The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 8, Number 3, Spring 2020 | Page 48

Soviet Russia’s Reaction to t
Implications of the Suppr
tion and according to a method that
does not attract too much attention.
Fortunately, a whole series of possibilities
presents itself for us in wartime that
would be denied us in peacetime. We
shall have to profit by this.” 7 The relative
organization and discretion with which
camp commandants operated their killing
centers certainly contributed to a
low profile concerning what truly occurred
there. This lack of information
helped the Soviet suppression: if no one
knew what really happened, then no
one could spread awareness about it.
Sobibór, which lay around 150
miles east of Warsaw, carried out its
first “routine mass exterminations” in
May 1942. SS Oberscharfuhrer Kurt Bolender,
who served in Sobibor, testified
as to the killing process:
Before the Jews undressed, Oberscharfuhrer
[Hermann] Michel
[deputy commander of the camp]
made a speech to them. On these
occasions, he used to wear a
white coat to give the impression
[that he was] a physician. Michel
announced to the Jews that they
would be sent to work. But before
this they would have to take baths
and undergo disinfection so as
to prevent the spread of diseases
.... After undressing, the Jews
were taken through the so-called
Schlauch. They were led to the gas
chambers not by the Germans
but by Ukrainians. 8
Bolender’s account is just one instance
of compliance in the Holocaust by
non-Germans/non-Nazis. Another
was involved in a mass shooting of
2