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

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 175
Another excerpt from Shaindy Perl’s book: 502
“Only several weeks later [after the Bauer trial], she was contacted
by a prosecutor from Frankfurt. ‘Are you the woman who recently
testified against Erich Bauer,’ he asked. ‘We’ve arrested Hubert
Gomerski and Joseph [read: Johann] Klier. We are bringing
them to trial here in Frankfurt. Will you come to serve as our witness?’
Esther didn’t really have much choice. There were so few
survivors, and many of them had by now emigrated to Israel or the
United States. Once again, the fate of the Nazi criminals was left in
her hands alone.”
Quite apart from the fact that Gomerski and Klier were already in
jail during the Bauer trial and were not arrested “a few weeks” later, the
fate of these former SS men was not at all left in Esther Raab’s hands
alone, as she made her biographer believe. She was, in fact, one of a
group of eight witnesses who testified in Frankfurt: “L.” (Samuel Lerer
who still had not emigrated to America yet), “Josef and Herz Z.,” “E.,”
“T.,” “M.” and “B.” 503 When telling about the trial of Gomerski and
Klier, Esther Raab does not wish to have any competitors, and so she
simply wipes out the names of the seven other witnesses.
All this goes to show that Esther Raab, witness for the prosecution,
was an unrestrained liar, out to bolster her ego. Still, the Berlin district
court in its verdict unhesitatingly assumed that her deposition (as well
as Lerer’s) was true in all respects and was thus sufficient to convict
Bauer – who denied his implication in any crimes – of falsehood: 504
“The defendant admits to having been aware of the goings-on in
the extermination camp soon after his arrival in the Sobibór concentration
camp some time in March or April of 1942 and, in particular,
to have known that Jews of all nations were being gassed or shot
there; he denies, however, to have participated in any atrocities and
inhuman acts on Jewish detainees. He denies, in particular, to have
been the Gasmeister of the camp and claims to have been a mere
driver with the task of providing the camp with victuals. The gassings
were performed initially by active SS personnel from Oranienburg.
Later on, a certain ‘Toni’ had been Gasmeister, but he could
not be more precise on his account. […] In spite of his denial, the
defendant is proven guilty on this count by the credible statements
502
503
504
S. Perl, op. cit. (note 62), p. 224.
Verdict of Landgericht Frankfurt am Main of 25 August 1950, 52 Ks 3/50.
LG Berlin, op. cit. (note 277), p. 4.