Introduction to Babi Yar, The Witnesses of Babi Yar Part One, Exhumation of the Bodies at Babi Yar, Babi Yar and Physical Evidence, Babi Yar and Air Photos
Today I will continue to examine the witnesses presented by Holocaust Denial on Trial, or HDoT.
I have already mentioned that HDoT focuses on an article by Herbert Tiedemann. Since HDoT’s article was published the book The Einsatzgruppen in the Occupied Eastern Territories—Genesis, Missions and Actions, by Carlo Mattogno, was released. The testimonies of the Germans Fritz Höfer and Kurt Werner are discussed in section 4.5.2.
The Soviet version of the alleged massacre is presented in Mattogno’s book, but not in the HDoT article. Whether HDoT was informed about this testimony can not be known, but if they were aware of it, it clear to see why they would not have mentioned it.
So we have yet another contradiction. The German version claims that alleged victims were ‘made to lie down on top of Jews who had already been shot’. In the Soviet version ‘the executioners placed the doomed people in rows along the edge of the deep ravine and shot them at point-blank range’. This is no small detail and such varying versions calls into question the validity of both stories. If you recall from part one HDoT stated, “In actuality, the eyewitness accounts provided by survivors of Babi Yar suggest high amounts of similarity in key ways.” But this statement is only true if they highlight what is similar in the various testimonies and discard the rest. In actual reality the only similarity is the fact they were made to undress at some point and that they were shot, but even with these two key points there are contradictions in the details.
HDoT had complained about Tiedemann’s sources for the testimonies that he had criticized. Here we see that HDoT uses The Black Book as a reference.
Both Tiedemann and Mattogno use The Black Book as source as well. Here is Orlow’s story again:
And here are some critical questions that Tiedemann brings up:
Even HDoT’s own sources betray the narrative they are attempting to maintain.
In conclusion, HDoT is being dishonest when they claim the primary eyewitness testimony is not contradictory. HDoT is also being dishonest by presenting a ‘debunking’ of one man’s article as proof that the Babi Yar massacre did occur. This unreliable testimony coupled with the Einsatzgruppen Report, which only provided them with the number killed, 33,771, and has valid concerns about its legitimacy, is not evidence of the alleged Babi Yar massacre.
Continue on to Exhumation of the Bodies at Babi Yar
Other articles in the series: Introduction to Babi Yar, The Witnesses of Babi Yar Part One, Babi Yar and Physical Evidence, Babi Yar and Air Photos