Jewish Documentation Center
Salztorgasse 6
1010 Vienna
Austria
Dear Mr. Wiesenthal:
In my letters to you of September 8 and 9, 1997, I have questioned your assertion
made on the 60 Minutes broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom of October 23, 1994 to the
effect that in the few days before the arrival of the Germans, Ukrainians killed some 5
to 6 thousand Jews in Lviv. I have recently come across some testimony that indicates
that your assertion is correct on all of the details of this event save one.
The fresh testimony that I am referring to is that of Erwin Schulz, Commander of
Einsatzkommando 5 (a subunit of Einsatzgruppe C), from May until 26 September, 1941.
From Schulz's testimony, it appears that several of the details of your assertion are
correct: namely that the number murdered was 5,000, which is within the bounds of your
own estimate; that the location was indeed Lviv (identified as Lemberg); that the time
was indeed during the few days prior to the arrival of the Germans; and that the chief
participants were indeed Ukrainians and Jews, although Schulz does mention the
secondary involvement of others.
The point on which Schulz differs from you is that whereas you say that the
slaughter consisted of Ukrainians killing Jews, Schulz says that it consisted of Jews
killing Ukrainians:
We learned that, before the Russian troops had left, a very great
number of Lemberg citizens, Ukrainians and Polish inhabitants of other
towns and villages had been killed in this prison and in other
prisons. Furthermore, there were many corpses of German men and
officers, among them many Air Corps officers, and many of them were
found mutilated. There was a great bitterness and excitement among the
Lemberg population against the Jewish sector of the population. (Erwin
Schulz, in John Mendelsohn, editor, The Holocaust: Selected Documents
in Eighteen Volumes, Garland, New York, 1982, Volume 18, p. 18)
On the next day, Dr. RASCH informed us to the effect that the killed
people in Lemberg amounted to about 5,000. It has been determined
without any doubt that the arrests and killings had taken place under
the leadership of Jewish functionaries and with the participation of
the Jewish inhabitants of Lemberg. That was the reason why there was
such an excitement against the Jewish population on the part of the
Lemberg citizens. (Erwin Schulz, in John Mendelsohn, editor, The
Holocaust: Selected Documents in Eighteen Volumes, Garland, New York,
1982, Volume 18, p. 18)
I wonder if you would care to comment on this discrepancy between Schulz's
testimony and your own?
Sincerely yours,
Lubomyr Prytulak
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Wiesenthal Letter 20 Sep 13/97 Jews killing Ukrainians in Lviv
September 13, 1997
Simon Wiesenthal
Jewish Documentation Center
Salztorgasse 6