A letter from Dr. Wolf Murmelstein, a survivor of Theresienstadt

My photo of Brunnen Park in Theresienstadt

I am putting up a letter, that I received in e-mail today, from Dr. Wolf Murmelstein, who is one of the followers of my blog.

When I was first contacted by Dr. Murmelstein, several years ago, I knew virtually nothing about Theresienstadt — at least not from the Jewish point of view.  Over 5 years ago, I blogged about the gas chamber at Theresienstat.

This is the letter which I received this morning from Dr. Wolf Murmelstein:

Dear Futherglory!

I have been following this site for several years, and I am more and more angered because of the many doubts expressed, by your readers, on the facts that actually occurred.

After I survived Theresienstadt, I had to live with traumatized parents who were suffering from the “survivor syndrome,” remembering friends who had left and had never returned.

Especially my late Father, who tortured himself, wondering whether he, in many events where a sudden decision had to be taken, had acted in the right way or if he should have acted better.

My father had been heard only by a few researchers, as he had been defamed – and still is today – with absurd stories.

From 1938 until 1945, my father had had to face the SS men almost every day; each day could have been his last one.

In last months, when he was the Theresienstadt Elder, he always had a poison pill ready to be taken at a “certain moment”.

I myself had to stand in the face of the SS men about five times, which was a nightmare. One time I was about to be taken as a hostage.

As I have already written in another contribution, my father had gotten the first alarming information at the arrival of a group from Slovakia on December 31 1944. Then there had been the Nazi attempt to build a Gas Chamber at Theresienstadt; it had been very risky to go and face the Camp Commandant, to talk about possible mass panic among Ghetto inmates.

On the night of April 17, 1945, there had been the farce of a revolution – provoked by the Prague Eichmann office – in order to have a “legal reason” for a mass execution.

It had not been easy to face the Commandant and to remember what time it had been already. I remember only that, on the following morning, my father had had a nerve crisis.

And from April 21st onward, the arrivals of the survivors from other camps became terrible.

And now I am continuously reading more or less offensive statements expressing doubts, in a quite fault finding manner, about what occurred. Doubts about details are pretexts to deny the whole tragedy.

I would like to see the many doubting negationists pass a week in a camp, supervised by an SS sergeant, listening to all the hateful statements of the Nazi doctrine.

Would you offer your readers the opportunity to reply to this article?

Best Regards.

Wolf Murmelstein.