The 1972 Vienna Auschwitz Trial

Between January 18 and March 10, 1972, two architects responsible for the design and construction of the crematoria in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Walter Dejaco and Fritz Ertl, were put on trial in Vienna, Austria.84 During the trial, an expert report on the possible interpretation of the blueprints of the alleged gas chambers of the Auschwitz and Birkenau crematoria was presented to the court. The report concluded that the rooms in question could not have been gas chambers, nor could they have been converted into gas chambers.85 Thanks to this first methodologically sound expert report on Auschwitz, the defendants were acquitted. 

82 One of the most prominent German advocates of this thesis is Professor Ernst Nolte in his book Streitpunkte, Propylaen, Berlin 1993, pp. 290, 293, 297. 

85 Personal communication from the expert, who must, for the time being, remain anonymous for fear of persecution and prosecution. See Michael Gartner, Vor 25 Jahren Ein anderer Auschwitzprozess, VfjfG, 1(1) (1997), pp. 24f. (online www.vho.org/VffG/1997/l/Gaertnerl.html) 

---