‘It was planned and it happened’ Albert Speer

An epidemic of moral bankruptcy that appears to have infected the profession of journalism. This was not always the case; there was a time when editors took pains to ensure that sources were scrupulously verified before publishing. It’s not about bias, bias is a fact of life, it’s about falsification another phenomenon entirely. Once, ethical standards upheld the integrity of the profession, and editors risked censure and huge penalties if a complaint ended up in court. There were also instances where legislation would invoke government action and publications peddling lies were banned.

Today, when truth is fabricated, it doesn’t matter, issue an apology that nobody will see or hear and you are off the hook!

Not so back in 1974.  A pamphlet promoting Holocaust denial was published by a propagandist Ernst Zündel. The pamphlet, “Did Six Million Really Die? The Truth at Last” was proliferating throughout South Africa, and the Jewish community was concerned by the dangers implicit in the falsehoods it contained.

Representation was made to the SA Minister of Justice by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies supporting the contention that the publication contravened sections of the South African censorship laws.

A section within the SA censorship laws provided that anyone who incited racial animosity or animosity between groups of the population, was subject to indictment under that law. The Jewish community argued that the pamphlet and those behind it were clearly inciting against the Jewish community and therefore the community was objecting and seeking that it be banned. The representations were successful and the pamphlet was banned.

The publisher appealed and the government was therefore required to defend its action, thus presenting it with the difficult dilemma of proving the facts of history, a notoriously difficult task. An esteemed advocate, Johan Kriegler, was briefed by the government and he sought the assistance of SAJBOD to prepare “a defence of truth” (his words) on which he could base the core arguments for his case. Advocate Arthur Suzman Q.C, a highly respected member of the SA bar, and Denis Diamond, Executive Director SAJBOD, were duly deputised to the task.

It took over a year to build the case. Among the people interviewed were many eminent historians, Gideon Hausner, prosecutor in the Eichmann trial, and Hartley Lord Shawcross the British attorney general at the time of the Nuremberg trials. Shawcross agreed to submit an affidavit dealing with the Nuremberg trials and their validity.

Interviewing survivors was difficult because the legal nature of the case demanded direct eye witness accounts. This was the mid 1970’s, when published information about the death camps was still sparse and not yet widely available. The few survivors of the Jewish slave groups forced to work in the gas chamber and crematoria complexes, the Sonderkommando, were extremely reticent about sharing their still raw and traumatic experiences. As for other survivors, the question asked was inherently absurd; if you had witnessed a gas chamber in operation, you would not be alive.

Diamond and Suzman did meet a survivor who had worked as a plumber in the Auschwitz labour camp.  He had been taken to the Birkenau death camp to repair a pipe in a gas chamber, and he declared, “When they opened the doors, what do you think I saw?”

Before finalising the evidence, it was decided that an affidavit was required from a Nazi who could swear, “I saw, I knew, and I understood what happened”. An affidavit from such a perpetrator would be critical evidence in support of the defence of truth.

Albert Speer, a key figure in Hitler’s inner circle had just been released from Spandau prison and it was decided to contact him. A letter was sent explaining the case and what was required and Speer responded, agreeing to meet with Denis Diamond. Despite his personal reservations about actually meeting with and talking to Speer, Denis remembers that the man couldn’t have been more proper. In the end telephone interviews were conducted and Speer agreed to provide an affidavit wherein he admitted to “knowing that the extermination of the Jews was planned to happen, that it happened, and that millions were murdered”. It is apparently one of the only documents that contains such an admission by Speer.

Denis also recalls asking Speer “why are you doing this”?  His response, “When I came out of Spandau, I found the same conditions that lured me into fascism were existing again on the streets of Germany and captivating young people. I knew that unless things were done by us, who had experienced the Nazi cataclysm, it would rise again. I have made it my purpose to speak with the loudest megaphone I can find”.

When Adv. Kriegler presented the SA Government case, the appellants withdrew the appeal!

The evidence collected and the documentation prepared represented a powerful refutation of the Nazi lies and propaganda being spread at the time. Suzman and Diamond subsequently wrote a book they called “Six Million Did Die: The Truth Shall Prevail” first published in 1977. The book has been widely read and translated into several languages.