American execution technician, * 1943 in Massachusetts 

L. received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Boston University in 1964, and commenced post-graduate studies in celestial navigation mechanics at the Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Massachusetts. From 1965 to 1970, he worked as Technical Director for a Boston company specializing in aerial photographic equipment. In this capacity, he designed the first lowlevel, colour stereomapping system for use in helicopters. L.'s system has since become standard equipment for helicopter aerial mapping. He formed an independent consultancy firm in 1970, and branched out to work on a variety of projects, including the design of astrotrackers utilized in the on-board guidance systems of intercontinental ballistic missiles. As a result of such work, he held patents in the fields of optics, navigation, encoding, geodetic surveying and surveying instrumentation including patents on electronic sextants and optical instrument encoders. 

From around 1980, L. also worked as an engineering consultant to several state governments on scientific equipment used to execute convicted criminals, including hardware for execution by lethal injection, electrocution, hanging and gassing. One of his major projects was the design of a new gas chamber at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. In 1987, he formed ' Fred A. Leuchter Associates', an engineering consultancy firm specializing in the design and fabrication of execution equipment, including gas chambers utilising Zyklon-B. 

In February 1988, L. was contacted by Robert Faurisson on behalf of Ernst Zündel, on trial for 'spreading false news' by publishing a Canadian version of Richard Harwood's booklet, ' Did Six Million Really Die?'. Zündel had been previously tried on the same charge in 1985 and sentenced to fifteen months imprisonment. However, in January 1987, the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned the judgement and ordered a re-trial, which commenced on January 18, 1988. Zündel had been searching for an American expert in gas chamber technology with experience in the execution of condemned persons by means of HCN, the same type of gas allegedly used by the Nazis to murder millions of Jews. It was his belief that no Jews were gassed in Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War, and that only an expert in execution hardware could determine whether the alleged gas chambers were capable of having been used as claimed in Holocaust literature. Zündel's defence team wrote to those penitentiaries in the United States that execute prisoners by gassing, requesting the name of an engineer who specializes in gas chamber executions by HCN. L.'s name was forwarded to Zündel by Bill M. Armontrout, Warden of the Missouri State Penitentiary, who wrote that 'Mr Leuchter is an engineer specializing in gas chambers and executions. He is well versed in all area's'. 

L. was asked if he would be prepared to travel to Poland to conduct the first forensic examination of the rooms now designated as gas chambers at Auschwitz I, Birkenau (Auschwitz II) and Majdanek. L. - who was not aware of Revisionist arguments – accepted the assignment, and on February 25, 1988, he left for Poland with a small team of assistants. L. inspected the alleged gas chambers, took photographs, drew plans, and removed samples. On 3 March 1988, he returned with the samples to the United States, and asked an independent laboratory (Alpha Analytical Laboratories) to determine the levels of any iron and cyanide traces. The laboratory remained totally unaware of the origin of the samples or the nature of the investigation. L. published his findings in a document: ' An Engineering Report on the Alleged Execution Gas Chambers at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek, Poland', incorporating numerous maps, plans, chemical analysis tables and graphs in its 192 pages. His findings clearly run contrary to accepted historical opinion. He ended his report with these words: 'After reviewing all the material and inspecting all of the sites at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek, your author finds the evidence as overwhelming. There were no execution gas chambers at any of these locations. It is the best engineering opinion of this author that the alleged gas chambers at the inspected sites could not have then been, or now, be utilized or seriously considered to function as execution gas chambers.  

L. was Zündel's twenty-first witness at the Ontario Court of Appeal. He testified on Wednesday, April 20 and Thursday, April 21, 1988, as an expert in gas chamber execution technology, and spoke at length about his investigation at Auschwitz and other camp sites .

Thereafter, L. returned to his home town of Maiden, Massachusetts, believing that his involvement in the Holocaust controversy was over. He later wrote : 'I came, I saw, I testified. There were no homicidal gas chambers. Q. E. D. It was over, I thought.' In late 1988 however, L. was invited by the ' Institute for Historical Review' IHR to address the Ninth International Revisionist Conference, to be held in February 1989. He accepted the invitation, and on February 21, 1989, delivered a speech entitled 'The Making of the Leuchter Report'. In April 1989 L. returned to Europe, this time commissioned by Ernst Zündel to investigate the alleged gas chambers at the Dachau concentration camp, at the Mauthausen concentration, and at Hartheim Castle. On his return to the United States, L. published his findings (co-authored by Robert Faurisson) as 'The Second Leuchter Report'. The purpose of this second report, wrote L., is to determine whether the alleged gas chambers at ... Dachau, Mauthausen and Hartheim Castle, could have operated in any manner resulting in single or multiple gas executions.... The purpose also includes estimates of the maximum number of inclusions (persons) who could possibly have fit into these alleged gas chambers, and estimated venting times. This purpose does not include a determination of any numbers of persons who died or were killed by means other than gassing, or as to whether an actual 'Holocaust' occurred. L. concluded that the inspected rooms were never utilized as execution gas chambers.

In the middle of 1989 the Anti-Defamation League published a one-sided anti-Revisionist booklet, entitled ' Holocaust Revisionism: Reinventing the Big Lie', in which L. was harshly criticized, and described as a new face in the antisemitic, Revisionist ranks. In June 1989 David Irving published a British edition of L.'s first report, and sent a free copy to every Member of Parliament, and to the heads of the History, Chemistry, Physics and Engineering departments of all British universities. Several Members of Parliament passed a motion in the House of Commons condemning 'long-time Hitler apologist David Irving' and the new fascist publication, the ' Leuchter Report'.

On February 26, 1990 L. appeared, with Bradley Smith, the IHR's Media Project Director, as a special guest on WFXT's Jerry Williams Show with a viewing audience estimated at approximately 100,000. On May 10, 1990 ABC's 'Prime Time Live television show' aired a profile on L. and his efforts to manufacture humane execution hardware. The short segment on Leuchter, entitled "Dr. Death", was presented by two popular media personalities. The 'Prime Time Live' profile on L. was watched by tens of millions of viewers across America. A month earlier – on April 6, 1990 – Bob Currie, the executive producer of the Prime Time Live show, met two Jewish leaders who were very unhappy about the upcoming story on L. They attempted to persuade Currie that L. was not a qualified engineer and that he should be given no media attention. Unwilling to bow to any external pressure, ABC's executives decided to air the segment. "Dr. Death" was broadcast in May – as mentioned – without any discussion of L.'s Revisionist activities. 

Also in May 1990, L. was contacted by the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Engineers, regarding a complaint that he was practicing as an engineer without the required license. The complaint was filed with the Board by Shelly Shapiro, on behalf of the Beate Klarsfeld Foundation and Holocaust Survivors and Friends in Pursuit of Justice. L.'s line of defence was that according to U.S. Census figures he was one of 50,510 engineers in the State of Massachusetts, of which only around five thousand were registered with the Board of Registration. The opposition to the television segment and the filing of the complaint were not the first actions taken by militant Jewish agencies against L. In late 1988, representatives of various organizations began contacting prison wardens he had previously worked with, declaring that his engineering skills were deficient, and threatening them with political consequences if they continued dealing with him or his company. Consequently, he lost several contracts, as he later complained: 'My work continued to fall off. More and more wardens were refusing to speak to me or return my calls. Even states where I had major friendships [with penitentiary wardens] had stopped discussions relative to execution equipment.' L.'s business was effectively ruined, he and his wife had been reduced to living from their savings.

A formal criminal complaint was issued against L. on September 18, 1990, under Chapter 112 (Section 81t) of Massachusetts General Law. A conviction under this statute is punishable by up to three months imprisonment and/or up to a five hundred dollar fine. L. made several pre-trial court appearances during the remaining months of 1990, and on each occasion large groups of Jews protested with anti-Leuchter placards, many emblazoned with swastikas, chanting 'Liar... Liar' and other more offensive slogans. L.'s Jewish opponents were not concerned that he and his wife were experiencing extreme financial difficulties because of their actions. On the contrary, they seemed delighted. Moreover they were desperate to have the court find L. guilty of illegally practicing as an engineer so that they could demonstrate to the world what a fraud he is. On June 11, 1991 the criminal complaint against Leuchter was set aside when he and his attorneys concluded a formal consent agreement with Massachusetts state officials. 

Also in 1991, L. was arrested in and shortly thereafter deported from the United Kingdom. He had been banned from entering the country by the Home Office and his entry and presence in the country was therefore considered illegal. L. then gave a lecture in Germany on his findings to the German National Democratic Party headed by Günter Deckert, who interpreted the lecture to attendees at the meeting. As a consequence, Deckert was charged and tried for propagating Holocaust revisionism, and finally sentenced to a total of five years imprisonment.

In October of 1993, just before he was again to appear as an invited guest on a German TV talk show 'Schreinemakers Live' of the private television network SAT-1, L. himself was arrested. His travel costs and hotel expenses had already been paid in advance by the station. A police official declared that 'it was decided on the political level that a television appearance by L. would harm Germany's image in foreign countries."' L. spent six and a half weeks in prison before he was finally bailed out by Zündel, and a trial was scheduled for 1994. He has never returned to Germany. In 1994, when L. tried to sell the inventory from ' Fred Leuchter Associates', he was again charged, and his marriage came unraveled. Now without a job or wife, he received an offer to come out to California, but the company he went to work for ran out of money, leaving L. stranded.

L. was the only consultant in the United States for execution by lethal injection, electrocution, hanging and gassing. After the destruction of his business by the US Jewish representatives, he had to work as a bus driver. Bowed, but not broken, L. remains optimistically confident that 'The Leuchter Report' will further stand the test of time and that truth will ultimately prevail. In the words of Fred Leuchter, “I have been vilified by the caretakers of the Holocaust dogma whose desperate tactics prove the failure of their arguments. My livelihood has been destroyed, my character has been impugned and my life turned upside down. But I will not bend the knee. Not now, not tomorrow, not ever. Time and reason will vindicate The Leuchter Report.” 

In 1999, the American documentary filmmaker Errol Morris produced the film 'Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.', film which details the life of L.  

Literatur über / Writings concerning L.:
* Sept. 2008: An Interview with Fred A. Leuchter - By Richard A. Widmann
Revisionist portrait
Joseph P. Bellinger: Fred Leuchter’s “Indiscretion”

Literatur im Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek von und über / Writings in the catalogue of Deutsche Nationalbibliothek of and about Fred Leuchter:
* Rapporto Leuchter - Parma : Ed. all'Insegna del Veltro, 1993 Vorhanden in Leipzig
* Het tweede Leuchter rapport - Antwerpen : Vrij Historisch Onderzoek, 1991 Vorhanden in Leipzig
* Rapport om krematorier og gaskamre i Auschwitz, Birkenau og Majdanek - Aalborg : Nordland, 1990 Vorhanden in Leipzig
* Truth prevails, New York : Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1990 Vorhanden in Leipzig
* Der zweite Leuchter-Report - Decatur, AL, PO box 726 : D. Clark, 1989 Vorhanden in Leipzig und Frankfurt
* Bericht und Zeugenaussagen vor dem Distriktgericht in Toronto, Ontario (Kanada) - Winterthur : Verl. Eidgenoss, 1989 Vorhanden in Leipzig und Frankfurt
* Germania - Toronto, Ontario, Canada : Samisdat, 1988 
 
Letzte Änderung / Last update: 22.10.2014 

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