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

338 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR
posed in a lecture on 7 February 1939, developing his scheme for a
reservation in contrast with the Zionist idea of a Jewish State. After
the occupation of Poland the Lublin district, which according to the
census of 1931 had a population of 2,465,000 and numbered
314,000 Jewish inhabitants, was set apart for the execution of this
plan. Before the middle of 1940, 650,000 Jews were to be settled
there. Great publicity was given to the scheme and a press campaign
was launched to convince the German people that ‘a solution of the
Jewish problem in Europe’ had finally been found. Deportation
started in the second half of October 1939, and during the first
months large numbers of Jews, especially from Vienna and the Protectorate
and from the Old Reich, were sent to the reservation. [1027]
The deportees were given a few hours to leave. They were permitted
to take with them up to 50 kilograms (110 lbs.) of luggage and a sum
of money equivalent to between $40 and $120. No preparations were
made to receive them, and the reservation soon became a hotbed of
epidemics which were bound to spread to the German army too. The
idea of a special reservation for Jews was accordingly given up for
the time being, after some 30,000 Jews had already been sent
there.”
This is followed by a detailed statistical analysis of the individual
countries, headed “Countries and Territories of Expulsion and Deportation,”
the results of which are summarized in the final tables set out below.
Kulischer then devotes a major section to the destination of the deported
Jews, entitled “Territories of Destination and Methods of Confinement,”
which brings to mind the territorial final solution envisioned
by Heydrich: 1028
“The number of the Jews deported up to December 1942 from all
European countries except Poland, i.e. from Germany, France, Belgium,
Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia,
may be estimated on the basis of the figures given above at about
650,000. Furthermore, 50,000 to 60,000 Jews from Bohemia-
Moravia have been confined in a concentration camp within the
country itself. [1029]
1027 This was the Nisko plan. As already stated, the deportations from the “Jewish reservation”
would begin on 20 October 1939; author’s comment.
1028 E.M. Kulischer, op. cit. (note 1019), pp. 107f.
1029 The ghetto of Theresienstadt; author’s comment.