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divide cleanly along ethnic lines. The Liberators, and the many other cases
before us, do not illustrate Jews clashing with anti-Semites - rather, they
illustrate the irresponsible clashing with the responsible, the disseminators
of disinformation clashing with the upholders of truth.
Zero repercussions. And so for having told the lies that are told on the
Liberators, have any of the makers of that film suffered any repercussions?
Have any of them been fired? Been demoted? Been censured? Have any of them
suffered a loss of face? Do any of them find that their later work is rejected
because of their earlier loss of credibility? The answer to all these
questions - in all probability - is No!
In American and Canadian society, there is one category of behavior that is
uniquely protected from the repercussions of falsehood - and that is the
category of Jews recounting stories of the Jewish Holocaust. Charges of
falsehood may indeed be levelled, but these are not picked up by the media, and
so make no impact. We have already examined many such cases on the Ukrainian
Archive - the cases of Morley Safer, Neal Sher, Elie Wiesel, and Simon
Wiesenthal standing out - egregious, bald-faced liars all of them, but never
called to task for their lies, honored and even revered despite their lies.
Psychiatric diagnosis of the film's critics. Co-producer of the film, Nina
Rosenblum, accuses critics of the film of being "Holocaust revisionists" and
"racists." But why stop there - why not follow up the two left jabs with the
right-hand haymaker, "anti-Semites"? The answer perhaps is that it may appear
more credible to smear all critics of the film with the same brush, and the
accusation of anti-Semitism does not stick to those critics who happen to be
Jewish. The deployment of terms suggestive of psychological disorder, such as
"revisionist," "racist," or "anti-Semite" exemplifies the stock Jewish ploy of
attempting to silence opposition by dispensing psychiatric diagnoses.
Creating collaborators in disinformation. Jews who lie not only discredit Jews
generally, but also discredit any whom they lure into sharing their lies.
Thus, had the 761st Tank Battalion been seduced into accepting whatever
momentary glory attaches to wrongly claiming to have liberated Buchenwald, then
the 761st would have ultimately suffered a loss of credibility. The 761st does
have genuine achievements, and foresaw only discredit in fabricating any. In
the words of Philip Latimer, president of the 761st veterans' organization,
"The unit has a lot to be proud of ... and I don't want to see it blamed for
this documentary. I don't want the unit to be hurt."
Attempts have been made to seduce Ukrainians, and others, into a similar
complicity in Jewish disinformation, and in the case of Ukrainians, these
attempts have been largely successful. The Ukrainians' reward has been to
receive a Righteous Gentile Award for their efforts in saving Jews during the
Second World War. In accepting such an award, however, such Ukrainians
implicitly acquiesce and lend support to a Jewish history of the war, which is
crammed with disinformation, much of it harmful to Ukrainian interests. Among
the items of disinformation in this false history is that Ukrainians were eager
collaborators of the Nazis (when in reality Ukrainians overwhelmingly served as
opponents), that Ukrainian efforts to save Jews were rare (when in reality
large numbers of Ukrainians took grave risks and even gave their lives to save
Jews), that any anti-Jewish feeling on the part of Ukrainians that did exist
was gratuitous and pathological (when in reality it was founded on a memory of
the recent Jewish domination of the destruction of Ukraine under Communism).
Thus, any Ukrainians who were offered a Righteous Gentile Award should have
declined it for the same reason that the 761st declined to be honored in the
Liberators. Any Ukrainians who have accepted such an award should renounce it.
Ukrainians should consider withdrawing their support from the Public Broadcasting
Service (PBS). The PBS is portrayed by Goldberg as supportive of the
Liberators even after the film had been discredited. Ukrainians may recall,
furthermore, that the PBS broadcast a severely flawed anti-Demjanjuk
documentary despite prior notice on the part of Ukrainian representatives
specifying the nature of these flaws. Observations such as these invite the
conclusion that the PBS acts in sympathy with Jewish disinformation, and in
opposition to Ukrainian interests. For this reason, Ukrainians should consider
withdrawing their support from the PBS.
Ukrainians should consider cancelling their subscriptions to TIME magazine. The
Apollo Theater showing of the Liberators was sponsored by "Time Warner and a
host of rich and influential New Yorkers." Readers of the Ukrainian Archive
will be reminded that TIME magazine was responsible for the calumniation of
Ukraine in the Wallowing Photograph incident. From these two indications, we
may wonder whether Time Warner, and TIME magazine, are not sympathetic toward
Holocaust disinformation and hostile toward Ukrainian interests. After having
been a more than three-decades-long reader of TIME, I recently cancelled my
subscription.
Proven fraud does little to lessen propaganda value. As the Liberators film has
been discredited, it appears to stand little chance of being accepted as
history. However, this does not make the film a failure. The film continues
to be valuable as a tool for shaping public opinion, particularly for molding
the minds of the young. At the time of the writing of the Goldberg article
above, the film was about to be distributed to "all New York City junior and
senior high schools." We may expect, then, that hundreds of thousands of
impressionable students will view the Liberators and will believe it, and that
the refutations of Jeffrey Goldberg, and the soldiers of the 761st Tank
Battalion, and others will reach the ears of only a few. The film may never
succeed as history, but it has a good chance of succeeding as popular history,
and it is popular history that influences elections and that directs the
allocation of government resources.
Choosing between useful lies and harmful truths. One of the weapons within the
armamentarium of the totalitarian controller of information - that a useful lie
is better than a harmful truth - is explicitly wielded by at least one
supporter of the Liberators film:
She [Peggy Tishman] claims that the accuracy of
the film is not the issue. What is important is the
way it can bring Jews and blacks into "dialogue."
There are a lot of truths that are very necessary,"
she says. "This [that the 761st did not liberate
Buchenwald or Dachau] is not a truth that's
necessary."
However, wielding the weapon of the useful lie will succeed only in a context
in which the flow of contrary information can be choked off. In a society that
permits the free flow of information, there is no useful lie, because all lies
stand in danger of being exposed and thus discrediting the liar and his cause.
Thus, we may expect that an ancillary goal of the distributors of
disinformation will be to strangle the free flow of information - and more
specifically, we might expect that those backing efforts such as the Liberators
film will simultaneously back efforts to suppress web sites such as the
Ukrainian Archive. In a totalitarian society, the Liberators film constitutes
a useful day's work for the manipulators of mass opinion; in a free society,
the Liberators film constitutes a self-defeating miscalculation.
Furthermore, such an open avowal of the utility of lying as Peggy Tishman's
above brings to mind the question raised during the discussion of journalistic
fraud Stephen Glass of whether there may exist subcultures which by means of
their tolerance of, or support for, lying produce a disproportionate number of
great liars.
Consorting with Hasidim. In Goldberg's Liberators story above, Hasidic rabbi
Leib Glanz embraces Rev. Jesse Jackson on the stage of the Apollo Theater.
However, "the next night Rabbi Glanz was nearly chased out of synagogue by
angry Hasidim for the transgression of consorting with Mr. Jackson." This
brief description is puzzling, and from it alone we would be unable to arrive
at any strong conclusion, were it not for our having read some of the
characteristics of Hasidism in the writings of Israel Shahak.
With Shahak's description in mind, we are tempted to interpret Rabbi Glanz
being nearly chased out of synagogue by angry Hasidim as a further
demonstration that Hasidic Jews generally are hostile to the idea of any
rapprochement with any non-Jews. That is, Israel Shahak depicts Hasidic Jews
as constituting a debasement of Jewish mysticism, of being superstitious,
fanatical, mysogynistic, given to overindulgence in alcohol, and most
importantly, of being committed to the hatred of all non-Jews. I do not
venture such a description on my own initiative, as I have no personal
knowledge of Hasidism - but I do pass the description along as the opinion of a
reputable authority, Israel Shahak.
The incident of Rabbi Glanz being almost chased out of synagogue can only
remind us of the possibility that it may be one of Ukraine's many misfortunes
that the branch of Judaism which appears to have taken deepest root in Ukraine
is Hasidism. We see this in Hasidic Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich's prominence, as
witnessed in his frequent appearance on the pages of the Ukrainian Weekly, and
we see it as well in the central role he played - in undermining Ukraine, as it
happens - during the 23 October 1994 60 Minutes broadcast, The Ugly Face of
Freedom.
The second-greatest calamity. And so, the second-greatest calamity to befall
the Jewish people during this century - which, after the Holocaust itself, is
Jewish misrepresentation of the Holocaust - deepens and broadens as a result of
the Liberators film. Another blow is struck at Jewish credibility. Another
burden is placed on the backs of Jews - the burden of being remembered for
their leading role during the 20th century as stranglers of information,
manipulators of truth, disseminators of disinformation, and corruptors of
history. The consequence of numbers of Jews lying about the history of their
people must be that whenever any Jew discourses upon history, he may expect to
be greeted with heightened skepticism - such is the penalty that all Jews must
pay for the sin of harboring fabulists in their midst.
HOME DISINFORMATION 60 MINUTES 849 hits since 15-May-2000
Mark Steyn National Post 15-May-2000 CBS fabricates news
"But yet again those old Soviet hardliners can only marvel:
They spent decades smashing presses and jamming
transmitters in an effort to shut down the flow of information.
Americans achieved that happy state just by leaving it to ABC,
CBS and NBC." - Mark Steyn
Mark Steyn in the National Post (Toronto) of 15-May-2000 takes the position that
Donna Dees-Thomases Million Mom March had its projected attendance downgraded to
100,000, though how many actually showed up is the object of varied speculation;
and more importantly that contrary to the attempt to portray Donna Dees-Thomases
as a suburban mother who had never organized anything larger than a car pool
before, she was in reality a CBS employee. In comparison to the massive
distortions of Morley Safer's Ugly Face of Freedom of 23-Oct-1994, the Million Mom
March media stunt seems like a peccadillo, but does contribute to the view of the
mass media as ready to deceive and manipulate, with the CBS perhaps playing a
leading role.
Two excerpts from the longer article:
But, speaking of Casts of Idiots, what about CBS? By now, you may
be curious about that "part-time job," as NBC coyly referred to
it. A couple of waitressing shifts? A little secretarial work
for the school district? No, Donna is a part-time publicist for
David Letterman's Late Show. Before that, she was a full-time
publicist for CBS news anchor Dan Rather. CBS This Morning was
one of the first news shows to report the Million Mom March
movement last September, when Hattie Kauffman interviewed Donna.
"What," asked Hattie, "turns a mild-mannered suburban mom into an
anti-gun activist?"
The correct answer is: "A leave of absence from my employer, CBS,
which, by remarkable coincidence, is also your employer, Hattie."
But that's not what Donna said. Only in the last week has CBS
News begun disclosing that she's one of theirs.
Mark Steyn, Made to Measure for the Media, National Post,
15-May-2000, p. A14.
Heigh-ho. The non-March is over now, and the non-Millions are
relaunching themselves today as a political lobby group. Good
luck to them. But yet again those old Soviet hardliners can only
marvel: They spent decades smashing presses and jamming
transmitters in an effort to shut down the flow of information.
Americans achieved that happy state just by leaving it to ABC, CBS
and NBC.
Mark Steyn, Made to Measure for the Media, National Post,
15-May-2000, p. A14.
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE HILBERG Hilberg > 889 hits since 31May99
Hilberg Letter 1 15Sep97 Invitation to deny Lviv pogrom
September 15, 1997
Raul Hilberg
Department of History
University of Vermont
Burlington, VT
USA 05401-3596
Dear Professor Hilberg:
On October 23, 1994, Morley Safer together with Simon Wiesenthal in the 60 Minutes
story The Ugly Face of Freedom drew attention to an event which I will refer to as the
"Lviv pogrom":
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.
For the moment, let us overlook that the interviewer - Morley Safer is not
citing the evidence of his own professional witness - Simon Wiesenthal - but is instead
offering an unattributed lower estimate within a smaller time interval. And let us
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
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)
VIEW #3: THERE WAS NO LVIV POGROM.
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; and 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, 1961,
p. 201)
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
summarizing anti-Jewish activity in Ukraine, The Destruction of the European Jews, 1961, p. 204)
The Ukrainian violence as a whole did not come up to expectations. (Raul Hilberg, The
Destruction of the European Jews, 1961, p. 204)
Do you not find it disturbing, Mr. Jordan, that 60 Minutes' claim of a massive pre-German pogrom in Lviv is
contradicted by Simon Wiesenthal's earlier statements that the pogrom was post-German? And do you not find it even
more disturbing that when we turn from media stars like Simon Wiesenthal and television announcers like Morley Safer
to respected historians - in fact, the most respected historian of the Jewish Holocaust, Raul Hilberg himself - that
there is a curious lack of awareness of this most egregious of all World War II pogroms, and in fact flat denials that
anything of the sort ever happened?
Yours truly,
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace
Jordan Letter 3 May 14/96 Nowhere is the SS so openly celebrated
May 14, 1996
Michael H. Jordan
Chairman, Westinghouse Electric Corporation
11 Stanwix Street
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
USA 15222
Dear Mr. Jordan:
There are certain questions that keep revolving in my mind to which I can't seem to find any answers - perhaps
you could help me with one of these.
The particular question which I have in mind at the moment is what it was that led Morley Safer to the conclusion
that the Galicia Division reunion in Lviv - scenes of which were shown on "The Ugly Face of Freedom" - was in fact the
most open celebration of the SS imaginable - in Mr. Safer's own words: "Nowhere, not even in Germany, is the SS so
openly celebrated."
Now for what strikes Mr. Safer as being the most open of all conceivable celebrations of the SS, I would think
that the corroborative scenes shown should have contained all, or most, or at least several of the following
ingredients:
(1) a display of photographs of Hitler,
(2) a display of photographs of Himmler, head of the SS,
(3) a display of swastikas,
(4) a display of the lightning-bolt "SS" insignia, or any "SS" insignia,
(5) the playing of Nazi songs, perhaps Nazi marching songs,
(6) goose-stepping on the part of the participants,
(7) participants raising their hands in the "Heil Hitler!" salute,
(8) pro-Nazi literature distributed to the participants as part of the celebration,
(9) pro-Nazi statements elicited from the participants by reporters,
(10) pro-Nazi statements made by speakers addressing the celebrants,
(10) reminiscences of Nazi successes during World War II,
(12) expressions of anti-Semitism.
I would think that before a summary as extreme as "Nowhere, not even in Germany, is the SS so openly celebrated,"
a responsible reporter would have mentally run over such a check-list to measure precisely how much corroboration was
really at hand. Had Mr. Safer done this, he would have come up with a remarkable figure - and that figure is exactly
zero! Zero out of a possible twelve! In other words, the scenes aired by 60 Minutes contain not a shred of evidence
- not the smallest clue, not the slightest hint - that this was in any way a "celebration of the SS." To speak words
as provocative and inflammatory as were Mr. Safer's, while at the same time offering as corroboration scenes which in
no way support those words, perhaps demonstrates the contempt in which Mr. Safer holds the intelligence of the 60
Minutes viewer.
Had Mr. Safer done just a bit of homework before he started talking, he would have discovered that the Galicia
Division was a combat unit whose only role was to fight the Soviet advance on the Eastern Front. Had Mr. Safer done
just a bit of reading before giving vent to his prejudices and stereotypes, he would have discovered that the Galicia
Division has never been so much as accused of any war crimes or any crimes against humanity - not even by the Soviets
who have always been rabidly anti-Nazi, and against whom the Galicia Division fought. Had Mr. Safer demanded from his
support staff even the most superficial research prior to reading his proclamations, he would have discovered that in
at least three formal investigations, the Galicia Division has been judged to have been devoid of Nazi sympathies.
So, then, what was the evidence that Mr. Safer was basing his statement on? How could he have said something so
strikingly at variance with what was being shown on screen? This is the riddle that I wish you would help me solve.
Yours truly,
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE JORDAN 1535 hits since 23May98
Michael Jordan Letter 4 12Jul96 Levitas letter to Za Vilnu Ukrainu
July 12, 1996
Michael H. Jordan
Chairman, Westinghouse Electric Corporation
11 Stanwix Street
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
USA 15222
Dear Mr. Jordan:
I am sending you a translation from the Ukrainian of an open letter to Morley Safer
and the 60 Minutes staff, written by I. M. Levitas, Head of the Jewish Council of
Ukraine as well as of the Nationalities Associations of Ukraine, and published in the
Lviv newspaper Za Vilnu Ukrainu (For a Free Ukraine) on December 2, 1994. In this
letter, Mr. Levitas protests the 60 Minutes broadcast, "The Ugly Face of Freedom."
Mr. Levitas's letter is a cry both of anguish and of outrage, but its more
particular significance to us lies in its bringing to light fresh information
demonstrating the bias of the 60 Minutes broadcast, and as well in showing us that
Ukrainian Jews are foremost among those waiting for a corrective broadcast, and
foremost also among those who are offering their cooperation in the preparation of such
a corrective broadcast.
Mr. Levitas suggests that the severity of the bias combined with the total
suppression of contradictory information that is evident in the 60 Minutes story is
Bolshevik in style. I would go on to suggest to you that just as the countries of the
former Soviet Union cannot hope to thrive without first throwing off the leaders who
are inherently Communist in outlook, so CBS News cannot hope to thrive under the
leadership of individuals whose attitude toward broadcasting is that it is a tool
placed in their hands for the totalitarian manipulation of mass opinion.
Sincerely yours,
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace
WHY DIDN'T YOU SHOW
THE UKRAINIANS AND POLES WHO RESCUED JEWS?
Esteemed Gentlemen! Esteemed program host, Mr. Safer!
It has come to our attention that on October 23, 1994, American television broadcast
a program about events in the city of Lviv and in the Western region of Ukraine. We
have acquainted ourselves with the contents of this program, and have also received
feedback from Jews who recently emigrated from Ukraine to the United States.
Our conclusion: from isolated and insignificant facts you created a broadcast in
which you overwhelmingly crammed distortions and emphasized the negative aspects of
Jewish life, while at the same time hiding the positive aspects which are
considerably more numerous.
Everything that you reported in your broadcast unfortunately exists, but exists only
as isolated events diluted in the normal flow of life in Lviv. By focussing on
these isolated events, you painted an unrelievedly negative picture, and that
constitutes your principal error - unless it wasn't an error at all but rather was
done intentionally.
We are a young democracy, and the unrestrained expression of democratic freedoms may
give birth to untoward manifestations, as is bound to happen in any country,
including the United States - a country of long-standing democracy.
Many bad things, including attitudes toward Jews, have been bequeathed to us from
the past, and it is difficult to wholly eradicate this from the consciousness of the
people.
In your broadcast, you mentioned streets that were renamed after Petliura and
Bandera, but didn't mention that Frunze Street, which before the war was called
Starozhydivska Street ["Ancient Jewish Street"], was also recently renamed
Staroyevreiska Street [also "Ancient Jewish Street" but without the negative
connotation that "zhyd" has in Russian and in Eastern Ukrainian] - and, please note,
not to Starozhydivska Street, in deference to Jewish sensibilities.
You broadcast that contemporary Ukrainians don't know about the Yanivsky
concentration camp. Possibly so - but there has grown up a generation which has
already forgotten about even Auschwitz and Maydanek. But in fact in Ukraine, we do
know about the Yanivsky camp. Our Jewish Council has established a Yanivsky Camp
Foundation. Here in Lviv, we have held conferences dedicated to the memory of this
camp. Where your broadcast shows a woman carrying flowers, a stone memorial has
been erected bearing the Shield of David. I was present at the unveiling of this
memorial. Representatives of the Lviv City Council made presentations at this
ceremony, as did representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholic
Churches. I have in my possession a photograph of this event which I could forward
to you.
Yes, the fence which you showed, and the dogs, unfortunately are there - but these
are remnants of the past. In any case, a decision has been made to get rid of them
and to build a memorial in the same location. You should have reported this. More
to the point, the very first monument in our new Ukraine dedicated to Jewish victims
was erected not far from Lviv, in the town of Chervonohrad. Following that, three
other monuments were erected in our region.
You reported that two Jews were robbed and beaten. This might have happened, but
most likely not because they were Jews. I imagine that in Lviv, Ukrainians are also
robbed (and significantly more often!), and yet nobody draws from this the sort of
conclusions concerning ethnic hostility that you draw from the robbing of these two
Jews.
Our Jewish Council constantly receives news concerning Jews in Ukraine, but during
the past five years, we have received not a single report of anyone being beaten
because he was a Jew. However, it must be admitted that such a thing may have
occurred without it coming to our attention - there are plenty of miscreants in
every country.
Because the facts selected for your broadcast were excessively biased and one-sided,
it is incumbent upon me to give you a view of the other side of Jewish life.
In Lviv, where seven thousand Jews live, there are thirteen Jewish organizations.
There are also active organizations in the rest of the region - in Drohobych,
Boryslav, Truskavets. I can send you all their addresses. Lviv was the first city
in Ukraine to have a Jewish Society (1988), the first Ukraine-Israel Society (1989),
and the first to publish a Jewish newspaper (1989). A Center for the Study of
Jewish History is functioning in the city. Two Jewish-Ukrainian conferences have
before us, do not illustrate Jews clashing with anti-Semites - rather, they
illustrate the irresponsible clashing with the responsible, the disseminators
of disinformation clashing with the upholders of truth.
Zero repercussions. And so for having told the lies that are told on the
Liberators, have any of the makers of that film suffered any repercussions?
Have any of them been fired? Been demoted? Been censured? Have any of them
suffered a loss of face? Do any of them find that their later work is rejected
because of their earlier loss of credibility? The answer to all these
questions - in all probability - is No!
In American and Canadian society, there is one category of behavior that is
uniquely protected from the repercussions of falsehood - and that is the
category of Jews recounting stories of the Jewish Holocaust. Charges of
falsehood may indeed be levelled, but these are not picked up by the media, and
so make no impact. We have already examined many such cases on the Ukrainian
Archive - the cases of Morley Safer, Neal Sher, Elie Wiesel, and Simon
Wiesenthal standing out - egregious, bald-faced liars all of them, but never
called to task for their lies, honored and even revered despite their lies.
Psychiatric diagnosis of the film's critics. Co-producer of the film, Nina
Rosenblum, accuses critics of the film of being "Holocaust revisionists" and
"racists." But why stop there - why not follow up the two left jabs with the
right-hand haymaker, "anti-Semites"? The answer perhaps is that it may appear
more credible to smear all critics of the film with the same brush, and the
accusation of anti-Semitism does not stick to those critics who happen to be
Jewish. The deployment of terms suggestive of psychological disorder, such as
"revisionist," "racist," or "anti-Semite" exemplifies the stock Jewish ploy of
attempting to silence opposition by dispensing psychiatric diagnoses.
Creating collaborators in disinformation. Jews who lie not only discredit Jews
generally, but also discredit any whom they lure into sharing their lies.
Thus, had the 761st Tank Battalion been seduced into accepting whatever
momentary glory attaches to wrongly claiming to have liberated Buchenwald, then
the 761st would have ultimately suffered a loss of credibility. The 761st does
have genuine achievements, and foresaw only discredit in fabricating any. In
the words of Philip Latimer, president of the 761st veterans' organization,
"The unit has a lot to be proud of ... and I don't want to see it blamed for
this documentary. I don't want the unit to be hurt."
Attempts have been made to seduce Ukrainians, and others, into a similar
complicity in Jewish disinformation, and in the case of Ukrainians, these
attempts have been largely successful. The Ukrainians' reward has been to
receive a Righteous Gentile Award for their efforts in saving Jews during the
Second World War. In accepting such an award, however, such Ukrainians
implicitly acquiesce and lend support to a Jewish history of the war, which is
crammed with disinformation, much of it harmful to Ukrainian interests. Among
the items of disinformation in this false history is that Ukrainians were eager
collaborators of the Nazis (when in reality Ukrainians overwhelmingly served as
opponents), that Ukrainian efforts to save Jews were rare (when in reality
large numbers of Ukrainians took grave risks and even gave their lives to save
Jews), that any anti-Jewish feeling on the part of Ukrainians that did exist
was gratuitous and pathological (when in reality it was founded on a memory of
the recent Jewish domination of the destruction of Ukraine under Communism).
Thus, any Ukrainians who were offered a Righteous Gentile Award should have
declined it for the same reason that the 761st declined to be honored in the
Liberators. Any Ukrainians who have accepted such an award should renounce it.
Ukrainians should consider withdrawing their support from the Public Broadcasting
Service (PBS). The PBS is portrayed by Goldberg as supportive of the
Liberators even after the film had been discredited. Ukrainians may recall,
furthermore, that the PBS broadcast a severely flawed anti-Demjanjuk
documentary despite prior notice on the part of Ukrainian representatives
specifying the nature of these flaws. Observations such as these invite the
conclusion that the PBS acts in sympathy with Jewish disinformation, and in
opposition to Ukrainian interests. For this reason, Ukrainians should consider
withdrawing their support from the PBS.
Ukrainians should consider cancelling their subscriptions to TIME magazine. The
Apollo Theater showing of the Liberators was sponsored by "Time Warner and a
host of rich and influential New Yorkers." Readers of the Ukrainian Archive
will be reminded that TIME magazine was responsible for the calumniation of
Ukraine in the Wallowing Photograph incident. From these two indications, we
may wonder whether Time Warner, and TIME magazine, are not sympathetic toward
Holocaust disinformation and hostile toward Ukrainian interests. After having
been a more than three-decades-long reader of TIME, I recently cancelled my
subscription.
Proven fraud does little to lessen propaganda value. As the Liberators film has
been discredited, it appears to stand little chance of being accepted as
history. However, this does not make the film a failure. The film continues
to be valuable as a tool for shaping public opinion, particularly for molding
the minds of the young. At the time of the writing of the Goldberg article
above, the film was about to be distributed to "all New York City junior and
senior high schools." We may expect, then, that hundreds of thousands of
impressionable students will view the Liberators and will believe it, and that
the refutations of Jeffrey Goldberg, and the soldiers of the 761st Tank
Battalion, and others will reach the ears of only a few. The film may never
succeed as history, but it has a good chance of succeeding as popular history,
and it is popular history that influences elections and that directs the
allocation of government resources.
Choosing between useful lies and harmful truths. One of the weapons within the
armamentarium of the totalitarian controller of information - that a useful lie
is better than a harmful truth - is explicitly wielded by at least one
supporter of the Liberators film:
She [Peggy Tishman] claims that the accuracy of
the film is not the issue. What is important is the
way it can bring Jews and blacks into "dialogue."
There are a lot of truths that are very necessary,"
she says. "This [that the 761st did not liberate
Buchenwald or Dachau] is not a truth that's
necessary."
However, wielding the weapon of the useful lie will succeed only in a context
in which the flow of contrary information can be choked off. In a society that
permits the free flow of information, there is no useful lie, because all lies
stand in danger of being exposed and thus discrediting the liar and his cause.
Thus, we may expect that an ancillary goal of the distributors of
disinformation will be to strangle the free flow of information - and more
specifically, we might expect that those backing efforts such as the Liberators
film will simultaneously back efforts to suppress web sites such as the
Ukrainian Archive. In a totalitarian society, the Liberators film constitutes
a useful day's work for the manipulators of mass opinion; in a free society,
the Liberators film constitutes a self-defeating miscalculation.
Furthermore, such an open avowal of the utility of lying as Peggy Tishman's
above brings to mind the question raised during the discussion of journalistic
fraud Stephen Glass of whether there may exist subcultures which by means of
their tolerance of, or support for, lying produce a disproportionate number of
great liars.
Consorting with Hasidim. In Goldberg's Liberators story above, Hasidic rabbi
Leib Glanz embraces Rev. Jesse Jackson on the stage of the Apollo Theater.
However, "the next night Rabbi Glanz was nearly chased out of synagogue by
angry Hasidim for the transgression of consorting with Mr. Jackson." This
brief description is puzzling, and from it alone we would be unable to arrive
at any strong conclusion, were it not for our having read some of the
characteristics of Hasidism in the writings of Israel Shahak.
With Shahak's description in mind, we are tempted to interpret Rabbi Glanz
being nearly chased out of synagogue by angry Hasidim as a further
demonstration that Hasidic Jews generally are hostile to the idea of any
rapprochement with any non-Jews. That is, Israel Shahak depicts Hasidic Jews
as constituting a debasement of Jewish mysticism, of being superstitious,
fanatical, mysogynistic, given to overindulgence in alcohol, and most
importantly, of being committed to the hatred of all non-Jews. I do not
venture such a description on my own initiative, as I have no personal
knowledge of Hasidism - but I do pass the description along as the opinion of a
reputable authority, Israel Shahak.
The incident of Rabbi Glanz being almost chased out of synagogue can only
remind us of the possibility that it may be one of Ukraine's many misfortunes
that the branch of Judaism which appears to have taken deepest root in Ukraine
is Hasidism. We see this in Hasidic Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich's prominence, as
witnessed in his frequent appearance on the pages of the Ukrainian Weekly, and
we see it as well in the central role he played - in undermining Ukraine, as it
happens - during the 23 October 1994 60 Minutes broadcast, The Ugly Face of
Freedom.
The second-greatest calamity. And so, the second-greatest calamity to befall
the Jewish people during this century - which, after the Holocaust itself, is
Jewish misrepresentation of the Holocaust - deepens and broadens as a result of
the Liberators film. Another blow is struck at Jewish credibility. Another
burden is placed on the backs of Jews - the burden of being remembered for
their leading role during the 20th century as stranglers of information,
manipulators of truth, disseminators of disinformation, and corruptors of
history. The consequence of numbers of Jews lying about the history of their
people must be that whenever any Jew discourses upon history, he may expect to
be greeted with heightened skepticism - such is the penalty that all Jews must
pay for the sin of harboring fabulists in their midst.
HOME DISINFORMATION 60 MINUTES 849 hits since 15-May-2000
Mark Steyn National Post 15-May-2000 CBS fabricates news
"But yet again those old Soviet hardliners can only marvel:
They spent decades smashing presses and jamming
transmitters in an effort to shut down the flow of information.
Americans achieved that happy state just by leaving it to ABC,
CBS and NBC." - Mark Steyn
Mark Steyn in the National Post (Toronto) of 15-May-2000 takes the position that
Donna Dees-Thomases Million Mom March had its projected attendance downgraded to
100,000, though how many actually showed up is the object of varied speculation;
and more importantly that contrary to the attempt to portray Donna Dees-Thomases
as a suburban mother who had never organized anything larger than a car pool
before, she was in reality a CBS employee. In comparison to the massive
distortions of Morley Safer's Ugly Face of Freedom of 23-Oct-1994, the Million Mom
March media stunt seems like a peccadillo, but does contribute to the view of the
mass media as ready to deceive and manipulate, with the CBS perhaps playing a
leading role.
Two excerpts from the longer article:
But, speaking of Casts of Idiots, what about CBS? By now, you may
be curious about that "part-time job," as NBC coyly referred to
it. A couple of waitressing shifts? A little secretarial work
for the school district? No, Donna is a part-time publicist for
David Letterman's Late Show. Before that, she was a full-time
publicist for CBS news anchor Dan Rather. CBS This Morning was
one of the first news shows to report the Million Mom March
movement last September, when Hattie Kauffman interviewed Donna.
"What," asked Hattie, "turns a mild-mannered suburban mom into an
anti-gun activist?"
The correct answer is: "A leave of absence from my employer, CBS,
which, by remarkable coincidence, is also your employer, Hattie."
But that's not what Donna said. Only in the last week has CBS
News begun disclosing that she's one of theirs.
Mark Steyn, Made to Measure for the Media, National Post,
15-May-2000, p. A14.
Heigh-ho. The non-March is over now, and the non-Millions are
relaunching themselves today as a political lobby group. Good
luck to them. But yet again those old Soviet hardliners can only
marvel: They spent decades smashing presses and jamming
transmitters in an effort to shut down the flow of information.
Americans achieved that happy state just by leaving it to ABC, CBS
and NBC.
Mark Steyn, Made to Measure for the Media, National Post,
15-May-2000, p. A14.
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE HILBERG Hilberg > 889 hits since 31May99
Hilberg Letter 1 15Sep97 Invitation to deny Lviv pogrom
September 15, 1997
Raul Hilberg
Department of History
University of Vermont
Burlington, VT
USA 05401-3596
Dear Professor Hilberg:
On October 23, 1994, Morley Safer together with Simon Wiesenthal in the 60 Minutes
story The Ugly Face of Freedom drew attention to an event which I will refer to as the
"Lviv pogrom":
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.
For the moment, let us overlook that the interviewer - Morley Safer is not
citing the evidence of his own professional witness - Simon Wiesenthal - but is instead
offering an unattributed lower estimate within a smaller time interval. And let us
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
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)
VIEW #3: THERE WAS NO LVIV POGROM.
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; and 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, 1961,
p. 201)
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
summarizing anti-Jewish activity in Ukraine, The Destruction of the European Jews, 1961, p. 204)
The Ukrainian violence as a whole did not come up to expectations. (Raul Hilberg, The
Destruction of the European Jews, 1961, p. 204)
Do you not find it disturbing, Mr. Jordan, that 60 Minutes' claim of a massive pre-German pogrom in Lviv is
contradicted by Simon Wiesenthal's earlier statements that the pogrom was post-German? And do you not find it even
more disturbing that when we turn from media stars like Simon Wiesenthal and television announcers like Morley Safer
to respected historians - in fact, the most respected historian of the Jewish Holocaust, Raul Hilberg himself - that
there is a curious lack of awareness of this most egregious of all World War II pogroms, and in fact flat denials that
anything of the sort ever happened?
Yours truly,
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace
Jordan Letter 3 May 14/96 Nowhere is the SS so openly celebrated
May 14, 1996
Michael H. Jordan
Chairman, Westinghouse Electric Corporation
11 Stanwix Street
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
USA 15222
Dear Mr. Jordan:
There are certain questions that keep revolving in my mind to which I can't seem to find any answers - perhaps
you could help me with one of these.
The particular question which I have in mind at the moment is what it was that led Morley Safer to the conclusion
that the Galicia Division reunion in Lviv - scenes of which were shown on "The Ugly Face of Freedom" - was in fact the
most open celebration of the SS imaginable - in Mr. Safer's own words: "Nowhere, not even in Germany, is the SS so
openly celebrated."
Now for what strikes Mr. Safer as being the most open of all conceivable celebrations of the SS, I would think
that the corroborative scenes shown should have contained all, or most, or at least several of the following
ingredients:
(1) a display of photographs of Hitler,
(2) a display of photographs of Himmler, head of the SS,
(3) a display of swastikas,
(4) a display of the lightning-bolt "SS" insignia, or any "SS" insignia,
(5) the playing of Nazi songs, perhaps Nazi marching songs,
(6) goose-stepping on the part of the participants,
(7) participants raising their hands in the "Heil Hitler!" salute,
(8) pro-Nazi literature distributed to the participants as part of the celebration,
(9) pro-Nazi statements elicited from the participants by reporters,
(10) pro-Nazi statements made by speakers addressing the celebrants,
(10) reminiscences of Nazi successes during World War II,
(12) expressions of anti-Semitism.
I would think that before a summary as extreme as "Nowhere, not even in Germany, is the SS so openly celebrated,"
a responsible reporter would have mentally run over such a check-list to measure precisely how much corroboration was
really at hand. Had Mr. Safer done this, he would have come up with a remarkable figure - and that figure is exactly
zero! Zero out of a possible twelve! In other words, the scenes aired by 60 Minutes contain not a shred of evidence
- not the smallest clue, not the slightest hint - that this was in any way a "celebration of the SS." To speak words
as provocative and inflammatory as were Mr. Safer's, while at the same time offering as corroboration scenes which in
no way support those words, perhaps demonstrates the contempt in which Mr. Safer holds the intelligence of the 60
Minutes viewer.
Had Mr. Safer done just a bit of homework before he started talking, he would have discovered that the Galicia
Division was a combat unit whose only role was to fight the Soviet advance on the Eastern Front. Had Mr. Safer done
just a bit of reading before giving vent to his prejudices and stereotypes, he would have discovered that the Galicia
Division has never been so much as accused of any war crimes or any crimes against humanity - not even by the Soviets
who have always been rabidly anti-Nazi, and against whom the Galicia Division fought. Had Mr. Safer demanded from his
support staff even the most superficial research prior to reading his proclamations, he would have discovered that in
at least three formal investigations, the Galicia Division has been judged to have been devoid of Nazi sympathies.
So, then, what was the evidence that Mr. Safer was basing his statement on? How could he have said something so
strikingly at variance with what was being shown on screen? This is the riddle that I wish you would help me solve.
Yours truly,
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE JORDAN 1535 hits since 23May98
Michael Jordan Letter 4 12Jul96 Levitas letter to Za Vilnu Ukrainu
July 12, 1996
Michael H. Jordan
Chairman, Westinghouse Electric Corporation
11 Stanwix Street
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
USA 15222
Dear Mr. Jordan:
I am sending you a translation from the Ukrainian of an open letter to Morley Safer
and the 60 Minutes staff, written by I. M. Levitas, Head of the Jewish Council of
Ukraine as well as of the Nationalities Associations of Ukraine, and published in the
Lviv newspaper Za Vilnu Ukrainu (For a Free Ukraine) on December 2, 1994. In this
letter, Mr. Levitas protests the 60 Minutes broadcast, "The Ugly Face of Freedom."
Mr. Levitas's letter is a cry both of anguish and of outrage, but its more
particular significance to us lies in its bringing to light fresh information
demonstrating the bias of the 60 Minutes broadcast, and as well in showing us that
Ukrainian Jews are foremost among those waiting for a corrective broadcast, and
foremost also among those who are offering their cooperation in the preparation of such
a corrective broadcast.
Mr. Levitas suggests that the severity of the bias combined with the total
suppression of contradictory information that is evident in the 60 Minutes story is
Bolshevik in style. I would go on to suggest to you that just as the countries of the
former Soviet Union cannot hope to thrive without first throwing off the leaders who
are inherently Communist in outlook, so CBS News cannot hope to thrive under the
leadership of individuals whose attitude toward broadcasting is that it is a tool
placed in their hands for the totalitarian manipulation of mass opinion.
Sincerely yours,
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Morley Safer, Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace
WHY DIDN'T YOU SHOW
THE UKRAINIANS AND POLES WHO RESCUED JEWS?
Esteemed Gentlemen! Esteemed program host, Mr. Safer!
It has come to our attention that on October 23, 1994, American television broadcast
a program about events in the city of Lviv and in the Western region of Ukraine. We
have acquainted ourselves with the contents of this program, and have also received
feedback from Jews who recently emigrated from Ukraine to the United States.
Our conclusion: from isolated and insignificant facts you created a broadcast in
which you overwhelmingly crammed distortions and emphasized the negative aspects of
Jewish life, while at the same time hiding the positive aspects which are
considerably more numerous.
Everything that you reported in your broadcast unfortunately exists, but exists only
as isolated events diluted in the normal flow of life in Lviv. By focussing on
these isolated events, you painted an unrelievedly negative picture, and that
constitutes your principal error - unless it wasn't an error at all but rather was
done intentionally.
We are a young democracy, and the unrestrained expression of democratic freedoms may
give birth to untoward manifestations, as is bound to happen in any country,
including the United States - a country of long-standing democracy.
Many bad things, including attitudes toward Jews, have been bequeathed to us from
the past, and it is difficult to wholly eradicate this from the consciousness of the
people.
In your broadcast, you mentioned streets that were renamed after Petliura and
Bandera, but didn't mention that Frunze Street, which before the war was called
Starozhydivska Street ["Ancient Jewish Street"], was also recently renamed
Staroyevreiska Street [also "Ancient Jewish Street" but without the negative
connotation that "zhyd" has in Russian and in Eastern Ukrainian] - and, please note,
not to Starozhydivska Street, in deference to Jewish sensibilities.
You broadcast that contemporary Ukrainians don't know about the Yanivsky
concentration camp. Possibly so - but there has grown up a generation which has
already forgotten about even Auschwitz and Maydanek. But in fact in Ukraine, we do
know about the Yanivsky camp. Our Jewish Council has established a Yanivsky Camp
Foundation. Here in Lviv, we have held conferences dedicated to the memory of this
camp. Where your broadcast shows a woman carrying flowers, a stone memorial has
been erected bearing the Shield of David. I was present at the unveiling of this
memorial. Representatives of the Lviv City Council made presentations at this
ceremony, as did representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholic
Churches. I have in my possession a photograph of this event which I could forward
to you.
Yes, the fence which you showed, and the dogs, unfortunately are there - but these
are remnants of the past. In any case, a decision has been made to get rid of them
and to build a memorial in the same location. You should have reported this. More
to the point, the very first monument in our new Ukraine dedicated to Jewish victims
was erected not far from Lviv, in the town of Chervonohrad. Following that, three
other monuments were erected in our region.
You reported that two Jews were robbed and beaten. This might have happened, but
most likely not because they were Jews. I imagine that in Lviv, Ukrainians are also
robbed (and significantly more often!), and yet nobody draws from this the sort of
conclusions concerning ethnic hostility that you draw from the robbing of these two
Jews.
Our Jewish Council constantly receives news concerning Jews in Ukraine, but during
the past five years, we have received not a single report of anyone being beaten
because he was a Jew. However, it must be admitted that such a thing may have
occurred without it coming to our attention - there are plenty of miscreants in
every country.
Because the facts selected for your broadcast were excessively biased and one-sided,
it is incumbent upon me to give you a view of the other side of Jewish life.
In Lviv, where seven thousand Jews live, there are thirteen Jewish organizations.
There are also active organizations in the rest of the region - in Drohobych,
Boryslav, Truskavets. I can send you all their addresses. Lviv was the first city
in Ukraine to have a Jewish Society (1988), the first Ukraine-Israel Society (1989),
and the first to publish a Jewish newspaper (1989). A Center for the Study of
Jewish History is functioning in the city. Two Jewish-Ukrainian conferences have