Warnings By Poles of Shoah IGNORED Bem

Sobibor, by Marek Bem. 2010

Poles Cheering Jewish Deaths Myth. Jews Ignored Polish Warnings. Jew Killings By Unclear Perpetrators or Motives (Do Not Rush to Judgement!). Hiding Jewish Deaths Myth

This work provides exhaustive detail on Sobibor. It includes testimonies, archival information, maps and sketches, biographies, and photographs. It also features the Sobibor revolt.

JEWISH-NAZI COLLABORATION: THE ACTS OF THE JEWISH KAPOS

Survivor accounts of ” life” at the camp are recounted. In common with many sources, there is testimony of the cruelty of many of the Jewish kapos at the camp. These kapos had commonly gotten major privileges from the German authorities. (pp. 196-198). Obviously, Jewish complicity in the Holocaust went far beyond the exercise of choiceless choices, or any desperate attempt to stay alive!

JEWS IGNORED POLISH WARNINGS. THE POLES-CHEERED-JEWISH-DEATHS MYTH

In Polonophobic Holocaust lore, it is common to read lurid accounts of Poles gathering to laugh and cheer as Jews were being sent to their deaths. For instance, in the highly-acclaimed movie SCHINDLER’ S LIST, there is the scene of the Polish girl sarcastically saying, ” Good-bye, Jews!”

The truth was rather different. Jewish eyewitness Chaskiel Menche reported a throng of Poles, at a nearby train station, using gestures and words to warn the Jews on the train of their impending fate. There was laughter and scorn all right- but it came from the Jews scoffing at the warning. (p. 240).

POLES WERE VERY DISCREET AT TIMES OF GERMAN ACTIONS AGAINST JEWS

Author Marek Bem generalizes on Polish conduct during such encounters. It was animated by fear, not levity or contempt for Jews. (quote) When groups of Jews were marched through their villages, the local people went into hiding in their own homesteads. They were even afraid to peep through windows and doors. Fear for their own lives and the lives of their family members was stronger than mere curiosity. Poles and Jews may have known about the Sobibór camp, but that knowledge was based on fear; nobody wanted to report about its existence because of serious consequences that might have followed. (unquote). (p. 321). So much for the silly myth that the Polish people and the Polish Catholic Church did not ” do enough” about the unfolding Nazi German-made Holocaust taking place on their German-occupied soil!

THE SOBIBOR DEATH TOLL: THE MYTH OF POLES LATER TRYING TO HIDE JEWISH DEATHS

In the early years after WWII, Polish investigative commissions had estimated that 1.5-3.0 million people had been murdered at Sobibor. (p. 161, 163). Postwar Jewish survivor estimates of the Sobibor death toll had been even more fantastic: 500,000 to 5.0 million. (p. 182). Modern scholarly accounts speak of 150,000 to 600,000, with most of them quoting a toll of at or below 250,000. (p. 162).

Obviously, both Jewish and non-Jewish sources had long exaggerated the death toll at Sobibor. It is manifestly incorrect to insinuate that the death tolls had been ” padded” by Poles in some kind of nefarious postwar attempt to hide the Jewishness of most of the victims.

SOME GHOULISH STATISTICS

Archeological investigations have been conducted at the onetime site of the Sobibor death camp, especially in the latter years of the time period of 2000-2015. (p. 359).

Archeologists have found 14 pits, containing adipocere, ashes, and bone. (pp. 219-on). The pits have an approximate aggregate volume of 19,000 cubic meters. (p. 222). One cremated human body amounts of a volume of 3.5 liters (p. 222), so the cremains had been well diluted with sand.

ETHNIC POLES, TOO, WERE VICTIMS AT SOBIBOR

Although usually presented as such, Jews were not the only ones murdered at Sobibor. Jewish survivors Samuel Lerer and Dov Freiburg identify Poles and Gypsies (Sinti and Roma) as among the victims. (p. 160). Onetime investigator Adam Rutkowski also mentioned Gypsy and Polish victims. (p. 166). In addition, in February 1943, some 500 Zamosc-area Polish children are known to have been gassed at Sobibor. (p. 181).

THE SOBIBOR REVOLT: HIGH RATES OF JEWISH SURVIVORSHIP FOR THOSE WHO BYPASSED THE GERMAN DRAGNET

The revolt of October 1943 is described in considerable detail. Filip Bialowicz (p. 296), a Jewish survivor, estimates that 200 Jews escaped, and, of these, 47 are known to have been alive at the time of liberation. (pp. 297-298).

Author Marek Bem surveys various sources, and estimates that over 275 Jews actually got away from Sobibor. Of these, 130 were detained or killed soon thereafter by searching Germans. 32 met an unknown fate. 56 were allegedly killed by locals (see below). Finally, 57 escapees from the October 1943 revolt survived to see the end of the war. (pp. 297-298).

The figures, if accurate, are telling. Once a Jew got away from the Germans in German-occupied Poland, he or she had a good chance of surviving the war. So much for the egregious falsehood that a fugitive Polish Jew was in as much danger from Poles as he was from Germans.

KILLINGS OF FUGITIVE JEWS BY LOCALS: DO NOT RUSH TO JUDGEMENT

The author has a relatively sophisticated understanding of the non-survivorship of fugitive Jews in German-occupied Poland, (quote) However, the exact number of escapees killed ‘ at other than German hands’ remains a mystery. Neither is it known precisely how many escaped prisoners died of disease or of exhaustion while hiding in the forest, in farmland or in other places. (unquote). (p. 297).

Unlike neo-Stalinist authors such as Jan T. Gross and Jan Grabowski vel Abrahamer, who automatically blame the killings on ethnic Poles animated by (what else?) anti-Semitism, author Marek Bem is careful about apportioning blame, let alone motive, for the alleged non-German killings of 56 Jewish Sobibor escapees, (quote) The different post-war accounts, testimonies and memoirs (including my analysis built on the basis of the work of, or through interviews with 30 former Sobibór prisoners) mention the fact that these survivors state that they had witnessed the deaths of 56 Sobibór escapees. These people were killed either by Poles, Ukrainians, ” bandits” , soldiers of the Home Army, ” nationalists” , or Polish and Soviet partisans. (unquote). (p. 297). Of course, it is impossible to determine how many of the 56 killings were done by bandits, or otherwise were not anti-Semitic acts.

POSTWAR TRIALS OF GERMAN CRIMINALS

The author has a section on the trials of some of the Nazis, and their collaborators, involved in the mass murders. It includes significant biographical details about them. However, Bem is candid about the fact that some of the Jews who claimed to be at Sobibor were doubtfully ever there, and some of those who were made obviously false statements. (pp. 300-on).

POLES ALSO UNFRIENDLY TOWARDS OTHER POLES, AND NOT ONLY TO FUGITIVE JEWS

Much has been written about Poles frequently not being friendly to fugitive Jews, and of Poles reacting with hostility when Jewish survivors came back to reclaim their property. However, this was common wartime and postwar behavior, much of which had nothing to do with nationality or religion. In fact, Poles had been less than positive towards fellow Poles, as described by Bem (quote) The last thing which had to be done in order to remove any trace of there having been any Jews in the German extermination centre in Sobibór, was to clear the nearby railway tracks along which the Jewish transports ran. It so happened that a number of Polish families had been resettled from the {Żywiec district to the village of Stulno, situated not far from Sobibór. The locals, who at first treated the newcomers with considerable distance, later accommodated them in their own homes. (unquote). (p. 208).