Jew Killing WWII By Poles Frivolous Donat

The Death Camp Treblinka, by Alexander Donat. 1988

Frivolous Jew-Killing Accusations Against Poles. Jews, and Not Only Poles, Blackmailed Jews

This book is a compilation of six eyewitness accounts from Treblinka escapees, an English translation of Rachel Auerbach’s investigation, and description of the 1960’s trails of Treblinka Nazis in West Germany. Editor Donat notes that the West German government was very slow in locating and prosecuting these Nazi criminals, and then did it halfheartedly and leniently (p. 295). WARNING: The photographs from inside Treblinka, taken by SS man Kurt Franz (“The Doll”), are graphic, and may be upsetting to sensitive readers.

Donat states that 60 Treblinka escapees survived until the end of the war (p. 284). Historian Yitzhak Arad puts this figure at 70.

FRIVOLOUS ACCUSATIONS OF JEW-KILLING BY POLES: AN EXAMPLE

The eyewitness articles give clues to the origins of some of the Polonophobic aspects of contemporary Holocaust lore. For instance, Treblinka escapee Tanhum Grinberg wrote: “Even as we fled, we could see the corpses of slain Jews, with the boots removed from their legs. The peasants knew that the Jews had money, and that was reason enough to set ambushes and murder Jews.” (p. 222). What jumping to conclusions! How could Grinberg, having arrived well after the fact, possibly know the identity(-ies) and motive(s) of the killer(s)? He doesn’t even indicate that he carefully checked the bodies for bullet wounds. What if the killers had been Germans or Ukrainians who, after all, were conducting an intensive manhunt for the fugitive Jews? Also, the removal and reuse of boots from the dead was a common practice in wartime, not the exclusive habit of peasants!

NOT ONLY POLES BLACKMAILED JEWS: JEWS ALSO BLACKMAILED OTHER JEWS

It wasn’t only Poles (the SZMALCOWNIKI) that extorted money from fugitive Jews. Sometimes Jews also did this to each other (pp. 141-142), which prompted Abraham Krzepicki to say this about an old Polish woman who helped him freely: “This was the first time since my escape from Treblinka that anyone, Jew or Gentile, helped me get to safety without trying to extort money from me.” (p. 142).

THE PAID GREEDY RESCUER MYTH

It doesn’t follow that Polish benefactors who demanded payment were necessarily greedy or anti-Semitic, as accused, foe example, by Jan T. Gross. After Krzepicki had paid a Polish peasant for help, “The peasant said that if he were not afraid of the Germans he would help me free of charge, but it just couldn’t be done; the risk was too great.” (p. 135).

NOT ONLY SOME CHRISTIANS THOUGHT THAT GOD WAS PUNISHING THE JEWS

Abraham Krzepicki recounts the experiences of the Jewish forced laborers at Treblinka. Some of them saw what later came to be known as the Holocaust as God’s punishment for the Jews’ sins (pp. 96-97).

ENDEKS ALSO AIDED JEWS

Interestingly, Treblinka escapee Samuel Rajzman describes the help he got from Mr. Golos, a Pole (pp. 248-249), who was also a member of a rightist-nationalist organization (p. 249). This provides further proof that the ranks of Righteous Gentiles include members of the much-maligned Endeks.