ГУЛаг Палестины

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.

Now before going beyond what was actually said in the broadcast, we already see a discrepancy which I ask you to

comment on. Specifically, you are the expert on the Holocaust who is testifying on 60 Minutes, and more than that you

are the eyewitness to the Lviv pogrom - the only eyewitness - and you tell Morley Safer that 5 to 6 thousand Jews were

killed in three days - but then Mr. Safer turns around and changes it to 3 thousand killed in two days. This does not

seem fair - after all you were there and Morley Safer wasn't, and whereas for Mr. Safer, this is just a story that he

is covering, for you it is the pivotal experience which determined the course of your life, the experience which in

the words of Mr. Safer, "compelled Wiesenthal to seek out the guilty, to bring justice."

So I wonder why Morley Safer changed your numbers? As you are the only witness adduced, Mr. Safer seems to have

lowered your figures on his own initiative. I wonder if you have contacted Mr. Safer concerning his revision of your

estimate, or if in your subsequent discussions with Mr. Safer, you might have by now arrived at a mutually-agreed

estimate? If you have, I wonder if you would be able to tell me whether Mr. Safer has agreed to raise his estimate,

or if you have agreed to lower yours?

Be that as it may, it must surprise you to learn that when I consulted Leni Yahil's The Holocaust: The Fate of

European Jewry, Oxford, New York, 1990 for further information on the Lviv pogrom, I found nothing. There is no

indication in Yahil's book that such a pogrom ever took place. If Yahil's book were cursory or carelessly researched,

then the oversight of the single largest pogrom of the War might be understandable, but if we are to believe the

book's dust jacket, then it is one of the best works on the Jewish Holocaust ever written:

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.

Well, in my continuing quest to learn more about the Lviv pogrom which you describe on 60 Minutes, I turned next

to Raul Hilberg's The Destruction of the European Jews, Holmes Meier, New York, 1985. This work too cannot be

accused of being either cursory or carelessly researched. For example, the publisher's promotional material claims:

This landmark work, now substantially revised and expanded, is destined to remain the foremost

source to which historians and others must turn in any exploration of the most infamous crime in

history.

...

This definitive edition of THE DESTRUCTION OF THE EUROPEAN JEWS is the most complete,

comprehensive, and authoritative account of the Nazi Holocaust.

As well, this same promotional material cites critical acclaim for Hilberg's work in Michael R. Marrus's review in The

Times Literary Supplement which ends in the words:

No single book has contributed more, even to its critics, to an understanding of Nazi genocide.

In its originality, scope, and seriousness of theme, this is one of the great historical works

of our time.

But what does Hilberg say about the Lviv pogrom, this most massive pogrom of the Second World War; what does he

say in his "most complete, comprehensive, and authoritative account of the Nazi Holocaust"? Why he says ... exactly

nothing! He too seems to be totally unaware of it.

Worse than that - much worse - Hilberg makes statements to the effect that no such pogrom ever took place. I

reproduce below three quotations from Hilberg, the last of which is particularly troubling, as it is his summary of

all anti-Jewish activity in Ukraine, and it flatly contradicts the possibility of the pogrom that you describe:

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