From dspiegel@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu Wed Sep 18 09:21:12 PDT 1996
Article: 66563 of alt.revisionism
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From: dspiegel@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (Dan Spiegel)
Subject: Sheftel: How I love me... (Re: Demjanjuk book (Defending Ivan the Terrible) review
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I posted this a while back after Mr. Slepokura implied that something
might be accomplished by reading Sheftel's first book. I post it again
for a couple of quotes from Sheftel, one referring to Meyer Lansky as
"a warm hearted ... Jew" and another that pretty much sums up his grasp
of reality. 

Not earth shattering stuff, but I believe that a short reading of 
Sheftel's first book will leave any reasonable reader shaking their 
head in disbelief that a person can be so enamored of themself.

------------------------------Begin Repost--------------------------------

In article ,
Orest Slepokura  wrote:
>
>For a fuller understanding of what the Jewish scholar Dr. Alfred Liliethal
>meant by the term "Holocaustomania," one should read the book The
>Demjanjuk Affair by Yoram Sheftel, John Demjanjuk's Israeli authority. 
>
>The Demjanjuk Affair: The Rise and Fall of a Show-Trial was published by
>Victor Gollancz in London in 1994.  It sells for about $30 Canadian.
>
>Many shocking facts are made clear.  One of them: the OSI, the
>Nazi-hunting arm of the US Justice Department, knew as early as 1978 that
>Demjanjuk was not the man it was after.  However, it was only in 1993 that
>Demjanjuk was cleared of the charges against him and able to leave his
>prison cell in Ayalon Prison in Israel where he spent 5 years on death row
>and return to his family in Ohio.

I happen to have started reading this book today.

Thus, I must ask this poster's reaction to the following:

-------------------------------------------------
[The book is in the first person - DS] 
   O'Connor's [US Defense Attorney for Demjanjuk - DS] first question
was what he should do at that hearing [the arraignment - DS]. [...]
I advised him to seize the opportunity at this hearing to admit all 
the facts contained in the indictment, apart from those relating to the
identity of Demjanjuk as Ivan the Terrible. In light of this confession,
he would have to stress, courteously, that the court should instruct the
prosecution to call only those witnesses whose testimony was about the
identification of Demjanjuk as Ivan the Terrible. [...]   [1]
---------------------------------------------------

So, I must ask the poster to respond to this question:

Can you name where in this book is it in any way implied that any
fact about the Holocaust, besides the identification of Demjanjuk
as Ivan the Terrible, is fabricated?

I realize that possibly this poster uses the term "Holocaustomania"
to mean simply the over-promotion of the tragedy of the Holocaust.
Thus, I request clarification of what he/she means by their use of
the term.

I wish to also state that I am skeptical of Sheftel as an individual
whose word is to be taken as unconditional truth.

-------------------------------------------------
[...] On the eve of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, in 1970, the
papers reported that Meyer Lansky, who was reputed to have played a 
leading role in organized crime in the US over the previous 50 years,
had arrived to spend the festive season in Israel, and also to stay on
a while afterwards. [...] no one could have anticipated that within a 
few years, a close and special relationship would develop between this
aging, warm-hearted, sharp-witted Jew and me.  [2]
---------------------------------------------------

I'm certain that there are many individuals who have a less 
charitable opinion of Meyer Lansky.

One more passage to display Sheftel's style:


-------------------------------------------------
[Sheftel meets with Shaked, the Israeli prosecutor, for the first time]
  We met at the Justice Ministry offices in Jerusalem. I opened by say-
ing, 'I'm sure you have heard all kinds of weird stories about me in the
last twenty-four hours. I'd like you to know that they are misleading. 
I've never _started_ [italics Sheftel's] a quarrel with anybody in my 
life and all my quarrels, even the worst of them, have been in response
to intolerable behaviour towards me.[...]
---------------------------------------------------

Not the words of someone who can be depended upon to deliver unbiased
information, in my opinion.

To tell the truth, in the first 20 pages of the book, Sheftel displays
bravado and self-aggrandizement that could only be compared here with the 
posts of Wayne McGuire. 

I will post more when I read the section where Sheftel disputes the
authenticity of the Trawniki card. He has already referred to it as 
the "Soviet Rag", and stated categorically in the first paragraph of 
the preface to the British Edition that it is "now known to be a crude 
forgery", but he hasn't provided any reason why he is to be believed.

Work:

[1]:The Demjanjuk Affair: The Rise and Fall of a Show-Trial, by Yoram Sheftel; 
    Published by Victor Gollancz, London, 1993.  
    Page 12, last paragraph, continuing onto page 13. 

[2]:The Demjanjuk Affair: The Rise and Fall of a Show-Trial, by Yoram Sheftel; 
    Published by Victor Gollancz, London, 1993.  
    Page 1; 3rd paragraph

[3]:The Demjanjuk Affair: The Rise and Fall of a Show-Trial, by Yoram Sheftel; 
    Published by Victor Gollancz, London, 1993.  
    Page 18, first full paragraph

| -DS 	I speak for myself only.  No unsolicited e-mail, please. 	  |
|	    Please do not use my name in any subject headers.		  |
| Obligatory quote: "Sometimes one must cut off a finger to save a hand"  |
|		    -Po, lowly priest of Hunan province, Shao-Lin Master  |

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