SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

86 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR
The assertion that Pechersky was treated as a traitor because of his
capture by the Germans also figures in the French edition of Wikipedia,
which, moreover, wrongly states that Pechersky appeared as a witness
at Nuremberg. 197
The story of Pechersky’s “many years” of incarceration does not
stand up to critical scrutiny. If his capture by the Germans had been
considered to constitute treason, he would obviously have been judged
and incarcerated immediately after he rejoined the Red Army. It is absolutely
incredible that he would have been given a medal for being
wounded, would have been allowed to testify before a commission,
would have been permitted, in 1946, to publish an account of Sobibór,
only to be then imprisoned “for many years” for having surrendered to
the Germans in 1941.
In contrast to Pechersky himself, the English entry on Wikipedia
gives precise dates for the time of his alleged imprisonment: 194
“During Stalin’s political witch hunts of 1948 Pechersky was
fired from his job and imprisoned along with his brother. Only after
Stalin’s death in 1953 and mounting international pressure for his
release was he freed.”
This wording suggests that Pechersky was jailed because of alleged
anti-Soviet activities as part of the campaign against “cosmopolitanism,”
which began at that time, but it contradicts Pechersky’s own presentation.
Moreover, the German edition of Wikipedia states unmistakably:
198
“He [Pechersky] entertained a correspondence with many survivors
of the camp who lived in the West. In 1948 these letters led to
his dismissal [from his post as a music teacher] because of ‘relations
with imperialist states.’ He was not arrested, but could not exercise
his profession for five years, having to restrict himself to occasional
jobs.”
In her article on Sobibór published in 2008, which discusses Pechersky
in some detail, Barbara Distel, too, makes no mention of his
imprisonment by the Soviet authorities for any reason. She merely
states that life was “difficult” for the former participants in the uprising
once they had returned to the USSR. 199
197 http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Petcherski
198 http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Petscherski
199 B. Distel, op. cit. (note 69), p. 402.