bombsaway wrote:Hold on, did you read the paper I linked? (referencing probably dozens of different sources testifying to the existence and survival of a single community of resettled Jews in Romanian held USSR)
I just glanced through quickly (my time is short) but a few names to search would beMeier Teich
Marcu Rozen
Anna Ivankovitser
Samuil Roitberg
Ichel Pogranichny
Simon Meer
I only skimmed the paper because it is completely irrelevant to the topic of this thread, or anything related to it. I find the following train of "logic" to be unsound:
1. Some Jews were resettled during WWII
2. We have post-war testimony about these Jews being resettled
3. There is no known post-war testimony of Jews claiming to have stopped at Belzec before being resettled
4. Therefore, 100s of thousands of Jews were dumped into enormous pits at Belzec (that cannot be shown to exist)
It's a completely ridiculous line of thinking. That's why I asked:
At least how many of them "spoke profusely" about it? Provide a number
When did they "speak profusely" about it? Provide dates
Where did they "speak profusely" about it? Provide locations
To whom did they "speak profusely" about it, and why? Explain
What percent of those transited in this cohort "spoke profusely" about it? Provide an estimate
Can you provide a list of every single train stop they were subjected to when transferring to this location?
So far, we have perhaps "six" for question number one.
What do you think? I haven't seen anything like this for the alleged resettlement of 1.5-2 million Jews in German held territory from 1942 on, have you?
What do I think? I think's it unfortunate for people that are interested in complete travel itineraries for 100s of thousands of Jews during WWII that we do not have this information. But I think if their reasoning is:
"Well, I'm not aware of any that said they were resettled, so they must have been gassed and dumped into pits by the hundreds of thousands."
That is very lazy and illogical. It would make perfect sense and I would agree with them... if these pits could actually be shown to exist. However, there is no reason to believe that they exist. You even posted documents suggesting that Jews "unfit to work" sent to Belzec were to be resettled east. Whether or not that actually happened is another separate issue. It's quite possible they were sent to a nearby internment camp or ghetto and the plan was to resettle them later.
The thing about Belzec - as well as Sobibor and Treblinka - is that they are in a perfect location for a resettlement/transit camp. They're right around the area where the railroad gauge sizes change. Belzec (top left):
All 3:
We also know that the train records for Belzec were said to have been destroyed by a Soviet aerial bomb. But even if they weren't, that doesn't mean we ever would have seen them anyway.
If 100s of thousands of Jews were not gassed and dumped into pits at Belzec, than they obviously went somewhere else. if they were gassed and dumped into pits at Belzec, these enormous pits would exist today full of millions of pounds of physical evidence (burnt bones, teeth, wood ash, etc). But there is simply no convincing evidence that these pits exist. The most likely situation is that the camp was part of a massive resettlement policy of Jews, which certainly never completed. How far along it went is also uncertain. It's quite likely a large number of Jews were in ghettos around this area, and the plan was to resettle them somewhere else but it never actually ended up happening.