Alex Linder
April 30th, 2011, 11:03 PM
The Lies, Slips, Bungles and Perjuries of Filip Mueller,
Professional Witness of Auschwitz-Birkenau
by Maria Temmer
For the German People
1. Introduction
Former Auschwitz-Birkenau inmate Filip Mueller is known as the only prisoner in the Sonderkommando (the alleged secret Special Command used in homicidal gassing facilities in the Third Reich’s concentration camp system) who is believed to have spent nearly his entire three years in concentration camps working the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau and lived to tell about it. As such, he is widely known and widely quoted in holocaust education circles, and his memoir, Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers, is stocked in public, university and even middle school libraries all over the western world and is also required reading in some university holocaust studies courses. His unique story makes him arguably the most famous and most cited witness of homicidal gassings at Auschwitz-Birkenau. His testimony in two Auschwitz-related trials aided in the convictions of several German officers.
Mueller’s memoir is considered so credible and definitive that it has been used both as the primary source (in fact, usually the only source) of biographical information about not only Mueller himself but also as a main source of Sonderkommando witness testimony used in historical writings and websites regarding mass gassings at Auschwitz-Birkenau and the claimed Nazi machine of death. Holocaust historian Raul Hilberg cited this memoir numerous times in his three-volume work The Destruction of the European Jews, [1] without bothering to read anything else from Mueller. [2] Hilberg was quite impressed with the memoir. “I have been through this book page by page, and I am hard-put to find any error, any material significant error in this book. It is remarkable,” and gives us his seal of approval about Mueller himself, “I'd say that Filip Mueller as a witness, is a remarkable, accurate, reliable person.” [3]
The forward of Mueller’s Eyewitness Auschwitz, which was written by historian Yehuda Bauer and was published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, states that the memoir contains “no embellishment, no deviation. This is not a work of art. It is a testimony.” It is an “unembellished telling” that “is a terrible accusation against God and humanity” and is a “shattering, centrally important testimony.” The title of the memoir itself lends further credence to the idea that the memoir is an accurate and truthful witness account and Mueller himself does not state anywhere in it (or anywhere else) that anything but a factual accounting of what he experienced is given to the reader, and the numerous educators that use this memoir do so in the good faith that the memoir is honest and accurate as possible. Also indicative of the seriousness of this witness testimony is that on the upper corner of the back cover the words HOLOCAUST / WORLD HISTORY are printed for book store stockers. Bauer’s foreword tells us that “Mueller came to Auschwitz with one of the earliest transports from Slovakia in April 1942, and began working in the gassing installation and crematoria in May,” and Yad Vashem’s biography of Mueller says, “Filip Muller was born in 1929 in Sered, Czechoslovakia. He was deported to Auschwitz in April 1942 where he was assigned prisoner number 29236. He worked as a prisoner in the Sonderkommando until the evacuation of the camp in January 1945.” [4]
In The Death Factory, the English translation of Die Todesfabrik (originally published in 1957) by Ota Kraus and Erich Kulka, Mueller recites the same chronology in dramatic fashion: “I am the oldest member of the Auschwitz and Birkenau Sonderkommando and the only one to have been through everything. I only escaped death as a result of a number of lucky chances; it was indeed a miracle. What I went through seems incredible to me today, like some sort of evil dream. It was much more terrible than could ever be described.” [5]
As a witness at the 1947 Polish Supreme National Tribunal’s Auschwitz camp garrison trials which led to the hangings of numerous German defendants, Mueller testified, “I was present at the gassings in the crematorium from May, 1942 until January 18, 1945.” [6]
Eyewitness Auschwitz was recommended personally to CODOH’s Bradley Smith by a University of Georgia professor as proof of homicidal gassings [7] and a clearly displeased Op-Ed writer at Penn State quoted the book as evidence against Mr. Smith’s revisionist position and snapped, “Tell Filip Mueller there were no gas chambers. Mueller considered suicide because he couldn't stand life in a camp anymore. He changed his mind when another prisoner told him his decision to die wouldn't save anyone.” [8]
Why wouldn’t Mueller’s memoir be recommended reading, after all, when Mueller himself spoke of the need to tell the world what had happened? He recalled his old Auschwitz bunker trustee Jakob urging him on, “Every Sunday following afternoon roll-call he let us out of the block, not without first urging us to tell everyone in the camp exactly what was going on here.” [9] The legendary Kapo Kaminsky, hero of the camp resistance told him, “You are still young: it is vital that you should see everything, experience everything, go through everything and consciously record everything in your mind. Maybe you are one of those who will one day be free.” [10] Even gassing victims insisted that Mueller live to tell the world, “We must die, but you still have a chance to save your life. You have to return to the camp and tell everybody about our last hours…” [11] Why it took Mr. Mueller until the 1970s to do this, well, go figure.
Not only is Mueller’s memoir fiction, but Mueller himself has been telling tall tales for decades which have been published in various places. Mueller’s deceit extends into the courtroom where he piled on the lies to convict German defendants, as we shall see.
http://codoh.com/newrevoices/nrvmtmueller.html
Professional Witness of Auschwitz-Birkenau
by Maria Temmer
For the German People
1. Introduction
Former Auschwitz-Birkenau inmate Filip Mueller is known as the only prisoner in the Sonderkommando (the alleged secret Special Command used in homicidal gassing facilities in the Third Reich’s concentration camp system) who is believed to have spent nearly his entire three years in concentration camps working the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau and lived to tell about it. As such, he is widely known and widely quoted in holocaust education circles, and his memoir, Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers, is stocked in public, university and even middle school libraries all over the western world and is also required reading in some university holocaust studies courses. His unique story makes him arguably the most famous and most cited witness of homicidal gassings at Auschwitz-Birkenau. His testimony in two Auschwitz-related trials aided in the convictions of several German officers.
Mueller’s memoir is considered so credible and definitive that it has been used both as the primary source (in fact, usually the only source) of biographical information about not only Mueller himself but also as a main source of Sonderkommando witness testimony used in historical writings and websites regarding mass gassings at Auschwitz-Birkenau and the claimed Nazi machine of death. Holocaust historian Raul Hilberg cited this memoir numerous times in his three-volume work The Destruction of the European Jews, [1] without bothering to read anything else from Mueller. [2] Hilberg was quite impressed with the memoir. “I have been through this book page by page, and I am hard-put to find any error, any material significant error in this book. It is remarkable,” and gives us his seal of approval about Mueller himself, “I'd say that Filip Mueller as a witness, is a remarkable, accurate, reliable person.” [3]
The forward of Mueller’s Eyewitness Auschwitz, which was written by historian Yehuda Bauer and was published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, states that the memoir contains “no embellishment, no deviation. This is not a work of art. It is a testimony.” It is an “unembellished telling” that “is a terrible accusation against God and humanity” and is a “shattering, centrally important testimony.” The title of the memoir itself lends further credence to the idea that the memoir is an accurate and truthful witness account and Mueller himself does not state anywhere in it (or anywhere else) that anything but a factual accounting of what he experienced is given to the reader, and the numerous educators that use this memoir do so in the good faith that the memoir is honest and accurate as possible. Also indicative of the seriousness of this witness testimony is that on the upper corner of the back cover the words HOLOCAUST / WORLD HISTORY are printed for book store stockers. Bauer’s foreword tells us that “Mueller came to Auschwitz with one of the earliest transports from Slovakia in April 1942, and began working in the gassing installation and crematoria in May,” and Yad Vashem’s biography of Mueller says, “Filip Muller was born in 1929 in Sered, Czechoslovakia. He was deported to Auschwitz in April 1942 where he was assigned prisoner number 29236. He worked as a prisoner in the Sonderkommando until the evacuation of the camp in January 1945.” [4]
In The Death Factory, the English translation of Die Todesfabrik (originally published in 1957) by Ota Kraus and Erich Kulka, Mueller recites the same chronology in dramatic fashion: “I am the oldest member of the Auschwitz and Birkenau Sonderkommando and the only one to have been through everything. I only escaped death as a result of a number of lucky chances; it was indeed a miracle. What I went through seems incredible to me today, like some sort of evil dream. It was much more terrible than could ever be described.” [5]
As a witness at the 1947 Polish Supreme National Tribunal’s Auschwitz camp garrison trials which led to the hangings of numerous German defendants, Mueller testified, “I was present at the gassings in the crematorium from May, 1942 until January 18, 1945.” [6]
Eyewitness Auschwitz was recommended personally to CODOH’s Bradley Smith by a University of Georgia professor as proof of homicidal gassings [7] and a clearly displeased Op-Ed writer at Penn State quoted the book as evidence against Mr. Smith’s revisionist position and snapped, “Tell Filip Mueller there were no gas chambers. Mueller considered suicide because he couldn't stand life in a camp anymore. He changed his mind when another prisoner told him his decision to die wouldn't save anyone.” [8]
Why wouldn’t Mueller’s memoir be recommended reading, after all, when Mueller himself spoke of the need to tell the world what had happened? He recalled his old Auschwitz bunker trustee Jakob urging him on, “Every Sunday following afternoon roll-call he let us out of the block, not without first urging us to tell everyone in the camp exactly what was going on here.” [9] The legendary Kapo Kaminsky, hero of the camp resistance told him, “You are still young: it is vital that you should see everything, experience everything, go through everything and consciously record everything in your mind. Maybe you are one of those who will one day be free.” [10] Even gassing victims insisted that Mueller live to tell the world, “We must die, but you still have a chance to save your life. You have to return to the camp and tell everybody about our last hours…” [11] Why it took Mr. Mueller until the 1970s to do this, well, go figure.
Not only is Mueller’s memoir fiction, but Mueller himself has been telling tall tales for decades which have been published in various places. Mueller’s deceit extends into the courtroom where he piled on the lies to convict German defendants, as we shall see.
http://codoh.com/newrevoices/nrvmtmueller.html