Paul Rassinier

Paul Rassinier (March 18, 1906 - July 29, 1967) is known as the father of Holocaust revisionism. DuringWorld War II, Rassinier was a highly decorated member of the French Resistance. In October of 1943 he was arrested by the Gestapo for various activities including the smuggling of Jewish refugees over the Franco-Swiss border. Rassinier was sent to the labour camp at Buchenwald for his activities. Later he would be moved to Dora where he would stay through the wars end.

After the war, Rassinier returned to his native France and was elected to the Assemblee Nationale. He was awarded the highest decoration by the French government for his involvement with the Resistance during the war. Rassinier, who was trained in history, set out after the war to document his experiences within the German camp system.

It was following the publication of Rassinier's earliest works that he realized that the war-time stories of other inmates were both popular and terrible exaggerations. Rassinier wrote,

"Then one day I realized that a false picture of the German camps had been created and that the problem of the concentration camps was a universal one, not just one that could be disposed of by placing it on the doorstep of the National Socialists. The deportees-many of whom were Communists- had been largely responsible for leading international political thinking to such an erroneous conclusion. I suddenly felt that by remaining silent I was an accomplice to a dangerous influence."

Rassinier began to debunk and deconstruct the works of his fellow inmates. A tremendous effort was made to debunk Raul Hilberg'sDestruction of the European Jews. Rassinier went as far as to predict that in the future, Hilberg's volume "will not be spoken of at all, or if it is still mentioned, it will only be mentioned in reference to something unworthy of notice except as an example of the most scandalous aberrations of our times."

Rassinier became skeptical of the lurid gas chamber stories which were being circulated. He wrote, "In 1950, it was still too soon to pronounce a definite judgment on the existence of gas chambers in the camps; documents were wanting and those that existed were incomplete, inexact, and obviously apocryhal or falsified."

In the 1964 article, "The Drama of the European Jews," Rassinier's view became more firm. Rassinier had determined that no wide-spread gassings took place and that there was no policy to exterminate the Jews of Europe. He also provided revisionists with the first real quantitative analysis of Jewish wartime deaths. His final total put the range of Jewish deaths for the twelve years of National Socialist rule between 987,592 and 1,589,492.

Rassinier would later become even more certain about the falsity of the gas chamber claims. As a result of his studies, he made the following conclusion in The Real Eichmann Trial, "There never were any gas chambers, nor any exterminations by that method atAuschwitz-Birkenau."

By 1960, Rassinier's works were discovered by Harry Elmer Barnes. Barnes who was noted for his revisionist writing regarding World War I, had been publishing numerous works to show that similar situation existed at the conclusion of World War II. Rassinier's works made a tremendous impact on Barnes. Barnes made reference to Rassinier in his article, "Revisionism and Brainwashing" commenting on "the discouragement and smearing of outsiders like the distinguished French historian Paul Rassinier, who sought to expose the exaggerations of the atrocity stories."

By the mid 1960's Barnes had completed having Rassinier's works translated into English. Barnes then ran head-long into the American publishing industry's self-imposed censorship. No publishing house was brave enough to publish Rassinier's works. Barnes refused to be silenced. He personally photocopied 40 copies of the typewritten English translations and distributed them to his professional associates.

In 1978, due to the work of Harry Elmer Barnes, The Noontide Press was able to collect four of Rassinier's most important works, "The Crossing of the Line," "The Lie of Ulysses," "Ulysses Betrayed by his Own," and "The Drama of the European Jews."

Selected Works

Le Passage de la Ligne, 1948
Le Mensonge d'Ulysse, 1950
La Discours de la Derniere Chance (introductory essay to a doctrine of Peace on the theme: "Neither Moscow nor Washington") 1953
Candasse ou la huitieme peche capital, 1955
Le Parlement aux mains des banques, 1955
Ulysse trahi par les siens, 1960
L'Equivioque revolutionnaire, 1961
La Veritable Proces Eichmann ou Les Vainquiers incorrigibles, 1962
Le Drame des Juifs europeens, 1964
Les Responsables de la seconde guerre mondiale, 1967

References

Paul Rassinier, The Holocaust Story and the Lies of Ulysses. The Institute for Historical Review. Costa Mesa, CA. 1978.
Paul Rassinier, The Real Eichmann Trial or the Inorrigible Victors. The Institute for Historical Review. Torrance, CA. 1983.