The Black Book of Polish jewry

[Stubble]

Periodically I revisit and ruminate over things I have been through previously, for such is my nature. From time to time this exercise yields some kind of fruit.

I revisited 'The Black Book' (a famous work of atrocity propaganda from 1943) and ran across something. On page 158 of my pdf copy (page 122 of a physical copy), I found reference to jews from the Warsaw ghetto transited east and put to work. I will share the passage here;

About 25,000 Jews were deported from Lublin in sealed railway cars to an unknown destination and all trace of them was lost" [and] "of the 250,000 Jews deported from the Warsaw Ghetto up to September 1, 1942, only two small transports, numbering about 4,000 people, are known to have been sent eastwards in the direction of Brzesc and Malachowicze, allegedly to be employed on work behind the front lines. It was not possible to ascertain whether any of the other Jews deported from the Warsaw Ghetto still survive and it must be feared that they have been all put to death

2 transports of 4,000 people is more than none although I must admit, it is a bit short of the full number. I did mark it as strange that this mainstream accepted work hasn't been brought up before when people talk about transit through the camps, from the Warsaw Ghetto no less.

I just figured I'd share this little tidbit and get everyone's thoughts on this.

https://archive.org/details/the-black-b ... jewry-1943

Edit: Changed link address

[Hektor]

Excellent. Is that booklet somewhere downloadable....? I recall there is a "Black Book of Soviet Jewry"....

[Stubble]

Link in op, download in options.

Unless I'm mistaken, the black book is sometimes mislabeled as 'soviet jewry' rather than Polish. I will dig.

I stand corrected;

https://archive.org/details/TheBlackBoo ... y/mode/1up

THE BLACK BOOK

The Ruthless Murder of Jews by German-Fascist Invaders Throughout the Temporarily-Occupied Regions of The Soviet Union and in the Death Camps of Poland During the War of 1941-1945

Prepared under the editorship of

Ilya Ehrenburg & Vasily Grossman

Translated from the Russian by

John Glad and James S. Levine

HOLOCAUST LIBRARY

Via Yad Vashim apparently. As it has a fresh copyright from 1990, I will not be hosting it.

[Archie]

The Black Book was published in late 1943 and it is a useful compendium/survey of the atrocity propaganda up till that point.

-It has a long account of Treblinka (the famous steam chamber report)
-It has accounts for Chelmno and Belzec and mentions of Sobibor

But what is really curious about it is that while it does mention Auschwitz/Oswiecim, the description of it is in no way consistent with the current understanding of Auschwitz. This is because Auschwitz did not become the centerpiece of the legend until 1944. We are asked to believe then that Auschwitz was a mass murder factory through much of 1942 and all through 1943 but that nobody noticed.

[Stubble]

What caught my attention on my last reading was 'jews transited east' from Warsaw. I would assume through the Bug River Camps.

You are absolutely right though Archie, it is useful to read as a 'refresher' with regard to these 'accurate early reports' I keep hearing about that 'prove' the veracity of the claim if those shoveling literal propaganda at me are to be believed.

[Booze]

The Black Book was published in late 1943 and it is a useful compendium/survey of the atrocity propaganda up till that point.

-It has a long account of Treblinka (the famous steam chamber report)
-It has accounts for Chelmno and Belzec and mentions of Sobibor

But what is really curious about it is that while it does mention Auschwitz/Oswiecim, the description of it is in no way consistent with the current understanding of Auschwitz. This is because Auschwitz did not become the centerpiece of the legend until 1944. We are asked to believe then that Auschwitz was a mass murder factory through much of 1942 and all through 1943 but that nobody noticed.

Expand on that if you would. Are we saying that the underground reports (I don't know how many there were) didn't come out until '44 or that Auschwitz simply wasn't mainstream until '44?

[Archie]

The Black Book was published in late 1943 and it is a useful compendium/survey of the atrocity propaganda up till that point.

-It has a long account of Treblinka (the famous steam chamber report)
-It has accounts for Chelmno and Belzec and mentions of Sobibor

But what is really curious about it is that while it does mention Auschwitz/Oswiecim, the description of it is in no way consistent with the current understanding of Auschwitz. This is because Auschwitz did not become the centerpiece of the legend until 1944. We are asked to believe then that Auschwitz was a mass murder factory through much of 1942 and all through 1943 but that nobody noticed.

Expand on that if you would. Are we saying that the underground reports (I don't know how many there were) didn't come out until '44 or that Auschwitz simply wasn't mainstream until '44?

There were underground reports pre-1944, some of which may have some similarity with the later legend, but these were quite obscure. (See HH#36, section 2.1, for an overview of the underground material). The stories about Auschwitz that made it into the press generally did not speak of it as a mass extermination camp where millions had been killed.

The classic version of the Auschwitz story originated with the Vrba-Wetzler report which was produced around May 1944 and appeared in condensed form in newspapers in July 1944.

[Booze]

The Black Book was published in late 1943 and it is a useful compendium/survey of the atrocity propaganda up till that point.

-It has a long account of Treblinka (the famous steam chamber report)
-It has accounts for Chelmno and Belzec and mentions of Sobibor

But what is really curious about it is that while it does mention Auschwitz/Oswiecim, the description of it is in no way consistent with the current understanding of Auschwitz. This is because Auschwitz did not become the centerpiece of the legend until 1944. We are asked to believe then that Auschwitz was a mass murder factory through much of 1942 and all through 1943 but that nobody noticed.

Expand on that if you would. Are we saying that the underground reports (I don't know how many there were) didn't come out until '44 or that Auschwitz simply wasn't mainstream until '44?

There were underground reports pre-1944, some of which may have some similarity with the later legend, but these were quite obscure. (See HH#36, section 2.1, for an overview of the underground material). The stories about Auschwitz that made it into the press generally did not speak of it as a mass extermination camp where millions had been killed.

The classic version of the Auschwitz story originated with the Vrba-Wetzler report which was produced around May 1944 and appeared in condensed form in newspapers in July 1944.

Thank you