It was the usual bumf until Sir Hartley Shawcross came on the screen. He was interrogating a witness in the case of [Ernst] Kaltenbrunner [left] who under the sworn deposition claimed that Kaltenbrunner knew about the gassings at Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Both my uncle and aunt were held at that camp, as were a large number of Hungarian soldiers in 1945. To the best of their knowledge there were no gas chambers at that camp. Who was right?

Secondly, in his summation, Sir Hartley talked about 12 million people dying at those camps. What was the actual total number of people who perished at those camps?

I found it interesting that the History channel would expose itself to shoddy reportage. If these facts, as reported by witnesses to the court are not true, how much more untruth was stated at Nuremberg?

In your book [Nuremberg, the Last Battle] you only mention Mauthausen once, in relation to a [Dieter] Wisliceny‘s testimony, but you say nothing whether this was considered a “death camp” or not.

It is my understanding that “gas chambers” were only outside the Reich. How come the History Channel uses such obviously incorrect information in one of their documentaries?

Paul Fritz-Nemeth

 Thank you for your letter. Television does not often do in-depth research, that is the problem, so the lies are just recycled.