Our next piece of ‘Remarkable Holocaust Nonsense’ concerns Treblinka and is provided by Jean-Francois Steiner – real name Jean-Francois Cohen – (1) in his extremely famous French language book ‘Treblinka’ which originally claimed to be a novelization of a non-fiction account of the real first-hand experiences of the Treblinka extermination camp. (2)
However, we should note that while this is now classed as fiction it wasn’t until well into the 1970-1980s with Steiner obdurately refusing to describe it as fiction despite it being so and it is still cited as non-fiction even by academics who should know better! (3)
This is the claim that Steiner makes in regard to jewish inmates of Treblinka being sliced open by a Ukrainian soldier working for the SS prior to gassing:
‘That day the savagery of the S.S. and the Ukrainians knew no limits. On the “road to heaven” Ivan, an enormous brute of twenty, slashed open the bellies of women vertically with a huge sword.’ (4)
I won’t bother to debunk this since it is now acknowledged to be fiction by its author, but – as we have seen – it is still being cited as fact by academics in papers!
References
(1) Samuel Moyn, 2005, ‘A Holocaust Controversy: The Treblinka Affair in Postwar France’, 1st Edition, Brandeis University Press: Waltham, p. 20
(2) Ibid., p. 7
(3) For example: Beverley Chalmers, 2016, ‘Jewish women's sexual behaviour and sexualized abuse during the Nazi era’, The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, Vol. 24, No. 2 (https://utppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3138/cjhs.242-A10)
(4) Jean-Francois Steiner, 1994, [1967], ‘Treblinka’, 1st Edition, Meridan: New York, p. 382