Graf's Idiocy Regarding West German Trials (Part 3)

Further to Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, the involvement of Nazi sympathizers in aiding defence witnesses in proceedings concerning Sobibor is documented in articles here and here. Note particularly the involvement of HIAG in supporting defendants and helping Frenzel's lawyer Leonhardt Reintzsch to keep Frenzel's case alive until 1985, despite, for example, Frenzel's admissions to Blatt.

The article from Die Zeit informs us that Reintzsch supplied material to Regina Dahl of the far right "National-Zeitung", but that eventually Reintzsch seems to have accepted that the trial was fair:

 "As was credibly assured to me several times by fellow defense attorneys, who have intervened in similar proceedings on various occasions, the public prosecutor’s office has especially in the Sobibor proceedings shown a maximum of objectivity."

Finally, the title of the article was The "Forgotten" Trial, so this cannot by definition have been a "show trial." Thus is another nail driven into the coffin that contains Graf's credibility.

Sobibor survivor Thomas Blatt sets the record straight

On 17.01.2010 there appeared a news item on The Independent's site, in which the Sobibor revolt participant Thomas (Toivi) Blatt is quoted as follows:

"We heard the whine of the generator that started the submarine engine which made the gas that killed them. I remember standing and listening to the muffled screams and knowing that men, women and children were dying in agony as I sorted their clothes. This is what I live with," he said.

The mention of the submarine engine was, of course, seized on by Holocaust deniers. Supposedly a submarine engine would be a diesel engine and that is a big no-no for deniers (most other people find this irrelevant). To date only Eichmann mentioned the use of such an engine for gassings in regard to Christian Wirth's early gassing experiments, and it was hearsay and probably also an example of distorted memory.

Mr. Blatt never claimed to be in the extermination zone proper, so even if he would say such a thing, that would be but a speculation. But did he say that? I contacted Mr. Blatt, and here is his response, which he kindly permitted me to post online:

Dear Mr. Romanov

This is the first time I heard about submarine engine in Sobibor.
It was a Tank engine.
Must be a mistake by the journalist.