Some aspects of the Holocaust lore can only be understood, or at least approached in a clearer light, when one considers the psychological background of the people and the times involved. Wartime, with its disasters, propaganda efforts and widespread desperation and anxiety, is a breeding ground for rumors and exaggerations, propagated both through deliberate disinformation and common credulity. Add to this the group dynamics on all sides of this controversy: the warring enemies of yore, the perpetrators – whatever their deeds – the victims, and the postwar scholars, both revisionist and orthodox, all caught in their own psychological box.
By Mark Weber ∙ July 1, 1995
This is a revised and updated version of an article that first appeared in The Journal of Historical Review, Winter 1989-90 (Volume 9, number 4), pages 439-452. For more than 40 years, Simon Wiesenthal has been tracking hundreds of “Nazi criminals” from his “Jewish Documentation Center” in Vienna. For his work as the world’s most…
By Mark Weber ∙ January 1, 1993
After several delays, the largest and costliest Holocaust Museum anywhere is finally scheduled to open in Washington, DC, in April 1993. The “United States Holocaust Memorial Museum” will be formally dedicated on April 22, and will open to the public on April 26. Major political figures will att the formal dedication ceremony. President Bill Clinton…
By Robert H. Countess ∙ July 1, 1992
Beyond Innocence and Redemption: Confronting the Holocaust and Israeli Power, by Marc H. Ellis. New York: Harper & Row (Harper Collins), 1990. Softcover. 205 pages. Bibliography. Endnotes. Index. $13.00. ISBN: 0 06 062215 6. Many years before the recent, dramatic collapse of the Soviet Union, the Communist ideology on which it was based had already…
By Jett Rucker ∙ November 12, 2012
That’s me. Holocaust-obsessed. I’ve been “following” (as one might a series of Tweets) the Holocaust since long before it even had its brand name. I’ve always had a slightly excessive interest in it, because I am of German descent and I have always lived among (classmates, friends, and, yes, even better than that) a large…
By Bradley R. Smith ∙ November 12, 2012
Haaretz reports that a new survey to mark International Holocaust Memorial Day found that only 6 percent of Israeli children cite history lessons as a significant source of learning about the Holocaust (http://tinyurl.com/9xgerqp). The annual survey, conducted by the Massuah Institute for Holocaust Studies, shows school education has a very limited influence on shaping young…
By Robert A. Hall ∙ December 1, 1986
At present, the phrase the Holocaust is almost universally used to refer to various aspects of the situation in which Jews found themselves under the National Socialist regime from 1933 to 1945, in Germany and occupied territories. In this usage, there are several features of linguistic, graphemic, and scmantic structures which command the belief of…
By Michael A. Hoffman ∙ December 1, 1985
“Holocaust” is a Newspeak word whose exact definition exists, in the society of the spectacle, as a bundleof images. It is recognized on the visceral rather than the rational plane by its targeted audience. It does not exist in the public mind as a specific event, but as a command phrase summoning a sensory overload…
By Mark Weber ∙ October 1, 1985
With the possible exceptions of Hitler and Himmler, no man has been so vilified in recent years as the personification of Nazi evil as Dr. Josef Mengele. The Mengele legend was the basis for two novels that Hollywood turned into popular movies: William Goldman's The Marathon Man and Ira Levin's The Boys From Brazil. In…
By Nicholas Kollerstrom ∙ January 3, 2008
How is it “hate” to suggest there is evidence that millions of people were not murdered?—Kurt Bechle, United States I am shocked that in what I always thought to be “liberal” and “open-minded” Europe, anyone could be convicted for voicing an opinion regarding history.—Dominique Amarante, United States The word Holocaust has to mean a fiery…
By Germar Rudolf ∙ September 1, 2005
The Political and Economic Situation of Germany The German nation is dying out. In 50 years our Volk will be a minority in our own country, if present demographic trends continue. A hundred years from now it will for all practical purposes have ceased to exist. For the most part, Germans are being replaced by…
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