8 - Wednesday, Octcher 5, 1988 ~ North Shore News COLLINS’ SOURCE ‘SUSPECT’ ‘The gas chambers existed’ Dear Editor: In a recent column Mr. Doug Collins wrote that he has been per- suaded by Mr. Fred Leuchter’s report denying the existence of gas chambers at extermination camps in Poland, The report is supposed- ly bused on a scientific examina- tion of some evidence from the sites. Of course, the report is suspect because Zunde! commissioned it and Leuchter is one of his sup- Porters. During his testimony at the second trial this year it became clear that his qualifications are questionable because he does not have an engineering degree. Furthermore, he made a number of mistakes:.he had not realized that one of the buildings at Maidanek that he said could not have been used as a gas chamber had never been used as one; it was a postwar reconstruction. Since the Nazis destroyed most of the gas chambers and crematoria it may be that his ‘‘scrapings’’ and samples came from postwar walls. Even if he had the right walls who expects to find traces of a gas 40 years later? He claimed that the gas chambers lacked ventilating equipment to expel the gas after the Jews had been murdered, which is contradicted by documen- tation about the installation of such ventilation. He did not know that enormous amounts of Zyklon B had been shipped to Auschwitz. He claimed: that the gas would have exploded but he had to ac- knowledge that the amount of gas required to kill humans was far below the amount required for the gas to be explosive. If his report is as rich in error as his testimony, Mr. Collins should reconsider his present position about this central argument of the Holocaust deniers. . Perhaps Mr. Collins will inform us about his reasoning on the other kinds of evidence for the gas chambers. It is impossible in this letter to evaluate the contemporary written evidence for gas chambers, which is sufficient in its own right. But what are his grounds for ig- noring numerous eyewitnesses? Does he, like Zundel, dismiss the testimony of Jews because they are Jews and supposedly plotted to deceive the world about their expe- rience? They have testified at many trials, including Mr. Zundel’s first one, and repeatedly in trials of Nazis in the Federal Republic of Germany. Their books abound, We can see and hear them in the film Shoah. Their tormentors and murderers, the Nazis, confirm their evidence. In an article by Alexandre Szom- bati in the Manchester Guardian Weekly, April 10, 1988, but origi- nally from Le Monde, a former lieutenant-colonel in the SS, Othmar Trenkar, is quoted as say- ing that the ‘‘historians’’ who deny the existence of the gas chambers “must have a screw loose.’’ In- deed. ; He and others quoted in that ar- ticle complement the singing sadist in Shoah, and the numerous Nazis in many trials in the Federal Republic of Germany, who con- firmed the existence of the gas chambers even while denying their own responsibility for the Holocaust. For information on how the YMCAcan improve your lifestyle call: 681-0221 “The Best You Can Do For You" Their witness verifies the mem- oirs of Rudolf Hoess, the com- mandant of Auschwitz, and others. Does Mr. Collins, like Mr. Zundel, claim that all of the Nazi witnesses at the trials have been beaten? The ones quoted in the Manchester Guardian and others, too, were not on trial, merely voluble over coffee and cakes, and for the most part still proud of their work. . In the face of denial of the Holocaust it is important to con- firm again that the gas chambers Guaranteed by the Province of existed and approximately six mil- lion Jews were murdered by the Nazis. Leonidas E. Hill Professor, History Department UBC IMPAIRED DRIVING Ardagh Hunter Turner Barristers & Solicitors #300-1401 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver 986-4366 Free Initial Consultation British Columbia B.C. Gas inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Inland Natural Gas Co. Ltd., now owns property and assets formerly held by the Mainland Gas Division of B.C. Hydro. B.C. Gas is the sole distributor of natural gas in the Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley areas of British Calumbia, As a result of its acquisition of B.C. 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