Alleged German conspiracy to hide the Holocaust

Photograph of an alleged "Bone Mill" that was allegedly used by a "Sonderkommando 1005" unit at the Lemberg labor camp in Ukraine. The photograph was frequently used as evidence by the Soviet Union at the IMT trial. The revisionist Klaus Schwensen has argued that research shows that the machine was nothing but a normal ball mill and that the Soviet story was a fabrication. See also the article on the controversial Soviet Extraordinary State Commission, which was involved in this allegation.

More recently, the photograph has been cited by the leftist Wikipedia as evidence in several articles. See also Wikipedia's and RationalWiki's Holocaust articles.

The alleged German conspiracy to hide the Holocaust refers to an alleged German conspiracy (or several conspiracies) to hide the Holocaust.

Anti-Holocaust revisionists allege that the alleged conspiracy explains various problems with the politically correct view on the Holocaust. One example is the absence of the millions of corpses from the alleged mass killings.

Despite criticizing Holocaust revisionists for "conspiracy theories", supporters of the politically correct view thus at the same time state a conspiracy theory. See also Anti-Holocaust revisionism: "Conspiracy theories".

"Aktion 1005'"/"Sonderaktion 1005"

"Aktion 1005'"/"Sonderaktion 1005" (Operation 1005/Special Operation 1005) are alleged code names for an alleged German operation to destroy the corpses from the alleged mass killings.

The operation allegedly started in 1942. In particular, this operation is alleged to have involved the digging up and the burning of millions of corpses from earlier alleged massacres, such as at certain extermination Holocaust camps and at the locations of Einsatzgruppen massacres in Poland, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia. Revisionists have argued that the only evidence for the existence of alleged "Aktion 1005" or "Sonderaktion 1005" involvement in the Holocaust are a few completely unreliable witness statements and that for a variety of reasons the described actions are highly implausible or impossible.

Non-revisionists have argued that there are some German documents that briefly mention a "Sonderaktion 1005". However, they do not mention Holocaust involvement and the term is unspecific with "Sonderaktion" translating as "special operation". See also Meanings and translations of German words and Holocaust revisionism: Code words.

The alcoholic Paul Blobel, previously discharged due to his alcoholism, was allegedly put in charge of the extremely sensitive and secretive operation.

The revisionist Carlo Mattogno has criticized this claim, since Blobel had absolutely no competence in the field of cremation and had only begun a half-year course of study at a technical school before joining the army. Mattogno argues that the SS would instead have consulted competent cremation specialists, as was done when constructing the crematoria at Auschwitz, which was done by the most important German builder of crematory ovens at the time, with the assistance of its head engineer, a highly competent cremation specialist.

Since outdoor cremations on pyres would not completely cremate the corpses, but leave behind massive remains, including bones and bone splinters and also ash that must be disposed of, it is arguably unclear why such very difficult digging up, burning, and re-burial at the same place were done, if the purpose was to conceal the mass killings. In some cases, there have been claims of the operations involving further destruction, such as the "bone mill" discussed in the picture to the right and that also has been criticized by Holocaust revisionists. Furthermore, even if the bones had been "milled" down to powder and re-buried, then these remains could likely still be identified as originating from partially burned bones, and the site could thus still be identified as the location of a mass killing, which arguably would make such very resource demanding "concealment" operations rather pointless.

The Sobibor camp prisoner Leon Feldhendler declared that chlorine was a “death-gas” used at Sobibor. This allegation is rarely mentioned today as being inconsistent with politically correct history. More frequently mentioned is a claim that the bone remains resulting from the alleged outdoor cremations were crushed by hammers. A Holocaust revisionist criticisms is regarding "the enormous problems associated with crushing the charred teeth and bones of hundreds of thousands of victims into ash with hammers. There were the charred bones and teeth of 200,000 to 250,000 victims. Imagine how long it would take the small number of Sobibor inmates who allegedly worked in the “gas chamber area” to manually crush into ash with hammers the millions of bones and teeth from these hundreds of thousands of victims! Holocaust researcher Thomas Dalton discussed the enormous problems in regard to the unburned bones and teeth of the corpses. The ash from the burnt corpses would have to be sifted every day for bones and teeth. Imagine how long it would take to find and smash millions of bones and teeth with hammers!'"

See Leon Wells on another alleged witness.

See Einsatzgruppen: Alleged destruction of the corpses and Holocaust material evidence: Corpses regarding more details on and criticisms of the claimed destruction of the corpses from claimed killings by the Einsatzgruppen and in the camps. Examples of criticisms are that the alleged operations involve physical impossibilities; are impossible due to lack of various needed resources such as time, manpower, fuel, and burial space; and would leave behind massive remains that have not been found.

See section "Quotes" on Holocaust revisionist criticisms of extensively varying dates for when the different camps were supposedly ordered to stop burials of corpses without burning the corpses.

Destruction of crematoria, non-destruction of other alleged Holocaust evidence

In the summer of 1944, the Soviets reached the Majdanek camp. There they found, according to revisionists, crematories, delousing chambers, and cans of Zyklon B, which had been used to save lives, but that were turned by Soviet propaganda into their opposite. The Soviets also released photos of skeletons laying next to cremation furnaces, which must have been staged according to revisionists since cremation would not have produced such a result. Germans (not part of the alleged Aktion 1005) did destroy crematoria after this, but this is argued to be due to a likely desire to avoid similar future false propaganda. Also, at Auschwitz the crematoria were utterly destroyed, but neither the alleged gas chambers nor a massive amount of camp documents were destroyed. There was some damage to alleged gas chambers due destroying the crematoria but the most important ones were completely or largely intact at the end of the war (and have been frequently cited by Holocaust revisionists as evidence). The remaining prison population (potential witnesses) were not killed. In particular, the Sonderkommando members allegedly working in the gas chambers were not killed. This is argued to demonstrate that the purpose was to prevent Soviet crematoria propaganda, but not to conceal the existence of the alleged mass gassings.

Letters and postcards conspiracy

The Germans allegedly forced Jews under duress to mass produce letters and postcards, in order to give the impression that Jews were not killed.

See Holocaust testimonial evidence: Letters and postcards from supposedly killed Jews.

"Code words", verbal orders only, and/or destruction of Holocaust documents conspiracy

Germans are argued to already in 1941 (while they were victorious) to have started to massively falsify and ignore their official communications and written orders and instead to rely on secret "code words" and verbal orders, in order to hide the Holocaust. This even in documents that were already secret and even in private documents such as personal diaries. Despite this, other German statements from the same time period are alleged to contain open Holocaust confessions.

The supposed massive use of verbal order or "code words" contradicting what was actually written is argued to be implausible, for reasons such as implying that numerous people supposedly ignored what their written orders stated and instead committed mass murders based only on hearsay, despite that the punishment for unauthorized killings or sabotaging the war effort (such as by killing able workers or enabling anti-German propaganda) included the death penalty.

A related conspiracy theory is the alleged destruction of many Holocaust documents in order to hide the Holocaust.

Regarding more details on this:

• Holocaust documentary evidence
  • in particular the sections The missing Holocaust documents and Orders, plans, organizations, and budgets
• Meanings and translations of German words and Holocaust revisionism‎
  • in particular the section "Code words"

Non-registration of those gassed immediately on arrival to the camps

Another possible part of the alleged conspiracy is non-registration of those allegedly gassed immediately on arrival to Holocaust camps such as Auschwitz.

See Holocaust demographics: Argued inconsistencies and absurdities regarding treatment and registration on arrivals to the camps.

Other contradictions

Despite the supposed conspiracy to conceal the Holocaust

• The Germans supposedly confessed the mass murders in public speeches.
• The Germans released many potential witnesses from the "extermination camps" and did not kill the massive numbers of potential witnesses alive in the "extermination camps" at the end of the war. See Holocaust demographics: Non-killings and releases of camp prisoners at "extermination camps"
• The Germans did not destroy evidence such as the Einsatzgruppen documents (despite that this would have been much easier than the alleged destruction of the hundreds of thousands or millions of corpses from the alleged Einsatzgruppen mass killings).
• The Einsatzgruppen documents are problematic for the alleged German conspiracy also for many other reasons. Many of these documents use explicit language (no "code words") regarding the killing of Jews (although often in the context of the anti-partisan/anti-resistance actions of the Einsatzgruppen). Furthermore, many of these documents were supposedly mass duplicated and were supposedly sent to many National Socialist leaders (including non-military party leaders such as Baldur von Schirach, despite not being involved in the Eastern Front fighting or administration). As such, they were useful during the Nuremberg trials against such leaders. Sometimes as many as a hundred claimed copies are claimed to have been distributed. See the Einsatzgruppen article regarding more details.
• Despite the supposed extreme secrecy, Himmler in the Posen speeches supposedly confessed the Holocaust to many people not involved in the alleged killings and supposedly carefully preserved records of these confessions for posterity.
• The Germans were allegedly inconsistent regarding alleged used of "code words" and "uncoded words", even regarding documents allegedly produced at similar time periods. For example, the Jäger Report ("uncoded") and the Wannsee Protocol ("coded") were allegedly produced at about the same time. Similarly, the Einsatzgruppen: 29 December 1942 report ("uncoded") and the Korherr Report ("coded"), were allegedly produced at about the same time (and both allegedly intended for Hitler). The Posen speeches allegedly used both "coded" and "uncoded" words at the same time.
• Holocaust revisionists have argued that the Holocaust "extermination camps" were located at places where concealment of mass killings could not occur. See Holocaust material evidence: Argued implausibly poor choices of alleged killing methods.

Holocaust revisionist views on the alleged conspiracy

Holocaust revisionist argue that there was no genocidal mass killing, therefore no conspiracy to conceal a genocidal mass killing, no Holocaust documents stating a genocidal mass killing that needed to be destroyed, no Holocaust corpses from the genocidal mass killing that needed to be destroyed, and no "code words" secretly referring to a genocidal mass killing.

If some Germans did destroy some evidence during WWII, then this must not necessarily have been done in order to conceal genocidal killings, but could have been done in order to prevent enemy propaganda (see above on destruction of crematoria). Another possibility is destroying evidence in order to conceal non-genocidal crimes. For example, "Aktion Reinhard" was according to revisionists a plunder operation involving stealing Jewish property, which the involved Germans may have had an interest in concealing.

Regarding German statements cited as evidenced for genocidal mass killings, Holocaust revisionists argue that they are misinterpreted/mistranslated (see, for example, the article on meanings and translations of German words and Holocaust revisionism‎) or forged/edited (see, for example, the article on Allied psychological warfare).

Quotes

"According to official historiography, Himmler, at a point in time when Auschwitz, allegedly the largest of the German ‘extermination camps,’ began its murderous activity, had not yet thought of building crematoria for the incineration of corpses: the victims of the so-called ‘bunkers’ of Birkenau are supposed to have simply been buried in mass graves, which had been dug in the ‘Birkenwald’ (birch forest). Himmler is supposed to have ordered the cremation of bodies in Auschwitz after his second visit there on July 17 and 18, 1942. As a result of this alleged Himmler order, the incineration of the bodies under the open sky is supposed to have begun on September 21, 1942.

But during the month before his visit to Auschwitz, Himmler is supposed to have ordered the SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel, through the chief of the Gestapo, Heinrich Müller, to eradicate all traces of the mass graves:

“In June 1942 SS-Gruppenführer Müller, chief of the Gestapo, charged SS-Standartenführer Blobel with removing all traces of the mass executions carried out in the east by the Einsatzgruppen. This order was considered a state secret, and Blobel was instructed to refrain from any written correspondence on the subject. The operation was given the code name ‘Sonderaktion (special operation) 1005.’”

Given the above, it is incomprehensible that corpses were buried in Auschwitz up until September 20, 1942, and in Treblinka up to March 1943; it is similarly inexplicable that cremations in Sobibór are supposed to have begun in the summer of 1942, those in Belzec in the middle of December 1942, and those in Treblinka in March 1943.

Or, to put it differently, we understand all too well: the witnesses of the different camps did not manage to get together to agree on an identical starting date for Himmler’s decision to eradicate all traces by cremation!"

—Carlo Mattogno and Jürgen Graf in "Treblinka Extermination Camp or Transit Camp?"

External links

• Treblinka Extermination Camp or Transit Camp?: Chapter VII: The Role of the Einsatzgruppen in the Occupied Eastern Territories - The section "Operation 1005".
  • Also Chapter IV: The Alleged Extermination Facilities in Treblinka: An Historical and Technical Analysis - The section "Early Cremations"
• The Moral and Intellectual Bankruptcy of a Scholar - The section "The "Aktion 1005""
• The Great Holocaust Mystery: Reconsidering the Evidence - The section "The Mechanism of Mass Murder (2) – Einsatzgruppen"
• The Bone Mill of Lemberg
• Why the Germans Destroyed the Crematoria but left the Gas Chambers Intact
• Patrick Desbois and the "Mass Graves" of Jews in Ukraine - The section "The cremations"