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
