https://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2004/09/30/treblinka-square/feed/PJ Media is a leading news site covering culture, politics, faith, homeland security, and more. Our reporters and columnists provide original, in-depth analysis from a variety of perspectives.en-usFri, 12 Jun 2026 02:10:24 -0400<![CDATA[Perhaps the most peculiar slip of the first presidential debate of 2004 was when Kerry referred to Lubyanka Square (the former KGB headquarters in Moscow) as Treblinka Square, confusing the prison made famous by Sozhenitsyn and Arthur Koestler, among others, with the even more murderous Nazi concentration camp. Why this error? Those of us with a quasi-Freudian turn of mind might wonder if it has something to do with that sudden &#8220;discovery&#8221; by Kerry of his Jewish roots. The Senator, like Madeleine Albright, &#8220;stumbled&#8221; on his grandfather&#8217;s Jewish background (both were Czech incidentally) quite late in life, indicating either a rather remarkable lack of curiosity or something worse, deliberate obfuscation. I frankly suspect the latter because Kerry has a record of this, having participated, to some degree or other, also in the pretence that he was Irish-American. (Christmas in Cambodia anyone?)]]>Thu, 30 Sep 2004 23:01:18 -0400<![CDATA[Roger L. Simon]]>https://pjmedia.com/roger-l-simon/2004/09/30/treblinka-square-n205021