Lamprecht wrote:Pon, first I would like to make clear that I made this thread with you in mind:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12783You don't have to reply to the thread, I just suggest you check out that document I have posted. It's given to jurors in a criminal trial in order to help them assess validity of eyewitness testimony. It has some good tips. It is of course not the same for "confessions" which is a whole other situation than eyewitness testimony of victims.
Pon wrote:Dr.Johann Paul Kremer,Dozent of Anatomy at the University of Münster.Kremer had volunteered as a member of the General SS in 1935,and he had been detailed to Auschwitz in August 1942 to replace a physician who had fallen ill.There he served until November 20.
Kremer's diary was found when he was arrested,and was immediately recognized as an important piece of evidence of the atrocities committed in Auschwitz.We give here,in the common English translation,a few excerpts.
August 30,1942.Departure from Prague 8.15 a.m.through Böhmisch Trübau,Olmütz, Prerau,Oderberg.Arrival at Concentration Camp Auschwitz at 5.36 p.m.Quarantine in camp on account of numerous contagious diseases (typhus,malaria,dysentery).Received to secret order through garrison physician Hauptsturmführer [Kurt}Uhlenbrock and accommodation in a room (no.26)in the Waffen-SS club-house [Home ].
August 31,1942.Tropical climate with 28 " Centigrade in the shade,,dust and innumerable flies!Excellent food in the Home.This evening,for instance,we had sour duck livers for 0.40 RM,with stuffed tomatoes,tomato salad,etc.Water is infected,so we drink seltzer-water which is served free (mattoni).First inoculation against typhus.Had photo taken for the camp identity card.
September 1,1942.Have ordered SS officer's cap,sword-belt and brace from Berlin by letter.In the afternoon was present at the gassing of a block with Cyclon B against lice.
September 2,1942.Was present for the first time at a special action at 3 a.m.By comparison Dante's inferno seems almost a comedy.Auschwitz is justly called an extermination camp!2
After his arrest,Kremer was extradited to Poland,and he became one of the defendants in the Auschwitz Trial held before the Supreme National Tribunal in Cracow in November and December 1947.During his pre-trial interrogation Kremer was asked to elucidate the various entries of his diary.On August 18,1947,he stated that ";by September 2,1942,at 3 a.m.I had already been assigned to take part in the action of gassing people."
These mass murders took place in small cottages situated outside the Birkenau camp in a wood.The cottages were called ";bunkers " in the SS--men's slang.All SS physicians on duty in the camp took turns to participate in the gassings,which were called Sonderaktion [special action ].My part as a physician at the gassing consisted in remaining in readiness near the bunker.I was brought there by car.I sat in front with the driver and an SS hospital orderly sat in the back of the car with oxygen apparatus to revive SS-men,employed in the gassing, in case any of them should succumb to the poisonous fumes.When the transport with people who were destined to be gassed arrived at the railway ramp,the SS officers selected from among the new arrivals persons fit to work,while the rest -old people,all children, women with children in their arms and other persons not deemed fit to work -were loaded onto lorries and driven to the gas chambers.I used to follow behind the transport till we reached the bunker.There people were driven into the barrack huts where the victims undressed and then went naked to the gas chambers.Very often no incidents occurred,as the SS-men kept the people quiet,maintaining that they were to bathe and be deloused.After driving all of them into the gas chamber the door was closed and an SS-man in a gas mask threw the contents of a Cyclon tin through an opening in the side wall.The shouting and screaming of the victim could be heard through that opening and it was clear that they were fighting for their lives.These shouts were heard for a very short while.I should say for some minutes,but I am unable to give the exact length of time.3
Three days later Kremer witnessed another gassing,and dutifully recorded it in his diary.
September 5,1942.At noon was present at a special action in the women's camp (Moslems)-the most horrible of all horrors.Hschf Thilo,military surgeon,was right when he said to me today that we are located here in the anus mundi In the evening at about 8 p.m.another special action with a draft from Holland.men compete to take part in such actions as they get additional rations -1 /5 litre vodka,5 cigarettes,100 grammes of sausage and bread.Today and tomorrow (Sunday)on duty.4
In Poland,Kremer gave again a full explanation of this entry.On July 17,1947 he testified that ";the action of gassing emaciated women from the women's camp was particularly unpleasant."
Such individuals were generally called Muselmänner [Moslems ].I remember taking part in the gassing of such women in daylight.I am unable to state how numerous that group was. When I came to the bunker they sat clothed on the ground.As the clothes were in fact worn out camp clothes,they were not let into the undressing barracks but undressed in the open.I could deduce from the behaviour of these women that they realized what was awaiting them. They begged the SS-men to be allowed to live,they wept,but all of them were driven into the gas chamber and gassed.Being an anatomist I had seen many horrors,had dealt with corpses,but what I then saw was not to be compared with anything ever seen before.It was under the influence of these impressions that I noted in my diary,under the date of September 5,1942 ";The most horrible of all horrors.Haupsturmführer Thilo was right when he said to me today that we are located here in the anus mundi " I used this expression because I could not imagine anything more sickening and more horrible.
From:
https://web.archive.org/web/20020529044838/http://www.holocaustdenialontrial.com/nsindex.htmlI will continue posting witness statements, and answering the concerns you have on the witnesses, it's true that details are sometimes wrong in the statements, though I hope to show that some "incredible" details are, in fact, credible and that the details wrong is simply of human error. Some might be intentional, exaggerating the evils of the nazis, this is also human nature when having been through what some of the victims has been through, witness statements should always be taken suspiciously, but without, for that sake, ignoring important facts that only they could bring.
So basically he wrote nothing about gassing in his diaries, except gassing of lice. He wrote about "Special action" which, I am sure you will insist, meant murder. However that is not the case. See:
D. Hebden debunks the word 'sonderaktion' / Kremer diaryviewtopic.php?t=2291Special Treatment in Auschwitz—Origin and Meaning of a Termhttps://holocausthandbooks.com/dl/10-stia.pdf(see section: 15. The “Special Operations” and Dr. Johann Paul Kremer [beginning page 82])
When Kremer arrived at Auschwitz, a deadly typhus epidemic took place, at some points hundreds died per day. This is why he was saying it was a camp of death or annihilation, and he speaks about this horrible situation a lot in other entries you don't mention. But never does he talk about gassing other people.
In August 1945 Kremer was arrested by the British, and detained in former camp Neuengamme. They confiscated his diary, and then extradited him to Poland in December 1947 where he was sentenced to death at the Krakow trial. This sentence was commuted to life imprisonment but he was released in 1958. However, at another trial he was sentenced in 1960 again for 10 years, but it was considered "served due" due to his prison time in Poland.
The following translation is ommitting something important:
September 2,1942. Was present for the first time at a special action at 3 a.m.By comparison Dante's inferno seems almost a comedy.Auschwitz is justly called an extermination camp!
the German text says "Zum 1. Male draußen um 3 Uhr früh bei einer Sonderaktion zugegen." or:
"For the 1st time present outside at 3 a.m. at a special action"
So the omitted "outside" indicates that the "special action" (which you claim is homicidal gassings) was not inside any sort of building, which is what you claim is true. Also, your "extermination camp" term is a mistranslation. He said "Lager der Vernichtung" which is "camp of annihilation" not "extermination camp". So that's just deceptive, Pon. Not that I think you did that on purpose, but your source of information either did, or was just careless.
As for this quote:
September 5,1942.At noon was present at a special action in the women's camp (Moslems)-the most horrible of all horrors.Hschf Thilo,military surgeon,was right when he said to me today that we are located here in the anus mundi In the evening at about 8 p.m.another special action with a draft from Holland.
The last sentence here is a mistranslation, "Abends wieder bei einer Sonderaktion aus Holland" or:
"In the evening again at a special action from Holland"
The translation you provided suggests that a special action was performed against the individuals in the transport, but actually the correct translation is that the transport itself was the special action!
If these entries meant extermination, why didn't he destroy them? The "Special actions" are clearly in reference to obtaining transports.
He says the SS men who volunteered for "special actions" got extra food, cigarettes, alcohol, etc. So probably it had something to do with cleaning the trains the people arrived in, or something else that is quite unenjoyable. There isn't any reason to think it was gassing Jews.
The "Bunker" he talks about was likely Block 11 which served as a brig (jail, prison) and executions took place outside of it. The women who "begged ... to be allowed to live" were possibly sentenced to death and were sent to be executed. Or maybe they just thought they were going to be gassed, because of rumors -- there are many examples of jews saying "we went to the gas chamber, people told us we were going to die, but instead, water came out!" Maybe someone told them they were going to be gassed, even though they weren't?
As for Kremer's "Confessions" as a prisoner in captivity, this was to save his own life. He had every reason to tell the lies his captors wanted to hear. It was a successful strategy. The proof is in the pudding so to speak: he was not executed, and his second sentence of 10 years imprisonment he did not even have to serve! Imagine if he said "Nobody was gassed! It's a lie!" he would have certainly been executed -- that was no defense at all. He was 77 years old at the time, who can blame him for not wanting to spend his last moments alive imprisoned?
Let's also be clear, Kremer was very critical of the NSDAP in his diary, despite being a member. I can post some quotes in his diary about it but it would maybe clutter the thread, so I will not post them unless asked. Perhaps you could make another thread focused on this individual.
Pon, do you really think "Confessions" prove very much when it was beneficial for the individual who was imprisoned to tell whatever lie his prosecutors wanted to hear?Some Auschwitz workers that Pon loves to ignore:
- Another example I would like to bring up is Josef Kramer (yes, different last name). Initially, Kramer, who was a former commandant of Auschwitz (but later Bergen Belsen) said that the allegations of mass murder by gas chamber were false. Later, he said that they were real. Why did he change his mind? Because it was in his benefit to tell the lies the victors wanted told.
- Hans Aumeier, deputy commandant of Auschwitz, said in a statement on 29 June 1945 that nobody was gassed when he was at Auschwitz.
- Richard Baer said nobody was gassed at Auschwitz either, and reports said nothing would dissuade him from this belief. He was the only defendant to not show up at the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial in 1963. He died "in a highly mysterious way" in prison
- SS-Obersturmführer Robert Mulka, who was adjutant to Rudolf Hoess, denied he even knew about the alleged gassings
- Karl Höcker, Mulka's successor as adjutant of the camp commandant, believed "that inmates in Auschwitz were basically not killed."
- Fritz Gaar claimed: "Although I was working for longer then 4 years in Auschwitz I did not notice anything about prisoners being gassed there"
- Dr. Mengele, the infamous "Angel of Death" stated: "I gave life in Auschwitz, I did not take it."
- Fritz Frenzel, Hermann Hagerhoff, and Walter Otto (Auschwitz camp guards) and Ernst Romeikat and Theodor Grewe (Auschwitz administration of inmate property) all stated that they had no personal knowledge of the alleged mass killings.
- Thies Christophersen, stationed at Auschwitz, and author of the book "The Auschwitz Lie" also rejected the claims of homicidal gas chambers. "During the time I was in Auschwitz, I did not notice the slightest evidence of mass gassing"
In Pon's conspiracy theory, anyone claiming that they were at Auschwitz and there were no gassings was just a liar. Anyone who, under any circumstances, claims there were is not a liar, even if they say other things which are not true; we should just ignore that they say absurd things like "5 people were cremated in 1 oven muffle in 10 minutes" and trust anything they say about gassings. This is, of course, laughable.Suggested reading on Kremer:
lies about the Kremer diary / his trialsviewtopic.php?t=390Confessions of SS Men who were at Auschwitz (Kremer in particular is focused on)
https://codoh.com/library/document/1982/ 
