Put the Holocaust Industry out of Business

Norman Finkelstein's new book, The Holocaust Industry, which stirred a great deal of debate and interest in Europe and Great Britain, is getting the silent treatment here in the U.S.. In his book, Finkelstein accuses Jewish organizations of exploiting the Holocaust for huge returns in reparation settlements. He accuses the Industry of making big money, used to fund Holocaust literature and studies programs, at the expense of holocaust victims and survivors. He documents how these monies enrich the Jewish elite and the Israeli state, not the survivors. Ironically, just last week these same special interest groups sponsored a million dollar fund raising dinner to celebrate their latest reparations award and to thank the politicians who helped win it, including President Clinton and his wife.

Finkelstein's charges are damaging, so why aren't the Jewish special interest groups publicly denouncing or rebutting his claims? Why aren't they encouraging dialogue and civil discourse to repair their image and set the record straight? Why are they all suddenly mute? Could it be because they literally cannot afford to respond? This writer thinks so. Once these special interest groups enter the public arena of debate, civil discourse and free inquiry, they'll have to have a fire sale.

Here are some historical tid-bits, all of them verifiable, which put something of a dent in the Holocaust story as we have all come to know and love it.

FACT: Germans, not just Nazis or military personnel, were hung or imprisoned for crimes they were convicted of during the WWII war crimes trials. Please note, in these famous trials which “proved” the Holocaust: Defense witnesses were not allowed to testify, “eye witnesses” were not required to appear in court and were not available for cross examination, defense documents were severely limited or ignored entirely, there was no appeal system and “confessions” were obtained through physical and psychological torture!

FACT: The following quote from a Communist War Crimes Report regarding the mass extermination of Jews at Treblinka and Auschwitz was read into evidence on December 14, 1945: “All victims had to strip off their clothes and shoes, which were collected afterwards, whereupon all victims, women and children first, were driven into the death chambers. . .small children were simply thrown inside.” In this case, the “death chambers” were steam chambers!

FACT: During the war crimes trials Germans were accused of parboiling, frying, vacuuming, electrocuting, roasting, gassing, steaming and vaporizing Jews to death. They were also accused of murdering Jews with portable “brain bashing” machines and in “gas vans”. (None of the murder weapons were produced for the court to see, nor has anyone in the 50 plus years since provided proof of any of these murder weapons.) The Germans were accused of making human soap. They were accused of making human-skin riding breeches, ladies handbags and lampshades. They were accused of using gold teeth extracted from Jewish corpses to finance the war! The German people, not just the Nazi regime, has been cast as uniquely monstrous for more than fifty years, while the Holocaust Industry of which Finkelstein writes, has extorted billions of dollars from Germany, the U.S. and other countries because the Jewish suffering during WWII was “unique.” Or was it?

To ask this question is illegal in many countries. During the past 30 years laws have been passed to ensure an iron-clad silence on this one historical event. Laws have been passed to prohibit the use of the term holocaust for any genocide other than the Jewish genocide. To question aspects of the holocaust in Germany is to violate laws against inciting racial hatred. Even here, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, asking a simple question about this historical era will see you branded as a hateful, racist, neo-nazi, anti-Semitic Holocaust Denier, which is never good for one 's social life or career. If you are Jewish and you dare to question the Industry, as in Finkelstein's case, you are chastised as a self-hating Jew. Intellectual freedom, open inquiry and public debate are absolutely taboo on a subject that won't go away, but which we aren't allowed to discuss. This is worse than unethical. It's extortion and the Holocaust Industry special interest groups are the extortionists.

It is the opinion of this writer that it is high time for more men of honor, like Norman Finkelstein, to stand up to the Industry and say “Enough money!” The war has been over for half a century. Let it go. The German people (and countless others) have paid and paid and paid. So have U.S. taxpayers. We spent millions to build the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and now we're spending tens of millions per year to maintain it. Why?! I should think U.S. taxpayers would have preferred to keep this money in their pockets, or at least have it go to something a bit more urgent. Education, perhaps?

It is also time to replace the intellectual tyranny that reigns over The Holocaust with intellectual freedom, and to absolve the German people of those heinous crimes of which they have been falsely accused for more than fifty years. The Industry must stop teaching Holocaust Studies students that the Germans melted fat from Jewish corpses to make soap! (This vulgar accusation is still being taught in some U.S. and European schools and is still being circulated on the Internet!) Why does the Holocaust Industry need to perpetuate monstrous lies? Could it be the money?

The Industry complains that free inquiry and open debate are an assault on the memory of the dead. I strongly disagree. NOT allowing inquiry and debate is an assault on the memory of the dead. The Jewish dead are being exploited and the German dead have been unjustifiably disgraced. All other mortal victims of the war, including American GI's, have been irreverently forgotten by the Holocaust Industry. This is unethical, immoral and absolutely un-American. Let us not forget that Americans fought in WWII against just this kind of tyranny-a tyranny that suppressed thoughts, opinions and beliefs counter to those of the State. We sent our boys to fight and die to protect freedom and liberty from such tyranny. It is time to restore our moral integrity, that those who fell in battle did not die in vain.

Put the Holocaust Industry out of business.