Why did Jankiel Wiernik plagiarize an earlier report?

[Nessie]

The plan is on page 2 of a "Year in Treblinka", in the introduction, not written by Wiernik, but by someone likely from the publishers. They have plagiarised it from the earlier source or misattributed it to Wiernik. Whether the person who wrote the introduction made up the claim about Wiernik drawing from memory, or they were incorrectly told that, or Wiernik claimed he drew it, we do not know.

The map is also on pages 32-33 of A yor in Ṭreblinḳe, clearly not in the introduction. It is also described by Wiernik in the Polish versions where he wrote "I sketched a map of the crime scene to show the world.". This is translated in the English version as "present to the world a description of the inferno and a sketch of the layout".

http://deathcamps.org/treblinka/maps.html also attributes this map to Wiernik.

Isn't it ridiculous then to claim it's not Wiernik? You're theorizing that a publisher committed the plagiarism, but that has no basis and contradicts what was actually said.

Even to accept your theory, wouldn't that be a fact of enormous importance? The Holocaust authorities of that time, such as they were, felt comfortable taking a map from one person and attributing it to another to better sell their propaganda. In one of the most well-known Holocaust memoirs. No one questioned it or called it out, Wiernik never disowned it, it was just allowed to stand like that unremarked apparently through to the current day. This gives rise to the question what other major facts have they misrepresented and lied about?

Is this not the "sketched" map? It is "WEIRNIK MAP #2" frrom the Mapping Treblinka site;

http://deathcamps.org/treblinka/pic/bmap22.jpg

The other map is not sketched, it is a drawn plan, like an architect would submit. I think it is either not by Wiernik, or he traced and copied it from the original, or it is misattributed to him, in a mix-up by the publisher.

[Nessie]

The death camps website also offers this map as Wiernik's "Model Map". In comparison to his 1946 map, you can see it still has the same overall wrong layout, but he made some minor alterations. Some features moved around like the locations of watchtowers. Some new things were added like the elaborate roofed entry gate.

They all have approximately the same layout, as seen on Mapping Treblinka, which orientates them the same way, with north to the left.

http://deathcamps.org/treblinka/maps.html

Wiernik map #1, is not of the camp as a whole and it is the exception, orientated with north to the top. But that does not work with the railway destinations. It is clearly copied from the 1942 report, but we do not know exactly who by.

You, of course, will blow this up into a major revelation, claiming it is evidence of a conspiracy. You will not accept that it can just as easily have a mundane, human error, explanation.

[Nessie]

Personally, I don't think he was EVER AT TREBLINKA.

I think the man is a propagandist plant.

It's not as demonstrable for him as it is for Wiesel.

He correctly named staff and other prisoners and went with the 1945 Polish investigation to the site. He correctly located where the grave and the buried gas chambers were located.

[Stubble]

The only time Warnick got it 'right', or some approximation there of, was when he was in a room with other witnesses.



http://www.deathcamps.org/treblinka/pic/bmap20.jpg

After that, he went straight back to the wrong layout for his 'model'.

It's also hard to deny the professionalism of the series of question marks in the woods on the first map. That's how they teach it in architectural engineering school, I'm sure.

[Nessie]

The only time Warnick got it 'right', or some approximation there of, was when he was in a room with other witnesses.



http://www.deathcamps.org/treblinka/pic/bmap20.jpg

After that, he went straight back to the wrong layout for his 'model'.

It's also hard to deny the professionalism of the series of question marks in the woods on the first map. That's how they teach it in architectural engineering school, I'm sure.

That is described as the "KUDLIK, WIERNIK, TRAUTSOLT MAP", so it was likely drawn by a draftsman, based on their descriptions.

[Keen]

That is described as the "KUDLIK, WIERNIK, TRAUTSOLT MAP", so it was likely drawn by a draftsman, based on their descriptions.

Look at the lying coward run from the simple question:

*9 - Is it - True. - or - False. - that; Not one of the alleged - “HUGE MASS GRAVES” - of Treblinka II alleged by so-called “eyewitnesses” - has ever been proven to actually exist - ??

What are you so afraid of Nessie?

[Stubble]

Anybody have Wiernick's first statement that 'chlorine from roof flaps' was the instrument of death at Treblinka kicking around?

[Wetzelrad]

Anybody have Wiernick's first statement that 'chlorine from roof flaps' was the instrument of death at Treblinka kicking around?

Here is Mattogno's translation of that passage from a 3-page document credited to "Janika Wiernika":

Plaza [sic] built with 13 gas chambers (bath). Gas chamber 2m high 7m long and 7m wide. On one side a (normal) entrance door. On the opposite side – a flap which is opened after gassing people, the corpses are taken out through this flap. On the roof – a safety hatch used in the case of killing people with chlorine. After throwing the appropriate amount of chlorine, the hatch closes hermetically.

The "Operation Reinhardt" Camps (2024) by Carlo Mattogno, p.125

Mattogno cites Catalog No. 3166 in the Ghetto Fighters House Archives, which I found here:
Entry: http://www.infocenters.co.il/gfh/notebo ... item=41584
PDF: https://infocenters.co.il/gfh/pdf_viewe ... 584%3C/%3E

The references to chlorine must be in the handwritten pages which are the last 3 pages of the file. This file deserves a closer scrutiny but I won't attempt it.

[Stubble]

Page 2 of the deposition, section 2, paragraph leads with 'Treblinka II'. About mid way through.

Thanks Wetzelrad!

Almost forgot;

[Wetzelrad]

GFH's description of that file also gives us this tidbit:

In 1945, after the liberation, he redid his drawing of the Treblinka camp’s layout, after the loss of the original drawing he had made in late 1943 - early 1944. (This 1945 version is preserved in the Archives of the Ghetto Fighters’ House).

This gives rise to the possibility of two additional Wiernik maps -- one lost and one made in 1945. It also somewhat complicates the timeline, because in Wiernik's testimony (as quoted by Archie) he claimed he made his sketch in 1944, and it was that 1944 sketch on which he based his model, etc. He didn't mention a later sketch. Possibly he committed perjury.

And indeed, GFH has the 1945 map.
http://www.infocenters.co.il/gfh/notebo ... tem=127292



I will comment on it only minimally. The features appear nearly identical to the one published in 1946. The trees in the south, the well, and the gas chamber layout again point to plagiarization of the 1942 map. The north road curving to the right/east is a new idea and factually wrong. Aerial photos show the road continues in a straight line, parallel to the railline.

The 1946 map is no doubt a copy of the 1945 map. Here is what it looks like if you overlay one on the other.

1945 to 1946 animation.gif (365.88 KiB) Viewed 104 times

Depending on the circumstances, this could indicate Wiernik used tracing or some other copying technique. Such a technique would also be used by a plagiarist. Maybe we should check to see if he traced anything else. (No, I'm not saying he plagiarized himself, don't put words in my mouth.)

I also notice that the symbols used on these two maps match the symbols of the A Year in Treblinka 1944 map, which is another reason to regard that map as his work.

[Stubble]

Anybody want to guess why he moved away from Chlorine as the 'instrument of genocide' at Treblinka II?

He moved to Steam as a claim after Chlorine didn't he?

Personally, I think he read the Soviet Chlorine from quick lime propaganda and so initially based his story off that. Then, he ran into the polish underground 'reports' on steam chambers and so changed his narrative, eventually evolving to a Diesel Engine.

Of course, I also think he was a propagandist and not at any point an internee.

pilgrimofdark may have found confirmation of my hunch. It can be read here;

https://www.codohforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=15984#p15984

Gee Bombsaway, you might have been right about reading contemporary newspapers to resolve a tighter picture of events...

[Wetzelrad]

Anybody want to guess why he moved away from Chlorine as the 'instrument of genocide' at Treblinka II?

He moved to Steam as a claim after Chlorine didn't he?

Personally, I think he read the Soviet Chlorine from quick lime propaganda and so initially based his story off that. Then, he ran into the polish underground 'reports' on steam chambers and so changed his narrative, eventually evolving to a Diesel Engine.

Not quite. Here is the order of events, based on what's included in The "Operation Reinhardt" Camps:

• Aug-02-1943: Wiernik escaped Treblinka
• undated?: "Janika Wiernika" paper (chlorine)
• Nov-28-1943: "Świadkowie zbrodni" in the newspaper Kraj (gas)
• Jun-06-1944: Rok w Treblince (tank engine exhaust)
• Jan-04-1947: testimony (gas)

So Wiernik didn't say steam. The anonymous November 15th, 1942 report did. Wiernik entirely copied that report's map and description, substituting the boiler room for an engine room, the steam pipes for gas pipes.

One of the few details that Wiernik added was the chlorine hatch. When Wiernik decided chlorine was not involved, he changed this description without removing it: "The outlet on the roof had a hermetic cap." A feature that played no part in his new method of diesel gassings, although it has since been speculated to be an exhaust vent.

I am not 100% certain of this sequence of events because I don't see a date on the chlorine document. Mattogno refers to it as Wiernik's "first draft" of Rok w Treblince, which makes some sense.

As to why he changed killing methods, it is, as you say, an attempt to conform with other reports. However I think there are other wartime examples of people mixing up cyanide and chlorine, so Wiernik's chlorine story probably came about from rumors that Auschwitz or Majdanek used cyanide dropped through a roof hatch. Whereas the diesel gassing story could have come from rumors about the other Reinhardt camps or gas vans. It would be interesting to see someone map all these narrative evolutions onto a timeline.

[Wetzelrad]

I am actually not opposed to the idea that "editors" did the Wiernik map.

When I made this thread, I wasn't opposed to that idea either. By writing this in an accusatory way I hoped to force some movement on the issue. It's been 80 years. Surely there has to be one historian who cares enough about his credibility to acknowledge this problem. If Wiernik didn't plagiarize the map himself, there must be a reasonable admission and explanation for how it got there. From someone who is serious and credible, not the HC blog, who basically just deny it and move past it.

But over time I've become substantially more convinced that Wiernik did personally draw the map in his book and therefore plagiarized it. That being the case, it's irresponsible to let our opponents reframe the issue in this way. There is no reason to entertain their alternate hypothesis when nearly everything supports that Wiernik was the one responsible. Their denial is just an attempt to sap steam from a hard-hitting revelation.

[Nessie]

Anybody have Wiernick's first statement that 'chlorine from roof flaps' was the instrument of death at Treblinka kicking around?

Here is Mattogno's translation of that passage from a 3-page document credited to "Janika Wiernika":

Plaza [sic] built with 13 gas chambers (bath). Gas chamber 2m high 7m long and 7m wide. On one side a (normal) entrance door. On the opposite side – a flap which is opened after gassing people, the corpses are taken out through this flap. On the roof – a safety hatch used in the case of killing people with chlorine. After throwing the appropriate amount of chlorine, the hatch closes hermetically.

The "Operation Reinhardt" Camps (2024) by Carlo Mattogno, p.125

Mattogno cites Catalog No. 3166 in the Ghetto Fighters House Archives, which I found here:
Entry: http://www.infocenters.co.il/gfh/notebo ... item=41584
PDF: https://infocenters.co.il/gfh/pdf_viewe ... 584%3C/%3E

The references to chlorine must be in the handwritten pages which are the last 3 pages of the file. This file deserves a closer scrutiny but I won't attempt it.

The original 1944 Polish publication of a "Year in Treblinka", with no maps in it. That proves the US publisher added the plan for their 1945 translated version and then attributed it to him. Maybe that plan was sent to the US, with the 1944 book and the publisher believed both were from Wiernik, so it was an unintentional error.

It is not known who added the handwritten notes at the end of the book. You need evidence it was by Wiernik and with his knowledge.

[Nessie]

GFH's description of that file also gives us this tidbit:

In 1945, after the liberation, he redid his drawing of the Treblinka camp’s layout, after the loss of the original drawing he had made in late 1943 - early 1944. (This 1945 version is preserved in the Archives of the Ghetto Fighters’ House).

This gives rise to the possibility of two additional Wiernik maps -- one lost and one made in 1945. It also somewhat complicates the timeline, because in Wiernik's testimony (as quoted by Archie) he claimed he made his sketch in 1944, and it was that 1944 sketch on which he based his model, etc. He didn't mention a later sketch. Possibly he committed perjury.

...

Or, he made a mistake. You are so obviously looking for reasons to doubt, that you discard the most likely, simple, mundane reason, that he did not mention a later sketch, because, he forgot. Witnesses do that, a lot.