Witness statements

Forensic analysis is usually required for the collection of data in the course of determining whether legislation has been infringed. The customer requires that, above all, there is an unbroken chain of evidence from the time the samples were taken to the presentation of evidence in courts of law. In the laboratory this will include documentation and authorization for sample receipt, sample transfer, sub-sampling, laboratory notebooks, analytical procedures, calculations and observations, witness statements and sample disposal. All of these aspects can be called as evidence in court. 

Have witnesses complete initial witness statements or interview witnesses while incident details are still fresh... 

When documenting a witness statement, the photograph should be taken from as close as possible to the actual viewpoint used by the witness. 

The few witnesses statements we have, however, claim that several kilograms of Zyklon B were used.469 In his book, Pressac frequently refers to a HCN concentration of 12 g per m3 or 1 vol.% used for executions 470 He backs this up with many witness accounts, according to which four to six 1-kg cans of Zyklon B were allegedly poured into the gas chambers (morgues) of crematorium II and III, which indeed corresponds to a concentration of 1 vol.%.302... 

The court described this witness statement as follows (p. 210) ... 

As aheady mentioned, the establishment historiography dealing with the National Socialist persecution of the Jews assumes that certain events of recent history took place in a certain, widely accepted manner. When writing about the actual events of physical extermination of the Jews, witness statements are almost the exclusive form of evidence in establishment historiography. These statements are rarely examined critically, nor can any comprehensive document criticism be found the interpretation of a document in the framework of the thousands of other documents that provides its context is particularly rare.187... 

Even a child could glean from news media coverage that this was no expert report, but rather an accounting to the Court of what the expert had read and what he personally believed. According to his own claims made under oath - so we must believe him, until and unless he is proven false - the expert witness had read 5,000 to 7,000 statements of witnesses and found some two-thirds to be false. However, the expert fails to state his criteria for this examination, which presumably took no more than ten minutes per witness statement. Further, only the Court should be in a position to evaluate testimony, and only such testimony as was made before a Court, since after all the accused and his defense counsel must be able to question each witness and possibly to refute this testimony. 

Unfortunately, H. Langbein s book Der Auschwitz-Prozefi, op. cit. (note 154), based on his own notes, also contains only those witness statements that he deems credible, v. 1, p. 15 - but even they seem unbelievable in places. 

It may be true that most witness statements contain a core of truth, but this core cannot be defined by assigning it in true democratic fashion to the weighted mean of overall testimony. The impossible remains impossible even if the vast majority of witnesses alleges the contrary. 

In other words witness statements ought to be corroborated by documents that have stood up to critical examination. This applies particularly to such eyewitness testimony whose content is already questionable because it contradicts other eyewitness testimony of equal value. And we shall see that what we are in fact dealing with in the case of the gas vans are exclusively such questionable witness statements. 

As usual in those days in the Soviet Union, the accused confirmed everything that they were supposed to - among other things, that the Sonderkommando 10a of Einsatzgruppe D, led by SS-Sturmbannfiihrer Kurt Christmann, had been killing Soviet prisoners with Diesel exhaust in murder vans since the fall of 1942.14 Soviet witnesses confirmed the use of murder vans to eliminate the mentally ill (pp. 4ff). The claim at the heart of all the testimony was that the highly toxic Diesel exhaust gas had caused the death of those locked into the vans. Since this claim cannot be true (for the carbon monoxide content and hence the toxic, i.e., nontoxic nature of Diesel exhaust, see the chapter by Fritz Berg, this volume), it is only reasonable to question the credibility of the rest of the witness statements as well. 

An affidavit [...] repeats only what was written down as answer. However, it is the unanswered questions in particular which very often allow for the necessary conclusions regarding the usability of a witness statement. ... 

At this point we would add that witness statements which did not serve the purpose of the prosecution were not even included in the affidavit. The trial judge to whom the defense counsels had repeatedly pointed out the questionable nature of the affidavits explained succinctly that 30... 

In Section 4 we shall take a closer look at the content of these witness statements, but first of all, let us consider the value which such testimony per se has as evidence. 

One thing becomes perfectly clear from these witness statements the gas vans cannot be the same contraptions as the RSHA s special vehicles . The latter would have lent themselves neither to passenger transports (their load room was not high enough) nor to murdering the occupants with... 

Regarding the door/s of the gas vans there are the following witness statements There was a large door at the back of the vans 70 there were two doors or a double door.71 This door could be hermetically sealed 72 it was latched shut 73 bolted 74 locked with a padlock, the key to which hung in the driver s cab 75 it was screwed shut with three screws, at the top, in the middle and at the bottom 96... 

So, in the end, we know no more than at the start. The witness statements have also failed to provide conclusive proof of the existence and use of gas vans for the purpose of murdering then passengers. 

It is said that after the city of Kyiv was occupied by German troops the Jews of this city were taken to Babi Yar, a ravine at the northwestern edge of the city, near the Jewish cemetery. According to eyewitness accounts, they were shot there, thrown into the ravine, and buried - according to some witness statements, the ravine was also blasted and the bodies buried under the rubble. 

It is more than strange that the Black Book of 194364 cites a CO content of 2 to 3% for Diesel exhaust. It is not likely that this was printed in error, since the allegedly lethal nature of Diesel exhaust is still a vital brick in the foundation of the Holocaust. The value of 2 to 3% CO given for Diesel exhaust cannot be traced back to any witness statements. One may assume that the World Jewish Congress had subject experts at its disposal in this issue as well the accompanying expositions of the biochemical effects of CO on hemoglobin would suggest this. 

Rachel Auerbach has compiled various witness statements and summarized them thus ... 

The Cut and Fill map shows several areas of deep fill in the federal property compatible with the witness description. The undeniable fact that a narrow-gauge railroad line existed on the federal property and the discovery of one burial pit on a hillside adjacent to that railroad give credence to the witness statement. Three items being developed at the AUES— Lewisite, ricin, and the toxic smoke candles—could have been termed strategic weapons as the term was used in the ERA CID report. 

But it also has a big problem. I have seen the consequences of accidents that have stopped men working for weeks and months. I have had to collect the witness statements and take the photographs of the locations when accidents have occurred. I have had to gather the evidence that they had been inducted and read their method statements for the task they were performing at the time. I have donated to collections to try to keep a family going as no income will be forthcoming for the next few months whilst an injury heals and bills still have to be paid. 

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