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Once the deniers claim that it was not the intention of Hitler to have the Jews exterminated, they are forced to explain what, then, actually happened to the Jews who were deported to the East.

Mr. Mattogno and  Mr. Graf - one of "the heavies of Revisionism", according to Dr. F. Toben - face this puzzle in their 2002 book about Treblinka. Vernichtungslager oder Durchgangslager?, pp. 316-325. The title of this chapter reads, "Das Endziel der nach Osten deportierten Juden". What, then, was the Endziel of the European Jews in, say, 1942?

The authors admit that, due to lack of documentation, they are unable to say with certainty where or what the final goal of the deportations of European Jews  actually was. Various German sources are quoted to the effect that the Jews are living and working in the East. Camps like Treblinka and Sobibor were, therefore, not at all extermination camps. They were not the final destination; they were merely transit camps. From here, the Jews would "cross the border", and go East - to a new and happy life - or how?

Despite their contempt for "official German historians", the authors end by quoting C. Gerlach, who writes (p. 325) that the Jews were brought by train to Minsk. That the Jews were also brought by train to Minsk is quite true. But the question is: What happened to the Jews once they arrived in Minsk?

Are the authors in good faith when claiming that we have no documentation for what happened once they arrived by train e.g. in Minsk?

The fact is that we have very good German documentation for what actully happened to at least a good deal of the Jews who arrived in Minsk by train, and that we, moreover, have had this documentation at least since 1965, when, in Vienna, Fritz Baaede et al.edited the book "Unsere Ehre heisst Treue". Kriegstagebuch des Kommandostabes des Reichführer-SS, Tätigkeitsberichte der 1. und 2. SS-Inf.-Brigade, der 1. SS-Kav.-Brigade und von Sonderkommando der Waffen-SS.

More recently, these sources were also used by Alfred Gottwaldt & Diana Schulle, Die "Judendeportationen" aus dem Deutschen Reich 1941-1945, Wiesbaden 2005.

One of those Germans who already in 1965 could have helped Mattogno and Graf solve the problem of what happened  to European Jews who arrived in Minsk, was SS-Unterscharführer Arlt.

Arlt, stationed in Minsk, wrote a report dated May 17, 1942. Here we read:

"Am 4. Mai 1942 gingen wir bereits wieder daran, neue Gruben in der Nähe des Gutes vom Kdr. (Kommandeur) selbst auszuheben. Auch diese Arbeiten nahmen 4 Tage in Anspruch. Am 11. Mai traf ein Transport mit Juden (1000 Stück) aus Wien in Minsk ein, und wurden gleich vom Bahnhof zur obengenannten Grube geschafft. Dazu war der Zug direkt an der Grube eingesetzt. Am 13. Mai beaufsichtigten 8 Mann die Ausgrabung einer weiteren Grube, da in nächter Zeit abermals ein Transport mit Juden aus dem Reich hier eintreffen soll."

There are several similar reports from Arlt from this period, and they fit nicely with what we know independently about the number, dates etc. of the trains that left Vienna for Minsk and other destinations in the East.

In the following months, June, July,  August and September, trains arrived in Minsk  not just from Vienna, but also from Königsberg/Berlin, Theresienstadt and Köln.

In September 1942  huge transports of Jews from Theresienstadt  were directed to Treblinka. The numbers of the trains and the number of the Jews on these trains are known. For details, see Gottwaldt & Schulle, op. cit., pp. 237-247.

It is a great pity that Arlt and Maly Trostinec are never mentioned by Faurisson and his imitators. Why do the deniers ignore these important sources?

The picture we get from reading Arlt´s contemporary reports leaves us in no doubt about the "Endziel" of thousands of European  Jews who were deported to Minsk and Maly Trostinec: Here the SS and the  mass graves were waiting for them.

It was certainly not wrong when Himmler, in a  speech given in the Haus der Flieger in Berlin, June 9, 1942 said:

"Die Völkerwanderung der Juden werden wir in einem Jahr bestimmt fertig haben; dann wandert keiner mehr" (Geheimreden, 1974, p. 159).

But it was not the full truth; Himmler was vague - understandably so. What happened to the Jews was a "Geheime Reichssache".

In Posen, on October 4, 1943, Himmler was more explicit (ibid., p. 169):

"Es musste der schwere Entschluss gefasst werden, dieses Volk von der Erde verschwinden zu lassen."

Unterscharführer Arlt and his men would have know precisely what Himmler was aiming at. How can deniers still  pretend to be ignorant of these obvious  facts?

Dr. Christian Lindtner
October 3, 2011