For some decades the consensus has been that the greatest calamity to befall the Jewish people has been the Nazi Holocaust, in which six million Jews met their cruel demise. Therefore, if you want to make a Jew happy, tell him that far fewer than six million Jews died in that holocaust. Surely, once you explain that there are difficulties with the official account of those events, he will eagerly and joyously soak up every word you have to say on the matter.
Alas, this is not likely to be the case. Instead of paying attention to what you have to say, he will probably mock you and call you a "neo-Nazi". Not only will your words not be heard, but you will be persecuted for saying them. In some countries, you can get thrown in prison for speaking them. This is because the Nazi Holocaust has morphed into a religion of its own - the vast majority of Jews pay far more credence to the official account of the holocaust than they do to the Torah. Even if you don't actually dispute the official version, but suspect less than noble intentions for those who promote it, you can lose your job and become a pariah. Just ask Norman Finkelstein.
Many years ago, I decided to abstain from reading about the holocaust or watching any movies about it. To do so would only bring me pain and I saw no benefit in torturing my soul over a past I could do nothing about. I even refrained from asking the survivors I've known about their experiences. Some of them bore the infamous numbers tattooed onto their arms. This was testimony enough. Recently, however, a friend sent me the book "Debating the Holocaust" by Thomas Dalton, ph.D. I reasoned that reading about how so many Jews did not die would not cause depression - and I was right.
At the beginning of the book, Dalton feigns impartiality and tells us how he is going to present both sides of each issue. However, as the book progresses, it becomes clear that the author favors the revisionist side. If his claims about the tactics of the pro-"orthodox" camp are accurate, then we should not blame him for this. After all, if one side of a debate ignores the most powerful arguments of the other while focusing only on the weakest ones - and doesn't even do a good job at that - is that side worthy of equal respect?
One of the statistics, cited in the book, that I found most shocking was the sheer number of books about the holocaust that are published each year. They run into the tens of thousands if we include all languages. At this rate, it would not be surprising if each holocaust victim ended up having his own book eventually. A recent visit to the largest book store in the U.S., Powell's Books, verified this. There were dozens of holocaust books and, indeed, they seemed to outnumber those on Judaism proper. Will I make it my life's mission to disprove the official account of the holocaust? Will I spend years poring over those countless books in order to gain more insight? No and no. I am perfectly content with the knowledge that far fewer Jews may have been victimized than I'd been led to believe until now. This is a comforting thought.
Even after reading the book, I am not 100% convinced that the revisionists are correct. But, in my mind, the single most damning piece of evidence against proponents of the traditional view is that they resort to throwing revisionists in prison, assassinating their character, destroying their careers and disrupting their meetings. To me, this behavior is tantamount to an admission that they are being deceitful. To them I say, "if you have nothing to hide, then meet the revisionists in open debate, read their books and answer their objections." I've seen this kind of cowardice before. It is the default tactic of those whose views are based on emotion rather than reason. Since they lack solid arguments to use in a debate, they resort to thuggery and book-burning.
I am glad that there are those who fight for the truth. I applaud people like Thomas Dalton and Norman Finkelstein - because the holocaust continues each day and its victims continue to pile up. These are the Palestinians who are murdered, tortured and whose houses are demolished. The Jewish children who are raised to believe the whole world is out to get them and who are made to relive the suffering of those "six million" who perished. The American and European taxpayers whose money is extorted to perpetuate the racket that the holocaust industry has become.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I notice that jailing holocaust questioners makes the holocause revisionism scene seem chic.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the USA aid to Israel is not cool. Personally all military aid to all foreign countries by the USA should be stopped. We have no business dicking around with these wars in foreign countries.
That's why the American government needs to stop giving tax moneys to foreign powers and once America stops with this military aid then americans can sit back and forget about all these insane wars in foreign lands whether they are in eastern europe, israel, africa, asia, latin america, or spain.
Seriously whats the point of living in a first world country with a beautiful land and cool people and fun things to do if we're all gonna spend our time playing these power games in foreign land... what's more important telling people what to do half way around the world or having a healthy body?
There's a big difference between debating the number of holocaust victims and denying it entirely. The latter is the province of lunatics. Has anyone been jailed for claiming anything along the lines of "the number of victims was one million, not six"? What's the original source of the six million figure, anyway? It seems remarkably tenuous for something universally accepted.
ReplyDeleteTurning just to how his issue affects me...
I quickly lost interest in Stormfront (and turned to AmRen) when a couple day's reading showed that the members admire Hitler and deny the holocaust. I consider this a key issue, because holocaust denial represents gross ignorance. Like any product of modern education outside the South, I had been taught since youth that believing in racial differences represented prejudice and ignorance. Only experience with the most-respected minority group members in my field taught me that belief in HBD is NOT prejudice and ignorance. It's the people who believe in ethnic intellectual equality because they haven't spent much time around other groups that are pre-judging (prejudice) based on insufficient information (ignorance).
BTW, I bet that if you surveyed people's attitude toward various ethnicities and correlated against their level of familiarity, you'd find that negative attitudes toward Jews correlated with low contact and negative attitudes towards blacks correlates with high.
I agree. Only a lunatic would claim that there was no mass murder of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals etc. by the Nazis and their sympathizers. This is, according to the book in question, why defenders of "orthodoxy" go out of their way to equate the two; they wish to make holocaust revisionists seem like lunatics.
ReplyDeleteAs for the law in such places as Germany, they seem to use vague language such as "whoever diminishes/belittles the crimes of National Socialists etc." Then the question arises, "diminishes/belittles from what?" So yes, it seems conceivable to me that a person could be locked up for claiming only five millions Jews were murdered. I am not familiar with the details of existing cases though. Perhaps somebody else could fill us in on that.
To Frank BD,
ReplyDeleteOne of the main "crimes" committed by Ernst Zundel was publishing a book entitled "Did Six Million Really Die?"
Whatever else he was accused of was not even as serious as that! This book contained information from the Red Cross that showed far fewer deaths in all the concentration camps, of all ethnic groups - not just Jews - than is claimed by the "Industry." Zundel was imprisoned for 7 years -- two years in Canada in maximum security while fighting extradiditon to Germany, and five years in Germany. The U.S. conspired to arrest and transport Zundel to Canada, using trumped up charges.
So, yes, it is criminal to question the number who died as well as any other detail of this officially mandated Religion of the 20th/21st Century. If you are Jewish, it is YOUR responsibility to learn the truth by reading revisionist books and articles with an open mind (as much as possible) and stop this insanity that is driving up dislike of Jews in all corners of the world.
jewamongyou,
ReplyDeleteOnly a lunatic would claim that there was no mass murder of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals etc. by the Nazis and their sympathizers?? How do you know that? By reading one book and ignoring much of what is said there?
You wanted to find out that there were less Jews killed than you thought. You're happy with that and don't want to look any further, obviously. But the idea that NO Jews were intentionally mass murdered you don't want to find out. That will set you too much against your own kind.
But, do you want the truth or do you want fables? You have obviously overlooked much of what was presented in Debating the Holocaust, which does indeed give a fair presentation of both sides even if the author finds the revisionist side most compelling. That's because it is!
Thanks for the forum to speak.
Holocaust denial is like the term racism. People just use it when they want to stop someone from speaking. There are a few things people get angry about when it comes to that period with regards to concentration camp victims under the National Socialist regime. People get angry about numbers, methods, and whether there was an attempt to exterminate every Jew. I have never heard of any holocaust revisionist state that nobody died and that concentration camps were filled with swimming pools and tennis courts. That is what is implied in the popular mind as denial. People think of deniers as people who ignore evidence and do not read history because they are rabid anti-Jewish people. This is definitely not the case with holocaust revisionists who are called deniers. However, there are some people who do actually know what holocaust revisionist state. And they will call holocaust revisionists "deniers" because they are very ignorant about new evidence. For example, if you state that 400,000 Jews died while there was no use of gas chambers to murder or evidence of Hitler's order to kill every Jew, then you will never be respectable. It does not matter if you evidence cannot logically be disputed. People have a mental block about this issue even when any tourist at the Auschwitz camp can see things do not go along with establishment's mainstream story. It is easy to realize why when the mainstream media outlets, Hollywood, and publishing have been run by secular Jews whose most emotional link to being Jewish is that terrible period in time. That is why there are so many books, movies, and television programs that emphasize the victimization of Jews in an exaggerated way. I suppose this propagating is expected when a group has that this much money and influence. When you repeat something often enough, many people will believe it because they will think many other people believe it. And if so many other people believe the mainstream story, then it has to be true. Otherwise, how could so many people believe it?
ReplyDeleteRather than shield yourself from reading about the Holocaust, try understanding it. By surviving, Jews won. Instead of exterminating all Jews, as Hitler wished, the Hebrew people have thrived. Instead of the death of the chosen people, we see the triumphant spirit of humankind and the new generation of the nation Israel.
ReplyDeleteNo event in human history has been studied as thoroughly and carefully than the Holocaust. Thousands of thesis and dissertations papers have poured over mountains of data, from physical evidence and anecdotal testimony to captured German war documents. Virtually everyone with a PhD in History will stake their career on the fact that millions of Jews were systematically exterminated by Nazi Germany. One can no more "revise" this fact than one can revise the existence of gravity. Wannsee Conference records prove that Nazis planned the extermination of Jews as, "The Final Solution." German concentration camp records prove that it was carried out.
Whenever we stand up to those who deny or minimize genocide we send a critical message to the world. As we continue to live in an age of genocide and ethnic cleansing, we must repel the broken ethics of our ancestors, or risk a dreadful repeat of past transgressions.
Holocaust deniers ply their mendacious poison everywhere, especially with young people on the Internet. Deniers seek to distort the truth in a way that promotes antagonism against the object of their hatred, or to deny the culpability of their ancestors and heroes.
Museums and mandatory public education are tools to dispel bigotry, especially racial and ethnic hatred. Books, plays, films and presentations can reinforce the veracity of past and present genocides. They help to tell the true story of the perpetrators of genocide; and they reveal the abject terror, humiliation and degradation resulting from prejudice. It is therefore essential that we disclose the factual brutality and horror of genocide, combating the deniers’ virulent, inaccurate historical revision. We must protect vulnerable future generations from making the same mistakes.
A world that continues to allow genocide requires ethical remediation. We must insist that religious, racial, ethnic, gender and orientation persecution is wrong; and that tolerance is our progeny's only hope. Only through such efforts can we reveal the true horror of genocide and promote the triumphant spirit of humankind.
Charles Weinblatt
Author, "Jacob's Courage"
http://jacobscourage.wordpress.com/
One of the things overlooked about the holocaust is the role of hospitals and psychiatrists.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cchr.org/psychiatry_an_industry_of_death_museum/psychiatry_and_euthanasia_of_holocaust.html
[...] http://jewamongyou.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/debating-the-holocaust [...]
ReplyDelete"juze"?
ReplyDeleteOK, I personally believe there was a holocaust but I feel no sympathy for jewish people when people deny the holocaust because the ADL campaigns against recognizing the armenian genocide as a genocide. I personally feel disgusted with Abe Foxmans behavior.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like we might have the makings of a fruitful debate between Michael Santomauro and Charles Weinblatt. I would envision it as a dialog between those two individuals only - in order to avoid others ganging up on somebody and creating a hostile atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to apologize to Michael; somehow your post get sent to the "spam" folder.
There are many Jews, even liberal ones, who do not like the ADL and strongly disagree with their tactics and stances.
ReplyDeleteOh ya I totally understand there are a lot of jewish people who are annoyed with Abe Foxman. But I mean Abe Foxman turned off an emotion in my heart by what he did.
ReplyDeletejewamongyou, I've seen your comments on amren forever and only recently discovered your blog. The holocaust stuff didn't bring me here and I cringe every time I see this discussion raise it's ugly head.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in the interest of disclosure I'm neither jewish, antisemitic nor philosemitic. I'm neutral in the sense that I think some jews are good, some are bad and some are just regular folks.
Anyway, here are my comments on several aspects:
===================================
Comment 1: On "politicization"
I think the holocaust has been politicized and used as a political tool and fund raising hustle by all concerned. And I find it equally offensive that antisemites would disrespect others’ deceased relatives as I do that jewish supremacists would use it to instill ethnic hatred. The proper thing to do is to open up free discussion among legitimate academics. While recognizing that non academics of all stripes just have a hard-on.
===============================
Comment 2: On "denial"
Suppose someone casts aspersions upon the character of your wife or mother. You’d call them a liar and try to beat them up. Now, what if you think the allegations are true? You’d still call them a liar and try to beat them up.
But what if you really do think the person is a liar? Now, this raises issues of belief. Think about all the moslems, christians, jews, hindus, etc who believe different things. Now, they can’t all be right. But they all believe their stuff in spite of substantial evidence to the contrary.
==================================
Comment 3: On "neo nazism"
it should be obvious that there is no organized neo nazi movement. What there is are a few neo nazi demagogues who make a big noise for donations. A few anti nazi demagogues who make a big noise for donations. A few hoodlums who hang out and drink beer or chat on the internet. And a few law enforcement agents who baby sit them.
===================================
Comment 4: On "obligations"
the only thing that is owed to the victims of ww2 is a moment of silence and a little respect. And that goes for the victims of ALL sides. But the war is over. And anyone old enough to remember is too old to remember it. But the real question is, “Should what we percieve as right and wrong change based on ww2?” My opinion is that the principles of right and wrong aren’t altered by history. People who pretend otherwise are being deceptive.
==============================
Comment 5: On "jews and society"
I think the discussion creates tensions that radicalize jews and force them away from a normalized relationship with the rest of society.
There was a book mentioned by the radio news program host John Loeffler (his program is called "Steel on Steel"). He once mentioned a book on the Holocaust, by a Jewish author, that includes the claim that about eight million Christians (that number may also include others such as Gypsies, I'm not sure) also died at the hands of the Nazis. I'm sorry I don't know the name of the book or its author.
ReplyDeleteWhat bothers me with the conventional view is the silence on the number of non-Jews killed that I hear of and read about in the media. There is rarely even a mention of the Protestants and Catholics who stood against Hitler and died for doing so. One such person was Deitrich Bonhoeffer, a Protestant minister, who's family tried to assassinate Hitler with a time-bomb, and who also helped Jews escape persecution and death in Germany. Bonhoeffer was eventually interned and put to death in a concentration camp.
(There is a very good audio recording of a radio theater production by Focus on the Family about his life...I listened to it years ago and it gave me insight into the incredible courage and faith of this man).