Author Response

Abstract

Efraim Zuroff and Per Anders Rudling seem to have overlooked the primary focus of my study in their zeal to emphasize their doctrine. As a result, their comments have little to do with the main topic discussed in the article. They chose to focus on the Demjanjuk affair, although his story is merely one aspect of the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (KGB) operation “Retribution.” This distraction from the central point of my study is precisely the sort of reaction the KGB hoped to generate with this operation. Additionally, the authors refer to this study—grounded in archival analysis— as “assertions” when it challenges their support of the Soviet narrative. Zuroff and Rudling’s diatribe is no substitute for a solid argument and research, not the unjust labeling of “Holocaust deniers.” The international academic community has routinely observed the uninformed and anti-Ukrainian statements by Zuroff and publications by Rudling that provoke severe rebuttals of his narratives, notoriously questionable analytical perspectives. Such journalistic jingoism in defense of an attitude carries little scholarly weight over assiduous archival study engaged in by many scholars diligently working in the archives, examining documents crucial to our understanding of the KGB’s tactics and strategies. The attempt by Zuroff and Rudling to camouflage serious legal errors committed by the Office of Special Investigations, reflected in legal documents easily available online, as well as the branding of individuals as Holocaust deniers because of their disagreement with the Soviet narrative, remarkably resemble standard tactics of the KGB. These tactics include shouting down the opposition at professional meetings and publishing hysterical finger-pointing articles in journals to discredit the voices of serious scholars and their work. Instead of omitting significant information in defense of their narrative, Zuroff and Rudling might be better served by conducting their own historical, archival, legal, and empirical research and publishing their results in a scholarly journal. The existence of another Ivan Demjanjuk who was born in the same village, and