Fred A. Leuchter Jr.

Background

FROM APPROXIMATELY 1979 through 1988, Fred Leuchter had worked with most of the states in the United States that carried out capital punishment. He specialized in the design and manufacture of execution equipment including electrocution systems, lethal injection equipment, gallows, and gas chamber hardware. The year 1988 would forever change the life of Fred Leuchter. In 1988, Ernst Zündel, a German-Canadian publisher found himself on trial for violating a false news law in Canada. Mr. Zündel had published a work by Richard Harwood entitled, Did Six Million Really Die? The Zündel defense team, needing to support the views of the Harwood work followed the recommendation of Prof. Robert Faurisson that a gas chamber expert be located who could evaluate the alleged gas chambers in Poland and report on their efficacy for execution purposes. Bill Armontrout, Warden of the Missouri State Penitentiary named Fred Leuchter as the only consultant in the United States in the design, operation, and maintenance of gas chambers during his testimony at the Zündel Trial. Leuchter was a perfect choice, he was the only expert on execution gas chambers in the United States and he believed in the Nazi Genocide of the Jews. Mr. Leuchter writes, " Like all American children born during and after World War II, I was taught about the genocide perpetrated by the Nazi's on the Jews. By the time I had reached college, I had no reason to disbelieve any of my education." (Leuchter Report: The How and Why p. 133, hereafter LR:H&W)

    Leuchter was asked by the Defense team to go to Poland and undertake a physical inspection and forensic analysis of the alleged execution gas chambers. On February 25, 1988 Leuchter set out to Poland to examine the alleged gas chambers at Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Majdanek. Leuchter examined the buildings believed in the literature to be gas chambers. He also conducted a forensic examination in which physical samples of brick and mortar were removed and returned to the United States for chemical analysis. The results of Leuchter's findings, a 196 page report were submitted to the Court in Canada. (Various condensed editions of The Leuchter Report have been sold around the world) Leuchter has written, "Categorically, none of the facilities examined at Auschwitz, Birkenau or Lublin could have supported, or in fact did support, multiple executions utilizing hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide or any other allegedly or factually lethal gas." (LR:H&W p. 138). Leuchter writes in his famous report, "the author finds no evidence that any of the facilities normally alleged to be execution gas chambers were ever used as such and finds, further, that because of the design and fabrication of these facilities, they could not have been utilized for execution gas chambers." (The Leuchter Report: Focal Point Edition p.10)

    Judge Ron Thomas decided that Leuchter was qualified as an expert in the design, construction, maintenance, and operation of gas chambers. Leuchter was allowed to give his opinions on the operation and suitability of the various facilities to function as execution gas chambers. The Report itself was not allowed to be filed. Defense counsel was instructed not to refer to The Leuchter Report during the in-chief examination. Although the Report was not accepted by the court, it had a staggering effect. Many would become skeptical of the establishment version of the Holocaust story based on this report.

    Best-selling British historian David Irving writes, "Shown this evidence for the first time when called as an expert witness a the Zündel trial in Toronto in April 1988, the laboratory reports were shattering." Irving goes on, "No significant trace [of cyanide compounds] whatsoever was found in the buildings... labelled as the camp's infamous gas chambers. Nor, as the reports' gruesomely expert author makes plain, could the design and construction of those buildings have made their use as mass gas-chambers feasible under any circumstances." (Leuchter Report: Focal Point Edition p. 6)

    This, however, was not the end of story for Fred Leuchter. Leuchter, who was universally acknowledged for his expertise in the area of execution equipment, was now under attack for his testimony. Leuchter appeared on various television shows including Prime Time Live in which he was called, "the country's reigning expert on execution." He was featured in The Atlantic Quarterly regarding the issue of capital punishment. He was even featured on the front page of The New York Times in 1991. The caption beneath his picture reads, "Fred A. Leuchter Jr. a consultant to 16 states on execution, holding a helmet used in electrocutions." Although none of these appearances or articles were in regard to The Leuchter Report, The New York Times briefly mentioned Leuchter's testimony in the article claiming, "The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith revealed that Mr. Leuchter, testifying for a neo-Nazi group in a Canadian trial, had called Hitler's extermination of Jews in gas chambers a myth. Mr. Leuchter says he is no Nazi sympathizer and was simply speaking as an expert witness." The attack had begun.

    Fred Leuchter explained the attack as follows, "A five pronged-attack has been initiated against me...depriving me of my civil rights and the right to make a living at my chosen profession. This had consisted of the following:

1. 
   
2. Political threats to prison officials who choose to deal with me.
3. Vilification by private contacts as well as in newsprint and on television.
4. Legislation to prohibit my working at my profession.
5. Criminal prosecution for working at my profession.
6. Lies spread by public officials, both officially and privately." (Witch Hunt in Boston p.455)

    The situation only worsened for Leuchter. In his speech given to the Eleventh IHR conference in October of 1992 he told of his imprisonment by the German government. But still, with lack of funds, lack of work, a slandered name, Leuchter would not renounce his study, " Although my findings will ultimately be accepted by all, I still have no contracts, have been unable to find work and have no income." Is there life after Persecution? p.444)

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Date of Birth- 1944

Place of Birth- USA

PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

• The Complete Leuchter Report (Court Document, 1988 Trial of Ernst Zündel)
• The Leuchter Report: The First Forensic Examination of Auschwitz (Focal Point Publications - 81 Duke Street, London W1M 5DJ
• The Second Leuchter Report: Dachau, Mauthausen, Hartheim
• The Third Leuchter Report: A Technical Report on the Execution Gas Chamber - Mississippi State Penitentiary Parchman, Mississippi
• The Fourth Leuchter Report: An Engineering Evaluation of Jean-Claude Pressac's Book "Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers"
• The Leuchter Congress- (Events of March 23, 1991 - Munich, Germany)
• The Leuchter Report: The How and the Why (Journal of Historical Review Vol.IX, No.2 Summer 1989)
• Witch Hunt in Boston (Journal of Historical Review Vol. X , No. 4 Winter 1990-91)
• Is There Life after Persecution? (Journal of Historical Review Vol XII, No. 4 Winter 1992-93)

Note: The above mentioned articles are available as back issues through the Institute for Historical Review- PO Box 2739, Newport Beach, CA 92659