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

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

Soon after the end <strong>of</strong> the war, the legend <strong>of</strong> the disappearance <strong>of</strong> the<br />

European Jewry in annihilation camps was declared an <strong>of</strong>ficial truth.<br />

The alleged extermination <strong>of</strong> the Jews was one <strong>of</strong> the central pillars <strong>of</strong><br />

the Nuremberg trial. It is obvious that this legend was extremely useful<br />

for the victors: the worse the atrocities that could be laid at the feet <strong>of</strong><br />

the Third Reich, the more convincing the claim <strong>of</strong> the Allies <strong>of</strong> having<br />

saved Europe from the claws <strong>of</strong> Satan.<br />

The governments <strong>of</strong> the USA and Great-Britain, faced with accusations<br />

by right-wingers <strong>of</strong> having given up half <strong>of</strong> Europe to Soviet totalitarianism,<br />

could easily counter this with the argument that communism<br />

certainly was the lesser <strong>of</strong> two evils by invoking the death camps,<br />

the gas chambers, and six million Jewish victims. Furthermore and by<br />

so doing, they were easily able to hide their own crimes, especially the<br />

carpet bombing <strong>of</strong> German cities and the massive ethnic cleansing<br />

going on in Eastern Europe at that time, behind the smoke-screen <strong>of</strong> the<br />

far more horrible deeds allegedly committed by the vanquished.<br />

What is even more significant in this regard is the fact that the “<strong>Holocaust</strong>”<br />

provided the ideological backing for the justification <strong>of</strong> the<br />

foundation <strong>of</strong> Israel. In 1948 the United Nations pronounced themselves<br />

with 33 votes (against 13) in favor <strong>of</strong> the partition <strong>of</strong> Palestine. In line<br />

with the USA, the USSR also voted for partition and for the foundation<br />

<strong>of</strong> a Jewish state, cherishing no doubt the (unfounded) hope that such a<br />

state would become a bridgehead for the Soviets in the Near East, in<br />

view <strong>of</strong> the sympathies <strong>of</strong> many Jews for the communist idea. 1104<br />

The partition <strong>of</strong> Palestine infringed in an unbelievably brutal way on<br />

the rights <strong>of</strong> the local population. This could be justified by invoking<br />

the “Nazi genocide <strong>of</strong> the Jews” and its “six million victims”: a people<br />

that had undergone such indescribable suffering needed a state <strong>of</strong> its<br />

own, even if the rights <strong>of</strong> another people had to be trampled upon in the<br />

process.<br />

If the tale <strong>of</strong> the gassing <strong>of</strong> the Jews in “extermination camps” was<br />

to be believed world-wide, the deported German, French, Belgian,<br />

Greek, and other Jews could not be allowed to return home in droves<br />

and tell others about their lives as forced laborers or ghetto inmates in<br />

the East. Our hypothesis hence reads as follows:<br />

1104 This point <strong>of</strong> view is confirmed by historian Ge<strong>of</strong>frey Robert who writes: “After the war<br />

a de facto alliance developed between the Soviet Union and the nascent Israeli state. […]<br />

The Soviets did not trust Arab nationalism […] and they saw Zionism as a useful counter<br />

to Western influence in the Middle East.” G. Roberts, Stalin’s Wars: From World War to<br />

Cold War, Yale University Press, New Haven/London 2006, p. 339.

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