“..Behold ..historian called to render his accounts. He does so without an inner tremor. What craftsman ..has not asked himself ..whether he has spent his life wisely. ..question far transcends ..minor scruples of a professional conscience. ..our entire Western civilisation is concerned in it.” Marc Bloch.
The Jewish People were ideologically opposed to the notion that civilisation could and would betray them and I take that forward as a personal accusation of what is an unfathomable atrocity identified as The Holocaust. The Jewish People too resisted the temptation to believe, even as the incremental details of what was emerging rendered them both incredulous and aghast, they went toward destruction, at least in those formative days, both not knowing what awaited them, and then, what was inexplicably presented to them. Hope indeed had been the last to die, and in the killing sites and death camps, all hope of redeeming a credible civilisation from outside their position was irretrievably consumed in a hail of bullets, poison gas and indiscriminate but systematic slaughter.
“..Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race ..religion ..political views ..that place must ..at that moment ..become ..centre of ..universe.” Elie Wiesel.
I move with words that seek to describe The Holocaust, which must be deliberate in order to both inform and come closer to our failing attempts to explain the full horror, for what many more than the 6,000,000 slaughtered Jews fully endured. This is personal for me and what must not happen in regaling the appalling lack of effort to even alleviate the Jewish suffering is for me to enlist a failed eulogy which meets this confrontation with that past that cannot ever be compromised or comprehended. However, the fully exposed, unbridled and factual truth, which the Survivor will identify with, must not find in our effort a position so uncomfortable that it appears at all salacious, though its truth is coarse and even abusing the reality of the very atrocity we seek to describe.
“..Of ..500,000 Jews whom ..Nazis attempted to destroy in Warsaw ..there were but a few 1,000 Survivors who are now scattered ..world over.” Jonas Turkow.
Of course numbers enter the word exercise in order to expand that understanding of consuming humanity in the grip of a wider spread hatred forged by human beings. I have studied The Art of War all the way through World War Two and beyond, and its thesis has always focused on the contrivance of humanity to survive in all manner of conflict. But, and in an earlier search I had considered, there was a narrower field of research which centred upon an essay on the actions of der Einsatzgruppe. Though this sought to qualify the inhuman actions of some 3,000 human beings, it was not about the Jews as such, nor of the few Survivor’s of these actions who inform us. But, it was more to do with how low humanity can sink in the mass murdering People for who they are. Remember too, that here in this final resolve catered for by many millions of so called christians confronting the Jewish People, there was the enactment of The Final Solution of The Jewish Question.
“..Solution of ..Jewish Question in Poland ..perhaps ..only bridge on which ..German occupier could meet ..majority of Polish society.” Jan Karski.
All Jews, organically linked to The Holocaust, and not through any choice that they had made in The Holocaust history, but an enforced term of atrocity unprecedented, unparalleled and unique in all of history. Here, and through the Survivor, these remnants of the 11,283,300 Jews of Europe targeted for Destruction, these Jews we expect and hope will bridge the divide between their knowledge and what We all are required to know. We continually deliver the trauma, me in the words I use and others, in various forms of the Arts chosen to deliver their truths. I fully acknowledge the pain and suffering, which we might exacerbate in the telling, is a necessary detail in ensuring the full horror is wholly known.
“..first and foremost perpetrator was Adolf Hitler. ..without him it would have been inconceivable.” Raul Hilberg.
This eventual solution at first, and as and where the Jews were to be met, was as yet not considered to be a genocidal assault. My own personal view of The Holocaust considers what is and was endured by 6,000,000 Jews and the evisceration of them as a body of People, for being Jews. That particular assessment is as wide as it is broadly inclusive of 11,293,300 Jews of Europe and their discerning space amongst us. There are 4 degrees in all of history towards and from which The Holocaust finally emerged and this emergence has consistently struck more deeply at the core values civilisation has purportedly delivered toward our own humanity. Here in this evaluation I learned from Raul Hilberg, who became a foremost authority on The Holocaust and its destructive capacity, that the incremental stages toward the evidence of the hatred had spread through all of history for more than 2,000 years.
1 You may not live among us as Jews as christianity sought to convert the Jews away from Judaism.
2 You may not live among us at all and this saw the Jewish expulsion into the terms of the Ghetto we have learned from.
3 You may not live stemmed from the failure to come up with a territorial resolution and as such, The Final Solution became the catastrophe we have evidenced as 6,000,000 Jews of Europe were Slaughtered, The Holocaust.
4 You may not be remembered within The Holocaust as the very denial, which seeks to remove these Jewish People from all that was raged against them also seeks to resurrect the despicable nature of Hitler.
Ostensibly, that burgeoning threat to Jewish existence would be met in a far ranging assault upon the very integrity of 3,650,000 Polish Jews, rooted to Poland, fixed to their homeland. Here, I remember at the time of my first writing that essay, how a map of coffins could betray humanity with such symbols. Clearly, and forever signifying the mass Murder of the Jews they portrayed, it becomes obvious that denial does not look too closely at all the evidence and testimony that is laid before it. For me though, these first stumblings across the tragedy for the Jewish People is significant in that my further search would consume more than any simple interest could qualify.
“..when ..heads of ..major nations in ..world faced ..new Germany with cool reserve and considerable suspicion ..Catholic Church ..greatest moral power on earth ..through ..Concordat expressed its confidence in ..new German government.” Guenter Lewy.
Since that initial study, I have gone on to write a Book that did not suit a particular publisher’s remit and then complete x4 Books which regale against the connivance of humanity to be inhumane. To this day, my work proves a powerful affront to those who would both deny and denounce the accusation contained in my work. Those who merely see my effort as a Jewish response, or even as propaganda fail as human beings. That there is that other accusation, which comes with that rather insidious shout as to some profiteering motive does not appreciate a human concern for the assault upon humanity. The fact that 6,000,000 Jewish People were assailed, systematically sought out for Slaughter and indiscriminately brought toward Destruction, is an accusation against all of Humanity.
“..I asked Wanda ..if she would like to be listed among ..Righteous Among Nations and she replied ‘no’ because she feared that ..Jew-haters in ..area would find out and her sons would suffer”. Frank Blaichman.
True, that accusation comes to the fore from Jews in particular, as those who were most affected by their People’s destruction, but also by those of us who hold humanity with any esteem at all. I know exactly the concern of civilisation and in knowing what needs to be learned, my conscience is perfectly clear. Here, and for where Poland is geographically, I render my account with scruples, knowing full well civilisation depends upon its concerns as it is crafted and with its artistry, with integrity. On my many visits to Poland, I have met plenty of wonderful Polish People, some Jewish, some not. For me though, it is crucial for All Polish People to accept that if Poland cannot live with the truth of its past it should stay out of History.
“..For long months we had been suffering because ..world was deaf and dumb to our unparalleled tragedy. We complained about Polish public opinion ..about ..liaison men in contact with ..Polish government in exile. ..why weren’t they reporting to ..world ..story of ..slaughter of Polish Jewry. We accused Polish liaison men of deliberately keeping our tragedy quiet ..so that their tragedy might not be thrown into ..shade. ..now it seems that all our interventions have finally achieved their purpose. There have been regular broadcasts over ..English radio ..last few weeks ..treating of ..cruelties perpetrated on Polish Jews ..Belzec. Today ..a broadcast summarizing situation ..700,000 ..number of Jews killed in Poland was mentioned. ..broadcast vowed revenge ..a final accounting for all these deeds of violence. Oyneg Shabes has fulfilled a great historical mission. It has alarmed ..world to our fate ..and perhaps saved 100’s of 1,000’s of Polish Jews from extermination. ..I do not know who of our group will survive ..to work through our collected material. ..one thing is clear to all of us. Our toils ..tribulations ..devotion and constant terror ..have not been in vain. We have struck ..enemy ..hard blow. ..not important ..revelation of ..incredible slaughter of Jews will have ..desired effect ..whether or not ..methodical liquidation of entire Jewish communities will stop.” Emanuel Ringelblum.
It is starkly obvious that in history The Holocaust has identified this grave fall from grace and where 6,000,000 Jews were marked for destruction they were so abandoned by the World that they were annihilated. I have been reflecting, researching and writing upon this catastrophe for the Jewish People of Europe for more than 25 years. So while we seemingly stand in judgement, history cannot be altered so as to trivialise the truth that confronts it. With some bias, inactivity or indifference, this polish government does damage to the reputation of All Poles who have studied the integrity of History and for those Poles who have honoured its past. In many places in Poland, there were non-Jewish Poles who became fearful of what would target them after all the Jews were removed for destruction.
“..destiny of humankind ..between Fall and ..Judgement appears to its eyes as a long adventure ..of which each life ..each individual pilgrimage ..is in its turn a reflection. ..in time ..in history ..great drama of Sin and Redemption ..central axis of all Christian thought is unfolded.” Marc Bloch.
Why should this be the case if Polish Jewry had not been targeted and so ritually slaughtered in the first place and it is obvious that lies cannot compete with the facts. To dismiss this truth, so as to conceal the intolerances clearly expressed as they echo to us, and when during The Final Solution of The Jewish Question, we recognise that the truth was not switched off. That sort after and flawed revisioning that this right wing polish government is now seeking, so as to deliver the wanton vandalism of factual integrity, must be confronted. I am all too well aware that many nations wish to revisit their past in relation to what they allowed happen to their own Jewish Community. They too must be remonstrated with and brought back into line where historical integrity is countenanced only by what truth reveals.
“..Polish people in general were sympathetic to ..problems of Jews ..many Polish ..rob ..blackmail ..denounce or ..murder Jews in hiding.” Jan Karski.
There are heroes of Poland who are clearly recognised by the World as such who still state the case for a collaborative effort within Poland, by non-Jewish poles who sought to add toward what Hitler demanded is exactly as Jan Karski noted for us here. What is forever meant to uphold the values of historical probity, cannot be bartered over or be abandoned to alter the truth. History brought into disrepute is corrupted beyond recognition and distorts the view of all of history. The unedifying spectacle of seeking to alter all that we know of what happened to the Jews of Europe, thus becomes the severing of an intellectual tradition that has stood good for more than 10,000 years. This is what the present day polish government pressures us with and we, the advocates of Historical correctness resist with every intellectual value worthy of humanities civilising influence.
“..transport ..largest ..due to leave Prague September 1st. 1939. Hitler invaded Poland ..borders closed 250 Children ..not allowed ..depart. ..all later deported to ..camps ..perished with my 2 young Cousins.” Vera Gissing.
We become aware in the midst of the spectre of War that the Jewish People are seeking to escape what is imminent, particularly in Poland and with Hitler seemingly marching across Europe at will, the Jews are being too readily sacrificed by those nations under Hitlerite threat. People like Vera Gissing, whose luck ensured she was finally saved for Survive, to have escaped all that she is still so gravely tortured by, for what was left behind and is lost. Of course, while a human altruism exists throughout all of humanity, here in the darkest recesses of The Holocaust what has emerged is the worst of humanity. This surety is barely countered by the placement of The Righteous Amongst the Gentiles in the midst of the turmoil of hatred which led so distinctly toward the eventual catastrophe of 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jews of Europe.
“..going to ..gas chambers was easier than being exposed to all ..horror.” Esther Raab.
But these righteous human beings did not merely see the emerging horror and ignore the consequences, personally threatening to them in order to act. What they declared, as the terror industry raged against their Jewish Cousins, Friends, Neighbours and fellow Countrymen, Women and Children was to act in accord with a conscience borne out of civilisings demand and for the Righteous, they acted in good conscience. Because the human spirit is always free to make its own choices, it should none the less. and should always be made, with a fuller moral content and an ethical extension conforming to the best of human intentions. For the many who Survived though, the right to Survival did not belong to them and the choices they were given was to die or accept the easier option to go to the gas chamber.
“..Our art ..our literary monuments ..resound with echoes of ..past.” Marc Bloch.
I have made it perfectly clear in my writing who I am to all those I have spoken with and in doing so what my final aim is in recalling The Holocaust. I have a demand to learn rightly to add to the missing memory for 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jews, who are The Holocaust. Amongst this offending human Catastrophe are amongst them some 3,000,000 Polish Jews whose protection now demands an undoing of the bad lessons being proposed in Poland today. Although my work is contained within strict Historical disciplines, those parameters I observe are established and are here set by an establishment of a World conflict so as to camouflage Hitler’s more prescient demand, The Final Solution of the Jewish Question. For me though, World War II is a separated discipline, as the conflict itself is defined by millennia of factional infighting.
“..mein kampf ..with absolute correctness contains 139,900 mistakes. ..in ..earliest editions ..there were about 100 words ..quite correct ..as to subject and form.” Lion Feuchtwanger.
What we have in The Holocaust is other than such principles of warfare, as has emerged through treaty and appeasement but by a term of genocide which Raphael Lemkin had to construct to contain it. Many people, informed, academic and well intentioned realised the prospect of what Hitler’s final resolve would be, and these spoke out, uttered words that confronted Hitler and his Nazi’s and placed themselves in final jeopardy. This made Feuchtwanger a fugitive, a very popular target for the Nazis who sought to first curtail his language and then detain and ensure his eradication. But, from within his eponymous work, Jud Suss, the power of Feuchtwanger’s words, which stood as a bastion against Hitler’s Nazism, and was a beacon that was increasingly adding its light and shedding the shade slowly emerging from the deep darkness that is to become, The Holocaust.
“..Jews in Poland are helpless. They cannot rely on ..Polish underground or ..general population.” Jan Karski.
Of course, such was the many angles from which we approach the subject that we recognise the many heroes who sought to assuage the complicit nature of doing too little. Jan Karski, in relating to this period, will forever add honour to those dead, killed and murdered, and all of those deserving of honour. It is without question that the innocents, these 6,000,000 Jews of Europe must be honoured as their Slaughter proves unequal, unparalleled and unprecedented in all of history. I recognise too, and from within Poland, some acted against Polish Jewish interests and these I castigate and will not give definition to. For them, to merely call them out as non-Jewish poles is not enough as Poland seeks to bury such accusations in denial of their existence. There, in that assessment, is a minor protest which differentiates these from other non-Jewish Poles who acted with a sense of compassion or with christian concern. It is a small protest in the omitted capital letters but then, it separates Good from bad and all of Humanity from the evil mankind is capable of.
“..For many parts of ..Polish society it is very difficult ..since for decades they were victims themselves ..of ..Nazis. ..countries around Poland ..Ukraine ..Baltic States ..same level of public debate about their relationship with their own Jewish minority.” Jan Grabowski.
Are we to believe that History will betray us for the want of man to conceal the truth in favour of fashioning out a lie that better suits. I have Never gained anything from allowing this study of mine to become other than the search for truth of all that happened to 6,000,000 Jews on their way toward destruction. But, and what the polish government of the moment is pursuing is both vengeful, wrong and against every precept of human decency. For an essential to be accorded to the memory of 6,000,000 People for being Jews, it is necessary to accuse all of those who betrayed their own humanity to gain anything from the betrayal of their Jewish Community’s. I am Not for forgetting the very fact that, of that total of 3,000,000 of Polish Jewry that has been consumed, all of Poland treads heavily upon a Jewish graveyard of such immensity, the Jewish People have need of that recognition. There are so many specific sites to attend to within and outside Poland that Poland and many other nations must do more to honour all they have lost.
“..civilisations may change. It is not In itself inconceivable that ours may ..turn away from history ..historians would do well to reflect on ..possibility. .there is danger that badly understood history could involve good history in its disrepute. But should we come to this ..it would be at ..cost of a serious rupture with our most unvarying intellectual traditions.” Marc Bloch.
To be honest! Those who propose in any study of The Holocaust, so as to totally undermine the reasoning for such a study are both shameful and disingenuous. The truth will never be altered by those who seek to revise the fact that many non-Jewish poles acted against the best interests of Polish Jewry. As a consequence of such collusive actions, Poland’s national sovereignty during Hitler’s rampage against all of Poland has been defaced by lies, deceit and untruths. The agenda of a populist government does not invoke nor engender a proper research of History. That which is mandatory in understanding the lessens of history, and for them to be driven forward, must acknowledge all that is within history, both Good and bad. It is clear from the small minded amongst us, and their only response is hardly credible, and if all they have is to blight further the memory of the truth, their ignorance will serve that polish History will become so distorted, it will not be history.
“..When I stand before you ..to lead ..Prosecution of Adolf Eichmann ..I am not standing alone. With me are 6,000,000 accusers. ..they cannot rise ..and point an accusing finger. ..For their ashes are piled up on ..hills of Auschwitz and ..fields of Treblinka ..and are strewn in ..forests of Poland. Their graves are scattered throughout ..length and breadth of Europe. Their blood cries out ..but their voice is not heard. ..I will be their spokesman and in their name I will unfold ..awesome indictment.” Gideon Hausner.
I will place the truth constantly before you and you must decide why ignorance is used to counter the factual truth of The Holocaust and its overriding principles conveying its integrity. I will be honest with you all here. I am angry and I always feel I have no right to be. I have put myself out there to ensure memory is not only continuous in Remembering what happened to 6,000,000 Jews of Europe, but it is consistent. I am not sure if there is any particular platform which informs us more correctly than those written into Books words. For all those who otherwise are uninterested in what amounts to the singular assault upon Jewish integrity, and that is The Holocaust, they must leave the arena of research to those who see in their search a need to comprehend the incomprehensible. For my part, I will call out all those seeking to undermine The Holocaust relevance, for them to seek to bury the truth. For me, in more than 25 years, this is not the first time there has been this persistent and sought after revision of the truth on these pages of all of history.
“..Do you know where ..Jews of Austria ..and of Germany ..Holland ..Czechoslovakia and France are. ..in Poland ..taken in cattle cars ..70 into each car. What happened to them I do not know ..I can only guess.” Eva Heyman.
But! I will not bow to the denial that seems to precipitate what my aim is, and that is in Memory of 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jews. I have never Ever stated that only Jews were Victims but stick consistently to what Elie Wiesel tells us, All Jews Were Victims. While it is always a fact that my work, Books especially, are attacked, it is not their content that is only assailed but it is the very detail of why a non-Jew would choose to write on The Holocaust. How that confronts the issues of denial is written in a 3,000 year old hatred still fomenting discord amongst like minded bigots and malcontents. I have it on good authority too that any commercial success will Not come from writing about The Holocaust, so my reasoning has Never been commercially based. Publisher’s have insisted on that certainty with my choice of words to use. Elie Wiesel pointed me too to so few who would choose to place themselves in the firing line for a uniquely Jewish aspect of History that is the Slaughter of 6,000,000 Jews for being Jews.
“..Whenever our exacting Western society .in ..continuing crisis of growth ..begins to doubt itself ..it asks ..whether it has done well in trying to learn from ..past ..and ..learned rightly.” Marc Bloch.
But I am not deterred and once, when I met with a Survivor more than 20 years ago and his incredulity over why I would choose such a ‘twisted’ route toward putting my words into Book form, his words touched me deeply. For him, it was simply a regular confrontation with those that he found all too willing to deny and doubt with far too many wishing to criticise him for being a Jew. For him too, he was criticised for supporting a proposed biased Jewish narrative and for him specifically trying to live off of the backs of such destruction. He was right of course to see in the hatred a semblance of what he faced in his days in The Holocaust. For me, I have been criticised for being a Jew. I often wish I was as I too support the factual truth of The Holocaust and its integrity in all of History. The veritable bias raged against my work, a work which only seeks the truth ahead of the distortion being brought to it by denial, deceit and the desire to exculpate nation’s who were complicit, duplicitous, indifferent and even intolerant, takes me forward.
“..During ..tenure of office of defendant Wilhelm Frick as Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia ..from August ..1943 ..until ..liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945 ..many thousands of Czechoslovak Jews were transported from ..Terezin Ghetto ..Czechoslovakia to ..Camp at Oswiecziem ..Auschwitz ..in Poland and were there killed in ..gas chambers.” Dr. Robert Max Wasilii Kempner.
For all too many nations, in face of the very reality we now recognise is, the Slaughter of 6,000,000 Jews of Europe, The Holocaust, they did far too little or even nothing whatsoever to prevent what they were witnessing. For what they were being informed was taking place from the ranks of an intelligence service employed to engage with the truth, the truth was shaded until it obscured what was known. I guess I must attach some response to the lack of commercial success of writing on The Holocaust. It is just not possible to eke out any sort of living on such work as it is a source of deep wounding and hurt to moral humanity and an accusation that has cursed the immoral who struck at the Jewish presence amongst us. For me, the commitment is too grave, the contribution is too personal and the overwhelming desire for this effort is in being acknowledged for what I seek to give back to those who have been taken from us. For any people who seek to insult any part of this endeavour, they can always achieve their aim.
“..Nazis were responsible for this tragedy it is they who murdered most of 3,000,000 Jews who lived in Poland before World War II. ..Germans were able to mobilize segments of ..Polish society to take part in their plan to hunt down ..Jews and help them carry out their Final Solution.” Jan Grabowski.
As far back as September 4th. 1939, as the French government stood ready to confront Hitler and his continuing march on Europe, there began a round up and internment of Polish and German Jewish nationals. Many of the Jewish and non-Jewish nationals were deposited in detention centres at Les-Mille and after the Nazi invasion of France, May 10th. 1940, more Jews were interred at Gurs. Here, with a consideration with regards to what Jewish Resistance means during the period of The Holocaust, we must look deeply at the collusion of so many nations and their non-Jewish nationals. If then we give thought to perhaps what is the grandest resistance, we will find more to credit the Jewish struggle than perhaps we have done. This is quoted in what Yehuda Bauer reveals as the gravest sacrifice that a Jewish Parent makes in ensuring that their Children’s future lives on, and in many Country’s Jewish Children were given safety ahead of their own Parents destruction .
“..Heartbreaking as it was for ..Parents ..they wanted to rescue their Children first and foremost so ..handed them over to strangers.” Yehuda Bauer.
In nothing that I state or have written will ever defeat the fundamental fact that my Books counter the denial attempt to revise History. As Books, they seek to certainly restrain the lamentable abuse centred around what we know happened to 6,000,000 Jewish People. I want People to buy my Books to place them before the altar of History as a fact of their counter balance to denial, but equally, to inform the Jewish People that they are Never alone amongst those whose desire has always been to correct the wrongs done and establish the truth beyond denial. What is obvious to me, and as I was looking toward the outside of each and everyone of the x6 Death Camps in Poland, it could not escape local attention as to what was happening to the Jewish People alighting from all too many transports.
“..Read what was written before ..or what might be written today. Among ..confused murmurings of ..present ..complaint mingling its voice with ..others.” Marc Bloch.
What the local non-Jewish Poles knew, what they should and could have known, did Not establish a protective route of safety for some 4,000,000 Slaughtered Polish and other European Jews. As we research and recognise in the historian, and the historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it, we all must display an integrity which is objective and truthful. Historians too are only concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race. In the context of The Holocaust it is surely true that if the World is not yet convinced that the Death Camps are an abhorrence, and if antisemitism best survives where those who pledge an allegiance to an us or a them and are allowed prosper, we will have further failed 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jews.
“..if World could become convinced Auschwitz never existed it would be easier to build a second Auschwitz and no certainty it would devour only Jews.” Primo Levi.
It is as a right wing advocate of the curtailing of free speech, so as to lend a discourse which is divisive and is hurtful to All that antisemitism continually emerges. Such latent hatred is latterly adapted and it remains for us to ensure that No people is criticised for their uniqueness amongst us. As well as that, the study of all history in our time establishes that it is not simply enough to learn about history but it is an imperative that we learn to pass along what we must learn from its lessons. To become, even remotely, dedicated to the study of The Holocaust, is an achievement in human understanding if we even slightly comprehend the gravity of the loss we all share. Therefore, and it is necessary for us all, so as to form the expertise of words adding further to memory, that we not only articulate our concern but set in stone a deeply disturbing realising of the inhumanity in The Holocaust.
“..Book ..yes ..their Book. They had no state ..holding them together ..no country ..no soil ..no king ..no form of life in common. If ..in spite of this ..they were one ..more one than all ..other peoples of ..world ..it was ..Book that sweated them into unity. Brown ..white ..black ..yellow Jews ..large and small ..splendid and in rags ..godless and pious ..they might crouch and dream all their lives in a quiet room ..or fare splendidly in a radiant ..golden whirlwind over ..earth ..but sunk deep in all of them was ..lesson of ..Book. Manifold is ..world ..but it is vain and fleeting as wind ..but one and only is ..God of Israel ..everlasting ..infinite ..Jehovah.” Lion Feuchtwanger.
The catastrophe itself is of such an immense and horrifying proportions, a past whose events marks out the inhuman responses of human beings toward other’s. If one seeks to respond as an artisan of words, as a commentator, as a testifier, or as a witness and even a scribe of the next Book, the words must be carefully chosen. It is patently obvious, and for me a scurrilous effort, that for anyone who identifies with the form of national socialism Hitler proposed, this obscenity has taught humanity everything it needs to know of the bestiality of the Human spirit. As I see it, there is nothing inherently wrong in the ideals of Communism, Socialism or even the proponent parts of Marxism which are designed to serve us all as People.
“..Everyone knows ..what happened in Warsaw ..Slonim ..it is already time to count ..cities where ..catastrophies did not occur. ..understand ..better to be sent to Wolkowsk than ..Treblinka.” Ephraim Barash.
However, just as in their ideological and eventual corruption, an example is set which contributes toward excess and similarity’s of abuse we all too easily see in places like Treblinka. For Hitler’s assault upon the Jewish People, places such as the Death Camps were positioned first and foremost within Poland’s border’s to ensure 3,650,000 Polish Jews could be extinguished first. But, and it is in the interpretation of beings seeking power, that this is where the corruption occurs and in the case of the Death Camps and the Killing Sites of The Holocaust, it attempts still to corrupt this truth in our history most profoundly. For all three of these ideological bases, from which mutual community should be sourced, the Jews were merely separated out from the social norms by an accusation that the Jews were issued from the search for equality as its proponent part.
“..There are visions that a normal man cannot conceive of.” Ber Freiberg.
So as to ensure equality is gained for all people, these ideals all should form the basis of community, those best served with all People equal together. Therefore, in a history too readily corrupted in which The Holocaust seeks to Survive, the ugliness of antisemitism has not strayed too far from the World stage. There are varying positions which I sit alongside, each competing, legitimately, for what differing views would consider are the rights and wrongs of history. The Holocaust is no exception and the rights and wrongs belong to those Jews treated so abysmally, and by those who are not ever to be considered justifiable nor right. My vision of this overwhelming atrocity has been shaped by life’s experience but even this cannot compete with the knowledge of those like Ber Freiberg who know fully what Sobibor meant.
“..We Jews ..most unfortunate People in ..World ..have beheaded murderers of Children ..have put bullets into ..heads of scoundrels ..into their sadistic heads.” Haim Treger.
For me then, what response that comes from that place of degradation, and Sobibor is but a Death Camp amongst the machinery of extermination, that we must aim all effort at accusing those who pushed the Jews there and left them to a fate they did not deserve. I will never accept therefore, that the Survivor is not entitled to any view they wish to present as an entitlement they have been forced to live with. I will not disagree with the Survivor, and though often I have hopefully shown that where our differences might divert, and there is to be an acceptance of another point of view, it is subordinate to what only the Survivor truly knows. For instance, and in the realm of the Death Camps, those who have Survived them know that these Death Camps are clearly distinguishable from the camps of death for all Jews who entered them.
“..Jews ..you are going to burn.” Itzhak Lichtman.
Also, and while knowledge of the Death Camps in Poland was known in intricate detail by those outside their gates, be that here at Sobibor or anywhere else from amongst these 6 purpose built Death Camps, all erected in Poland, truth has been fashioned to suggest none too many knew anything at all. However, and I will inherently agree always with the Survivor, simply because I cannot know from mere research what they intrinsically know all too well, that their knowledge surpasses my own. Where the Survivor might identify the non-Jewish poles as guilty of every conceivable crime against them, these Jews know exactly what was done against them and by those very non-Jewish poles who committed the crimes.
“..deported to ..Belzec ..extermination camp. ..unloaded ..had to strip naked. ..about 4,500 people on ..transport. ..women had ..heads shaved. ..driven into ..corridor. ..building was low ..long ..broad. ..built of grey concrete ..a flat roof made of roofing felt ..with a net over it ..covered with branches. Three steps ..led into ..building. ..front of ..building stood a large flowerpot with colourful flowers ..placard ..‘Bath and inhalation Rooms.’ ..steps led into a dark ..empty corridor which was very long ..only 1.5 m. wide. To ..left and right of it were ..doors to ..6 gas chambers. Each chamber could hold 750 people. ..building was ..concrete. Gassing took ..20 minutes. Gas ..fed through pipes from ..engine in ..small hut a 2 x 2 m. shed which housed ..gas machine.. ..operated machine which dug ..earth out of pits which served as graves for ..gassed. ..In ..opposite wall of every chamber was a removable door through which ..bodies of ..gassed were thrown out. ..I ..had to drag ..corpses out of ..gas chambers ..to ..pits. ..30 graves ..100 metres long ..25 metres wide 15 metres deep. 100,000 corpses could be buried. ..corpses ..stacked up to ..50 centimetres above ..edge of ..pit ..because ..corpses later settled.” Rudolf Reder.
In all that I have presented, it is imperative that only the facts, as I know them, and as they can only touch upon what I cannot begin to appreciate, it is what the Survivor fully understood. For the Jews, in the midst of the conflagration, what it is I have to pass on to history is toward the memory of what these Jewish People were forced to endure. I have yet to come up with a set of words that might deal adequately with the betrayal of the Jewish People, and by an ostensibly civilised and christian peoples. Human civilisation allowed for the Jews of Europe to be earmarked for destruction. How could I countenance other than an accusation as wide ranging as it is evident of the gravest wrong ever perpetrated against any People anywhere in time. The truth is clear also, and for 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jews who took those steps along the route toward extinction, it was while knowing full well that their World stood along the sidelines and allowed for them to perish.
“..To Survive Sobibor does not mean to continue living.” Herszel Zukerman.
There Is a Last Solitary Coach
There is a last, solitary coach about to leave.
Let us get in and go, For it won’t wait.
I have seen young girls going softly
With sad faces
That looked ashamed and sorry
Like purple sunsets,
And chubby, pink children
Who went simply
Because they were called.
And I’ve seen men
Who stepped proud and straight through the world’s streets,
Whose large eyes went ranging Far and wide,
They too got in calmly And left.
And we are the last.
Day is declining.
The last, solitary coach is about to leave.
Let us too get in quietly And go,
For it won’t wait.” David Vogel.
