LOL, way to scoop me guys. I've been researching this topic recently.
For now, here's a couple of things I've picked up along the way.
First, you can watch the Miriam Rosenthal that the story mentions make her "200 pregnant women" claim here:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdZbxB-aLOA[/youtube]
(For the full documentary, without subtitles, see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXSKlCxZ2kA&feature=youtu.be.)
The funny thing about this, apart from the absurdity of the basic claim itself, is that it's contradicted by other versions of the story which Miriam has told on other occasions. For example, in the book "Geboren im KZ," co-authored by one of the producers of the
same documentary that the clip above is taken from, the number of women is not 200 but 50, and there are other significant differences as well:
Ob ein Häftling in Auschwitz am Leben bleibt oder nicht, ist vor allem eine Frage des Glücks. Das erfährt auch Miriam. Eines Tages, sie steht gerade mit anderen Frauen Appell, kündigt ein SS-Mann Unglaubliches an: «Alle schwangeren Frauen hervortreten! Sie bekommen eine doppelte Essenportion!»
Etwa fünfzig Frauen drängen nach vorne, Miriam ist die Letzte. Eine doppelte Portion, das ist die Erfüllung all ihrer Träume. Die neidvollen Blicke der anderen Frauen begleiten die vermeintlich Glücklichen. Aber Erna traut der SS nicht. Das kluge Mädchen hat in wenigen Wochen schon genug gesehen, als dass sie solchen Versprechungen noch Glauben schenken würde. Ihr Instinkt sagt ihr, dass es sich um eine Falle handelt. «Du darfst nicht gehen», fleht sie Miriam an. Die zögert. Der Hunger ist so stark. Dann aber dreht sie sich um und läuft schnell zurück. Miriam weiß, dass Erna sie damals vor dem Tod gerettet hat. Die SS versprach bessere Behandlung und mehr Essen, um der Schwangeren in der Masse der Gefangenen habhaft zu werden. Die Frauen wurden vergast. . . . «Dort, im Lager, konnte man am besten erkennen, wer ein gutes Herz hatte. Ernuschka war ein Engel. Ich werde es ihr niemals vergessen.»
-- Gruberová and Zeller,
Geboren im KZ, p. 77
Whether a prisoner in Auschwitz stayed alive or not was above all a question of luck. Miriam learned that first hand herself. One day, as she was standing with other women at roll call, an SS-Man announced the incredible: "All pregnant women step forward. You are going to get a double portion of food."
Some fifty women surged forward; Miriam was last. A double portion: that was the fulfillment of all their dreams. The envious looks of the other women followed the "lucky ones." But Erna did not trust the SS. The clever girl had seen enough in a few short weeks that she put no faith in such promises any more. Her instincts told her that it was a trap. "You must not go," she begged Miriam. Miriam hesitated. Her hunger was so strong. But then she turned around and ran quickly back. Miriam knows that Erna saved her life on that occasion. The SS promised better treatment and more to eat simply to get the pregnant women to come out of the mass of prisoners. The women were gassed. . . . "There, in the camp, one really learned who had a good heart. Ernuschka was an angel. I will never forget it of her."
Going further afield, there are yet other versions of the story in which no mention is made of numbers at all (as in the Haaretz story quoted above, come to think of it--though that may have been the work of an editor who smelled a potentially embarrassing fishtale in Miriam's "testimony"), and even a "
Holocaust Survivor's Story" from the 80's, published under Miriam's own name, which neglects to mention the incident altogether. (I wonder, could it have just slipped her mind?
)
Anyway, an obvious case of a story growing in the telling; basically that's what I was writing about. I had to shelve the project a month or so back because of other demands, but when I get around to finishing my piece, I'll post links here.
Beyond that, at the end of the article that Jerzy quotes above it says "No comments" (or was that just Jerzy commenting?), but it's worth noting that people haven't always been silent when this particular whopper has been trotted out by our media masters. For example, check out the comments in
this epic thread on the site of Canada's National Post from last August. (Got to 379 comments before they hit the panic button, lol.) Of course, a lot of it is just the usual shrieking indignation at DENIERS, but there's some good pushback from skeptical voices as well--of course, that's how the thread got so long to start with. If you want to see the revisionist comments, however, you're going to have to click the "This comment is awaiting moderation. Show comment" buttons. LOL at the Post, they left the comments that say "But wait a minute, is that true?" and so on "awaiting moderation," but apparently have no problem at all with the responses that follow that scream "You idiot!!1!!1!" and "I hope you die in a fire" and the like. Talk about double standards. But the comments are still there, you just have to click.
Anyway, not a great thread (it could have used an injection of CODOH expertise), but a good example all the same of how cracks are starting to appear in the walls.
And if you want a real laugh, check out the comments in this article from
Vos iz Neias? (What's news?), in which the (presumably) majority-Jewish commenting crowd gets into a slap fight over who the fathers might be and "what was transpiring between the male and female section of the camp." Oh lawdy lawdy lawdy
. (For what it's worth, all of the "Dachau babies" apparently were legitimate . . . or at least that's what their moms say.)
And last but not least, I've already posted this to the "Soviets building stuff with Jewish tombstones" thread, but it belongs here too . . . here's Alzbeta Reiszowa again with her story about paving the streets at Plaszow with Jewish gravestones:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_kN6zP7sac[/youtube]
You see, Alzbeta is not only a certified Holocaust Survivor and Roadway Engineer™ , she's also one of the mothers of the Dachau seven. That's right, she was allegedly 3-4 months pregnant when she was digging up those Jewish corpses and paving those streets with Jewish gravestones--just imagine that!
Oh the humanity!
You couldn't make it up. Except of course, they do.