Thies Christophersen

Thies Christophersen (1918–1997)

Thies Christophersen (b. 27 January 1918 in Kiel, Province of Schleswig-Holstein, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire; d. 13 February 1997 in Molfsee near Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein) was a German farmer, agricultural expert, veteran, journalist, publisher, writer and revisionist. He contested essential statements of the Jewish narrative about the history of the Jews in Europe during the Second World War, which was maintained in the West and in Russia with criminal provisions.

Life

In 1931, Thies Christophersen, son of a teacher and farm owner, became a member of the German Jungvolk (attended the Reich Youth Day Potsdam in 1932); in 1933, this organization became part of the Hitler Youth. In the summer of 1939, he was in Finland at the annual youth exchange of the rural youth. Beginning of Second World War, he volunteered for the Wehrmacht and was accepted.

After having been wounded in 1940 during the Western Campaign (shrapnel to the head) and a long recovery time (seven times in the hospital due to inflammatory suppuration), army corporal Christophersen was released and received study leave. Afterwards, the Wehrmacht sent him to Ukraine, where he and a unit cultivated Russian rubber plants on the orders of the OKH. Real rubber was urgently needed as an additive for the synthetic rubber, styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR), or "Buna." During the Wehrmacht's rearmament, the supply of rubber, along with fuel production, represented a major bottleneck. Unlike petroleum, the German Reich was entirely dependent on overseas imports for its rubber supplies, so enormous resources were invested early on in synthetic rubber production. Preparations for a colonial economy, which would have provided access to natural rubber production, were suspended due to the war situation. According to the Krauch Plan, pre-war rubber consumption was to be covered by domestic production by 1943, which was achieved with the three Buna factories.

Later he was assigned to the SS as a “special leader” (Sonderführer) and was then deployed to the Rajsko plant protection institute. He was stationed at Auschwitz from January 1944 to December 1944. He worked at sub-camp Raisko growing a type of dandelion (a trade, he had learned in Ukraine) which produced a white latex used in the production of synthetic rubber. Other breedings were also carried out by Christophersen and his colleagues, in particular rye from weeds and giant plants by preventing reduction division during fertilization.

From then on, under the auspices of the SS, representatives of the chemical industry, the German Labor Front (DAF), the Plenipotentiary for Motor Vehicles, the Plenipotentiary General for Special Issues of Chemical Production, the Reich Ministry of Food, and the Reich Food Estate, as well as employees of the KWI for Breeding Research and the KWI for Chemistry, worked on this project. Scientists from both Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes participated in all key working meetings, as did employees of the agricultural department at Auschwitz concentration camp, where many of the threads converged.

As well as about two hundred women internees who lived at Raisko itself, the manual labor was done by women inmates from Birkenau, located about 2 km. away, and men from the main camp of Auschwitz, located about 1 km. away. Christophersen supervised their work. There were civilian employees as well including Russian agronomists. Many of the internees were academics who spoke German. In December 1944, he was commanded to Silesia where he should continue cultivation. However, as the Russians continued to approach, this was impossible. He received orders to have the valuable seeds transported north. In Berlin he met up with his wife, who, like millions, had fled from the Red Army and was staying with relatives. He then had orders to go to Dresden, and arrived on 13 February. He reported to the officers' mess at the main train station. During the murderous bombing raids on Dresden (in the night from 13 to 14 February), Christophersen and others, who had taken cover in a cellar, were buried but were recovered in the morning. The next days, he served in a rescue force for children and women. He then returned to Berlin, but was able to escape the last days of the Battle of Berlin, reached Schleswig-Holstein, was taken prisoner by the British, but was able to escape and make it home to the farm. The next years he rebuilt and then expanded his farm because the Vaterland was starving. After the Nuremberg trials, he founded a publishing house.

In later years, he wrote down his impressions of the lives of prisoners in the Auschwitz main camp, which he gathered during this time, in a highly controversial book that was banned in the Federal Republic of Germany. After the war, he inherited his father's farm in 1945 and continued to be active as a political activist in national parties and organizations in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1968, he became the regional director of the "Notgemeinschaft Deutscher Bauern" (Emergency Association of German Farmers) and subsequently the editor and publisher of various publications focusing on farming and politics. After he soon began to campaign for free historical research and freedom of opinion in academia, the system's pressure of persecution and repression set in. In 1986, he was forced to flee to Denmark to escape the witch hunt of the Federal Republic of Germany and to continue his work as a bookseller. In 1994, the Federal Republic of Germany authorities finally confiscated his magazine "Die Bauernschaft" (The Farmers' Community).

He wrote the book The Auschwitz lie in 1973 which stated that he saw no evidence of the alleged gas killings and described the treatment of the camp prisoners as good. The book has been prohibited in Germany as illegal "Holocaust denial". Christophersen was sentenced to imprisonment and served one year of a one and a half year sentence in 1985. He eventually fled Germany and lived in several other countries. He testified at Ernst Zündel's Holocaust trials in Canada together with Robert Faurisson and others.

A frequent criticism is that Christophersen was not stationed at Auschwitz-Birkenau itself but at a sub-camp outside. However, apart from having contacts with many individuals from Birkenau, he testified that he had himself made visits to Birkenau and nearby locations where he could go freely as he was wearing the uniform of an officer. Christophersen stated he knew Birkenau had crematories and had seen them from the outside. But he never saw smoke or flames shooting out of the chimneys nor did he ever smell the alleged stench of human bodies.

Returning home

On 17 January 1997, 10 days before his 79th birthday, Thies Christophersen returned to Schleswig-Holstein. Almost eleven years of exile lie behind him. Of these, approximately nine years were spent in Denmark, half a year in Switzerland, and one year in Spain, where he felt very comfortable and cared for by his comrades. But the closer his end came, the more important his homeland became to him. A female friend who looked after him for a long time painted his farm in Spain for him – based on a photograph. The fact that he repeatedly looked at this picture and asked about it shortly before his death shows how deeply connected he remained to his farm. He often wished he could return home, be welcomed by his family and friends, and rehabilitated, to his village, where he had also earned renown as a writer, with many "Low German Stories from the Peasantry". But his return from exile turns out to be different from what he had hoped for: His eldest son and a grandson bring the seriously ill man back from Spain to Schleswig-Holstein in a caravan. His son's medically trained partner is helpful. Thies knows he only has a short time left to live at this point, but he still sometimes hopes for rescue. Only a few know about his return home. An unusual life is drawing to a close, a life like an adventurous novel or a tragedy: love and loyalty to his own country bring him hatred and persecution instead of gratitude. At home, Edith Christophersen, 88 years old, a brave woman, is waiting for him. "She's holding the fort at home," Thies says. "Health is always left out of the equation," she tells us. No wonder, given all the upheavals that have thwarted her twilight years, which she had imagined so harmoniously surrounded by her loved ones. Edith is a family person; many pictures of relatives adorn the walls of her house. Thies, too, loved his family, but he was like a soldier, always at the "front," and his comrades became "his extended family." There he found help and shelter in many countries around the world. But he also helped others in need. When German history has been corrected—and that can no longer be stopped—the "ancestor Thies" will "grow up" to become the most important ancestor of his family, and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren will one day be proud of him. [...]

Soon after arriving in Kiel, a doctor friend decided that he urgently needed to go to a hospital. From there, he contacted us: "I'm glad to be back home, but they can't help me here anymore." The next day, I wanted to inquire about his well-being and dialed the number provided, but he didn't answer. A nurse was on the line. Uncertain, I asked for his name, not knowing if it was even permissible to use it: "Mr. Christophersen has already been released home," she said kindly. "Home -- ?," how meaningful that sounds for someone who wasn't allowed to go home, who could only travel through Germany secretly, like a criminal, even though he hadn't done anything wrong. Who only argued with words because he didn't want to watch in silence as the Germans were turned into a nation of criminals, who ultimately sacrificed his health for it, for immediately after being tormented by months of demonstrations outside his Danish exile, he became seriously ill. Those who knew him know that his health had been good up until that point. Many friends initially didn't believe that the strong, cheerful man could be so ill. But what does the worst illness matter if thinking and acting remain clear and unyielding until the end? His life's work can no longer be destroyed.After a short hospital stay, Thies Christophersen finds shelter in his son's house in Kiel-Molfsee, where he is lovingly cared for. The air of his homeland does him good, and for a time he truly revives. – Meanwhile, a police officer she knows has called Edith in Mohrkirch. – Someone seems to suspect something.

On 27 January 1997, Thies celebrates his last birthday. He is delighted that the whole family is gathered around him on this day. Only one person is missing: his youngest son, who crashed his plane the previous year. Due to the unfulfilled demands of the public prosecutor's office, he was not even allowed to attend his son's funeral, for which he had planned to travel from Spain. Thies wants to be placed in a home; he needs peace and quiet. Several other places are now being considered. The director of a home suddenly reveals himself to be a fugitive; the name 'Thies Christophersen' strikes him as suspicious, and he notifies the authorities. On 1 February, the news spreads through many newspapers, including teletext and radio: "Thies Christophersen arrested!" The Flensburger Tageblatt reports: "State security has been observing the house in Kiel/Molfsee for several days. Yesterday he struck..." Ten people now visit the seriously ill person: a judge, a public prosecutor, criminal investigators, and a doctor. They arrive in private cars. The process takes less than five minutes. It was decided – as four Spanish doctors had already recognized – that Thies Christophersen was no longer fit for detention and could remain where he was (Now, – freedom is granted to die). Thies Christophersen was then placed in the Henry Dunant Home in Kiel, where he found his final resting place in room 606. The grandchildren helped with the furnishings, and Edith wanted to move in with him for a while. Everyone hoped that he would stay with them. But the excitement of the last few days had been too much. One day before his death, I spoke to him by phone about his last circular (from January '97), which interested him greatly. I told him that the response to it was good, and Edith received many calls. He had difficulty speaking, but he was still very pleased with the response from his readers. He was a journalist with heart and soul. For over 25 years, he published DIE BAUERNSCHAFT and den KRITIK-VERLAG, so his work couldn't end so suddenly. He simply had to keep writing and wrote the "Freundesbriefe" (Friends' Letters) in Switzerland and Spain. When he heard that many people were amazed at how clearly he still expressed himself, despite his serious illness, he said with his old humor: "Yes, I can still think!" – But he could barely move his hands, so he had to dictate his last letters – to Pedro Varela and Gerd Honsik. On 13 February 1997, in the early morning hours, he was found on his bed with a calm, peaceful expression, relieved of all suffering. He had begun the great journey to the unknown land.

Family

On 20 April 1943, on "Führer's birthday," Christophersen married his wife Edith who was nine years older. In 1945, he took over the large farm he had inherited from his father.

External links

• Revisionists.com
• Testifying in court at the second of Ernst Zündel's Holocaust trials
• "Reflections on Auschwitz and West German Justice"
• Ernst Zündel: Interview with Thies Christophersen (1992)