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

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

In its edition <strong>of</strong> 22 March 1984, Stern published the verbatim account<br />

<strong>of</strong> the conversation between Frenzel and Blatt. 1147 Here are a few<br />

excerpts:<br />

“Blatt: I see you sitting there, drinking your beer. You have a<br />

slight smile on your face. You could be anyone’s neighbor, anyone’s<br />

pal from the local sports club. But you are not just anyone. You are<br />

Karl Frenzel, SS-Oberscharführer. You were number three in the<br />

chain <strong>of</strong> command <strong>of</strong> Sobibór, the extermination camp. You were in<br />

charge <strong>of</strong> Lager I. Do you remember me?<br />

Frenzel: Not really well. You were a little boy at the time.<br />

Blatt: I was 15 years old. <strong>And</strong> I survived because you had me<br />

polish your shoes, no one else survived, not my father, not my mother,<br />

not my brother, none <strong>of</strong> the 2000 Jews from my home town <strong>of</strong> Izbica<br />

survived.<br />

Frenzel: That is terrible, really terrible.<br />

Blatt: At least a quarter <strong>of</strong> a million Jews were murdered at Sobibór.<br />

I survived. Why are you ready to talk to me?<br />

Frenzel: I wish to beg your pardon. […]<br />

Blatt: Philip Bialowitz testified that you caught a 15-year-old<br />

friend <strong>of</strong> his stealing a can <strong>of</strong> sardines. You took him to Lager III, to<br />

the crematorium, and shot him.<br />

Frenzel: That wasn’t me.<br />

Blatt: It wasn’t you? <strong>And</strong> what happened to the Dutch Jews?<br />

Frenzel: A Polish kapo told me that some Dutch Jews were organizing<br />

a revolt and I reported this to Niemann, the deputy camp<br />

commander. He ordered to execute all 72 <strong>of</strong> them.<br />

Blatt: <strong>And</strong> you took them to the gas chamber…<br />

Frenzel: No, I didn’t. […]<br />

Blatt: Sobibór – the annihilation <strong>of</strong> 250,000 Jews – was that your<br />

duty?<br />

Frenzel: We had to do our duty. I am sorry about what happened<br />

there, but I cannot undo it.”<br />

Let us stop for a moment to imagine the scene: After 16 years in<br />

prison Frenzel is a broken man who wants only one thing – not to go to<br />

prison again, to spend his remaining years as a free man. If there was<br />

one way <strong>of</strong> ruining his chances to have his sentence reduced or to be paroled,<br />

it would have been the denial <strong>of</strong> mass exterminations at Sobibór<br />

1147 Ulrich Völklein, “Der Mörder und sein Zeuge” (The murderer and his witness), stern,<br />

No. 13, 22 March 1984.

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