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.
Some 60 Minutes viewers may have been struck by the curious observation that while the 60
Minutes expert witness - Simon Wiesenthal - claimed that the number of Jews killed was "between
5 and 6 thousand," in three days, the interviewer - Morley Safer chose to reduce that number
killed to "3,000" and the duration of the killing to two days - but without informing the viewer
on what grounds he did so.
Let us begin our examination of this claim by reviewing the historical context.
Historical Context of the Lviv Pogrom
Eight Years Previously. Although Western Ukraine was spared the induced famine of 1932-1933 in
which some six million Ukrainians perished, Western Ukrainians were nevertheless aware of the
famine in adjacent Soviet Ukraine and aware that it was administered at the top by Lazar
Kaganovich, a Jew, and was supported at the bottom by cadres, many said to be Jewish, who moved
from village to village confiscating grain and livestock.
During the previous 21 months. Western Ukraine was annexed by Soviet forces in 1939 for a
period of 21 months until the Germans arrived in 1941. What was the experience of Western
Ukrainians under Russian communism? It was traumatic. On top of suppression of culture and
confiscation of property, there was terror:
The most widespread and feared measure was deportation. Without warning,
without trial, even without formal accusation, thousands of alleged "enemies of
the people" were arrested, packed into cattle cars, and shipped to Siberia and
Kazakhstan to work as slave laborers under horrible conditions. Many of these
deportees, including entire families, perished. ... According to Metropolitan
Andrei Sheptytsky, the Soviets deported about 400,000 Ukrainians from Galicia
alone. ... West Ukrainians found their first exposure to the Soviet system to
be a generally negative experience and many concluded that "Bolshevik" rule had
to be avoided at all costs. (Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History, 1994, pp.
456-457)
Vasyl Hryshko (Experience with Russia, 1956, p. 117) puts the number killed or deported in
Western Ukraine during the Soviet occupation at 750,000. It was commonly perceived by
Ukrainians that Jews were disproportionately represented among the Communists inflicting this
suffering upon Ukraine.
During the preceding few days. As the Soviets retreated, the NKVD perceived by Ukrainians to
be manned disproportionately by Jews - went on a killing spree. Concerning this event, there
seems to be widespread agreement. Particularly relevant to our discussion, is that even Simon
Wiesenthal can be found adding his voice of assent in the fifth of the series of quotations
below:
While the movement to the East was taking place, the NKVD carried out mass
arrests and executions, chiefly of Ukrainians - especially those who tried to
avoid evacuation. In the jails most prisoners whose period of imprisonment was
more than three years were shot; others were evacuated if possible. In several
cities the NKVD burned prisons with prisoners in them. (Volodymyr Kubijovyc,
editor, Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopaedia, University of Toronto Press, Toronto,
1963, Volume I, p. 878, Vsevolod Holubnychy and H. M. wrote this section)
The Bolsheviks succeeded in annihilating some 10,000 political prisoners in
Western Ukraine before and after the outbreak of hostilities (massacres took