ГУЛаг Палестины - Лев Гунин

overlook as well that in another place, Simon Wiesenthal places what seems to be this

same Lviv pogrom after the arrival of the Germans:

Thousands of detainees were shot dead in their cells by the retreating

Soviets. This gave rise to one of the craziest accusations of that

period: among the strongly anti-Semitic population the rumour was

spread by the Ukrainian nationalists that all Jews were Bolsheviks and

all Bolsheviks were Jews. Hence it was the Jews who were really to

blame for the atrocities committed by the Soviets.

All the Germans needed to do was to exploit this climate of

opinion. It is said that after their arrival they gave the Ukrainians

free rein, for three days, to 'deal' with the Jews. (Simon Wiesenthal,

Justice Not Vengeance, 1989, p. 36, emphasis added)

What does primarily interest me here is that when I attempted to find more

information on this Lviv pogrom - which I took to be either the biggest single pogrom

of the War, or else at least among the biggest - in your The Destruction of the

European Jews, I was unable to locate anything at all resembling such an event, and in

fact, I encountered statements suggesting that such an event did not occur.

Specifically, the following two passages strike me as incompatible with the massive

Lviv pogrom described by Messrs Safer and Wiesenthal:

From the Ukraine Einsatzkommando 6 of Einsatzgruppe C reported as

follows:

Almost nowhere can the population be persuaded to take

active steps against the Jews. This may be explained

by the fear of many people that the Red Army may

return. Again and again this anxiety has been pointed

out to us. Older people have remarked that they had

already experienced in 1918 the sudden retreat of the

Germans. In order to meet the fear psychosis, and in

order to destroy the myth ... which, in the eyes of

many Ukrainians, places the Jew in the position of the

wielder of political power, Einsatzkommando 6 on

several occasions marched Jews before their execution

through the city. Also, care was taken to have

Ukrainian militiamen watch the shooting of Jews.

This "deflation" of the Jews in the public eye did not have the desired

effect. After a few weeks, Einsatzgruppe C complained once more that

the inhabitants did not betray the movements of hidden Jews. The

Ukrainians were passive, benumbed by the "Bolshevist terror." Only the

ethnic Germans in the area were busily working for the Einsatzgruppe.

(Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, 1961, p. 202)

The Slavic population stood estranged and even aghast before the

unfolding spectacle of the "final solution." There was on the whole no

impelling desire to cooperate in a process of such utter ruthlessness.

The fact that the Soviet regime, fighting off the Germans a few hundred

miles to the east, was still threatening to return, undoubtedly acted

as a powerful restraint upon many a potential collaborator. (Raul

Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, 1985, p. 308)

And most particularly, your summary of pogrom activity in Ukraine seemed to flatly rule

out the possibility that such a massive, pre-German, Lviv pogrom had ever taken place:

First, truly spontaneous pogroms, free from Einsatzgruppen influence,

did not take place; all outbreaks were either organized or inspired by

the Einsatzgruppen. Second, all pogroms were implemented within a

short time after the arrival of the killing units. They were not

self-perpetuating, nor could new ones be started after things had

settled down. (Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews,

1985, p. 312)

Examining another work which I also happen to have in my library - Leni Yahil's

The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, Oxford, New York, 1990 - for information on

the Lviv pogrom, I again found nothing. In Yahil's book too I thought that I had in my

hands a thoroughly researched work which could not have overlooked a massive,

pre-German, Lviv pogrom, if one had ever occurred:

When The Holocaust first appeared in Israel in 1987, it was hailed as

the finest, most authoritative history of Hitler's war on the Jews ever

published. Representing twenty years of research and reflection, Leni

Yahil's book won the Shazar prize, one of Israel's highest awards for

historical work. (From the dust jacket)

And so, I would very much appreciate your opinion on this discrepancy. What

appears to be the case to myself and to others in the Ukrainian community is that the

Lviv pogrom, as described by Safer and Wiesenthal, did not take place, and we have been

attempting, with no success whatever, to get 60 Minutes to issue a retraction. If you

were to join your voice to ours in however simple and brief a statement, I think that a

retraction might be forthcoming in short order.

I should explain by way of background that my attitude to this sort of

misstatement is that it is disrespectful to the memory of the Holocaust dead. I do not

believe that the Holocaust dead authorized Messrs Safer and Wiesenthal to replace the

real Holocaust with a grander one which would do more to advance their respective

careers. I believe that by means of their fabrications, Messrs Safer and Wiesenthal do

a great disservice to the perception of Jewish credibility, provide ammunition for

Holocaust deniers, and at the same time harm Ukrainian-Jewish relations.

Thus, if it were true that the Lviv pogrom in question did not take place, and if

you were to release a statement to that effect (if only in a letter to me which I could

quote), I think you would be performing an invaluable service toward enhancing the

perception of Jewish credibility, toward disarming Holocaust deniers, and as well

toward improving Ukrainian-Jewish relations.

Sincerely yours,

Lubomyr Prytulak

HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE HILBERG 806 hits since 31May99

Hilberg reply to Letter 1 15Dec97 Lviv pogrom implicitly denied

Raul Hilberg

236 Prospect Parkway

Burlington, VT 05401

802-863 4653

December 15, 1997

Mr. Lubomyr Prytulak

[...]

Dear Mr. Prytulak,

I have had to delay a reply to your letter of September 15, because I had an almost

impossible deadline for a manuscript, plus two trips, one to Europe and one to

Alberta. Now I have had a chance to reexamine some sources with respect to actions in

Lviv and a few other places within eastern Galicia during the early phase of the

occupation.

Here then are a few more details to complement the sections you have taken from the

1961 edition of my book, The Destruction of the European Jews. The historian Philip

Friedman writes on pages 246-47 of his Roads to Extinction, New York 1980:

By inciteful proclamations, pamphlets, and oral propaganda, the Germans

stirred up mass hatred of the Jews. Persecution and pogroms began

immediately after the entry of the German army. From June 30 to July

3, German soldiers spread through the streets of the city in the

company of Ukrainian nationalists and an unruly mob of the local

population. They fell upon the Jews in the streets, beat them

murderously, and dragged them away for "work" - especially for

cleansing of prisons filled with corpses and blood. Thousands of Jews

were seized and conveyed to the prisons on Zamarstynowska, Jachowicza,

and Lackiego Streets; to the Brygidki prison on Kazimierzowska Street;

and to the Gestapo headquarters, at 59 Pelzynska.

The first mention of these events in a report of the Security Police of July 3, 1941,

is a statement that angered residents had already seized 1,000 Jews. A subsequent

report, dated July 16, 1941, notes that "In Lemberg [Lviv] the population rounded up

about 1,000 Jews, and with mistreatment [unter Mi?handlungen] delivered them to the

[German] army-occupied GPU prison." In the same report, there is mention of the

shooting by the Security Police of 7,000 Jews in all of eastern Galicia. Fifty Jews

were reported to have been killed by local inhabitants in Sambor. Another Security

Police report, dated July 11, 1941, refers to 600 Jews "liquidated" in the course of

"persecutions of Jews inspired by the Einsatzkommando" 4b in Tarnopol.

In conclusion, it would seem that local inhabitants violently seized about a thousand

of the Jews arrested in Lviv. Because of the German role and the presence of Ukrainian

militia, I have not called these actions a pogrom, but that may be a matter of

labeling.

Sincerely,

Raul Hilberg [signature]

HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE JORDAN Jordan > 786 hits since 23May98

Jordan Letter 1 Mar 6/96 Answering 16,000 pieces of mail

March 6, 1996

Michael H. Jordan

Chairman, Westinghouse Electric Corporation

11 Stanwix Street

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

USA 15222

Dear Mr. Jordan:

In the Wall Street Journal article on you of February 28, 1996, the phrase "pulling CBS from the ratings

basement" caught my attention, and led me to wonder whether it would be possible to accomplish such a feat while CBS

continues to be weighed down with personnel who have demonstrated such lapses of intelligence and of integrity as were

requisite to broadcasting "The Ugly Face of Freedom." If you take the trouble to read the enclosed documentation, I

am sure that you will be convinced that my depiction of this broadcast as requiring lapses of both intelligence and

integrity is not hyperbolic, but rather is restrained.

Let me right now give you just one example of the hatemongering that was offered to CBS viewers as investigative

journalism in "The Ugly Face of Freedom." It is Morley Safer reading into the camera - without so much as blinking

"The Church and Government of Ukraine have tried to ease people's fears, suggesting that ... Ukrainians, despite the

allegations, are not genetically anti-Semitic." One might have expected that no mainstream journalist would be able

to speak such words in any public forum and still keep his job. Had someone made up the equally fantastic and

inflammatory "The World Jewish Congress has tried to ease people's fears, suggesting that Jews, despite the

allegations, are not genetically addicted to usury," then surely he would have been out of a job. Mr. Safer did say

one of these things - does it matter which one? - and yet somehow he still works for CBS television, reading his lines

into the camera just as if he is not to be held accountable for his statement, carrying on as before just as if he had

not played the leading role in what may be the most concentrated fifteen minutes of disinformation and hate to come

out of the mainstream media.

CBS's behavior since "The Ugly Face of Freedom" continues in the same vein and encourages the suspicion that

those at its helm continue to be crippled by the same deficit of intelligence and of integrity. Specifically, CBS

claimed first that of the 16,000 pieces of mail which it had received objecting to "The Ugly Face of Freedom," all had

been answered. On being pressed, it later revised the "all" downward to 25%. And only after the Ukrainian community

beat the bushes in a vain attempt to find a single person who had received an answer did CBS revise that figure

downward still another notch - to none at all having been answered. Topping that off, instead of keeping the 16,000

letters of protest on file as is required by the FCC, CBS trashed them. To date, almost one and a half years after

the original broadcast, CBS remains frozen like a deer in the headlights of an onrushing car, devoid on the one hand

of arguments to refute the charges levelled against the broadcast, and devoid also of the courage to admit that these

charges are correct - perhaps taking the advice of its lawyers that when you find yourself unable to say anything

convincing in your own defense, then the best policy is to say nothing at all.

I urge you in the interests both of truth and of redeeming CBS to weed out the incompetents responsible for "The

Ugly Face of Freedom," and to direct CBS to offer its viewers the retraction and apology which are long overdue.

Yours truly,

Lubomyr Prytulak

cc: Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace

HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE JORDAN 625 hits since 23May98

Jordan Letter 2 May 7/96 Confusion concerning the Lviv pogrom

May 7, 1996

Michael H. Jordan

Chairman, Westinghouse Electric Corporation

11 Stanwix Street

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

USA 15222

Dear Mr. Jordan:

In your reply to my letter to you of March 6, 1996, I am particularly looking forward to hearing your comments on

the discrepancies between the following three sets of quotations.

VIEW #1: THE LVIV POGROM WAS MASSIVE AND PRE-GERMAN.

SAFER: He [Simon Wiesenthal] remembers that even before the Germans arrived, Ukrainian police

went on a 3-day killing spree.

WIESENTHAL: And in this 3 days in Lvov alone between 5 and 6 thousand Jews was killed.

...

SAFER: But even before the Germans entered Lvov, the Ukrainian militia, the police, killed 3,000

people in 2 days here. (60 Minutes, The Ugly Face of Freedom, October 23, 1994)

VIEW #2: THE LVIV POGROM WAS MASSIVE AND POST-GERMAN.

The Ukrainian police ... had played a disastrous role in Galicia following the entry of the

German troops at the end of June and the beginning of July 1941. (Simon Wiesenthal, Justice Not

Vengeance, 1989, p. 34, emphasis added)

Thousands of detainees were shot dead in their cells by the retreating Soviets. This gave rise

to one of the craziest accusations of that period: among the strongly anti-Semitic population

the rumour was spread by the Ukrainian nationalists that all Jews were Bolsheviks and all

Bolsheviks were Jews. Hence it was the Jews who were really to blame for the atrocities

committed by the Soviets.

All the Germans needed to do was to exploit this climate of opinion. It is said that after