Leuchter report
Pseudoscientific document / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Leuchter report is a pseudoscientific[1] document authored by American execution technician Fred A. Leuchter, who was commissioned by Ernst Zündel to defend him at his trial in Canada for distributing Holocaust denial material. Leuchter compiled the report in 1988 with the intention of investigating the feasibility of mass homicidal gassings at Nazi extermination camps, specifically at Auschwitz. He traveled to the camp, collected multiple pieces of brick from the remains of the crematoria and gas chambers (without the camp's permission), brought them back to the United States, and submitted them for chemical analysis. At the trial, Leuchter was called upon to defend the report in the capacity of an expert witness; however, during the trial, the court ruled that he had neither the qualifications nor experience to act as such.
Leuchter cited the absence of Prussian blue in the homicidal gas chambers to support his view that they could not have been used to gas people. However, residual iron-based cyanide compounds are not a categorical consequence of cyanide exposure. By not discriminating against that, Leuchter introduced an unreliable factor into his experiment, and his findings were seriously flawed as a result. In contrast, tests conducted by Polish forensic scientists (who discriminated against iron-based compounds) confirmed the presence of cyanide in the locations, in accordance with where and how it was used in the Holocaust. In addition, the report was criticized as Leuchter had overlooked critical evidence, such as documents in the SS architectural office which recorded the mechanical operation of the gas chambers and others which verified the rate at which the Nazis could burn the bodies of those gassed.[2]