Leuchter Report - Background

Background

In 1985, Ernst Zündel, a German pamphleteer and publisher living in Canada, was put on trial for publishing Richard Verrall's Holocaust denial pamphlet Did Six Million Really Die?, which was deemed to violate Canadian laws against distributing false news. Zündel was found guilty, but the conviction was overturned in an appeal. This led to a second prosecution.

Zündel and his lawyers were joined by Robert Faurisson, a French academic of literature and Holocaust denier, who came to Toronto to advise the defence, having previously testified as expert witness at the first. He was also joined by David Irving, an English writer and also a Holocaust denier, who was to assist in preparing the defence and to testify on Zündel's behalf. After having expressed interest in getting an American prison warden who had participated in executions by gas to testify, Irving and Faurisson (Faurisson, a staunch believer that it was technically and physically impossible for the gas chambers at Auschwitz to have functioned as extermination facilities based in comparison with American execution gas chambers) invited Bill Armontrout, warden of the Missouri State Penitentiary. He agreed to testify and suggested they also contact Fred A. Leuchter, a Bostonian execution equipment designer. Faurisson reported that Leuchter initially accepted the mainstream account of the Holocaust, but after two days of discussion with him, he stated that Leuchter was convinced that homicidal gassings never occurred. After having met Zündel in Toronto and agreeing to serve as expert witness for his defence, Leuchter shortly travelled with them to spend a week in Poland. He was accompanied by his draftsman, a cinematographer supplied by Zündel, a translator fluent in German and Polish, and his wife. While Zündel and Faurisson could not accompany them, Leuchter stated they were with them "every step of the way" in spirit.

Once in Poland, the group spent three days in Auschwitz and one in Majdanek. As the cement and bricks they collected were procured illegally, Leuchter's wife and the translator acted as lookouts, while Leuchter was being filmed taking what he called "forensic samples". Drawings of where the samples were taken from, the footage of their collection and Leuchter's notebook were surrendered as permanent evidence to the court, and Leuchter concluded that his findings were based on his "expert knowledge" for gas chamber operation, his visual inspections of what remains of the structures at Auschwitz, and "original drawings and blueprints of some of the facilities". Leuchter claimed that the blueprints had been given to him by Auschwitz museum officials.