Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Chapter 5: The Hungarian Jews
15 and 24, in all three cases directed mainly against the rail centers near Ploesti,
with a hope that there would be “incidental” damage to oil refineries. Oil-related
bombings by England-based aircraft did not commence until April 19, but these
were also carried out under cover of an objective other than oil. The Fifteenth Air
Force carried out several more raids against Ploesti before the June 8 order, after
which the oil campaign got under way officially and extensively. 280
This being the situation, and in consideration of the confirmation provided by
the Combat Chronology, it is impossible to believe that Auschwitz was bombed in
April, when it was difficult to justify, within the allied command, raids even
against choice targets such as Ploesti. That a relatively minor oil target such as
Auschwitz, much smaller than the not distant synthetic oil plants at Blechhammer,
was bombed in April, is most unlikely. Even Blechhammer is not mentioned as a
target until long after April.
Only the U.S. and British air forces are relevant to the problem of possible air
raids at Auschwitz in the period April to September 1944. The Russians did not
engage in industrial-strategic bombing operations of this nature.
Our conclusions, drawn from the official U.S. Air Force war histories, are confirmed
by the recollections of two Germans who were at Auschwitz in 1944.
Thies Christophersen, author of the booklet Die Auschwitz Lüge (mentioned on p.
27), wrote that the first air raid was “in the autumn of 1944.” Christophersen
seems to be completely unaware that there is any significance in the question of
the date of the first aid raid at Auschwitz.
In Dr. Wilhelm Stäglich’s statement, published in German journal Nation Europa
(also mentioned here on page 27), he did not make any remarks in connection
with air raids, but he did write that he was a member of an anti-aircraft unit
that was stationed near Auschwitz for a very short time starting in mid-July 1944.
In reply to a neutrally worded inquiry by this author, with no reference to the nature
of the underlying issue involved, Stäglich replied that there were no air raids
while he was there and that he believed there had been none earlier, because he
had not been informed of any and had not seen any corresponding destruction.
The August date for the first air raid is confirmed by the Italian Jew Primo
Levi, who wrote in his book Se Questo è un Uomo (early in the chapter entitled I
fatti dell’estate) that the first raid was in August, when he had been there five
months.
Our analysis of the problem of the first air raid at Auschwitz is also essentially
confirmed by the extermination mythologists. Reitlinger does not explicitly take a
position on the date of the first raid but remarks (page 383) on “the failure of the
Allies to bomb the passes between Hungary and Auschwitz in May – July, 1944.”
Hilberg (page 632) is well off the mark in placing the first raid on December 16,
1944, and this date is accepted by Levin (page 701). Friedman (page 78) is relatively
on the mark in reporting a raid on September 13, 1944.
Because all evidence rejects a claim that there was an air raid at Auschwitz in
April 1944, Vrba’s claim that there was such a raid while he was sitting there
280
Craven, 172-179.
189