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14 days and only silence.

I'm starting to think you may be right.

But it seems, alas, that even if the gas chambers are a hoax, the essence of the legend is true:
http://www.codoh.com/incon/inconshrcrit.html
(...)
It is clear that there was a euthanasia program, administered by Brack. It is clear that Jews who were incapable of working were envisioned as being euthanized.
(...)

I've always considered the holocaust stories to be generally accurate; at least, as far as I knew about the details. But, wait a sec...I actually know almost nothing about the holocaust, and I'm talking about the holocaust as portrayed by the true believers. I guess that's the point I'm trying to make here. The 'fact' of the holocaust is a cultural given, saturating the landscape in such a way that ANY claim supporting the idea IS FACT, with a period. Most of us are passive believers, but even passivity has mass, and that grants a lot of leverage to those who make it their business to be proponents. For the majority of folks, holocaust belief is like the Pope to most Western Catholics. Most don't give a fuck about what he has to say, but step on his hat, and they'll rip you to shreds.

Kudos on the Facilitated Communications and McMartin Preschool mentions. I was a talk radio addict back in those days, and the day to day bullshit I heard still haunts me. I wrote a little about them on my anti-apologetics blog here and here Unadorned truth is a rare commodity; whatever the ultimate truth is about the fate of six million Jews, I'm sure it's not correspondingly synonymous with its gift wrapping.

Finally, I'm with you on the idea that taboos MUST be questioned...always. If not by you, or me, for god's sake by somebody! Thought suppression is for sissies.

Hm, my links didn't come through. Oh well, you know where to find me.

Thanks, Jim. Well said. I may be getting my hands dirty at the moment, but the real issue is intellectual freedom and that is never forgotten.

The preschool hysteria made an deep impression on me as well. Obviously. For those of us who sensed that something was very wrong, it was nearly maddening to watch it play out. It was that subject, more than anything, that led me to a rethink on the other subject. I seem to be pretty much alone in this.

ICR,

I think some elements of the broader genocide narrative may have crystallized with the T-4 (euthanasia) program. For some relevant discussion from a sane revisionist perspective, see Crowell's Gas Chamber of Sherlock Holmes -- particularly the discussion beginning at page 71:

http://www.codoh.com/newsite/articles/samuelcrowell/xsherlock.pdf

Also, see the note on p. 381.

Crowell's argument is that while there was indeed a euthanasia program in place prior to claims of mass gassing at the camps, that these killings were primarily carried out through lethal injections and possibly CO gas at hospitals. He contends that the the more lurid claims (about T-4 victims being gassed in chambers and vans, or blown up) are derived from postwar testimony retrofitted to match with subsequent genocide stories (which may in turn have been influenced by the reality of the euthanasia program). It's a neat idea.

Part two of my series will be largely focused on Crowell's monograph, by the way.

It seems like pages like this are the only places to read something honest. The people that for some reason or another question the accuracy of the holocaust story have nothing to gain in terms of wealth or popularity. Schindler's List made me sick and sad when I was a kid watching it. Knowing who the enemy was, and that 'we' beat him made us all feel good. This scenario has played itself out again and again over history. It's only when we are within the scenario that it seems too real to doubt.

I guess my family, which consisted of over 42 members in one city in Poland and ended up with 2 alive after the war made up the majority of the 200 or 300 dead Jews you imagine really died instead of 6 million. In 1939 there were 19 million Jews in the world. In 2009, after 70 years, there are again 19 million Jews in the world. Did we go from 13 million to 19 million in 7 decades or do you really believe we went from 18.9 Million to 19 million during those years?

Planck's Constant,

I'm sorry about your family, whatever happened to them. War is just fucking awful.

The demographic question is immensely complex and well beyond my ken. Eastern Europe is a vast expanse, and in the fog of war there was mass emigration and displacement, and death. I do think it is understood now that references to the "six million" figure predate the alleged system of Nazi genocide, which is not to minimize the destruction of community and great loss of life that I do not for a moment doubt. I don't know how many Jewish lives were lost during the war, nor am I informed to guess. I know that it was tragic.

But the point of my curiosity concerns mens rea, and more specifically the alleged use of homicidal gas chambers to carry out a plan of extermination. I think the gas chamber stories are fishy from the start. I think they are likely the stuff of rumor and legend, arising in a particular time and place for reasons that are contextually understandable. In my next post, I will try to explain why I have come to doubt what you believe.

Yeah well, why would the Tulsa German Historical society use the website:" gastulsa.com" do they think they're funny or what...i've got some gas for those nazis

very interesting and very well said...i agree almost completely though i don't know many of the names you use in reference - both pro and con? - and only differ in treatment of some of the examples given...indeed, the satanic-child abuse frenzy was absolutely mind boggling but despite all the people swept up in that craze it was never criminal to doubt the stories nor were they taught in schools for more than a generation, venerated in films both fiction and alleged factual documentary, etc....the holocaust religion is about as powerful as christianity was professed to be in ages past, complete with heresy trials and ruined if not ended lives of doubters...i wrote an essay on the subject a few years ago ( the holocaust, palestine and israel: revision, denial and myth) and would be glad to share it with you, if you wish... thank you for this piece and i look forward to the rest!

fs

frank scott
email: [email protected]

Frank Scott writes political commentary which appears in print in the Coastal Post and The Independent Monitor and online at the blogspot: Legalienate

http://legalienate.blogspot.com

What sort of Truth is it that crushes the freedom to seek the truth?

Amazon’s new book, Debating the Holocaust: A New Look at Both Sides By Thomas Dalton

In this remarkable, balanced book, the author skillfully reviews and compares “traditional” and “revisionist” views on the “The Holocaust.” On one side is the traditional, orthodox view — six million Jewish casualties, gas chambers, cremation ovens, mass graves, and thousands of witnesses. On the other is the view of a small band of skeptical writers and researchers, often unfairly labeled “deniers,” who contend that the public has been gravely misled about this emotion-laden chapter of history.

The author establishes that the arguments and findings of revisionist scholars are substantive, and deserve serious consideration. He points out, for example, that even the eminent Jewish Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg acknowledged that there was no budget, plan or order by Hitler for a World War II program to exterminate Europe’s Jews.

This book is especially relevant right now, as “Holocaust deniers” are routinely and harshly punished for their “blasphemy,” and as growing numbers of people regard the standard, Hollywoodized “Holocaust” narrative with mounting suspicion and distrust. The author of this book, who writes under the pen name of “Thomas Dalton,” is an American scholar who holds a doctoral degree from a major US university.

This is no peripheral debate between arcane views of some obscure aspect of twentieth century history. Instead, this is a clash with profound social-political implications regarding freedom of speech and press, the manipulation of public opinion, how our cultural life is shaped, and how power is wielded in our society.

I wish to express my outrage that the Holocaust, unlike any other historical event, is not subject to critical examination. Furthermore I deplore the fact that many so-called democratic states have laws that criminalize an examination and understanding of the Holocaust. It is my position that the veracity of Holocaust assertions should be determined in the marketplace of scholarly discourse and not in our legislatures bodies and courthouses.

Peace.

Michael Santomauro
Editorial Director
Call anytime: 917-974-6367
[email protected]

Chip Smith is a gifted writer, and I for one cannot wait for his next installments in this series. That said, he draws the wrong parallel to the 911 Truth movement. In the first place he mischaracterizes it... to him 911 Truth is a positive conspiracy theory, positing certain actors inside the US government as the culprits. While there are certainly some in the 911 Truth movement who make this claim, the essence of the 911 Truth movement consists of no positive claims at all about who was responsible. It is in fact a scientific refutation of the conspiracy theory promoted by the government itself: that 19 Arabs armed with only boxcutters hijacked four airliners, three of which crashed into high profile buildings and caused the damage to the Pentagon, and the collapse of 3 or 4 skyscrapers in New York (and that empty hole somewhere in Pennsylvania). On the surface, there is even less evidence to support the government's claims about 911 than there is to support the traditional Holocaust story. Yet for all his skepticism about the latter, Chip Smith essentially gets sucked into the same sort of taboo in the former that he so assiduously assails in the latter. Go figure. To each his own taboo, I guess, but this article would be much better sans the attack on the 911 Truth movement, which is actually, as a historical revisionist entity, a kindred spirit of the Holocaust revisionists, to the extent that either remains "positivist" and scientific. Just the facts ma'am.

For those of you who are interested, Part Two is posted here:

http://hooverhog.typepad.com/hognotes/2009/10/me-and-the-hbomb-part-2-the-gas-chambers-of-samuel-crowell.html

Frank:

I agree that Christian persecution in many respects provides a highly relevant historical analogy. I focus on the SRA episode in part because it has special resonance to the contemporary imagination, being something that most of us lived through. It may also be relevant that the delusional beliefs of SRA proponents have graduated into religious dogma, at least at the margins. In the book, "Outbreak! An Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior," Hilary Evans and Robert Bartholomew make the following observation:

"Social delusions differ from religious myths and popular folk beliefs in that they occur in unorganized, spontaneous fashion, although at some later time social delusions may become institutionalized. For example, some church groups have incorporated into their teachings claims that thousands of satanic child cult sacrifices take place every year. You could not say that members of such groups are psychotic or delusional in the psychiatric sense. Rather, they are likely to be comprised of normal persons who have acquired a view of the world that differs from that of the mainstream."

Ken:

Your comment is very helpful and I promise to address your points carefully in the third installment of this series, which is largely informed by reader comments and correspondence. Thanks.

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