Newsgroups: alt.revisionism,soc.history
Subject: Re: LEST WE FORGET: 1.5 Million Gassed: Maidanek
From: kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca (Ken Mcvay)
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 17:40:05 GMT
Organization: The Old Frog's Almanac, Vancouver Island, CANADA
Keywords: Maidanek

In article <1992Jul23.154107.26192@cs.brown.edu> dzk@cs.brown.edu (Danny Keren) writes:

>Maidanek is an important historical site, mainly because it was captured
>almost intact by the Soviets. However, the number of 1.5 million victims
>is an over estimate.

Actually, now that Gannon and company aren't around, perhaps we can get down
to taking a closer look at things like that without ulterior motivation.
I've seen a lot of numbers tossed around in the past many years, from
hundreds of sources, and none of them agree. Unlike the deniers, most folks
don't assume from the numeric variances that the Holocaust didn't occur.

Part of the reason for this, of course, is the sources used... some, for
instance, use German transportation records (Arad, for instance, made
extensive use of German records in his compilation of deportation figures
during Reinhart), which are probably quite accurate, while others use
population "before and after" figures.

The bottom line is that we'll probably never really know, but that the final
totals were most certainly in the multiple millions...

Maidanek hasn't popped up in many of the sources I've been reading - perhaps
because the Reinhart camps and Auschwitz seem to have grabbed the spotlight,
so to speak... have you some good sources for more information about the
camp? (Does Hilberg discuss it at any length?)

Another issue of interest to me is that of the soap. I am at a bit of a loss
in that regard, as I have seen two distinct references - one to the soap
stamped with "RJF", and another I'll call the Stutthof soap, which Feig
notes in "Hitler's Death Camps."

I understand that the RJF issue has been resolved by Holocaust scholars, and
that it was not made from human fat, but I haven't seen specific refutation
of Mazur's testimony at Nuremberg, or that of the British POW's noted in
Feig. 

I've been told that Yehuda Bauer has conclusively dealt with the RJF soap
stories, and rejected them, but I have not run across his books yet, so
haven't read his remarks. If anyone has them, and can convert them to ASCII
for me, I would certainly appreciate it.

I'll close with a citation included in Feig, and ask for comments:

"[19] The soap stories appear to excite enormous controversy.  Early
  scholars said the stories were untrue, that the Nazis did not make soap
  from human fat, that those bars of soap marked with an "RJF" were not
  made from humans (letter in author's possession from Herbert Rosenkranz
  to Lonny Darwin, September 20, 1979).  Most East European camp scholars,
  however, validate the soap stories, and other kinds of bars made from
  humans are displayed in Eastern Europe -- I have seen many over the
  years.  I accept without further question that the Nazis did use every
  part of the human body, for the evidence now is irrefutable.  The
  Stutthof soap do not have "RJF" stamped on them.  Testimony from IMT
  7:598-601.  See also Shirer, 971."

(Taken from "Hitler's Death Camps" by Konnilyn G. Feig LOC D810.J4 F36 1981)

-- 
"I boiled  the soap  out  of  the  bodies of women and men.  The process of
boiling alone took several days --  from 3 to 7.   During two manufacturing
processes, in which I directly participated, more than 25 kilograms of soap
were produced." (Mazur, from "Hitler's Death Camps")
Xref: sparky alt.revisionism:615 soc.history:6644