Fake Holocaust Survivors: Murray Scheinberg
Our next ‘Holocaust Survivor’ story to examine is that of one Murray Scheinberg – now of California - which was helpfully reproduced – rather uncritically – by the British newspaper ‘The Sun’ in 2020.
They write how:
‘Murray Scheinberg watched in horror as the gun-toting Nazi officer snatched a six-month-old baby from its mother and hurled it in the air.
It was 1944 at Auschwitz death camp, and Jewish prisoner Murray was about to witness an act of such extreme cruelty it would haunt him forever.
As the baby flew upwards, the Nazi sneered, “If you can’t walk, you will fly". He then aimed his gun, pulled the trigger and shot the flailing infant dead.
When the mother immediately fainted, she too was shot in the head.’ (1)
This is rather odd claim to make precisely because it is so vague in that all we know was that a ‘Nazi officer’ – no other detail not even if it was an SS officer or a Polish/Ukrainian auxiliary – ‘snatch’ a ‘six-month-old baby’ (one wonders how Scheinberg is so strangely specific about the age but about little else) who he then proceeds to lob in the air – which sounds far easier than it actually is – and then shoot with his gun (note we aren’t even if told if it was a pistol or a rifle which is also rather odd).
Then to top it off the mother of the infant faints and is promptly also shot in the head for no discernible reason.
The problem with Scheinberg’s narrative is fairly simple in that he is remarkably unspecific about the who and the how but is remarkably and oddly specific about how old the baby was.
This is odd precisely because it is the wrong way around in that Scheinberg should be able to tell us what type of gun was used (i.e., was it a pistol or a rifle), what kind of ‘Nazi officer’ this was (i.e., SS, Polish/Ukrainian Auxiliary and give some idea of their relative rank as this would be readily apparent or at least could be worked out by him simply describing the ‘Nazi officer’s’ uniform) and also some kind of reason why as at least a speculative one (i.e., was this done during the selection process, had the mother done something wrong/said something etc) but yet he doesn’t.
This naturally suggests that Scheinberg is – to be frank – telling porkies and because he is a ‘Holocaust Survivor’ no one has bothered to question his nonsensical story.
Further to this; the fact is that throwing a six month year old infant in the air and then shooting it while it is still in the air is an extremely hard thing to do because the ‘Nazi officer’ would need to throw the infant high enough into the air to enable him to unholster/unsling, load/make ready, sight and fire said weapon all while the baby is still in the air.
Doing this with a frisbee is one thing but a relatively heavy and non-aerodynamic child is next to impossible. This means that Scheinberg is essentially claiming something nigh impossible – or at least very difficult – happened and offers no evidence and/or specifics for the claim but simply asserts he ‘saw it’ happen.
Scheinberg continues with the claim that:
‘She reveals how her courageous 'Uncle Murray' battled through more than half a decade of starvation, torture and bloody beatings after being captured by Hitler's forces.
During this time, he was forced to witness regular 'Death Wall' shootings and participate in sick Nazi games - including "walking" on his skeletal back with his legs in the air.’ (2)
Right so we are to believe that Scheinberg ‘survived’ over five years’ worth of ‘starvation, torture and bloody beatings’ which included regularly watching mass shootings and wiggling around on his back with his legs in the air. One wonders how on earth is ‘miracle’ occurred given had Scheinberg been so specifically targeted for starvation and torture over five years that he survived at all, but apparently awkward questions aren’t to be asked of ‘Holocaust Survivors’.
Perhaps the most hilarious claim is the last one Scheinberg makes, which is that:
‘Hero Murray spent much of his life in California, after American soldiers found him hiding in a ditch outside the walls of Dachau, surrounded by his own urine and faeces, in 1945.’ (3)
So, after five years’ worth of of ‘starvation, torture and bloody beatings’ Scheinberg is necessarily claiming that was living ‘in a ditch’ ‘outside the walls of Dachau’ and was apparently wallowing in his own urine and excrement.
This is odd precisely because the Dachau camp was never abandoned by SS personnel – in fact 35-50 Waffen-SS soldiers were extrajudicially murder at Dachau by the American forces that ‘liberated’ the camp in 1945. So one wonders how on earth Scheinberg was outside the walls in a ditch in the first place let alone basically living there.
It just doesn’t sound plausible nor likely: does it?
It sounds awful like Scheinberg – who may well have been at both Auschwitz and Dachau – is just making up the details to make his captivity sound like heroic when he just basically a penal labourer for five years and had the good fortune to sit out the bloodiest war in human history.
References
(1) https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12079346/nazis-longest-serving-prisoner-auschwitz-survival/
(2) Ibid.
(3) Ibid.