Our greatest taboo should be permitted for investigation and debate

I'm not going to bother explaining to my opponent why it's extremist to accept an award from Ahmadenijad. There's no convincing someone from a movement that would welcome back Hitler with open arms. {{{ Nuremberg }}} My opponent proves my point when he points out that Hoess was ultimately hanged for war crimes, after his trial. This means he received no special deal from the prosecution for his testimony. He wrote his memoirs in prison because he knew he was going to be hanged. He had no motive to lie. His family received death threats in the mail because of the genocide that Hoess perpetrated. There's no reason to believe the truth would appease these people. In fact, it would have been preferable for Hoess, in regards to death threats, to deny his involvement in the Holocaust. My opponent merely relies on his reference material, without advancing any arguments. I won't refute arguments that aren't made. Although footnote 5 never says SS Kaltenbrunner lied in his testimony, except to say that it was his job, when they were first captured, to create a lie to explain to the Red Cross why they had just executed 50 POWs. He initially claimed they were killed by Allied bombing. This seems to support the mainstream Holocaust narrative, which is that the Nazis initially tried very hard to hide their war crimes. My opponent doesn't both refuting any other perpetrator testimony, except Hoess. {{{ Gas trucks }}} My opponent claims that gas trucks didn't exist because gasoline powered trucks are more efficient killing machines than diesel trucks. There are two main problems with this. 1) The Germans didn't necessarily use the most effective killing methods available to them. They started by rounding up and shooting as many Jews as possible. Only after soldiers complained of battle fatigue and psychological issues from shooting women and children did they seek alternate "solutions." 2) Heavy-duty trucks aren't equipped with gasoline engines. According to a report by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, the US still uses diesel engines in all heavy duty trucks today. [1] Diesel is used in heavy-duty trucks and ships because it is the most efficient internal combustion engine due to its high compression ratio, and it is even more efficient at low speeds. [2] My opponent's response is pseudo-science at its worst. "Gasoline is better at killing than diesel. The Germans would have used the best method, therefore, no Holocaust." There are so many leaps in logic here it's not even funny. It's really not. {{{ 3 to 15 minutes }}} Firstly, when Hoess is referring to 3 to 15 minutes, he was asked a question about how long it took his victims to die, not how long it took between gassing sessions. Second, Richard Green (PhD in chemistry from Stanford) points out that the Denier claim that "Zyklon B takes a long time to evaporate" is based on figures from the manufacturer's (Degesch) manual, and it was referring to the required exposure time of lice, not evaporation times. [3] In addition, Gerhard Peters, who was the general director of Degesch, the company that made Zyklon B, has said that almost all of the hydrogen cyanide (HCN) would have evaporated after half an hour. [3] My opponent objects by saying that the Jews waiting in line for "showers" would have seen the gas coming out of the chamber. Considering that HCN is colorless, [4] a better objection would be that they'd see the dead bodies being removed. But they were taken to a staging area where they couldn't see outside. {{{ The Jager Report }}} As far as I can tell, my opponent's only reason for doubting this report is that it wasn't signed by Jager. First off, people don't sign every piece of paper they produce. Second, the version of the report found was the 4th of 5 copies; the other copies had been destroyed. In an age before photocopiers, there would be no reason to ever sign more than the original. His other objection seems to be based on us finding no mass graves from all the Jews who were shot. This claim isn't even true. This site has a compendium of pictures of mass graves, taken both immediately post-war and from captured Nazis. [5] There are: pictures of the mass graves at the Ponary killing site, pictures of the mass graves in Vinnitsa (Ukraine), pictures of: a mass grave discovered in Iwje (Poland), a mass grave in Drobitski Yar near Kharkov, a mass grave in Kragujevac (Serbia), a mass grave in the Polesye region, a mass grave in Kozin (discovered by a Soviet investigation), a mass grave in Taganrov (Russia) … there are photos of mass graves discovered in: Banjica, Yugoslavia; Zhmerinka, Ukraine; Siauliai, Lithuania; Lancut; Bialystok; Zolochev; Zbaraz; Kerch; Meina; Nowe Miasto; Mlawa; Czestochowa. [5] Many of the bodies were exhumed and given proper burials. Mass graves weren't found at death camps because the bodies were cremated, and Himmler instructed his camp commandants to destroy records, crematoria, and other signs of mass extermination. [8] {{{ Photos/Video Footage }}} As far as I can tell, having searched the McClatchy database using Lexis, the Larson article doesn't exist. IHR is clearly misrepresenting what Charles Larson said. Larson is talking about autopsies he performed in Dachau. Only a few experimental gassings were ever done at Dachau. [6] As I mentioned before, some camps were used only as concentration camps, not as death camps. I *do* believe the title of the article, "Concentration Camp Conditions Killed Most Inmates, Doctor Says." This would undoubtedly be true in Dachau, which only gassed small number prisoners, as a test. However, it makes no sense that autopsies performed in Dachau disprove gassings at Auschwitz. Larson, himself, admitted to finding evidence of some gassings at Dachau, when he was deposed for trial; Larson said, "only relatively few of the inmates I personally examined at Dachau were murdered in this manner." [6] My opponent makes the common Denier claim that all the Jews died of Typhus. There were Typhus outbreaks at some camps, like Bergen-Belsen. However, the Nazis spent so much time delousing clothing in order to prevent the spread of Typhus. There is no evidence that Typhus killed most of the Jews at Auschwitz. Typhus has a signature rash that would have been easy to identify. In addition, Typhus has a mortality rate below 20%. [7] Yet, 80% of the prisoners brought to Auschwitz died. == Challenge: Alternate Narrative == I challenge my opponent to explain exactly what happened during the Holocaust, in his own words. If the Nazis didn't kill Jews, why round them up? Why did the Nazis call the Jews untermensch (sub-human), faulniserscheinung (untouchable rot), and blame all of Germany's problems on them if they didn't hate the Jews and want to see them scapegoated and killed? Where did all the Jews go? Demographic estimates by the World Almanac say that 5,376,520 Jews disappeared from the world population between 1938 and 1947; other demographic estimates by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry found that post-war, only 3,642,000 Jews remained in Europe of the 9,740,000 pre-war population. [9] What happened to these Jews? Furthermore, where did the gas chamber "lie" come from? How did all the survivors and perpetrators meet and decide to all tell the same lie? How many Jews will my opponent concede were killed by the Nazis? Zero? One? 4.5 million? [1] http://tinyurl.com... [2] http://tinyurl.com... [3] http://tinyurl.com... [4] http://tinyurl.com... [5] http://tinyurl.com... [6] http://tinyurl.com... [7] http://tinyurl.com... [8] http://tinyurl.com... [9] http://tinyurl.com...