- Rapport Leuchter
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Le rapport Leuchter est un document pseudo-scientifique[1] écrit par l'américain Fred A. Leuchter. Afin de défendre le négationniste Ernst Zündel devant un tribunal canadien, Leuchter, sous la houlette du négationniste français Robert Faurisson, rédigea le rapport en 1988, prétendant avoir enquêté « scientifiquement » sur les chambres à gaz d'Auschwitz. Leucther fut cependant disqualifié en tant qu'expert durant le procès, n'ayant ni les qualifications ni l'expérience qui lui auraient permis de s'exprimer en tant que tel. Leuchter fut notamment poursuivi pour avoir abusé du titre d'ingénieur et le contenu de son rapport a été largement analysé et réfuté.
Ce rapport discrédité est toujours largement diffusé au sein des cercles négationnistes.
Notes et références
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- « Leuchter and Rudolf have published pseudoscientific reports purporting to show that chemical residues present in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau are incompatible with homicidal gassings. » Richard J. Green, Leuchter, Rudolf, and the Iron Blues.
- « The Leuchter Report, a pseudo-scientific document which allegedly proves that Zyklon B was not used to exterminate human beings, was translated into Arabic and sold at the International Book Fair in Cairo in January 2001. » Stephen Roth, Stephen Roth Institute, Antisemitism Worldwide, 2000/1, University of Nebraska Press, 2002, p. 228.
- « The turning point came in 1989, when Irving launched Fred Leuchter's pseudo-scientific Leuchter Report, which made the spurious claim that the absence of cyanide residues in the walls of the gas chambers at Auschwitz and other camps proved that they could not have functioned as mass extermination centres. » Jan Herman Brinks, Edward Timms et Stella Rock, Nationalist Myths and Modern Media, I.B. Tauris, 2006, p. 72.
- « The Leuchter report, was, indeed, an amateurish report produced by a man with no expertise, either historical or forensic. » David Hirsh, Law Against Genocide. Routledge Cavendish, 2003, p. 134.
- « Another common tactic of the deniers is to engage in historical inquiries that on the surface appear legitimate but upon close examination prove to be based on pseudo-science. One prominent example was the investigation of the Auschwitz gas chambers by Fred Leuchter [...]. Detailed study of the "Leuchter Report" revealed that it was based on erroneous assumptions (cyanide does not penetrate deeply into concrete). It also emerged that Leuchter had falsified his credentials and overstated his expertise. Despite this, his report is still cited by deniers. » Nicholas John Cull, David Holbrook Culbert et David Welch, Propaganda and Mass Persuasion: A Historical Encyclopedia, 1500 to the Present, ABC-CLIO, 2003, p. 168.
- « [...] the institute relied primary on the talents of a California-based publicist named Bradley Smith who packaged and promoted Leuchter's discredited material as if it were the very essence of "scientific research" or at least a tenable "point of view," intrinsically worthy of inclusion in the academic agenda [...] » Ward Churchill, A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas, 1492 to the Present. City Lights Books, 1997, p. 24.
- « After the trial, both Irving and Zündel published the results of Leuchter's trial research as The Leuchter Report: The End of a Myth, despite the fact that the court rejected both the report and Leuchter's testimony. [...] The discredited report is popular in the Holocaust denial movement, and one edition features a foreword by Irving. » Gerstenfeld, Phyllis B. Grant, R. Diana Crimes of Hate: Selected Readings, SAGE Publications, 2003, p. 201.
- « Leuchter's report contained a considerable amount of scientific, or, as it turned out, pseudo-scientific analysis of chemical residues on the gas chamber walls, and similar matters. It was quickly discredited, not least on the basis of Leuchter's failure adequately to defend his findings on the witness stand. » Richard J. Evans, David Irving, Hitler and Holocaust Denial: Electronic Edition, Section 3.3c, édition de 1991 de Hitler's War, Paragraph 13.
Lien externe
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