The Inflated Figure of 6,000,000 (1959)

Several of the letters of Austin J. App are to be presented as part of the CODOH Revisionist Library. These are important to the historiography of Holocaust revisionism as they are some of the earliest works to question the formative Holocaust story. These works are being presented for researchers as they are rare documents. They should be understood for the time that they were written. They do not necessarily represent the current state of Holocaust revisionist scholarship and research. –Editor

The Inquirer
Philadelphia, PA.
July 1, 1959

Dear Sir:

That according to your UPI dispatch, Jerusalem, June 30, the Israeli foreign affairs committee, opposed viciously by the left-wing parties, favors selling grenade launchers to West Germany, the West's ally, is a good omen for eventual reconciliation between the German and Jewish peoples.

But this must be founded not only on charity, or on justice, but above all on truth. A serious obstacle is the continued, totally un-established charge, repeated in the UPI dispatch, “of the extermination of six million Jews in Nazi Germany.”

These unproven, grossly inflated statistics offend not only every German by nationality or ethnic origin, but also every lover of historical accuracy. Certainly, for example, those who wish have a right to keep charging that the Israelis robbed 900,000 poor Arabs of their old homes in Palestine; but no one has a right to inflate this number to 5,400,000.

The Red-inspired statistics of six million, utterly unsubstantiated, benefits only the Reds. It is unworthy of honest Jews, and an insult to an age which prides itself on accuracy.

Yours Truly,

Austin J. App, PhD

Originally Published in Morgenthau Era Letters: 119 Letters to Newspapers and Newsmakers- Mostly in the Decade from 1941 to 1950, Boniface Press 1966.