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Report back to me as soon as you deliver them [Wiesenthal along with a fellow prisoner]." (Alan
Levy, The Wiesenthal File, 1993, p. 37)
These passages invite several pertinent conclusions which a man of integrity and conscience would have insisted
on bringing to Morley Safer's attention:
(1) You yourself, Mr. Wiesenthal, can see a Ukrainian police official having his face slapped by a German
sergeant, which serves to remind you that Ukraine is under occupation, to show you who is really in charge, to suggest
that the German attitude toward Ukrainians is one of contempt and that the expression of this contempt is
unrestrained.
(2) You yourself see also that Bodnar's flat is subject to searches, indicating that although he is a participant
in the anti-Jewish actions, he is a distrusted participant, and a participant who might feel intimidated by the
hostile scrutiny of the occupying Nazis.
(3) But most important of all, you see that the German sergeant is waiting for Bodnar to report back. Alan Levy
writes that "Bodnar was ... concerned ... that now he [Bodnar] had to account, verbally at least, for his two
prisoners" (p. 37). If Bodnar reports back with the news that you, Mr. Wiesenthal, escaped, then how might Bodnar
expect the face-slapping German sergeant to respond? For Bodnar at this point in the story to actually allow you, Mr.
Wiesenthal, to escape is heroic, it is self-sacrificing, it is suicidal. And yet the forgotten Bodnar does go ahead
and effect your escape, probably never imagining that in later years this will become an event unworthy of notice
during your blanket condemnation of Ukrainians.
What I urge you to do now, Mr. Wiesenthal, is the following:
(1) Conduct a search to determine the fate of the forgotten Bodnar, and bestow upon him the recognition that he
deserves for his heroic action. Hopefully, Bodnar is still alive, so that the recognition will not be posthumous.
Hopefully, Bodnar did not sacrifice his life to save yours, as then your ingratitude would be truly black.
(2) Bring the forgotten Bodnar to the attention of Morley Safer at 60 Minutes, and ask for some correction of the
negative image created of the Ukrainian police.
(3) Search your memory long and hard and determine a version of the story which appears to be closest to the
truth, and then publish it as the official account, because at present, the wildly different versions in your several
biographies create the negative image of someone who just spews tall tales off the top of his head, without any
consideration for making them consistent with earlier versions of those same tales. For example, Mr. Wiesenthal, what
impression do you imagine is created in the mind of a reader who is told in Justice Not Vengeance that Bodnar saved
you alone and took you to his apartment, but then is told in The Wiesenthal File that Bodnar saved you together with
another prisoner and took the two of you to the office of a "commissar" which office the two of you spent the entire
night cleaning? I will tell you what impression is created, Mr. Wiesenthal - it is that of a person lying so
clumsily, that one almost imagines that he does so in order to be caught and exposed so as to finally be able to
confess and to purge his conscience.
Sincerely yours,
Lubomyr Prytulak
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE WIESENTHAL 879 hits since 18Jan98
Wiesenthal Letter 15 Sep 8/97 The elusive Lviv pogrom
September 8, 1997
Simon Wiesenthal
Jewish Documentation Center
Salztorgasse 6
1010 Vienna
Austria
Dear Mr. Wiesenthal:
According to your testimony on the 60 Minutes broadcast of October 23, 1994, "The Ugly Face of Freedom," in three
days following the evacuation of the Communist forces and before the arrival of the German troops, Ukrainian police
killed between five and six thousand Jews:
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.
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
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 - in this case, I am quoting from the 1961 edition)
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)
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)
It would seem, Mr. Wiesenthal, that you were an eyewitness - the only eyewitness - to the largest pogrom of the
war, and that at the same time, at least two of the foremost chroniclers of the Jewish Holocaust have quite overlooked
this program, and in the case of Raul Hilberg, flatly deny that any such pogrom ever took place. According to
Hilberg, all Ukrainian pogroms took place after the arrival of the Germans, were instigated by the Germans, were small
in scale, and had no momentum of their own.
In view of this oversight on the part of the historians, Mr. Wiesenthal, shouldn't you get in touch with them and
recount your experiences to them so that the story of the Lviv pogrom is not lost to future generations, and so that
Jewish hatred of Ukrainians is not diminished by the loss?
Sincerely yours,
Lubomyr Prytulak
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE WIESENTHAL 906 hits since 18Jan98
Wiesenthal Letter 16 Sep 9/97 Shifting date for the Lviv pogrom
September 9, 1997
Simon Wiesenthal
Jewish Documentation Center
Salztorgasse 6
1010 Vienna
Austria
Dear Mr. Wiesenthal:
In my letter to you of September 8, I demonstrated that two prominent historians seem to be unaware of the
pre-German Lviv pogrom which killed 5 to 6 thousand Jews, at least as claimed by Morley Safer and yourself on the 60
Minutes broadcast, The Ugly Face of Freedom of October 23, 1994. I will remind you that in that 60 Minutes broadcast,
Morley Safer twice asserts - once seemingly in your hearing - that the Lviv pogrom antedated the arrival of the
Germans, thus placing culpability squarely at the feet of the Ukrainian perpetrators.
In a continuing effort to learn more about this Lviv pogrom, I turned to your biographical Justice Not Vengeance,
only to discover you claiming that this pogrom postdated 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)
As the timing of the Lviv pogrom is critical to assigning blame, I would have expected this timing to have been
verified with care and to be either consistent between the two reports, or else with an explanation offered for any
inconsistency. Instead, I find that you along with Morley Safer have broadcast a version in 1994 that directly
contradicts a version that you published five years earlier in 1989.
I look forward to hearing your clarification of this discrepancy.
Sincerely yours,
Lubomyr Prytulak
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE WIESENTHAL 2113 hits since 18Jan98
Wiesenthal Letter 18 Sep 11/97 Questions concerning the Waffen SS
September 11, 1997
Simon Wiesenthal
Jewish Documentation Center
Salztorgasse 6
1010 Vienna
Austria
Dear Mr. Wiesenthal:
Your accusation that Canada harbors a large number of war criminals has been
incessant over the years, and at one point led to the creation of Canada's Deschenes
Commission on War Criminals. This accusation seems to be based primarily on Canada's
presently being home to some former members of the Ukrainian Galicia Division, combined
with the fact that the Galicia Division was categorized by the Germans as belonging to
the Waffen SS.
The first question that I would like to put to you, Mr. Wiesenthal, is whether you
are aware that the Waffen SS was a combat unit that played no role in the management of
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