Ilya Ehrenburg
Ilya Grigoryewitch Ehrenburg (born 15 January 1891 in Kiev - died 31 August 1967 in Moscow) was a Bolshevik Jewish writer, journalist, translator, prominent member of Soviet-sponsored Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, and during the Second World War a leading Soviet propagandist, whose propaganda has been argued to have contributed to both the politically correct view on the Holocaust and the Communist part of the claimed mass killings of Germans by the WWII Allies.
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Early life
Ehrenburg was born in 1891 in Kiev to a non-religious Jewish family. In 1908, he fled Tsarist Russia because of his revolutionary activities. Although he returned to visit after the Communist revolution, he continued to live abroad, including many years in Paris, and did not settle in the Soviet Union until 1941.[1]
Wartime activities
During the Second World War, he was a leading member of the Soviet-sponsored Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. At fund-raising rallies in the United States for the Soviet war effort, two leading members of the Committee displayed bars of human soap, allegedly manufactured by the Germans from the corpses of murdered Jews. Ehrenburg's writings were circulated among millions of Soviet soldiers. In the leaflet simply headlined "Kill", Ehrenburg incited Soviet soldiers:[1]
The Germans are not human beings. From now on the word German means to use the most terrible oath. From now on the word German strikes us to the quick. We shall not speak any more. We shall not get excited. We shall kill. If you have not killed at least one German a day, you have wasted that day… If you cannot kill your German with a bullet, kill him with your bayonet. If there is calm on your part of the front, or if you are waiting for the fighting, kill a German in the meantime. If you leave a German alive, the German will hang a Russian and rape a Russian woman. If you kill one German, kill another – there is nothing more amusing for us than a heap of German corpses. Do not count days, do not count kilometers. Count only the number of Germans killed by you. Kill the German – that is your grandmother's request. Kill the German – that is your child's prayer. Kill the German – that is your motherland's loud request. Do not miss. Do not let through. Kill.
Another incitement:[2]
There is nothing as beautiful as a German corpse. Kill the Germans! – your old mother begs you, kill the Germans! – your child pleads. Germans are not humans, they are wild beasts
Ehrenburg's incendiary writings have been argued to have contributed in no small measure to the Communist part of the claimed mass killings of Germans by the WWII Allies.[1]
Ehrenburg and the Holocaust
Ehrenburg published the allegation of six million Jews killed during the war, in the Soviet foreign language press as early as December 1944, more than four months before the war came to an end, long before any demographic information was available, and long before Wilhelm Höttl stated this number during the Nuremberg trials.[3] (Various six million Jews allegations had started long before this, as discussed in the article on this topic.)
Ehrenburg and Zionism
In keeping with official Soviet policy, Ehrenburg publicly criticized Israel and Zionism. However, it has been revealed that he arranged to transfer his private archives to Jerusalem's Yad Vashem library and archive. Ehrenburg has been argued to never privately have disavowed Zionism or forgot his ancestry.[1]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Strange Life of Ilya Ehrenburg, Historical News and Comment http://codoh.com/library/document/2228/
- ↑ The Suppressed History of Crimes committed on German soldiers in WWII. Part V. http://revblog.codoh.com/2012/05/the-suppressed-history-of-crimes-committed-on-german-soldiers-in-wwii-part-v/
- ↑ Germar Rudolf. Lectures on the Holocaust—Controversial Issues Cross Examined 2nd, revised and corrected edition. Holocaust Handbooks. http://holocausthandbooks.com/index.php?page_id=15
