Sobibor - Holocaust Propaganda And Reality - Unity of Nobility ...

100 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR
It is thus possible that the allegations of murder by tree-felling originated
with a case of relatively harmless bullying carried out by an individual
SS officer, who was then reprimanded for his behavior.
Another anomalous group of assertions concerns the reception of the
arriving Jewish deportees. According to Bahir, one of Gustav Wagner’s
duties was “counting the Jews who arrived in the transports” 252 and
“conducting the registry of victims.” 253 He also mentions that SS-
Oberscharführer Hermann Michel “took a census” of the male arrivals.
254 Freiberg recalls an incident where, during a period of “respite
from transports,” Wagner went around registering the names, age and
place of birth of the inmates in the camp. 255 But why was this done, if
Sobibór indeed was a pure extermination camp? This is a question flying
in the face of the official narrative. Schelvis compares the bureaucracy
of the “extermination camps” with that of the Einsatzgruppen, 256
asserting that the former did not have to keep records of the alleged
mass killings. 257 Later in his book, however, he details the procedure of
transport lists used for the deportation of French, Dutch, German, and
Austrian Jews to Auschwitz and Sobibór: 258
“Two copies [of the transport lists] were given to the transport
leaders for the journey east, creating the impression, perhaps, that
they knew the deportees by name, and that the list would facilitate
registration on arrival at the camp.
At Auschwitz this may indeed have been the case – unless of
course the victims were sent straight to the gas chambers. But the
lists compiled for Sobibór were only ever intended to disguise the
Germans’ true intentions. The transport leaders would have passed
the lists on to the camp commandant, but the most he probably ever
did with them was to file them in a drawer somewhere. No further
action was ever taken.”
Thus at least a part of the Jews sent to Sobibór was registered with
their names – but the Holocaust historian assures us that this was only
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
M. Novitch, op. cit. (note 39), p. 149.
Ibid., p. 144.
Ibid., p. 146.
D. Freiberg, op. cit. (note 68), pp. 223f.
“Task forces,” German military units deployed behind the Russian front to fight partisans.
According to mainstream historiography they are also said to have shot between 1.3
and 2.2 million Jewish civilians. This topic will not be covered in the present book. Editor’s
remark.
J. Schelvis, op. cit. (note 71), p. 15.
Ibid., pp. 51f. See also Y. Arad, op. cit. (note 49), p. 139.