This misses the point about the Rankean paradigm, which was primarily about research methodology, above all placing archives at the centre of historical research. [...] you really should not be a revisionist, because everything of significance regarding the Holocaust is supported by official records one way or another.
Or perhaps you and some others should be revisionists. The main problem I have with Chapter One of the book
Belzec, Sobibor Treblinka (hereafter "
BST", 2011) is that its account is not drawn from German records in the first instance, but privileges less authoritative publications of the Polish government/underground. For example, it cites: "Omeg Shabes and polish underground sources" (Kindle Loc. 322), Engels'
In the Shadow of Auschwitz (1987) - based on polish sources and the Central Jewish Historical Commission of Poland, which began work in 1943 (Kindle Loc. 386) and hence is of similar standing. These sources are what drives the narrative. Or:
By 1943, the Polish underground was tracking the course of the extermination campaign... 44 [Footnote 44 cites M Tyskowa's excerpts of Polish reports.] (Kindle Loc. 349)
Or:
In the summer of 1944 [...] survivors began to come out of hiding, joining nearby villagers [...] in giving testimonies and statements to Polish and Soviet investigators. (Kindle Loc. 353)
Polish sources again. A summary bears out this methodological bias:
[...] we have asked the question, 'how did we come to know about Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka?', and answered it by referring to three broad processes: wartime reports, postwar investigations and trials, and historiography. (Kindle loc. 1049)
[...] wartime reports of of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka consistently identified them as extermination camps (Kindle loc. 1768) [Presumably not German reports then]
So none of these, except conceivably the first, are official German sources. A government - even a non-democratic one - is comprised of persons responsible for tasks and associated funds and assets and generally held accountable by superiors. Hence, there is a (reasonable, but defeasable) presumption that its records are accurate and that its plans aim at some public good that the government wishes to take credit for. An "underground" has no such responsibilities and reduced access to information. One of its main motives is defamation of the occupation government with the view of eventually supplanting them.
And the German sources used are not Monday morning at 9.00 am type sources, but things like the discredited Gerstein report (Kindle loc. 514, 1400) or Steiner's interviews (Kindle loc. 511). BST states:
[...] MGK consistently act as if the only source that can be considered a 'document' is a German report. [...] Rankeanism has only one rule, namely to prefer where possible a source that is closer to the events, either in terms of chronology or proximity. (Kindle loc. 770)
Well if this were true, Rankeanism would be a mightily deficient procedure. Or again:
Well, duh. The file went up in smoke. [No footnote to substantiate this provided.] It is our contention in this critique that such a hyperpositivist demand [for documents] is intellectually bogus, and reverses the normal chain of reasoning from the general to the particular. (Kindle loc. 840)
I would have thought that the normal chain of reasoning in history was from particular to general. Human beings are unpredictable and may hide their purposes, so even general rules may have exceptions. It may be generally true that an insult causes offence, but I may hide my resentment, or be an unusual person who has overcome it, or the bearer of a new doctrine (e.g. Christianity) that works on human nature.
It is worth noting in passing some statements that go against the main thesis of the book. In particular:
Sobibor was encircled with a penumbra of satellite labour camps. (Kindle loc. 1465)
During the first week of the 'deportation Aktion' Warsaw was flooded with greetings from the deported Jews. The greetings arrived from Bialystok, Brest-Litovsk, Kosov. Malkinia, Pinsk, Smolensk. All this was a lie [...] (Kindle loc. 1616)
Are there any records of admissions to these camps? Does anything confirm the arrival of Jews at these destinations? At the same time, many Germans were returning to the Reich (
Heimkehr), so presumably there was spare accommodation.
no case of an SS man being punished for disobeying an order to kill ever came to light. Kindle loc. 2191)
But there are plenty of cases of Germans including SS being punished for killing without legal orders (Alfred De Zayas).
Let us turn to Hans Frank, a man of little recognized philosophical accomplishments:
The Nazi governor-general of Poland, Hans Frank, repeatedly referred to the destruction of the Jews, which is wholly relevant context for BST. Globocnik's reports on Einsatz Reinhard, while avoiding discussing gassing, killing, destruction or special treatment, confirm what is known from other sources as well, namely that the personnel of these camps were drawn from the T4 euthanasia program. Documents prove the use of gassing in T4.
Hans Frank was a heroic figure who has been poorly served by history. His character was shown by his speaking out publicly against the "Night of the Long Knives" on 30 June 1934 at a time when the rule of law was compromised and extra-judicial killings underway. It's well known that the term "destruction" (
Vernichtung) was often used in the German of the day to refer to depriving a group of power. Frank handed his diaries over to the authorities, presumably because he remembered nothing incriminating in them. His considerable work as an editor of a legal journal and his own publications are not included in the bibliography of Dieter Schenk's biography. This avoids the question of why would someone spend their evenings reflecting on abstract ideas of justice and their daylight hours overseeing (or knowingly overlooking) lawless killings. Frank was later the subject of a sensationalist denunciation by his own son Niklas, part of the "Auschwitz generation".
On T4, BST states;
they had helped murder 70,000 'incurable' psychiatric patients using carbon monoxide dispensed from cylinders...(Kindle loc. 268)
There is no footnote referring to a source for this, never mind a German one. For such an astronomical number of victims, you would think there would be a footnote. (Later there is a reference to de Mildt,
In the Name of the People (1996) - which may have more information.)
BST states:
...German documentary evidence, not least from the official diary of Hans Frank's Generalgouvernement administration, was examined and conclusively proved that Nazi policy towards Polish Jews was one of extermination, leaving only a minority alive... (Kindle loc. 421) [...] absolutely vital sources such as the published minutes of conferences in Hans Frank's Generalgouvernment administration are almost entirely omitted [by MGK] (Kindle loc. 793)
But again there is no footnote or direct quotation from these German sources to substantiate this.
As you should know, Chelmno was the first death camp to be set up, so it would only be fair to ask that revisionists can debunk it first (properly - as in proving an alternative), and if they cannot, then they might consider shutting up and getting a life.
I know your hero Mattogno has written a slim booklet on the camp, and I'd enjoy discussing the sources for Lodz and Chelmno, as a change from other camps.
I have the "slim booklet" (which took me several evenings to read, so is more short book length), so would be glad to follow the argument. Mattogno includes a critique of Longerich's expert report on the transfer of T4 staff. He notes Hans Frank's proposal to move Jews to Pripyet for "productive activities useful to the Reich". (Loc 663) There is little purpose in my providing a second hand summary of Mattogno but if you wish to criticize the original, I for one would pay close attention.
[Much of the rest of Chapter One concerns the claim of the necessity of a conspiracy. The book has already received a lengthy response from the trio of revisionists criticized in it. These are simply my own reflections.]
[I will be away from my computer in late August, which will delay replies.]
