SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

More documents

Recommendations

Info

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 79 (Ada) Lichtman, the SS kept up the transit camp “deception” even in front of the inmates: 166 “The camp commander […] described the happiness awaiting those who left for the Ukraine. ‘Life conditions and food are much better there than here… Certificates will be given to good workers, families will be united.’ We were not allowed to express the slightest doubt.” In a long interview made by Claude Lanzmann, Lichtman insisted that this alleged charade went on for the camp’s entire period of operation: 167 “They always thought that we did not know what was going on there. For example, there was an Oberscharfuehrer Stangl. […] And Stangl came and stood next to the window, here, at the shoemakers’ [where Ada’s future husband worked], and always said: Oh, all of those you see here go through the… they change clothes, wash, put on clothes and go to the Ukraine. And you, once you finished your work, will get special certificates that you worked well, so that you will get good jobs there. And they are going today…” Dov Freiberg, a.k.a. Ber Moiseyevich Freiberg, arrived with one of the first transports in early May 1942. In 1987 Freiberg published a bulky autobiography in Hebrew, which was later translated into English as To Survive Sobibór. In it we read: 168 “For some days we had hoped that they were still alive; we were still unable to fathom that we were actually in an extermination camp. Prisoners working in the forest said that they had heard the voices of people and children crying from within the forest, which we interpreted as evidence that they were still alive; only after some time did we understand that these were voices of people burying corpses…” According to Arad, Freiberg and his fellow inmates worked for two weeks only a few hundred meters away from the gas chambers without 166 M. Novitch, op. cit. (note 39), p. 56. The witness Chaim Engel likewise claims that the Germans believed the detainees to be unaware of the (alleged) mass murder; Joshua M. Greene, Shiva Kumar (eds.), Witness. Voices from the Holocaust, Simon & Shuster, New York 2000, p. 154. 167 Transcript of interview with Ada Lichtman, Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive at USHMM (online: http://resources.ushmm.org/intermedia/film_video/spielberg_archive/transcript/RG60_50 23/9D60DA93-2C5D-43A6-8365-A6F9AB822687.pdf), p. 39. 168 D. Freiberg, op. cit. (note 68), p. 529.
80 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR realizing their existence. 169 One will, however, search through Freiberg’s accounts in vain for an explanation of how exactly he and the other inmates came to this “understanding.” Freiberg stated in his Eichmann trial testimony that at the time he arrived in the camp “rumours were already circulating, but the people did not believe them,” and that instead they were convinced that the deportees were sent “to the Ukraine for agricultural work.” As can be expected, Freiberg portrayed this as a ruse: 170 “They said that in two or three weeks’ time we would be reunited with our families. But we saw their personal effects, the following morning we were working with them. They [the SS] maintained that they distributed other clothes and that from Camp No. 3 trains were departing to the Ukraine.” What Freiberg withheld from the court was the fact that he himself had seen SS men distributing clothes 171 to detainees that supposedly were to be sent to the gas chambers. In an interview by Japanese journalist Aiko Sawada from 1999, Freiberg stated: 172 “Another time some people received new clothes and were sent to the shower room. ‘You will work for us in German factories, but first you are going to take a shower,’ the German soldiers told them. Up to then they had been strict, but now they suddenly became friendly as they handed them clothes and told them that they could use the showers. I thought it very suspicious.” Ada (Eda) Lichtman, who arrived at Sobibór in the middle of June 1942, 173 has made conflicting statements regarding when and how the inmates found out about the mass murder. In one version, an inmate working on top of a roof in camp II observed dead people in camp III that were being buried. The man became mute from shock but his 169 Y. Arad, op. cit. (note 49), p. 79. 170 State of Israel, op. cit. (note 137), vol. III, p. 1168. 171 In a video-taped interview the witness Chaim Engel claims that prisoners from camp III “came sometimes over to our Lager [camp II, where Engel worked in the sorting barracks] to bring the clothes or bring things like that.” Why would clothes have been brought to camp III? There are really only two possible answers: either the clothes were for the camp III inmates themselves, something which would seem overly considerate on the part of the SS (not to say impractical and, given the alleged secrecy surrounding camp III, careless), or they were picked up to be disinfested and then distributed to newly deloused deportees; J. M. Greene, S. Kumar (eds.), op. cit. (note 166), p. 154. 172 Aiko Sawada, Yoru no Kioku - Nihonjin ga kiita Horok�suto seikansha no sh�gen (Memories of the night – Holocaust survivor testimonies told to a Japanese), S�gensha, Osaka 2005, p. 303. 173 J. Schelvis, op. cit. (note 71), p. 236.
Page 1 and 2:
BARNES REVIEW HOLOCAUST HANDBOOK SE
Page 3 and 4:
Jürgen H.P. Rieger, * 11 May 1946,
Page 5 and 6:
HOLOCAUST Handbooks Series, vol. 19
Page 7 and 8:
6 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SO
Page 9 and 10:
8 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SO
Page 11 and 12:
10 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, S
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30: 28 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, S
Page 64 and 65: J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBI
Page 130 and 131:
J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBI
Page 132 and 133:
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
Page 138 and 139:
Page 140 and 141:
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
Page 148 and 149:
Page 150 and 151:
Page 152 and 153:
Page 154 and 155:
Page 156 and 157:
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
Page 162 and 163:
Page 164 and 165:
Page 166 and 167:
Page 168 and 169:
Page 170 and 171:
Page 172 and 173:
Page 174 and 175:
Page 176 and 177:
Page 178 and 179:
Page 180 and 181:
Page 182 and 183:
Page 184 and 185:
Page 186 and 187:
Page 188 and 189:
Page 190 and 191:
Page 192 and 193:
Page 194 and 195:
Page 196 and 197:
Page 198 and 199:
Page 200 and 201:
Page 202 and 203:
Page 204 and 205:
Page 206 and 207:
Page 208 and 209:
Page 210 and 211:
Page 212 and 213:
Page 214 and 215:
Page 216 and 217:
Page 218:
Page 221 and 222:
220 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO,
Page 223 and 224:
Page 225 and 226:
Page 227 and 228:
Page 229 and 230:
Page 231 and 232:
Page 233 and 234:
Page 235 and 236:
Page 237 and 238:
Page 239 and 240:
Page 241 and 242:
Page 243 and 244:
Page 245 and 246:
Page 247 and 248:
Page 249 and 250:
Page 251 and 252:
Page 253 and 254:
Page 255 and 256:
Page 257 and 258:
Page 259 and 260:
Page 261 and 262:
Page 263 and 264:
Page 265 and 266:
Page 267 and 268:
Page 269 and 270:
Page 271 and 272:
Page 273 and 274:
Page 275 and 276:
Page 277 and 278:
Page 279 and 280:
Page 281 and 282:
Page 283 and 284:
Page 285 and 286:
Page 287 and 288:
Page 289 and 290:
Page 291 and 292:
Page 293 and 294:
Page 295 and 296:
Page 297 and 298:
Page 299 and 300:
Page 301 and 302:
Page 303 and 304:
Page 305 and 306:
Page 307 and 308:
Page 309 and 310:
Page 311 and 312:
Page 313 and 314:
Page 315 and 316:
Page 317 and 318:
Page 319 and 320:
Page 321 and 322:
Page 323 and 324:
Page 325 and 326:
Page 327 and 328:
Page 329 and 330:
Page 331 and 332:
Page 333 and 334:
Page 335 and 336:
Page 337 and 338:
Page 339 and 340:
Page 341 and 342:
Page 343 and 344:
Page 345 and 346:
Page 348 and 349:
Page 350 and 351:
Page 352 and 353:
Page 354 and 355:
Page 356 and 357:
Page 358 and 359:
Page 360 and 361:
Page 362 and 363:
Page 364 and 365:
Page 366 and 367:
Page 368 and 369:
Page 370 and 371:
Page 372 and 373:
Page 374 and 375:
Page 376 and 377:
Page 378 and 379:
Page 380 and 381:
Page 382 and 383:
Page 384 and 385:
Page 386 and 387:
Page 388 and 389:
Page 390 and 391:
Page 392 and 393:
Page 394 and 395:
Page 396 and 397:
Page 398 and 399:
Page 400 and 401:
Page 402 and 403:
Page 404 and 405:
Page 406 and 407:
Page 408 and 409:
Page 410 and 411:
Page 412 and 413:
Page 414 and 415:
Page 416 and 417:
Page 418 and 419:
Page 420 and 421:
Page 422 and 423:
Page 424 and 425:
Page 426 and 427:
Page 428 and 429:
Page 430 and 431:
Page 432 and 433:
Page 434 and 435:
Page 436 and 437:
HOLOCAUST HANDBOOKS — The Series
Page 438 and 439:
G. Rudolf, C. Mattogno: Auschwitz L
Page 440:
Carlo Mattogno: Auschwitz: Cremator
show all

SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?