Holocaust Denial

* Some of the information appearing in “Danger in Denying Holocaust?” (Jan. 7) may mislead your readers. I am a member of the Holocaust History Project, an Internet organization that monitors and evaluates Holocaust denial (https://www.holocaust-history.org).

The claim by Holocaust-denier Germar Rudolf about there being much more traces of poison gas in the delousing chambers than the homicidal gas chambers of Auschwitz was addressed in a comprehensive study of these facilities undertaken in 1994 by Krakow’s Institute for Forensic Research. The institute noted that the reason for the variance was because it took 24 hours for a delousing as opposed to 20 minutes for a homicidal gassing. The institute also noted that the homicidal chambers were destroyed by the Germans while the delousing facilities were not. The problem for deniers like Rudolf is to explain why any traces of poison gas turned up in structures identified by numerous eyewitnesses as homicidal gas chambers.

The “academics at respected institutions” who accept denier arguments are two long-time deniers, not impartial scholars seeking to obtain the truth about historical events. Neither has been taken seriously by historians and both have long been discredited.

The poll taken by the Roper Organization that showed 22% doubted the Holocaust was due to the fact that the question contained double negatives. When the question was asked in a straightforward manner only 5% expressed some degree of doubt but even they believed the Holocaust occurred. This finding by the Roper Organization never received the attention of the flawed original poll.

JOHN C. ZIMMERMAN

Las Vegas