Holocaust Nonsense #1: The 'Automatic Shooting Machine' of Mauthausen

As part of a new regular series of articles I thought I'd publish the insane claims I find in books – historic and contemporary – in regards to German behaviour during the Third Reich, but with a special emphasis on the era of the Second World War.

Lets begin with the 'Automatic Shooting Machine' of Mauthausen.

This claim is reproduced from the wildly popular history of 'Nazi atrocities' named 'The Scourge of the Swastika' authored by Edward Russell (aka Lord Russell of Liverpool) who was a key figure in the Nuremberg and Tokyo War Crime Trials.

I quote:

'All these categories were handed over to the Gestapo for 'special treatment'. This consisted of being deprived of prisoner-of-war status, sent to the concentration camp at Mauthausen, and shot with a bullet in the neck.

At Mauthausen they were known as 'K' prisoners. When they arrived at the camp they were not registered as were ordinary prisoners, and their names remained unknown except to the members of the 'Politische Abteilung'.

They were at once taken to the detention block, where they were undressed and then taken to what, for camouflage purposes was called the bathroom but which was, in fact, a room in the prison cells near the crematorium designed for execution by shooting or gassing.

One of the methods of shooting these 'K' prisoners has been described by a French officer who was himself confined in the apparatus. 'The shooting was done by means of a measuring standard with an automatic contraption which shot a bullet into the back of his neck as soon as the wooden bar which determined his height touched the top of his head.'

Sometimes they were marched down in batches to the quarry dressed only in shirts and pants and mowed down by machine-gun fire. Death certificates were prepared in every case and endorsed, 'Killed while attempting to escape.'' (1)

There are two things to note about this story:

1) There is no reason that Germans would invent, let alone use, such a machine. Since there is no practical utility for doing so, especially since, as Russell also alleges, the Germans were taking 'K' prisoners from Mauthausen to a nearby quarry to be mown down by machine gun.

Simply put: what is the point of such a contraption?

The answer?

None.

2) The source is an unnamed French officer who alleges he was strapped in the machine, but somehow for unspecified reasons wasn't executed or harmed.

Given the description does that sound even remotely plausible for the supposedly systematically barbaric Germans?

I mean: come on.

This 'Holocaust' claim is simply ridiculous.

References

(1) Edward Russell, 1972, [1956], 'The Scourge of the Swastika', 14th Edition, Corgi: London, pp. 48-49