Sheptytsky was outspoken and courageous in its defense of Jews, you have consistently
portrayed Christianity in general, and the Catholic church in Lviv in 1941 in
particular, as being virulently anti-Semitic. I refer, for example, to your fable of
the alcoholic priest in Western Ukraine who incites a pogrom (Alan Levy, The Wiesenthal
File, 1993, p. 24), which fable I have already brought to your attention in my letter
to you of December 8, 1994; and I refer as well to your story of the Ukrainians who you
say almost executed you:
As the shots and shouts of the boisterous Ukrainians drew closer to
Wiesenthal, he heard a new sound: church bells. The Ukrainians heard
it, too. Good Orthodox Catholics all, they laid down their arms for
evening mass.
Wiesenthal and his friend had stood five or six bullets away from
extinction. (Alan Levy, The Wiesenthal File, Constable, London, 1993,
p. 36)
Now if it is the case as we have just seen above that the Catholic church
unambiguously and unequivocally stood for the defense of Jews, then we would expect
devout Catholics to not be among the executioners of Jews. Conversely, given that
someone is among the executioners of Jews, we would expect him not to be a devout
Catholic. Your portrayal of sadistic executioners as being simultaneously devout
Catholics is incongruous and elicits incredulity.
But your story goes beyond the incongruous to the grotesque. You portray a team
of executioners who have been repeatedly drinking vodka - and may therefore be depicted
as drunk. You say that they have also just been shooting prisoners in the back of the
neck, and then lifting the bodies from the floor and placing them into makeshift
coffins - therefore, the executioners are also covered with blood. Assuming that these
executioners did not have a place to shower and had not brought with them a change of
clothing, and assuming that the church bells are signaling the imminent commencement of
mass so as not to leave time for showering and changing, then I have trouble conjuring
up a credible image of these executioners arriving at the church for mass. To accept
your image requires us to accept that the appearance of drunk and blood-spattered
executioners at a mass would not attract notice and repugnance - a supposition which is
erroneous and offensive. And it requires us also to accept that the mind set of
executioners engaged in genocide is so similar to Christians engaged in devotion, that
they make the transition instantaneously and seamlessly - another supposition which is
erroneous and offensive.
Mr. Wiesenthal, I entreat you to either explain and defend your bizarre story, or
else to withdraw it.
Yours truly,
Lubomyr Prytulak
HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE WIESENTHAL 3285 hits since 18Jan98
Wiesenthal Letter 24 Jan 18/98 Reversing victim and victimizer
The caption at the top of the photographs shown below is from LIFE magazine, 11Jun45, p. 50. The caption in German
and Latin at the bottom of the Simon Wiesenthal drawing below was, of course, included with the drawing in Simon
Wiesenthal's KZ Mauthausen, 1946, p. 64. This caption says:
The Gallows
The Marquis de Sade would have been in ecstasy if he could have seen the gallows in a
KZ [concentration camp]. His faithful successors the SS-hangmen had daily execution
fever. It provided some variety, beyond the eternal, monotonous shootings and
beatings. Something one could photograph with pleasure. They placed bets for rounds