- The recent
attempted defrocking of a Catholic Bishop on a charge of
"Holocaust denial" brings to the fore once again the need to
review the history of World War II in a properly detached
fashion. A horrible truth is that more than 55 million
people died in that war and the overwhelming majority of
them were not Jews. That is the holocaust we must all
remember. In addition to those deaths, World War II caused
the virtual destruction of Western Europe, and gave newborn
communism, the invention of Jewish politicians in Russia,
its chance to prove it did not work. The victory went to the
best and most determined killers, and various victims tell
their stories in their own ways. That is a dubious privilege
of all those who suffered greatly. It gave no one the right
to a story that cannot be examined in the pursuit of truth
and honest scholarship.
-
- Yet, examining the
official story of the Holocaust is a crime in Germany. It is
not a crime in the United States as such, but one historian,
Ernst Zundel, married to an American citizen, was summarily
picked up in the United States, sent to Canada and
imprisoned without conviction of any crime. He was then
bundled up and sent to Germany, but moved covertly, not
through normal legal processes of extradition.
-
- In Germany Zundel
has been tried in a German court and imprisoned, but he has
not been allowed to present arguments in his own defense,
and in fact his attorney has been imprisoned for attempting
to enter such defenses in the court record. Zundel shares
this fate with two others who have been sent to Germany from
other European countries, and a move is now afoot to make
Holocaust denial a crime throughout the European Community.
If that is accomplished, the European Community will have
prohibited any scholar to examine any part of the official
Holocaust story. To do so will result in imprisonment with a
trial in which the defendant can submit no evidence of the
history explored and the findings made, regardless of how
factually demonstrable they may be.
-
- Much of the
controversy stems from the fact that some elements of the
story have simply been proven false. For example, the
gruesome tale of human skin having been used to make leather
was dropped after it proved impossible to provide any
evidence. It is also reasonably clear that there were no gas
furnaces for extermination at Auschwitz, and that part of
the story has been dropped. General George S. Patton, then
in charge of occupied Germany, disbelieved several aspects
of the story and may have been killed because of his
outspoken comments. Disturbing stories have emerged that
confessions at Nuremberg were obtained by torture. The Red
Cross, which had access to the camps in question, has been
circumspect in its comments, but has yet to bless the
official version of the Holocaust.
-
- The numbers really
need to be reexamined: The six million figure commonly used
in the official story first appeared as the number of
displaced Jews in 1919, before Hitler came along, and before
the carnage of World War II. The plaques at Auschwitz tell
an evolving story. As reported by observers, the first
plaque at Auschwitz said 4 million dead. That was replaced
by one that said 3 million dead. That was replaced by a
plaque that said 2 million dead. The plaque now reads 1
million dead. Those changes reduce the number of victims at
all reported sites to less than 3 million. Serious scholarly
research obviously is needed to confirm the number, if that
indeed is possible. _See Endnote_
-
- The problem with
the debate as pursued is that it does not honor the dead.
Over fifty million innocent people died in this carnage.
Concentration camps in Germany, Poland, the Ukraine and
elsewhere do credit to neither the Hitler government in
Germany nor the Stalin government in Russia, or their
numerous local collaborators. US and allied carpet bombing
of German cities such as Dresden deserve equal opprobrium.
Millions of young men and women in uniform died or were
wounded in those engagements, and many parts of the story
have yet to be accurately chronicled.
-
- The history of
Jewish migration to Palestine needs to be understood to have
a complete picture of what happened to Jews at the end of
World War II. Many were bundled by occupying authorities
into former concentration camps and other facilities, some
taken by expelling German residents. Then many Jews were
"offered" the take- it-or-leave-it chance to migrate to
Palestine.
-
- There is no
question that, as chronicled by Jewish writers, the official
Holocaust story has been used and abused by the Zionists to
justify their establishment of a Jewish national home in
already fully occupied Palestine. The story has been used
continuously ever since World War II to justify or thwart
criticism of their continuing confiscation of Palestinian
lands and their systematic killing, imprisonment, harassment
and confinement of the Palestinian people. Even a prominent
Jewish historian, Ilan Pappe, has described this entire
process as ethnic cleansing that in international law is a
war crime.
-
- It has become
increasingly clear that doubts about the official Holocaust
story will not go away and, in fact, are growing. The
reactions are perhaps a worst case version of "Methinks thou
dost protest too much," generated in part by the fact that
the official version of the Holocaust is the only story in
human history that cannot be examined. Very questionable
"hate crime" laws are being pursued in Europe, Canada and
the United States in a primary effort to quash discussion of
the Holocaust and to hush criticism of Israeli behavior in
Palestine.
-
- The matter has
reached a point where the truth must out to stop the
destructive behavior of concealment. Key elements of the
story are inescapably true. Many Jews and many more other
people were picked up and confined to stifle dissent or
outright rebellion against the Nazi cause. Those travesties
were mirrored in Russia and neighboring states as Stalin
tried to suppress resistance to the emergent system of
communism. Many of the would-be victims took what they could
and left, enduring unimaginable hardships that brought them
to remote places such as Shanghai, and eventually to the
United States.
-
- Both history and
humanity will be better served by an open, honest
examination of all events of World War II and its aftermath.
The lessons we should all take from that gruesome history
are badly distorted by singular focus on the story of a
group of people who represent only a minority of the
victims. No one wants to deny the cruel realities of that
experience. Yet, as aptly expressed by the late Senator
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "Everyone is entitled to his own
opinion but no one is entitled to his own facts."
-
- _End Note_
-
- For solid
background on the diminishing death count at Auschwitz,
readers should read
-
- "Auschwitz
The Final Count" by Michael Collins Piper at
www.rense.com/general62/aauc.htm
-
-
- **********
- The writer is
the author of the recently published work, A World Less
Safe, now available on Amazon, and he is a regular
columnist on rense.com. He is a retired Senior Foreign
Service Officer of the US Department of State whose
overseas service included tours in Egypt, India, Sri
Lanka, the Philippines, and Brazil. His immediate
pre-retirement positions were as Chairman of the
Department of International Studies of the National War
College and as Deputy Director of the State Office of
Counter Terrorism and Emergency Planning. He will
welcome comment at
- wecanstopit@charter.net
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