Nessie wrote: ↑Wed Apr 15, 2026 6:44 pm
Archie wrote: ↑Wed Apr 15, 2026 2:12 pm
Since Nessie has brought up Gerstein as an example of exemplary critical method by the orthodoxy, I think it's worth talking through that example.
The Gerstein statement (PS-1553) was introduced at the IMT but was not featured prominently. It got more attention at NMT Case I. Nessie, in your opinion, how would characterize the use of Gerstein at these trials? Careful and rigorous? Sloppy?
From this trial transcript;
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/01-30-46.asp
"As far as the brutal extermination by gas Is concerned, we have the invoices for poison gas, intended for Oranienburg and Auschwitz, which we submit to the Tribunal under Exhibit Number RF-350. The Tribunal will find translations on Page 27 of the second document book, Document Number 1553-PS."
"To Document 1553-PS is added the statement by Gerstein, and also the statement by the chief of the American service who collected this document."
So, that document is not a statement by Gerstein. As for how the court deals with the document,
"...in the case of the original exhibit, 1553-PS, it was certified, we imagine, by an officer of the United States. These documents which you have now drawn our attention to are not so certified by anyone as far as we have been able to see. Certainly we cannot take judicial notice of these documents, which are private documents; and therefore, unless they are read in Court, they cannot be put in evidence."
The court will not accept it as evidence until it has been verified. Or, are you referring to a different document?
Non-responsive. You don't want to answer so you are beating around the bush.
The Gerstein statement was submitted as PS-1553 and was cited in court.
The affidavit of Kurt Gerstein, which also mentions Wirth, gives a vivid description of the terrible way in which the victims were killed by the thousands by order of Globocnik. (1553-PS, Pros. Ex. 428.)
-NMT (Green Series), Vol I, pg. 804
A long extract from the statement was published on page 865. There was no discussion about all the errors in the statement. They didn't notice. All the careful fact-checking and quality control that you claim they always do didn't happen.
This same negligence (even unscrupulousness) is evident in the early treatment of Gerstein in the Holocaust literature. French historian Leon Poliakov in his 1951 booked cited Gerstein approvingly as a major witness.
The victims are no longer here to testify; the butchers, too, have either died or gone underground. Among the very few statements that we have on the operations of these camps is one from Kurt Gerstein, a chemical engineer who was a tragic hero in the German anti-Nazi resistance. His account was written down directly in an uncertain French; we have basically retained its original style. (Harvest of Hate, pg. 192)
He then dedicates to a long quote of the statement. We know Poliakov actually did notice some errors in the statement because he makes undisclosed changes to the statement without any discussion or explanation. For example Gerstein's description has 700-800 people in a gas chamber of only 25 sq meters. Poliakov arbitrarily increases the room to 93 sq meters without comment, i.e., he
falsifies the text to
hide Gerstein's error from the reader.
Critical comments about Gerstein from the orthodox side generally came very late and only AFTER revisionists had already debunked him.