London, December 22, 1997

Sir,
I was fascinated to read Jane Freeman’s interview (SMH, Nov.30) of Holocaust survivor Abraham Biderman, particularly where he describes seeing Rudolf Hoess, the former commandant of Auschwitz, arrested by the British. Would he like to share these particular memories in a reader’s letter?

Sorry about the delay in submitting this. I returned only yesterday from a month’s speaking tour of the USA (where Freedom of Speech is not just an idle promise in the mouth of a prime minister!) The point is: as described in my book Nuremberg, the Last Battle, Höss was captured by a British military police unit hiding under a false name at a farmhouse in northern Germany in April 1946; was Biderman a clandestine member of that unit, or is his memory deceiving him?

Yours faithfully,
David Irving