Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Anatomia Jednej Manipulacji: Rzekomy Sabotaz Witki Kempner, by Leszek Zebrowski. 2021

Holocaust Legends: Heroine Witka Kempner and the Nazi German Train

THE ANATOMY OF A MANIPULATION: THE SUPPOSED SABOTAGE CONDUCTED BY WITKA KEMPNER, is the title of this Polish-language scholarly article. It is published in DO RZECZY Nr 23/428, pp. 16-20 (7-13 Czerwca 2021).

By way of introduction, Judy Batalion has been featuring various dubiously-factual accounts of heroines in her book, The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos. One of these is Witka Kempner, who set the explosive that purportedly derailed a German train near Wilno (Vilna, Vilnius) in 1942. The account is presented by Haaretz and the New York Times without question, and, furthermore, the NYT will not allow any letters to the editor to be published that question the factuality of the train sabotage.

Judy Batalion relies on the earlier account, by Rich Cohen, in his The Avengers.  It is the maximalist version.

LAUGHABLY EXTRAVAGANT JEWISH CLAIMS

After the war, Abba Kovner, who married Witka Kempner, claimed that the Jewish act was the first derailment of a train in Lithuania, and Rich Cohen went further: He assured us that it was the first derailment of a Nazi German train in all of German-ruled Europe. What nonsense! A cursory look at records shows that, both in Poland and elsewhere, there had been plenty of trains derailed by the Polish Underground long before May-July 1942. (p. 18). Historian Zebrowski links to the following website that tabulates dozens of Polish acts of German rail sabotage:

http://www.archeo.kolej.pl/maron/dywersja/dywersja.htm

VARIOUS CONFLICTING VERSIONS OF THE PURPORTED TRAIN DERAILMENT

According to the maximalist version, Witka Kempner was sent by Abba Kovner to plant the explosive. The bomb had been constructed by Kovner based on a Finnish recipe. (p. 16). Witka was in the company of two boys and girls, and, after the derailment, she threw some grenades at the derailed train while evading German bullets. No other account mentions boys and girls, and instead mentions men with her. (p. 17). No other account mentions her throwing grenades at the derailed train. (p. 17).

Was the bomb design based on a Finnish recipe? Another account says that it was supposed to be based on a Soviet recipe. (p. 18).

Pardon Abba Kovner. In a 1944 book, Abraham Sutzkever states that the order to derail the train was actually given by FPO (Farejnikte Partizaner-Organizacje) Commandant Icchak Wittenberg, in Sutzkever’s presence. (p. 18).

VAGUE DATE AND LOCATION OF PURPORTED TRAIN DERAILMENT

The contradictions between accounts are severe. A major evidence for the ahistorical nature of the train derailment is the wide range of dates and locations, in Jewish accounts, in which it supposedly took place. It could be anytime from May to July 1942. (p. 17). The derailment supposedly took place either 8 km or 15 km from Wilno, in the direction of Nowa Wilejka. (p. 17).

DID THE JEWISH-CAUSED TRAIN DERAILMENT OCCUR AT ALL?

Some Jewish accounts from the Wilno ghetto do not mention the derailment at all. If it actually happened, that’s quite an oversight. (p. 19).

Several Jewish accounts claim around 200 Germans killed because of the derailment, and hundreds of local Poles were subsequently arrested and killed in reprisal. (pp. 18-19). In contrast, Polish scholars who specialize in the Wilno and Nowa Wilejka areas find no evidence of a train derailment, or German reprisals, during this time and at this location, although they know of other train derailments. (p. 19).

What about German sources? Historian Zebrowski consulted the detailed DEUTSCHE BERICHTE AUS DEM AUSTEN 1942-1943. There is not as much as a peep about any German trail derailment, near Wilno, during this entire time. (p. 19).

CONCLUSION

Historian Zebrowski concludes that Judy Batalion’s book has no historical value. (p. 16). The Jewish-caused derailment of the German train, near Wilno, probably never took place.

At the same time, Judy Batalion is silent about the Jewish complicity in the mass murder of the Poles at the village of Koniuchy. Jewish apologists had long advanced the claim that Koniuchy had a German garrison, and was well-fortified. A 2020-concluded IPN investigation, and Lithuanian historian Rimantas Zizas, have soundly debunked these claims. Koniuchy had been a Polish village with a weak self-defense against banditry. It had no fortifications, and certainly no German garrison. (p. 20). The Jewish and Soviet partisans had engaged in wanton murder of sporadically-armed Polish civilians.

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For another Holocaust legend about a purported Jewish heroine, see:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2021/04/14/the-light-of-days-recycled-communist-propaganda-tall-tales-about-the-heroism-of-niuta-teitelbaum-little-wanda-zebrowski/