December 12, 1941: Hitler Orders the Final Solution

The historian Christian Gerlach proves that on this day Hitler made the fundamental decision to annihilate all European Jews.

Historians have long searched for the order to annihilate the Jews or - insofar as they excluded a Fuehrer-order - for other central documents. The Wannsee Protocol was rejected. Here second-level men were to be found, here they spoke not of an order, but rather an authorization of Hitler. Characteristically, a pre-arranged agreement applied to this meeting, ordered from above. At the least, documentary criteria had to be found that permitted plausible inferences as to place, point in time and personal construction of such a conversation. The research led nowhere.

Now however a 34-year old Berlin historian [translator's note: Geschichtswissenschaft is science of history] has precisely answered the old question. And to say it right up front: the proof is ingenious. He didn't publish it in one of the eternally boring academic tomes and in so doing made the right choice. The work appeared in Volume 18 (6th year, November 1997) of the unorthodox, independent magazine "Werkstatt Geschichte." Written with practically mathematical precision, the essay covers 37 pages, including 223 source notes. The title is: "The Wannsee Conference, the fate of German Jews and Hitler's fundamental political decision to murder all European Jews." The author's name is Christian Gerlach. He has found proof of an internal speech of Hitler's from 1941 that no other researcher had even mentioned before.

The original German edition of this article  appeared December 13, 1997 in theBerliner Zeitung. This article, and an English translation by Gord McFee appears with the friendly permission of the Berlin Verlag and the author at the Holocaust History Project.

http://www.holocaust-history.org/december-12-1941/

The Dachau Gas Chambers

Although it is well known that the Nazis used homicidal gas chambers in such camps as Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka, it is not as well known that the Nazis actually constructed gas chambers, homicidal and otherwise in Dachau.

It may come as a surprise to many readers that Baracke X incorporates five gas chambers all of which were included in the original design. These were built and exist to this date. Most visitors to the Dachau Camp, drawn by horror to the main entrance of the crematorium and to the large room designated as a disguised homicidal gas chamber, rarely venture beyond these areas. The chamber (room # 8) is located next to a mortuary room, which in turn connects to the large area housing the four huge furnaces. 

In an essay at The Holocaust History Project website, Harry W. Mazal, OBE, discusses the evidence that theses chambers existed as well as their possible use.

http://www.holocaust-history.org/dachau-gas-chambers/

The Bolshevik Canard

Holocaust deniers and Nazi-apologists often make some very revealing claims regarding Jews, Bolshevism, and Stalinism. They often claim that Bolshevism was a Jewish movement that resulted in mass murder of Christians on a scale much larger than the Final Solution. The implication is that even though the Holocaust did not happen, the Jews deserved it and/or the fact that Stalinists committed mass murder somehow diminishes the fact that the Nazis and their accomplices committed mass murder. Even if the Holocaust-deniers and Nazi-apologists had their facts straight, one would have to wonder at their reasoning. How does the supposed fact that some Jews committed mass murder justify mass murder of Jews? Notwithstanding, this absurd and inhumane implication we must, as usual call into question the supposed facts.

http://www.holocaust-history.org/bolshevik-canard/