Mr. Death: The Rise & Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr.
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List Price: $24.98
Features
• Anamorphic
• Closed-captioned
• Color
• Widescreen
• NTSC
In Theaters : 14 January, 2000
DVD Release : 06 June, 2000 |
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Mr. Death: The Rise & Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr. Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
After contacting Fred...
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I actually bothered to contact Fred Leuchter.
A few(not all) points...
"Amazon reviewer":
1. [Leuchter]'became an active historical revisionist'
--Leuchter doesn't belong to any Holocaust denial organization. Fred gives talks only on his report, not revisionism. Fred gave a couple talks on his report at the IHR, after invited to, about a year after he testified in the Zundel trial. The IHR, unlike Morris, did not edit Fred. Fred needed the little money the IHR offered for the talks. Prior to being contacted by the IHR, Fred was assaulted, had his house firebombed, and was going broke due to a concerted effort to ruin him financially and having been blackballed from practicing, all for his testimony in Zundel's trial. The Aryan Nations got his report from the court and put their name on it. Maybe Fred was made into a bogieman to keep people on both sides fearful and rally support for a cause.
2. 'Leuchter surreptitiously videotaped himself illegally '
--Leuchter's samplings were later duplicated by a Jewish group, with the help of the Camp curator. Chemist Germar Rudolf sampled those decaying exposed walls, as did others.
3. 'ZA A ndel hired Leuchter'
--No, the Canadian court hired and paid Leuchter to go to Auschwitz and create a report. Zundel asked the court to investigate the issue of gas chambers at Auschwitz. The court referred Zundel's attorney to the US prison system, where he was then referred to Fred Leuchter - the only expert on execution equipment in the world. The Canadian court accepted Fred as an expert, so maybe those persecuting Fred should've firebombed the Canadian legal system instead of his house. Fred assumed before going to Auschwitz that there would be gas chambers there.
4. 'his daily intake of...100 cigarettes'
--Fred doesn't smoke and gave up smoking before he met Morris. Constantly in the film an actor's hand holding a cigarette is seen by the viewer as Fred's hand. Maybe Morris wanted to portray Fred as out of control in some way, to build a wall between the audience and Fred.
Zundel is a nut. Before his trial in Canada, he was primarily known for his research on 'secret Nazi UFO bases in Antarctica'[no joke!]. How Zundel got to be promoted to any sort of credible potentially inspirational anti-semite is a more interesting question than how he is a threat. Zundel won on appeal, so the result of his trial was that those 'false news' laws in Canada that he faced 25 years under, were dropped, making their free speech laws more in line with US laws.
Fred told me:
-Chemist Roth was threatened after the trial, so that's why his court testimony differs from what he said after.
-Chemists say Roth's statements now don't make sense.
-Rabbi Yahuda Bauer agrees with Fred's findings.
-Morris broke his contract with Fred. Morris' deviated from his strict documentary format(that of only allowing the subject to speak) to collude with Van Pelt on reediting the original film, without consulting Fred.
-Van Pelt has testified that he misrepresented himself in Canada as an architect.
-Unlike the documentary, Fred viewed the the camp's blueprints. He did this in Poland before Van Pelt colluded to reedit the film with Morris, but the depiction of Fred never having seen the blueprints was maintained by Van Pelt and Morris. According to the blueprints, the camp commander's quarters would be gassed along with the victims, if there was gassing.
Morris' films are entertaining, stylish, and captivating, but this and other documentaries makes me think a set of standards should be adopted that include offering unedited subject's 'last word' attachments to any documentary on any specific person.
The choice to misrepresent Fred Leuchter in this film must erase any vote for this skillful documentary. The main point I came away with from Fred's situation, was that maybe some people, who are not anti-semitic, hateful, or such, can still come to the same conclusion as someone who is hateful. I accept that gassings took place at Auschwitz, but after reviewing much information(my first goal was to actually speak to a survivor!), I also accept that some may sincerely think contrary. Do [sincere] people who come to the wrong conclusions deserved to be punished until they accept the 'right' conclusion? Does anyone deserve to be misrepresented? |
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Mr. Death: The Rise dvd movie.