Samuel Crowell's Letter
to the Director of the USHMM
Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust
Post Office Box 439016 /
MCD P-111
San Diego CA 92143
Tel (San Diego): 619.687.1950
On
the Internet: http://www.codoh.com
28 August 1997
Walter Reich, Director
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Washington D.C. 20024
Dear Dr. Reich:
Some months ago I came across materials that showed a remarkable
connection between German civil defense literature and the World War Two
Nazi gas chambers. I have found that the replica of the "gas chamber" door
with peephole you have on display at your Museum appears to be, in fact, a
replica of a common, mass produced German air raid shelter door.
I have never seen any reference to the use of air raid shelter doors in
the gas chamber literature. With regard to this matter, I would like to
ask the following questions:
- Does the Museum wish to suggest that air raid shelter doors
were used as homicidal gas chamber doors?
- If the Museum holds that such air raid shelter doors were used
during gassings, how does the Museum explain the fact that such doors
were equipped with latches to both open and close them, both inside and
outside, and the fact that even today the doors at Majdanek (from which
the Museum's casting has come) can be opened from either inside or
outside?
- Finally, if it is the position of the Museum that air raid
shelter doors were used during homicidal gassings, will the Museum
please comment on why this fact has not been made plain by historians
who specialize in Holocaust studies?
For your reference: I have published my own views on these matters in
some detail on the Internet at http://www.codoh.com (now
www.vho.org/GB/c/SC).
While I understand these questions might appear to be provocative, I
would like to assure you that it is not my intention to belittle the
suffering of Jews during World War Two. Nor is it my intention to somehow
excuse the National Socialist system or its leadership for its inexcusable
treatment of the Jewish people during that period.
I do, however, want to understand the significance of what I have
discovered about the casting of the "gas chamber" door from Majdanek that
you display at the Museum.
I await your expeditious reply.
Very respectfully,
(signed) Samuel Crowell
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