Unfounded Assertion

Samuel Crowell’s article, “Beyond Auschwitz” (March-April 2001 Journal, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 26-35) is spoiled by his totally unfounded assertion that “some portion of non-working Hungarian Jews could have been killed,” but that their number “could not have been more than a few tens of thousands at most” [p. 33].

While it can not, of course, be excluded that some Hungarian Jews were executed for real or alleged violations of camp regulations, the killing of “a few tens of thousands” would have been possible only as part of a limited extermination policy. Obviously, the first victims of such a policy would have been those unable to work, but as Crowell himself admits, many Hungarian Jews unfit for labor, including children and old people, survived the war at Auschwitz and other camps. So who were the magical “tens of thousands” who “could have been killed"? As Crowell does not believe in the gas chambers, such mass killings would have had to have been carried out by methods other than gassing, most likely by shooting. But if so, how come there is no eyewitness testimony at all to such mass shootings?

Equally absurd is Crowell’s claim that up to 55 percent of the deported Hungarian Jews may have perished before the end of the war is equally absurd. Raul Hilberg, who supports the gas chamber and mass extermination claims, puts the number of Hungarian Jewish victims at 180,000, which means that the majority of the Hungarian Jewish deportees must have survived. Therefore, how does Crowell, who rejects the gas chamber legend, arrive at this impossibly high percentage? In reality, the number of Hungarian Jews who died in the camps can not possibly have exceeded some tens of thousands.

Being well acquainted with the documents, and having remarkable linguistic skills, Crowell could make a substantial contribution to revisionist research. He should therefore refrain from making irresponsible statements that damage his credibility.

Jürgen Graf
[by e-mail]