National Post (National Edition)
Correct text on Holocaust monument
Tisha B'Av, considered the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, mourns tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people. This year, Tisha B'Av begins the evening of July 17.
Tisha B'Av 1942, July 2223, marked the beginning of mass deportations of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Over the next 14 months, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children were murdered in its gas chambers.
The award-winning National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa, which opened in 2017, includes six large murals, the largest and most prominent of which depicts the abandoned railbed at Treblinka.
The text explaining this mural says: “Sometimes deliberately, sometimes through force of nature, forests served to mask the evidence of genocide. Along this rail spur, almost 1 million people were transported to the Treblinka killing centre hidden within these woods. Approximately 900,000 Jews and an estimated 2,000 Roma and Sinti were gassed to death at Treblinka.”
Given the importance of the monument — it will influence visitors' perception and understanding of the Holocaust for generations — the exposition must be clear and accurate. Unfortunately, this text is neither. It is problematic on many levels.
For example, the text asserts that ... “forests served to mask the evidence of genocide.” In fact, the forest at Treblinka did not mask the evidence of genocide.
The great Russian writer Vasily Grossman, in a 1944 article, graphically described how the desperate screams of the victims of the genocide shattered a neighbouring village. Grossman wrote: “At night, local people from surrounding villages saw these flames (from the burning bodies of the victims) from anything up to 40 kilometres away. They rose taller than the pine forests around the camp. The smell of burned human meat filled the whole surrounding area ...”
Grossman's article directly contradicts the Canadian monument's text. Indeed, everyone in the surrounding area was fully aware of the industrial-scale murder occurring at Treblinka daily.
Similarly, the text reads: “... almost 1 million people were transported to ... Treblinka ... Approximately, 900,000 Jews and an estimated 2,000 Roma and Sinti were gassed to death ...”
The text “almost 1 million” is misleading and ambiguous. Some visitors to the monument will logically conclude that up to 100,000 people survived transport to Treblinka. Others, given the words “almost,” “approximately” and “estimated” will conclude that the number of survivors is indeterminate but ranges from 0 to 100,000. In truth, only about 200 people transported to Treblinka survived the Holocaust.
The current text on the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa must be corrected.
We are the sons of Holocaust survivors.
Most of Leo Strawczynski's maternal and paternal family were murdered at Treblinka.
His father Oskar, together with Oskar's wife, children Guta and Abus, and Oskar's parents, Yosef and Malka, arrived at Treblinka on Oct. 5, 1942, after 24 hours in a tightly packed cattle car. Within hours, all except Oskar were gassed to death. Oskar, a skilled tinsmith, was selected to work as a prisoner in the camp.
Max Farber's wife, two children, seven brothers and sister along with the rest of his Jewish neighbours from the Polish village of Bothki perished in Treblinka's gas chambers on Nov. 2, 1943. Max Farber was spared because he and three others were away the night of the transport, soliciting food for their families.
We, the children of survivors, have a duty and responsibility both to the victims of the Holocaust and to future generations to ensure that monuments are accurate, unambiguous, and properly honour the dead. It is time to correct the text of the National Holocaust Monument.
AT NIGHT, LOCAL PEOPLE FROM SURROUNDING VILLAGES SAW THESE FLAMES FROM ANYTHING UP TO 40 KM AWAY. — VASILY GROSSMAN