How the Simon Wiesenthal Center Falsifies History
Photographic Fraud by a Major Holocaust Organization
A doctored wartime photograph of the
Auschwitz-Birkenau camp displayed by the Simon Wiesenthal Center
on its "educational" web site is a good example of how the
influential Holocaust organization falsifies history.
The Center posts the photograph on
its "Multimedia Learning Center Online" web site under the
heading "Photo Gallery: Hungarian arrivals after the 'Selektion'
at Auschwitz" (http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/gallery/pg22/pg0/pg22035.html [the
photo was removed from that website in 2000; ed]). Dated "June
0, 1944," the photo is captioned: "As these prisoners were being
processed for slave labor, many of their friends were being
gassed and burned in the ovens in the crematoria. The smoke can
be seen in the background."
The photograph has been altered by
adding phony "smoke" to the background, apparently to support
survivor testimony about smoke billowing from Birkenau crematory
chimneys. The fraud is obvious with a glance at the original
photo, which is published in The
Auschwitz Album (New York: Random House, 1981),
page 126 (photo No. 143).
The 185 photos of Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in this album appear
to have been taken by German SS camp officials in 1944 -- that
is, during the supposed high point of the alleged extermination
program there. The original album was confiscated by a Jewish
inmate, Lili Jacob Meier, who brought it to the United States
after the war.
The original photo, from "The Auschwitz Album" (1981), shows
no trace of smoke.
In none of the album's many photos -- several of which show
Birkenau crematory facilities -- can one see any trace of smoke.
Similarly, there is no trace of crematory smoke in any of the
Allied aerial reconnaissance photos taken of Auschwitz and
Birkenau on random days in 1944. Cremation specialists affirm
that crematories do not produce visible smoke. In short, the
available evidence does not support the "billowing smoke" claims
of many former inmates.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, based in Los Angeles, is one of the
world's foremost Holocaust organizations, as well as a major
Jewish-Zionist pressure group. Reflecting its considerable media
influence and political clout, accommodating lawmakers have
diverted at least $10 million in taxpayer funds to the Center.
The Center claims more than 350,000 dues-paying members, each of
whom receives its glossy magazine, Response. Over the years the
Center has repeatedly attacked the Institute for Historical
Review.
In 1991 its Response magazine broadcast the outrageous lie that
Iraq was killing Iranian prisoners of war "in gas chambers
specially designed for the Iraqis" by a German firm, using
German-manufactured Zyklon B gas.
(This doctored "smoking chimney"
photograph was brought to our attention by Canadian geologist
and aerial photo specialist John Ball, who reported on this on
his web site: http://www.air-photo.com/english/1999_mark.html.
Author of The
Ball Report, he also addressed the 1994 IHR Conference.
For more about the Wiesenthal Center,
see the detailed report in the July-August 1995 Journal,
pp. 2-7. For information about the well-known personality for
whom the Center is named, see "Simon Wiesenthal: Fraudulent
'Nazi Hunter'," July-August 1995 Journal,
pp. 8-16.)
From The
Journal of Historical Review, Sept.-Dec. 1999 (Vol. 18, No.
5/6), pages 4-5.
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