Mattogno Corrects the Record
Background
In one of Ingrid Rimland's recent “Revisionist Week In Review” Z-grams she noted:
There is interesting revisionist news from Russia. Revisionist historian Jurgen Graf was recently in Moscow and gave an interview with the Russian weekly Russky Vestnik. This interview was just published, and an English translation can be found at the URL: http://anti-imperialist.webjump.com/reports/graf.html
An examination of this interview shows that it is actually of both Jurgen Graf and Carlo Mattogno. The on-line version strangely seems to show that Carlo Mattogno, author of several important revisionist books and articles, actually believes the orthodox view that 1.2 million people were murdered at Auschwitz. We read the following exchange:
Q: And they were sold illegally, in violation of Russian law… Now, during the 55th anniversary of the victory over Germany, they've been making a big deal of the 6 million Jewish victims. In Auschwitz there was once a memorial plaque claiming that 4 million died there, for the most part Jews.
But now our TV commentators are telling us that 2.5 million died at Auschwitz. What happened to the other 1.5 million?
GRAF: I'd like to mention that the official figure in Poland is now 1,200,000. Mattogno, who is relying strictly on German documents, is in agreement with that figure.
Q: Is that figure just for Jews, or is that for all victims in Auschwitz?
MATTOGNO: That's for all victims, and it's my belief that roughly half of them were Jews.
Q: What was the fate of those prisoners who passed through Auschwitz, but were not registered there?
MATTOGNO: Many prisoners were sent on to camps in the Baltic States,and the Germans registered them there. We don't know the exact figure, but it's around 600,000. I'd like to add that according to the official story all of these prisoners were killed in gas chambers immediately upon arrival at Auschwitz.
But we know better, of course. As far as the '4 million' figure is concerned: that number contradicts even the statements of witnesses. That was the conclusion of the Soviet commission after the liberation of the camp, which relies on supposed capacity of the crematoria. Not on the real capacity, of course, because the Soviet commission exaggerated their capacity by 10 to 12 times. Then the commission multiplied their figure by the number of days the camp was in existence, and on that basis is was decided that 4 million had died there. Two weeks later the commission began interrogating former camp prisoners, and strangely enough all of them repeated the figure of 4 million. Thus that number became accepted as official. I must add that not one serious historian in the West now takes the 4 million figure seriously. For example, Hilberg asserts in his work that 1 million Jews and 300,000 non-Jews died at Auschwitz.
Revisionists were quite shocked to read Graf's alleged claim that Mattogno is in agreement with the figure that 1.2 million were killed at Auschwitz. Mattogno seems to be in agreement with Graf adding that half of the 1.2 million or approximately 600,000 Jews were murdered in Auschwitz.
This strange “interview” touched off the need for an inquiry into the accuracy of the words that was being attributed to Graf and Mattogno.
Carlo Mattogno corrected the record with an important letter penned to fellow revisionist Russell Granata. In this letter he declared emphatically, “I never declared to be in agreement with the figure of 1,200,000.”
Mattogno's Letter of Correction to Russell Granata
TRANSLATION:
24 October 2000
Dear Russell,
In Moscow, during the mentioned interview, I spoke to the interviewer through Juergen [Graf], who did the interpreting.
Apparently the interviewer, not having specific knowledge of the material, ran into some misunderstanding.
I ask you to reassure A. Butz and the other interested persons, and send them a translation of this correction:
In Moscow, I never declared to be in agreement with the figure of 1,200,000 dead.
It is obvious they were talking about [or that they meant] the number of the deported to Auschwitz, which evidently the interviewer got confused with the number of the dead.
During that interview, I never mentioned the figure of 600,000 and I do not know from where this derived.
[To] the question from the interviewer concerning the number of deaths in Auschwitz, and the percentage of Jews among them – I advanced the figure of approximately 150,000 deaths, and an approximate percentage of 50%.
Carlo Mattogno.
END OF TRANSLATION
Mattogno's Letter in the Original Italian
24 ottobre 2000
Caro Russell,
a Mosca, nel corso dell'intervista summenzionata, ho parlato con l'intervistatore tramite J_rgen, che faceva da interprete. Evidentemente l'intervistatore, non avendo conoscenze specifiche della materia, _ incorso in alcuni fraintendimenti. Ti prego di rassicurare A.Butz e le altre persone interessate inviando loro una traduzione di questa rettifica:
A Mosca non ho mai dichiarato di essere d'accordo con la cifra di 1.200.000 MORTI. Ovviamente si parlava del numero dei DEPORTATI ad Auschwitz, che evidentemente l'intervistatore ha confuso con il numero dei morti.
Nell'intervista non ho mai menzionato la cifra di 600.000 e non so da dove essa sia scaturita. La domanda dell'intervistatore riguardava il numero dei morti ad Auschwitz e la percentuale degli Ebrei tra di essi ed io ho avanzato la cifra di circa 150.000 morti e una percentuale approssimativa del 50%.
Carlo Mattogno.
Translation from the Italian by Russell Granata
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