Posted on November 7, 2012 at 2:55 pm

False report that Elie Wiesel showed reporter “his tattoo?”

by Carolyn Yeager

Associated Press reporter Verena Dobnik may be guilty of intentional mis-represention in an AP story published Oct. 8, 2012 in which she said she saw a tattoo on Elie Wiesel’s left forearm.

The story was carried by many news outlets, including the Washington Times, Seattle Times, Huffington Post, Salon.com, the Bend Bulletin (Oregon), The Sun Chronicle, Flagstaff Today, Deseret News , Yahoo news, The Times of Israel (and other specifically Jewish news media).

No date for the actual sit-down interview is given in the report, which is titled “Elie Wiesel survives Madoff wipeout, heart by-pass,” and was contributed to by another Associated Press writer, Randy Herschaft. This is not the first time Dobnik and Herschaft have worked together. In the news story, Dobnik, who was born in Slovenia and lives in New York, claims to have seen Wiesel’s tattoo but does not describe what she saw. She writes:

He pulls back his left jacket sleeve to reveal a Nazi death camp number tattooed on his forearm as he sits comfortably in his Manhattan office for an interview.

“Usually, I don’t show it,” he says.

One of the exceptions was a 2009 visit to the Buchenwald death camp Wiesel survived, with President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Was this extraordinary claim checked out for accuracy by the Associated Press before running the story? In all of his 62 years in public life (since 1950) Wiesel has never exhibted publicly a tattoo on his left arm. Furthermore, there are some photographs taken over the course of the years in which his bare left arm can be clearly seen (sometimes in bright sunlight, as in the unretouched photo here taken from Wiesel’s own film about a return visit to Auschwitz) and none show any kind of mark on his arm, let alone anything that resembles an Auschwitz concentration camp number.

Where’s the excitement?

Dobnik’s claim is so surprising that it should have garnered excitement from the mainstream media, but just the opposite happened – it was totally ignored and some publications that had originally published the story may have removed it from their online news sites! For this reason, I doubt that this incident ever actually happened; I think it very likely that Verena Dobnik added it to her interview simply because she wanted to. I can’t give her motivations, which may be quite complex. But this part of her interview should have set off a red light for the AP editors, and some questions should have been asked. Not just the seven I list below, but also why she should mention it at all if no photograph proving what she says she saw accompanies the article? I do not, at this point, speculate that Wiesel drew something on his arm and then gave Dobnik a quick glance at it. It seems far more likely to me that Dobnik, as other journalists have done, just added it to her story on her own. I have to add that Wiesel’s handlers and publicity team have not killed the story – so he doesn’t disapprove of it.

A challenge to Wiesel, Dobnik and the AP

(At left is a detail of a photograph of the left arm of  Auschwitz survivor Sam Rosenzweig.) If Wiesel is willing to show his tattoo to the reporter Dobnik, why won’t he show it to the general public and end the questions and swirling speculation about “does he or doesn’t he” have what he says he has? This kind of tease from Ms. Dobnik cannot go unanswered, especially from Elie Wiesel Cons The World where we have been asking this question for two and one-half years – since July 2010 – without ever being shown even a picture of Wiesel’s alleged tattoo.  I therefore do not believe this reporter’s story and accuse her of journalistic fraud. She and Mr. Herschaft are clearly biased reporters who favor, and even specialize in, the traditional ‘holocaust’ narrative. I will register this complaint in a formal way with the Associated Press and I urge you readers to do the same. Don’t sit back and expect others to work miracles on your behalf – take action. The more the Associated Press hears about this, the better.

Contact info for the Associated Press:  Call AP headquarters at 212.621.1500 or email [email protected] for general inquiries. Here is a List of AP news bureaus and correspondents.  AP says they welcome feedback and comments from readers. Send an email to [email protected] and it will be forwarded to the appropriate editor or reporter. Remove any attachments, including email signatures, company logos and disclaimers, to ensure that we receive it.  (Don’t attach this article, or even link to it, for best results. It should not appear to be an organized campaign from this website.)

Some questions we can fairly ask of Ms. Dobnik and the AP editors are:

  1. Does she know what a “Nazi death camp number” looks like? She apparently doesn’t know that Auschwitz was the only German concentration camp that tattooed prisoners, so there is no such thing as a “death camp number,” only an Auschwitz camp number.
  2. Can she describe what this number tattooed on Wiesel’s arm looked like? And why didn’t she? Did she get a long enough or close enough look at it to be sure of what she “saw?”
  3. Why would the Nazis tattoo prisoners in a “death camp” who were presumably scheduled for death? If they were not all scheduled for death, why call it a “death camp number?”
  4. Why does she and the AP continue to call Auschwitz a “death camp” when so many survived, along with their tattoos?
  5. How does she know that Wiesel showed his tattoo to President Obama and Chancellor Merkel in 2009 during a visit to Buchenwald? The implication is that she had to learn it from him, during the interview, but she doesn’t include this in her report so we don’t know.
  6. Buchenwald is not listed as one of the supposed “death camps” (they are all outside of Germany proper), so why is  Dobnik allowed to call Buchenwald a “death camp.”
  7. How many other mistakes has this AP reporter made in her dire ignorance of what she is writing about?

9 Comments to False report that Elie Wiesel showed reporter “his tattoo?”

  1. by Jerzy Ulicki-Rek

    On November 7, 2012 at 5:31 pm

    Excellent work young lady!!!
    Let me please add only that so far we don’t have any proof that prisoners were tattooed at all because the number of version in relation to this fact equals the number of “gas chambers” stories.LOU SOKOLOV claims to tattoo 200 000 prisoners in Auschwitz with 2 needles embedded in a piece of timber.
    Another holo-tattoo tale talks about a “plate” with adjustable needles .
    Carlos W. Porter did an excellent materials on this subject.
    All the best.
    Jerzy Ulicki-Rek

     

  2. by Carolyn

    On November 7, 2012 at 9:44 pm

    Thanks Jerzy. As I keep pointing out, it doesn’t matter to this website whether there was a tattooing policy at Auschwitz or not … and Carlos Porter notwithstanding. What matters here is what Elie Wiesel says and whether that fits the facts. Wiesel says he got tattooed at Auschwitz with A7713 and he still has the number on his left arm. So he must be lyiing. He can easily prove his critics wrong (if we are), but he doesn’t. Yes, he must be lying.

    Now, if enough people contact Verena Dobnik and the Associated Press, we might prove that she is lying, too.

     

  3. by Carolyn

    On November 8, 2012 at 10:58 pm

    I called the AP New York office today and left a message for Verena Dobnik to call me and for what reason. Then I sent a fairly lengthy email to [email protected] criticizing Dobnik for saying Elie Wiesel showed her his tattoo without any corroborating evidence or testimony from anyone else. I said there was a suspicion of journalistic fraud.

    I hope that those who are reading here will do the same.

     

  4. by Carolyn

    On November 13, 2012 at 10:38 am

    I just called the Dallas office of the AP and talked to a very nice, clueless man who couldn’t help me because it’s a matter for the New York office. I will send my email again to [email protected] requesting it be forwarded to Verena Dobnik, and saying that I did not get a response from her the first time. I’m going to emphasize the journalistic fraud issue. The only way for Dobnik to prove she did not commit fraud is for Elie Wiesel to back her up. The photos used for the article (apparently taken that day) show him wearing his usual suit and long sleeve dress shirt.

    I suggest others do the same, or call the New York office at (212) 621-1500 and try to talk to a real person.

     

  5. by Carolyn

    On November 14, 2012 at 9:20 pm

    I was on the Rick Adam’s Uncensored radio program tonight on the Republic Broadcasting Network, talking about this Elie Wiesel tattoo issue. You can hear it in the RBN archives http://republicbroadcasting.org/archives/index.php?cmd=archives.month&ProgramID=15&year=12&month=11&backURL=index.php%253Fcmd%253Darchives.getyear%2526ProgramID%253D15%26year%3D12%26backURL%3Dindex.php%253Fcmd%253Darchives
    or you can download it from my website: http://carolynyeager.net/node/1029
    I urge readers to send an email to [email protected] about this – directed to the New York office and Verena Dobnik. If you already sent one, send a 2nd one. Tell them you demand more information about Elie Wiesel’s tattoo from Dobnik. They need to hear from enough people for it to register that they might have a problem.

     

  6. by Olaf Childress

    On November 9, 2012 at 7:08 am

    Carolyn,

    Thanks for furnishing Dobnik’s contact info to go with your article in The First Freedom’s December issue. Most folks don’t have time or know-how to chase down such info as do we counter propagandists. Anyone can receive that hardcopy edition by domestic mail when sending USPS address to TFF, PO Box 385, Silverhill, AL 36576.

     

  7. by david hume

    On March 9, 2014 at 4:20 am

    Verena Dobnik is to Elie Wiesel what Laura Grabowski is to Benjimin Wilkomirski. Laura was a fraud like Benji. Verena might have been fooled by a quick glance, but more likely Verena is a fraud promoting herself, like Elie

     

  8. by Carolyn

    On March 11, 2014 at 4:53 am

    david hume – Yes, for me it’s a certainty Dobnik didn’t see any tattoo; she made the story up. The Associated Press would not back her up in any way – they totally clammed up instead. But they didn’t fire her!

     

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