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The Holocaust Happened
By Richard A. Widmann
In January 2004, yet another
memorial is due to open to commemorate the Holocaust. This memorial,
a huge abstract affair, is to be constructed near Berlin’s famous
historic landmark, the Brandenburg Gate. Although 50 million marks
have been promised by the German government to cover the building
costs of the memorial, an organization called the Foundation for
the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is attempting to raise
the equivalent of another 2 million dollars to fund an information
center associated with the memorial.
It is this fund raising attempt that has sparked some controversy
in Germany. The advertising campaign designed to raise funds for
the information center consists of a billboard ad that is to show
up all around Germany that reads, “den Holocaust hat es nie gegeben,”
“the Holocaust never happened.” The slogan is plastered over a beautiful
pastoral mountain landscape rather than concentration camp photographs
as one might expect. This odd advertisement, especially odd in Germany
where those 6 words would typically result in a jail sentence, was
designed to shock the average German. The ad does contain significantly
smaller text that explains itself a bit, “There are still many people
who make this claim. In 20 years there could be even more. Make
a donation to the memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe.”
The German Billboard Ad reading "The Holocaust never
happened." Israel
As with so many of the recent crop of Holocaust museums and memorials,
it is clear that combating Holocaust revisionism is a major motivation
for the work. But what should we think of an organization that raises
money for an information center through the propagation of disinformation?
Those who combat revisionism frequently make arguments, similar
to this ad campaign, which oversimplify the revisionist position
to the point of absurdity. In fact, rather than countering revisionist
arguments, the anti-revisionists label their opponents “deniers”
along with a string of even more abhorrent epithets. When choosing
to engage the Holocaust revisionists, they often, as in this ad,
create what they claim is the revisionist or “denier’s” position
and then debunk that rather than taking on real revisionist arguments.
For example, the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH),
often cited as one of the major Holocaust “denial” outfits in the
U.S. does not deny the Holocaust nor make silly claims like “the
Holocaust never happened.” If one were to consider even the name
of the Committee, it is apparent that CODOH does not think the Holocaust
never happened. CODOH strives for open debate on the Holocaust.
The position is clear. The Holocaust happened. What is intended
is that the historical record be corrected regarding the various
events that make up the Holocaust story. CODOH argues that the definition
of the “Holocaust” be revised.
The standard dictionary definition of “Holocaust” is “the systematic
destruction of over six million European Jews by the Nazis before
and during World War II.” Often added to this definition is the
means of the destruction, gas chambers. Revisionists have argued
for years that material evidence for gas chambers is non-existent.
Similarly there is no evidence of a Hitler-order, or an order by
any top-ranking German official to exterminate the Jews of Europe.
In addition, evidence suggests that the number six million is at
best a symbolic number and at worst a wild exaggeration of the real
number of Jews who died during this period. Today commenting or
writing that these elements of the orthodox Holocaust story are
untrue or even debatable is a criminal offense in many countries
including Germany where such statements could result in a five-year
prison term.
Defining an historical event by the sum of its details appears
to be unique to the Holocaust. We never, for example, define the
Second World War by the number of Europeans killed or for that matter
who was responsible for starting it. An historian who showed that
fewer British died during the Blitz or fewer Germans died during
the saturation bombing of its cities, would hardly be called a “World
War Two Denier.” We do not need to limit ourselves to the Second
World War. Recently investigations showed that fewer Americans died
during the Korean War than previously thought. No one was led to
believe that the Korean War did not happen.
The Holocaust legend is so locked into the sum of its parts that
it typically goes beyond even the definition provided above. Essentially
anything that anyone suggests the Nazis did to the Jews of Europe
becomes part of the Holocaust legend. Some of these stories and
elements are quite true and not refuted by anyone; others are crazy
tales that few believe. Therefore historic facts like, concentration
camps, crematoria and tattoos become merged with human-skin lampshades,
shrunken heads and pedal-driven brain-bashing machines. While revisionists
have shown the latter more absurd claims to be false, all agree
to the former facts. The anti-revisionists typically use a sleight-of-hand
trick to mislead those less familiar with the body of revisionist
thought. By claiming that revisionists argue that the Holocaust
never happened, anti-revisionists would like the public to think
that revisionists deny the existence of concentration camps, of
crematoria, and of Nazi persecution of Jews.
In fact there is no question about the existence of concentration
camps, crematoria or that the Nazis persecuted the Jews. It is in
this vein that revisionists would like to redefine “Holocaust” as
“the tragedy that befell Europe's Jews during the Second World War."
With this in mind, the Foundation for the Memorial to the Murdered
Jews of Europe should not be adding to the misinformation campaign
surrounding the Holocaust. Rather than seeking funds for an information
center in a country in which investigation and publication of research
that varies from a standard liturgy results in persecution and imprisonment,
the Foundation should be seeking to repeal these repressive laws.
The historical record of the Holocaust will never be corrected nor
properly understood as long as Germany and other countries insist
on a single dogmatic interpretation.
Norman Finkelstein has called “The Holocaust” the “ideological
representation” of the historical events that comprised this period.
The Foundation warns us that in 20 years there could be more people
who don’t believe that the Holocaust happened. If the ideologues,
the propagandists, and the politicians insist on a single rigid
interpretation of the events infused with their own ideology, the
Foundation is quite correct, many more people will not believe that
the Holocaust happened. The ideological Holocaust will be relegated
to the dustbin of history. Hopefully at that time the real history
of the tragedy of the Jews of Europe will not be thrown out with
the myths.
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Bradley R. Smith, Publisher 