitler-Stellvertreters
Rudolf Hess im Jahr 1987, dem letzten der noch in Spandau inhaftierten
Kriegsverbrecher, der bei den Nürnberger Prozessen zu einer lebenslänglichen
Haftstrafe verurteilt worden war.
Harris
nahm die Zuhörer mit auf eine gedankliche Reise, die unter anderem in die
Exekutionszelle führte. Denn als Vertreter von US-Chefankläger Robert H.
Jackson fungierte Harris bei der Hinrichtung der elf zum Tode verurteilten
Hauptkriegs-verbrecher. Am Beispiel des ehemaligen Reichsaußenministers
Joachim von Ribbentrop erläuterte Harris detailliert, wie der Weg des
Angeklagten zum Henker verlief und welche letzten Worte dieser zu sagen
hatte.
Besonders
im Gedächtnis geblieben ist dem amerikanischen Juristen seine Befragung des
SS-Mannes Otto Ohlendorf im Vorfeld der Nürnberger Prozesse, bei der er
erste Anhaltspunkte für den massenhaften Mord an den Juden fand. Die von
ihm aufgenommene Zeugenaussage habe „den ersten Beweis für den
Holocaust“ geliefert, erinnerte sich Harris.
Als
während des laufenden Prozesses Rudolf Höss, der Kommandant von Auschwitz,
festgenommen worden war, war es die Aufgabe von Harris, Höss drei Tage lang
zu vernehmen. Dabei habe Höss eingestanden, daß unter seinem Befehl in
Auschwitz mehr als zweieinhalb Millionen Juden ermordet worden seien. „Für
diesen Völkermord waren Höss sowie der SS-Führer Heinrich Himmler und
Adolf Hitler verantwortlich“, machte Whitney Harris deutlich.
Noch
bis zum Samstag beschäftigen sich rund 200 Wissenschaftler aus der ganzen
Welt in Marburg mit der Völkermord-Konvention, die die Vereinten Nationen
am 8. Dezember 1948 verabschiedeten. „Diese Konvention ist der Versuch,
schreckliche Ereignisse wie den Holocaust zu verhindern“, erklärte der
Marburger Uni-Präsident Professor Volker Nienhaus in einem Grußwort. Sie
geht zurück auf eine Initiative des polnischen Juristen Raphael Lemkin
(1900-1959) zurück, dessen Familie zu Opfern des Holocaust zählte. Im
Zentrum der Völkermord-Konvention steht die Strafbarkeit von Handlungen,
die in der Absicht begangen worden sind, eine national, ethnisch, rassisch
oder religiös bestimmte Gruppe ganz oder teilweise zu vernichten.
Im
Zentrum der Konferenz stand gestern neben dem Zeitzeugenbericht von Harris
in mehreren Diskussionsrunden unter anderem die Frage nach der historischen
Einordnung der Entstehung der Konvention in der Folge der Nürnberger
Prozesse. Zudem beschäftigten sich die Forscher damit, wie unterschiedlich
das Thema Völkermord in verschiedenen Staaten behandelt wird.
Außerdem
wurde in einer Bestandsaufnahme die Arbeit verschiedener Tribunale
vorgestellt, in denen die Kriegsverbrechen in Ruanda, Kambodscha und
Jugoslawien angeklagt waren. Ein Ziel der Konferenz ist es auch, Anregungen
für den künftigen Umgang der Staatengemeinschaft mit der Völkermord-Konvention
zu geben.
http://www.op-marburg.de/newsroom/lokal/dezentral/lokal/art655,749838
____________________________________________________________________________
British bombers killed 500,000 in Dresden
Wrong, it was more like 18,000, say German historians
By Allan
Hall Daily Mail, Last updated
at 10:55 AM on 20th October 2008
For
more than 60 years Britain's Bomber Command led by Arthur 'Bomber' Harris has
been vilified for causing up to 500,000 deaths in the carpet bombing of
Dresden during World War II. But now, after a four-year investigation, a panel
of German historians has said that the true number of dead from the Allied air
raids in January 1945 was between 18,000 and 25,000.
They
reached the figure after combing through death certificates, hitherto sealed
eyewitness reports, registration cards for people made homeless and hospital
records.
It
now emerges that the high number of deaths from 'Operation Thunderclap' was a
myth invented by the Nazis, perpetuated by Communists and re-born in the past
decade to serve the aims of ultra-nationalists.
The
myth took form barely after the vapour trails of the bombers disappeared in
the skies over the city.
Dresden
lies in ruins after the Allied bombing raid in January 1945
It
suited the Nazi propaganda machine to claim that half-a-million women and
children had been incinerated in the firestorm. It helped persuade a
struggling population that this was awaited them all unless they fought for
Nazism with their last breath.
Then
the Communist East Germans perpetuated the myth, mindful that it served their
purposes by showing the destructiveness of capitalism and fascism combined. In
the last decade neo-Nazis have sought to keep the lie alive as they praise
many of the policies of the Third Reich.
By
the mid 70s historians were beginning to question the real total of
casualties.
Although
many records lay in the still-Communist archives of Dresden, the accepted
figure dropped to between 50, 000 and 150,000 deaths, based on Nazi German
records and declassified Allied intelligence reports.
Then,
when the wall fell and more records became available, the accepted number
dipped even further, to 35,000.
Residents
and emergency personnel line up bodies to be burned after the raids
A
fortnight ago the myth was revealed as just that. A panel of German
historians tasked by the modern-day rulers of Dresden said the dead numbered
between 18,000 and 25,000.
They
worked through miles of archived paperwork for the past four years to arrive
at their figures, using death certificates, hitherto sealed eyewitness
reports, registration cards for people made homeless and hospital records.
The
historians found most people died in cellars, suffocated when the oxygen was
sucked out of their hiding place or killed by the concussion of the falling
bombs.
Strange
climactic conditions combined to create 2,000 degree centigrade
“firestorms” which whipped walls of flames through the heart of the city,
incinerating everything in their path.
By
contrast Operation Gomorrah, the saturation bombing of Hamburg, did indeed
cause at least 50,000 deaths.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1078529/WW2-Dresden-bombing-killed-far-fewer-people-half-million-new-records-show.html
