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

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J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 85<br />

14 October. The Jews who succeeded to escape split into various<br />

groups. On 22 October Pechersky’s group encountered a unit <strong>of</strong> Soviet<br />

underground fighters and decided to join them.<br />

An investigation into Pechersky’s fate after that date yields the most<br />

astonishing contradictions. The Russian edition <strong>of</strong> Wikipedia tells us: 190<br />

“After the liberation <strong>of</strong> Byelorussia, [191] Pechersky was suspected<br />

<strong>of</strong> treason and assigned to a disciplinary battalion. The commander<br />

<strong>of</strong> that battalion, Major <strong>And</strong>reyev, was so moved by Pechersky’s account<br />

that, in spite <strong>of</strong> the prohibition to leave the territory <strong>of</strong> the<br />

unit, he allowed Pechersky to travel to Moscow and to depose before<br />

the commission investigating the misdeeds <strong>of</strong> the German-Fascist intruders<br />

and their helpers. Being members <strong>of</strong> the commission, the<br />

writers Pawel Antokolskij and Wenjamin Kawerin heard Pechersky’s<br />

account. On that basis they published an article entitled<br />

Wosstanje w <strong>Sobibor</strong>e (Uprising at Sobibór). [192] After the war, this<br />

text was incorporated into the famous collection The Black Book.<br />

[…] In 1948, during the course <strong>of</strong> the political persecution <strong>of</strong> socalled<br />

‘unpatriotic cosmopolites,’ he lost his job. For the following<br />

five years he could not find employment and depended on the support<br />

<strong>of</strong> his wife.”<br />

However, in a conversation with another Sobibór detainee, Thomas<br />

(Toivi) Blatt, which took place in 1979 according to T. Blatt 193 and in<br />

1980 according to the English edition <strong>of</strong> Wikipedia, 194 Pechersky says<br />

nothing about the disciplinary battalion. Instead he maintains that he<br />

suffered a serious wound in his leg during action in August <strong>of</strong> 1944 and<br />

was awarded a medal for bravery on that occasion. 195 He was, however,<br />

not able to enjoy this for any length <strong>of</strong> time, because, as he tells us: 196<br />

“I was thrown into prison for many years. I was considered a<br />

traitor because I had surrendered to the Germans, even as a<br />

wounded soldier. After people from abroad kept inquiring about me,<br />

I was finally released.”<br />

190<br />

191<br />

192<br />

193<br />

194<br />

195<br />

196<br />

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/,__<br />

The northwestern part <strong>of</strong> the Soviet Union south <strong>of</strong> the Baltic states is referred to at times<br />

as White Russia (literal translation into English), Byelorussia (Russian name),<br />

Byelorussian SSR (political unit <strong>of</strong> the USSR), or Belarus (today’s name <strong>of</strong> the independent<br />

country).<br />

A footnote informs us that this article appeared in No. 4/1945 <strong>of</strong> the magazine Znamya.<br />

T. Blatt, op. cit. (note 17), p. 121.<br />

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pechersky<br />

T. Blatt, op. cit. (note 17), p. 123.<br />

Ibid., p. 124.

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