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

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J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 359<br />

Byelorussia which had been part <strong>of</strong> Poland until September <strong>of</strong> 1939, but<br />

this reasoning does not hold for the members <strong>of</strong> the other nations mentioned.<br />

We cannot explain the presence <strong>of</strong> Dutchmen, Frenchmen, Yugoslavs,<br />

or Greeks among the Byelorussian partisans except by assuming<br />

that they were Jews who had been deported to the East from their<br />

respective countries, although this assumption would not apply to the<br />

Spanish fighters. 1069<br />

Still, in spite <strong>of</strong> many valuable indications and ideas which can be<br />

found in Werner’s book, we must not disregard its glaring shortcomings.<br />

Werner writes at the very beginning <strong>of</strong> the book: 1070<br />

“I assert: 1) The final solution <strong>of</strong> the Jewish question consisted in<br />

the Jews being assigned to the eastern parts <strong>of</strong> White Ruthenia. To<br />

this day [i.e. 1990] they have been kept there by the Soviet Union in<br />

a kind <strong>of</strong> captivity.”<br />

First <strong>of</strong> all, it is impossible for the (i.e. all) deported Jews to have<br />

been settled in the eastern part <strong>of</strong> White Ruthenia, as this was only one<br />

<strong>of</strong> several destinations for these deportees. Furthermore, it is equally<br />

impossible that the decrepit Soviet state, which by 1990 had long since<br />

discovered glasnost, would have been able or even willing to keep hundreds<br />

<strong>of</strong> thousands <strong>of</strong> people not only “in captivity,” but to keep them<br />

from establishing any kind <strong>of</strong> contact with the outside world.<br />

Finally, we cannot accept Werner’s hypothesis that the Germans<br />

would have let the Jews settle freely in the eastern part <strong>of</strong> White Ruthenia.<br />

Werner tries to prove this assumption by means <strong>of</strong> maps allegedly<br />

showing an inexplicably large increase in the number <strong>of</strong> localities in<br />

this area, but one must assume that the occupying German army would<br />

have wanted to exercise strict control over the deportees, something<br />

which would only have been possible by means <strong>of</strong> camps and ghettos.<br />

If the Jews deported to White Ruthenia had really been able to move<br />

around freely, they would have rushed to join the partisans – something<br />

the Germans had every reason to prevent. Therefore, we must assume<br />

that the foreign Jews mentioned above who did join the partisans had<br />

1069 S. Werner believes that these Spaniards were antifascists who had fled to France after<br />

Franco’s victory and were then extradited to the Germans by the Vichy government and<br />

later transferred to Auschwitz. (S. Werner, op. cit. (note 1064), p. 89). As there were only<br />

relatively few Jews living in Spain, this would mean that non-Jewish detainees as well<br />

were moved from Auschwitz into the astern areas. So far we have not found any evidence<br />

for this. We therefore think that these Spaniards were most probably antifascists<br />

who had fled to the Soviet Union after Franco’s victory in the Spanish Civil War.<br />

1070 S. Werner, op. cit. (note 1064), p. 5.

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