No scientific proof Jews exterminated: witness

TORONTO (CP) — There are no scientific reports proving that Jews were exterminated in Nazi gas chambers, a Holocaust schol- ar conceded yesterday at the trial of Ernst Zundel,

But Raul Hilberg, a University of Vermont political science pro- fessor, testified that — even though German war documents contain no mention of killing Jews — euphemisms for death such as “resettlement” and “spe- cial treatment” were used so commonly that Heinrich Himmler, head of the Gestapo, requested substitute phrases.

Hilberg, who has spent 36 years studying the Holocaust and the subsequent Nuremberg trials of war criminals, testified earlier for the Crown that five million Jews were killed during the war.

Zundel, 46, a West German cit- izen living in Toronto, 1s charged with two counts of publishing statements that are known to be false and likely to cause injury or mischief to the public interest of maintaining social and racial tol- erance.

Two of his publications — one called Did Six Million Really

No scientific proof Jews exterminated: witness

.the word killing was (not) used.”

Die? — postulate that the Holo- caust was a hoax to vilify Ger- mans and exact compensation payments from them.

“Can you give me one scientif- ie report that shows the existence of gas chambers anywhere in Nazi-occupied territory?” de- fence counsel Douglas Christie asked Hilberg during day-long rapid-fire cross-examination.

“I am at a loss,” Hilberg re- plied.

“You are (at a loss) because you can’t,” Christie said.

Hilberg countered that there are gerial photographs of concen- tration camps, examples of ruined gas chambers, German in- dustrial documents describing the lethal nature of various gases and filters for gas masks which were found at the camps.

Hilberg agreed with Christie that there are no autopsy reports indicating that even a single per- son died from exposure to poi- sonous gas in chambers.

But, Hilberg said, “In tens of thousands of (Nazi) documents, people were ‘resettled’ or ‘the Jewish problem was solved’ but