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May 6, 2005
by Frank Scott
The murderous treatment of European Jews during the second
world war has become almost legendary in its depiction as a unique and
singularly important example of bigoted inhumanity, carried to barbarous
extremes. No other experience from among the overwhelming number of historic
cases of mass brutality has ever achieved such status in western
consciousness, partly because most of the other slaughters were of third
world, non - white people. But despite this specific outrage being portrayed
as an unparalleled tragedy, injustice, bigotry and mass murder have been
practiced and gone relatively unquestioned since its occurrence, contrary to
the lessons supposedly learned from its example. Given this contradictory
impact, It should be permissible to look, as clearly as evidence will allow,
at exactly what took place, what its moral lesson could be, what its
political use has been, and how it has helped perpetuate rather than end
notions of racial superiority and division that have dogged the world for
millennia.
The patriarchal belief systems on which Judaism,
Christianity and Islam are all based depend on faith, far more than material
evidence. What historic evidence exists is subject to human interpretation,
and as an example of how varied that interpretation can be, we have these
three eligions. All are founded on the same original story, with similar
scriptures, prophets, and the alleged word of god. Gods words apparently say
different things to different people at different times. Religious history,
in which faith and interpretation loom large, is really not that different
from secular history.
The original story of the United States, for instance, was
one of European discovery, heroic conquest, incredible development and
national triumph. That was from the standpoint of the official historians,
before the revisionists had their say . A more modern interpretation of that
story includes the near physical and cultural genocide of the native
populations of the continents which Europe discovered, even though people
had been living on them for thousands of years. A newer view of American
history also saw chattel slavery as something beyond an unfortunate economic
arrangement which led to civil war and racial misunderstanding, and more as
an experience of murderous human degradation carried to inhuman marketing
extremes, with social repercussions still apparent and still not fully
understood .
Historic views and re-views of the past are taken by those
with possible preconceptions based on their education, training and belief
systems; historians can find selective truth in the material evidence at
hand, while creating immaterial evidence as well, often doing so
unconsciously, without any balance, and even stressing extremes. In doing
this they are not substantially different from religious believers who pick
and choose from what material evidence exists, if any, to fit into the
belief system . God and the accepted prophets are sited to back up whatever
is seen as good, righteous and just, and a satan, with demonic assistants,
is created to account for the evil, craven brutality that is the darker side
of human development. Substitute us for god, and them for Satan, and we have
much secular history.
The religious or scientific system produces its historians,
who are responsible not only for interpreting the evidence according to the
preconceived rules of faith and politics, but in many cases, for the
creation of evidence to fit within the mental structure that thereby
strengthens and reinforces the systems foundation.
This is not unique to one religious or national group, but
is common to all which have an established story of origin, and a following
interpretation of history to neatly fit into the original premise. Given the
dualism of western religious science, logical materialists who claim
physical objectivity as their basis supposedly have nothing in common with
the magical imaterialism of religion. But despite age old battles between
secularists and deists, neither side in this either-or conflict really knows
any more than what is believed, accepted, and verified by the evidence that
solidifies the foundation of its system of belief. Anyone who contradicts
that evidence is either disregarded, or tossed out of the realm of accepted
reality. In the most extreme cases, the contradictor is either imprisoned,
or burned at the stake .
It is in the serious questioning of rigidly held belief
systems that humanity - sometimes - advances beyond simple duality, arriving
at a relatively reasoned interpretation based on objective study of material
evidence, free of previously learned bias. In these cases, divine good and
demonic evil are left to the immaterialist community, and the attempt is
made to learn from previous experience and hope for a better future that
does not repeat past mistakes. That hope is nonexistent when free thought
and critical appraisal are denied. It is in particular danger today, more so
than in the darkest ages of our past, when wanton slaughter may have been
the order of the day, but the weapons to affect it were infinitely more
primitive.
In the aftermath of the nazi assault on European Judaism ,
we have seen a modern form of biblical interpretation evolve out of an
historic event. This interpretation is based almost as much on faith as on
verifiable fact. What should be at least fairly conclusive according to
examined evidence has become a religious belief system in which no
examination or question of evidence is allowed unless it strengthens the
already existing and accepted story. The event is not only treated as
unquestioned as the word of god, but if dared to be questioned at all,
punishable as blasphemy. Such is the modern burden of what is called The
Holocaust, having even its name reflect a biblical sounding event, like The
Creation.
A terrible price was paid by the Jews of Europe in the
experience of this awful episode of history, but a heavy price is still
being paid, in some sense by the whole world, but mostly by Palestinians,
who played no role in these atrocities, though they have paid dearly, and
unconscionably, in their aftermath.
The affect of the holocaust on 21st century life continues
to be as profound, and dangerous, as its impact on the previous century.
What is euphemistically called The Middle East Problem was really created by
the western holocaust, and dumped on the people of the Middle East. The
solution to this problem involves the West confronting its own
responsibility, and ending its punishment of the Arab world, especially the
Palestinians, who have absorbed generations of abuse and had a horrific,
biblical vengeance visited upon them for something they never did. Further,
the accepted story of the event, seemingly free of any material forces or
consequences save depravity and hatred of age old origin, invites a fatalism
which accepts ancient beliefs in a natural evil at the core of humanity. Or
at least, a majority of humanity, which seems historically predisposed to
persecute and murder a specific minority.
There might be no better place to begin seeking a solution
than at the very event that has served to help create the problem. But any
attempt at reconsideration of this particular tragedy in a way that
questions some of the accepted story is treated as sacrilegious, insane,
unthinkable anti-Semitism, and in the most extreme cases, as a crime
punishable by jail or deportation. This was the case with Ernest Zundel, one
among many Holocaust Revisionists who dare to challenge religious and
political orthodoxy by questioning our understanding of a human disaster
which has helped perpetuate human disaster.
Zundel and other revisionists are called holocaust deniers
by those who label them in discriminatory fashion in order to remove them
from any serious consideration. The denigrating label makes it seem as
though they deny that any Jews were murdered, or that Jews did not suffer
terribly at the hands of Nazis and their supporters. Calling these people
names in order to reduce them as beings is a bigotry no different, in
essence, from using derogatory labels like nigger, spic, kike or redneck.
The label's purpose is to belittle and deform, reducing people to
caricatures and worse; beings outside the realm of acceptability and not
worthy of consideration by normal people .
There may be unsavory and bigoted types among those who call
themselves holocaust revisionists, but such people exist in business,
government and religion; do we entirely dismiss those worlds because some of
their practitioners may not meet our standards for acceptability? Some who
claim to be revisionists simply change the pejorative nazi to the
perforative communist and charge the same wholesale slaughters and
incredible death tolls, only with different victims and different murderers.
Far more important are the revisionists unmotivated by anything more than a
sense of human inquiry , who simply attempt to confront and question
accepted history with as much or as little bias as the official historians.
Zundel should be free to present his viewpoint and entertain
his beliefs, however unpopular they may be to those who often know nothing
more than what they have been told. This biased telling of the story of
individuals and events is a problem not only of the historic past, but what
we experience in everyday life. We are fed tales which provoke bloody
warfare and are devoutly believed and supported by some, and just as
devoutly disbelieved and opposed by others. But neither school of thought
is, as yet, proposing that all opposition to its belief system be completely
silenced, totally disregarded or jailed. Some have indeed suffered such a
fate, but they are still the exception and not the rule. Unfortunately,
among holocaust revisionists, the rule is persecution; first, of the very
idea, and next, of the person expressing the very idea.
Our political economy of religious science depends on the
double standards of dualism, but the issue of free speech tends to be
revered by people from all sides of the political and social spectrum. It
would be better for us all if we were less selective about where, when , and
on what subjects such freedom could be exercised.
Revisionists try to make the murderous history of the
holocaust an aspect of reality, rather than a religious experience of
unquestioned worship and sorrow. This is their sin, but it is not only they
who suffer; all who profess a belief in freedom of expression, speech and
thought pay a price. Yet, the attack on Zundels free speech was barely
noticed by the general public. Even though it took place in Canada, it
received no criticism from an American civli liberties community which would
be totally aroused if such blatant suppression occurred in almost any other
area of life, and in any country. But that is not the case in the area
dubbed holocaust denial, where any outrage against free speech and free
thought is not only allowed, but righteously supported and even vindictively
applauded, wherever it occurs.
The double standard regarding this issue is among the most
troubling of our social hypocrisies. One can easily imagine those depicted
as demons, like Saddam Hussein or Slobodan Milosevic, being regarded as
heroes, had they persecuted alleged holocaust deniers instead of operating
against Israeli and American interests, for which they now face trial as war
criminals.
Zundel may be the best known among many who are critical of
the holocaust story, but who hardly deny that Jews were viciously persecuted
and murdered by the Nazis. He has been dogged for years because of his
expressed doubts regarding many aspects of the accepted history, and as a
result suffered physical attacks, the firebombing of his home, and costly
court cases finally leading to his imprisonment. Among his blasphemous
thought crimes he dares to believe that all Germans were not uniquely evil,
inhuman monsters, as they are depicted in much of the holocaust story.
Germany has been the main financial backer of Israel, contributing billions
of dollars in retribution payments, and has been most fierce in smothering
free speech when it comes to this issue. But there are still many who
believe that Germans should be judged as unparalleled among humans for their
collective sin, and this has been internalized by its government. In keeping
with its guilt driven policies, Germany locked Zundel in jail as soon as
Canada expelled him for his crime . And what was this offense? Under cover
of visa problems and alleged influence on potentially violent groups, Zundel
was really guilty of daring to express doubt in the official story of the
holocaust, that doubt usually being not only about the number of dead, but
also concerning the plan and method of carrying out mass murder . His is
only the most serious and recent attack on a revisionist. Many others have
suffered loss of their jobs , physical attacks, and been imprisoned. In
several nations, it is a punishable, criminal offense to dare question the
holocaust in any ways that displease the keepers of its official history.
The horrendous treatment of european Jews , their forced
exodus from national homelands to concentration and slave labor camps, and
their further brutalization and murders, are believed part of a centrally
planned process of annihilation. This historically unique crime was
industrialized, with an around the clock production line of transport, gas
chambers, crematoria and almost unimaginable cruelty. That is the brief
outline generally accepted by most of the world, or at least the western
world, which might as well be the whole world given the power balance. Of
course, gas chambers were not alleged to be the only method employed for
these mass murders, and the basic crimes were known of before that aspect of
the story was established. But though official records and scholarship
account for many deaths attributable to other causes and methods, the
popular acceptance of the phrase six illion died in the gas chambers is
hardly ever discussed as being impossible. In fact, there is almost as much
use of the dreadful sounding six million died in the ovens, with many
believing that six million living human beings were actually thrown into
mass fiery pits. The world was witness to the awful films of the liberated
camps , the emaciated survivors, and the piles of skin and bone corpses. It
is as if these sickening images were not enough, and even more ghastly ones
have to be created in order to identify this as historys most terrible
crime.
That such an incredible murderous deed, of such massive
proportions, was concealed from the world until long after it took place is
barely acknowledged as worthy of any question. Several histories of the war
were written at its end which made no mention of this particular horrendous
crime. Some survivors of the concentration camps wrote of their terrible
experiences, with no mention of gas chambers. Are we to believe that all
these writers , including Eisenhower and Churchill, were simply
anti-Semites?
This awful scheme for exterminating an entire people was
ordered by passionate zealots who were motivated by irrational hatred. Yet,
conversely, it was organized by a core of dispassionate, bureaucratic
clones, and then carried out by a stoic force of robotic killers . And this
hideous production was performed while Germany suffered devastation in the
war, with many of its people going hungry, its economy sorely lacking
industrial supplies and its imminent defeat looming. Might there be
legitimate cause for questioning at least some parts of the generally
accepted story? Should critical reappraisal be completely forbidden, given
that this insane act of collective murder was the major rationale for the
displacement and destruction of another people, the Palestinians, far
removed from any connection to Europe save for their domination by its
colonial power?
And considering the depiction of Germans as a collection of
homicidal monsters, couldn't one of these satanic sadists have considered a
photograph of his, and their, horrendous work with gas chambers? Is there
any wonder that the same bureaucratic number crunchers who tabulated every
single person rounded up and sent to a camp, were unable to tabulate the
actual murders? And since all gas chambers were allegedly destroyed by the
Germans - who seemed anxious to get rid of all evidence of the crime, but
were extremely careless about leaving alive participants in committing the
crime - isn't it worthy of question that their existence is based on stories
and confessions after the fact, with no one actually witnessing these mass
murder machines in action?
It should not be a crime to wonder why not one actual photo
of a gas chamber exists, that all were destroyed and only reproductions of
them are offered as evidence. The only photos are of doors or passages
leading to such chambers, and showers said to have served as gas chambers,
but these all defy logic and only serve belief. Would we accept explanation
for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki by being presented with
photos of roads leading into town? Or the testimony of survivors and
participants in the bombings, but with no other evidence except their
testimony that the cities were devastated by such a weapon?
Given the overwhelming evidence that clearly verifies the
persecution and murder of so many, why is it that this major part of the
story is so reliant on after the fact memories or detective work? That
several million people were killed this way and that not one photo exists is
certainly worthy of questioning, given that so much else was recorded in
photos and film. We have abundant pictorial evidence of the dreadful
conditions of the camps, the horrible images that have been imprinted on us
over the years. Yet, none of these showed a gas chamber, its ruins, or
recorded comments about its existence . How can it be a sin and why should
it be a crime to question this story? Is it odd that some might see the
denial of that freedom as part of a political program to insure that Israel
is above any criticism and kept a safe place for world jewry, even though
its reality has been quite the opposite? The historical record of an earlier
episode of inhuman brutality in the United States offers an uncomfortable
contrast.
During the wretched historical period of American lynching,
more than two thousand blacks were dragged from their homes or prison cells
and publicly hanged, often having their bodies literally torn apart after
killing. These bestial events were sometimes viewed by hundreds of people in
an often festive atmosphere of collective madness. Countless photographs
exist of these bizarre, barbaric affairs, with families proudly posing, even
smiling, in front of a brutalized black body hanging from a tree. There may
be legend and myth surrounding much of this period, but there is undeniable
evidence of the bloody deeds in these photos, some of which were made into
postcards and mailed to friends and families, later becoming exhibits at
museums and galleries.
Should this terrible episode of American history be offered
as proof that we were the most beastly race on earth? Far worse than later
Germans, who didn't gleefully photograph their atrocities and happily share
those photos with friends? Why not try to learn more about this sordid past,
rather than simply see the atrocities as acts of a deranged people, having
no basis in material history save as a description of mass psychosis, based
on age old biblical hatred of...Africans? After all, we have no historic
verification for how many Africans were murdered during what was called,
less biblically, the passages, when slaves were stuffed onto ships like
animals, and beaten, starved and drowned while crossing the Atlantic Ocean,
with death toll estimates ranging from a few to many millions. Has it been
blasphemy to examine that history , as closely as evidence will allow, in
order to arrive at something approximating what actually took place? Does
any reexamination of this brutal period, including a evisionist pointing out
that some slaves lived in more material security than some workers, indicate
a form of slavery denial?
We certainly cannot change the fact of inhuman chattel
slavery in our past, nor the tremendous impact it has had on our national
development. But confronting our past might help us change the present.
Nearly half the prison population of the USA is black , and ghettos and
poverty wracked communities still number black residents in the hundreds of
thousands. That should be reason enough to want to learn more about that
past and how it affects our society today . Really confronting such
questions and seeking answers based on social justice and humanitarian
values could mean social revolution, but even if we don't go that far,
knowing more can at least help us mythologize less.
We would not make the crimes committed by the nazis any less
horrid by removing myths, legends and emotional slander from the very real
pain and suffering they caused. What of the many alleged tales of their
ghastly practices, like making soap from the body fat of dead jews, stuffing
pillows with their hair or making lamp shades from their skin? Some of these
are still repeated by those who simply accepted any tale of German
degeneracy, no matter how mindless sounding or lacking any basis in fact.
The generally accepted and horrendous enough toll of a million deaths at
Auschwitz was once believed to be more than four million. These inflated
death toll figures and tales of bizarre brutality are no longer tolerated by
anyone with claims to serious scholarship, with agreement here between
revisionists and the official historians of holocaust studies.
Survivors are no less cursed with memories of an awful
reality when these kinds of exaggerations are faced as fabrications born of
panic, gullibility, and retaliatory hatred . This at one time unquestioned
parade of inhuman horrors became part of accepted history and helped lead to
the birth of a new nation, Israel, established as a haven for the persecuted
survivors of this bloodcurdling, genocidal campaign conducted by the nazis.
israels existence since its origin in 1948 has remained
critically unquestioned by the mainstream west and its officially sanctioned
political opposition, mainly because of the horrors the world learned about
the holocaust. And learned, and learned, and relearned. Hardly a day passes
that some TV program, film, workshop, museum display, lecture or school
curriculum is not dealing with what took place, in horrifying detail. People
are gripped and shaken by the vicarious experience of this tragedy,
recreated in veritable theme parks of misery and suffering. They are
compelled to wonder how people could perform such contemptible violence, and
how it could have happened without outside intervention. But these same
people still support doctrines of racial supremacy and the mass murder of
war ; they draw no connection to the lesson supposedly learned from the
holocaust tragedy, since that lesson seems specific only to that single
experience and its relation to the unquestioned need for Israel as a haven
for Jews.
State organized violence, human persecution and bigotry
continue, and civilized populations still tolerate racial and colonial
policies that treat people and their homelands as worthless, unless owned,
occupied or exploited by superior beings. These matters are relatively
unquestioned by many who are moved to tears by the story of the holocaust,
since that event is treated as an almost separate reality from human
history, let alone the sub category of jewish history, whose thousands of
years seem reduced to about five during the war. And Israel is still
perceived by many as a home for people rejected by the world, with no place
else to go. This is a gross simplification, but so is the larger story.
Israel did not just happen in 1948, though that might as well be the case
given popular ignorance of its history.
In the late 19th century, when the european zionist movement
for a jewish homeland was established, most Jews wanted no such home. They
were content being citizens in the nations where they had become part of the
fabric of life, having worked hard to overcome bigotry that saw them as
other. Many of them took serious issue with zionism, which existed long
before most nazis were born, let alone in power. This historic fact is not
just overlooked, but is unknown to people who think of zionism only in its
modern socialistic form of the kibbutz, and see Israel as something that
happened purely because of the nazi assault on european jews.
Among several proposed sites, Palestine was the biblical
real estate most desired by many Zionists as a national homeland , since it
was believed to be their source, even by allegedly secular jews who claimed
to be atheists. That contradiction still prevails; one can strongly assert
no belief in god, while accepting a homeland for jews in israel, because
that land was promised to them by...god. The holocaust helps make it
possible to overlook this contradiction by siting the jewish tragedy at the
hands of the nazis as verification for the need to create israel. And even
though most of the worlds jews are moved to at least psychologically support
Israels existence, they have never been there and have no plan to even
visit, let alone become settlers .
The fact that as late as 1942, some Zionists and Nazis were
discussing the island nation of Madagascar as a possible homeland for Jews -
with as little concern for the native people there as in Palestine - is
another little known aspect of the relationships between two groups
proposing the same alienating idea, along decidedly different lines; that
Jews did not belong with others and should be living in their own, separate
country .
With no consideration for some of these matters, we inherit
a history with little if any context, negating any awareness of events that
lead to or connect from one to the other in any understandable, if
occasionally mind boggling way. Things suddenly happen, with no explanation
for events other than their being caused or provoked by saintly angels or
demonic monsters. Are their material, worldly reasons for these events?
Where do these situations and creatures come from? We are not to ask once
the story, the gods and the demons have been established. That is, if we
wish to remain helpless creatures shaped by history, rather than active
beings who play a conscious role in its creation.
The revision of all history, literally to look at it again,
is necessary if we wish to create a future without repeating past mistakes.
The maligned school of holocaust revision could make a contribution towards
understanding and peace, rather than represent a criminal assault against
political religious belief, as it is portrayed. Taking a new look at any
part of history, recent or past, may lead to greater awareness of material
forces which are controllable by humans. This contradicts the fatalistic
view of humanity as inherently beastly and in need of control by elites,
which are usually working for god. This biblical notion at the core of many
human acts of mass murder flies in the face of real human experience and
calls for more, not less questioning of what we are told about anything.
Whether it is fed to us as legend, myth or alleged fact,
nothing should be treated as unquestionable. Facts are too often based on as
little proof as the legendary and mythological. For a recent, obvious
example, we need look no further than weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Thousands of people are dead and a government was destroyed because of those
alleged weapons, which do not, and did not, exist.
The suffering of the Jews in Europe during the second world
war would not become less tragic under critical appraisal, though its
political impact might change, and this is the major reason for its being
kept an untouchable topic. In order to maintain Israels position as a
special nation, the myth of the jewish people as a forever endangered
species is perpetuated. The holocaust is seen as the culmination of a long
history of murderous persecution of Jews by the rest of the gentile world,
with no allowance for anything but continued misery and eternal threat. This
incredibly negative and narrow view estranges people from humanity, and in
so doing helps create a warped history of isolation. A contradictory
ideological need to be separate and different from them, while
humanistically desiring similarity and equality with them, can only prolong
the problem of what is called anti-semitism, despite that language confusion
which so labels europeans who are no more Semites than are people from
Finland or Nigeria.
Given the verifiable history of jewish persecution in the
past, can that possibly justify the persecution of Palestinians in the
present? Assuming that there was indeed a plot by european gentiles to
murder all the Jews of the continent, why should people who have no real or
fictional connection to such a sin be the ones to pay the awful price of its
atonement? And even if it is necessary to insist that one inhuman episode
was unique and different from others, that one suffering was more painful
than another, how can any benefit be gained by causing still more suffering?
No horror experienced in Europe should serve as rationale for punishment
inflicted on people other than Europeans, if any at all are to still be
paying for this experience of inhuman slaughter among, sadly, many such
historic experiences. A more recent human disaster can offer several
comparisons, even if only in the treatment of the story.
As an example of how closer examination of events which take
on near legendary proportions can lead to better understanding, consider the
disastrous day Americans remember as 911. It did not become less tragic when
investigation revealed that the original estimated death toll of nearly
7,000 was actually just over 3,000. The bereaved were no less saddened ,
the nation no less shocked . Nor, unfortunately, were political forces
swayed to change their policies based on this lowered figure. But history
was served in moving the story from exaggeration, arrived at during chaotic
moments when all matters were barely verifiable, to the actual human cost
and impact of all those deaths. Lowering the death toll was not a form of
911 denial, and it did nothing to change the essence of the event.
Many still believe it was the worst thing to ever happen, if
limiting the area of events to the USA. But far more people have been killed
in bombings in other countries than died that day in America, and to
acknowledge that fact - still generally unacknowledged - might help to
better understand why this act of terrorism might have taken place, rather
than viewing it as a gesture of sadistic madmen who didn't like our style of
dress, our democracy, or our social behavior patterns . Were they simply
anti-americans, for some ancient, irrational biblical reason? Or were there
social and political as well as religious motivations for their murderous
attack? Would it hurt us to move beyond simplistic, reductionist
explanations in order to arrive at some understanding of material reality
that might help our relations with the rest of the world?
The reexamination of 911 did not overlook the enormous cost
in death benefits and the number of hustlers who rushed to claim money,
posing as kin of those who allegedly perished. In this, it bore a relation
to what some call the holocaust industry, referring to the money making
aspects of that tragedy that entice scam artists as well as legitimate
victims. Finding an actual, verifiable death toll saved money for insurers,
but the material evidence was examined not only to save money, nor to hurt
the memory of survivors, but to help see the disaster from a more reality
based perspective. We are still learning about the poorly reported and even
more poorly explained 911 events, and the wars and further terrors they have
unleashed in Afghanistan and especially Iraq. Many still believe that Arabs
had nothing to do with them, and that they were organized and executed by
the U.S. government. Others claim it was the Israeli Mossad, and some
believe it was the act of a vengeful god, punishing us for whatever sins
these divinely oriented conspiracy freaks perceive. But none of these
theories, though they may be argued, laughed at or ridiculed, are forbidden.
Nor are those who entertain them threatened with jail . This is as it should
be, but isn't, where the holocaust is concerned.
Israels seemingly spontaneous immaculate conception in 1948
is no more materially verifiable than the older religious legend, but is as
devoutly believed by a community of the faith. The Palestinian people who
lived in what later became Israel were conveniently removed from material or
critical consideration. They were denied as a people and never considered as
humans of any importance , so it was easy to buy them out, kick them out, or
wipe them out if they resisted. Their painful history of injustice has
outraged most of the world, as evidenced by countless votes in the United
Nations which go against continued theft of Palestinian land and
brutalization of the Palestinian people. But the nature of their suffering
receives hardly a blink from the center of global power in the USA, where
real Palestinian deniers are an infinitely greater problem than any alleged
holocaust deniers.
The American government and major opinion shaping
institutions have participated in the creation of Israel as a lily-white
land of suffering inhabitants, first escaping the horror of the nazis, and
then preyed upon by the dreadful Arabs, portrayed as bloodthirsty demons
anxious to push israel into the sea, as one of the favored slogans has it.
This colorful defiance of geography and politics may have actually been
expressed as a desire by some witless opponent; more likely, it came from an
Israeli and has become useful to repeat in provoking fear and anxiety among
Jews all over the world, as the horrible holocaust story is rerun in their
imaginations each time a threat to jews is perceived or alleged . And these
threats usually seem to happen in a social vacuum, occupied by an innocent
people in a rarified world befitting a fairy tale as much as a physical
reality.
The contradictory notion of jews as a historically blessed,
special, privileged sector of humanity, and at the same time as a
historically scorned, hated and brutalized group as well, is reinforced by
the conflicting histories of Israel, Palestine , the holocaust experience
and the status of Judaism in the world today. To say that a people hated and
persecuted by the gentile world - which means just about everyone else - for
thousands of years, and then slaughtered in the worst pogrom of them all,
could become powerful enough to hold sway over governments and public
opinion is dismissed as just another form of anti-Semitism. The mere mention
of Jewish power, exercised in obvious fashion and so acknowledged by many
Jewish groups and publications, reduces not only zionists but large segments
of the gentile world, including its left wing, to screeching charges of
anti-Semitism at those who defiantly refer to the power that dare not speak
its name. But the U.S. government and media and their global subordinates do
not hesitate to follow the story so outlined, perpetuating the myth that
becomes reality when so many not only believe it, but act on that belief.
Jewish ethnic and cultural gifts to the arts and sciences
have made incredible contributions toward making the human community whole.
Biblical and ideological Judaism contradicts that wholeness by treating the
rest of the world as other and insisting on its own uniqueness . Much of the
world is drawn to the warm, humanistic culture, while it is repelled by the
cold, alienating ideology. Just as mainstream science and much non-biblical
religion reject difference and see humanity as one race with common origins,
a biblical fundamentalist view holds to an ancient notion that divides us
into a deitys less or more favored races. The political, economic and
psychological burdens of maintaining such older belief systems are at the
root of a global crisis. In an all too real sense, we continue struggles
with believers in immaterial legend and fable, while reality demands that we
wake up and face a material world threatened by our wasteful and destructive
divisions. These ancient belief systems might be beneficial if their
humanitarian messages of equality for all took precedence over their
patriarchal teachings of the godly superiority of only some. We face failure
as long as we continue to pay only halfhearted lip service to the wise words
of their most loving prophets, while we pay wholehearted debt service to the
false words of their most hateful profiteers .
Human suffering and brutality are a sad part of our history,
but we neednt mythologize their experience or make them special; rather, we
need to understand that they impede our development . We can learn from our
most terrible mistakes, but not if we fetishize and treat them as unique,
almost divorced from history rather than representing a terrible example of
our worst behaviors, practiced in the selfish, short sighted ignorance that
continues to rule our relations. Our bloody past and present make it clear
that It is possible to slaughter hundreds, thousands, even millions of
people, without an extermination plan or gas chambers.
History is full of wholesale massacres, of people being
regarded as worse than insects or rodents, and barbarically murdered in
horrendous acts of brutality. Some of these were perpetrated over many
years, some over a few weeks, some a few days, and some, instantly. During
the same war that killed so many european jews, the cities of Dresden and
Tokyo, among many others, were reduced to ashes in firestorms that killed
tens of thousands of people in a matter of minutes. These poor souls were
indeed, burned alive, and there was no need to deliver them to death camps
or crematoria; the crematoria were delivered to them. Yet these and other
brutal acts of mass murder were written off as excusable acts of war that
killed the enemy, said enemy deserving such a fate for being part and parcel
of the war. Had the outcome of that war been different, how many allied
generals would have been tried for these mass murders, and been executed as
war criminals?
Why does one horrible slaughter receive an unending stream
of commemorations and reparations, while hundreds of others are barely a
drip in the brain pan of humanity? Why does the holocaust loom so large, and
yet serve as a rationale for the brutalization of a people who had
absolutely nothing to do with nazis or europe? And who can certainly not be
guilty of anti-Semitism, In as much as they are, unlike the ashkenazi jews
of Europe, Semites themselves? Could a better understanding of what happened
to the Jews of europe, and of the underlying causes that brought about
fascism, help the world to better understand itself?
It cant possibly hurt us to learn what was at the root of
the nazis blind hatred of communism, democracy and judaism, and why they
linked those hatreds, rather than continue accepting ridiculous notions that
reduce world history to perverse psychosomatic disorders. What role did
material events play in the creation of national socialism in Germany, and
how widely was it supported by other nations? Contrary to simplistic belief,
which has it that the world instantly opposed the demonic evil of the nazis,
many western powers were quite fond of the nazis rabid anti-communism and
their strengthening of German finance capital . It is possible to learn more
about a terrible episode of history without denigrating those who suffered,
but also by not making a totally different kind of human out of them,
thereby perpetuating a dangerous myth of original difference when we most
need to acknowledge that we are all members of the same human race.
Fear of present victimization because of past history,
whether based on fact or fiction, is not healthy for any individual or group
of human beings. Rising above our past mistakes, our legends and our
superstitions in order to deal with real problems can contribute to growth
in knowledge and assurance of a future possibility for all of humanity. That
assurance is a necessity for the success of the human race, and not just one
nation, sect, religion or clan .
Seeing the rest of humanity as historically bent on
persecuting and eventually murdering all jews is hardly the healthiest way
to sustain religious, ethnic, national or personal survival. One has to
major in the inhumanities to entertain such dreadful thoughts. When carried
for generations, they cannot help but lead to more suspicion,
misunderstanding and divisions which help create the inhuman mental and
physical horror that was the reality of the Jews in Europe, and is the
reality of the Palestinian people now. Bigotry and murder do not need
commemorative death tolls or special killing machine techniques to make them
worse or better; they need to stop.
The revisioning of the holocaust might help israel,
Palestine and judaism itself by confronting contradictions based on ancient
beliefs which have no place in the modern world, and which help create
misunderstanding and murder the longer they are accepted. Controversies
involving which war, which mass murder or which act of totalitarian
brutality was worse than another can only make it seem that some were better
than others. But it is all acts of brutality that must be seen as the
problem , and not just one in isolation, if we are to arrive at a solution.
If we do not learn from history, it is said that we are
condemned to repeat it, and that has been the case with the Jewish
experience of one war, and the resultant Palestinian suffering that could
lead to a greater war . Coming to grips with what was called the final
solution could bring about confrontation with what could be humanitys final
problem of racial and ethnic hatreds which are used to help perpetuate
ideologies of domination. We need a peaceful final solution in confronting
the greatest problem humanity has ever faced. Nuclear and biological weapons
have replaced the more primitive bloody tools of the old political
testaments and while we have seen what those weapons could do, we have not
yet fully realized the lesson of their creation. They are products of age
old biblical inhumanity, brought to modern technological perfection in
exercising mass murder in post biblical fashion. We have to become a
civilized people and learn to work together , before we revert to primitive
savagery and literally blow ourselves apart.
The holocaust was representative of the darkest side of
humanity, but unfortunately, it still covers many with its shadow. Bringing
light to such darkness involves much more than rethinking one episode of
history, but given its enormous impact on collective consciousness, this one
issue could have an affect on many more. They may seem an unlikely source,
but holocaust revisionists could help bring about an enlightenment that
enables us to see through inherited doctrines of ignorance and bigotry, kept
alive by political and biblical systems of superstition which contribute to
furthering the danger to humanity.
Confronting the real tragedy of what was done in the past,
and the role it has played in furthering human suffering and injustice in
the present, will be necessary for us to end such suffering in the future.
The hateful anti-Semitism that was at the core of nazi treatment of jews
cannot be forgotten, but it shouldn't be remembered by developing a
ridiculous philo-semitism that places one event, nation or people above
critical reproach. Like the Zionists and Nazis who agreed that Jews were
different from everyone else, this is either/or dualism at its worst. Just
as past bigotry and brutalizing of Jews has scarred humanity, so does
present bigotry and brutalizing of Palestinians disfigure us all. And just
as we demythologize the American story and create a more hopeful future by
doing so, we need to demythologize the mass injustice in Europe, and the
mass injustice it brought about in the Middle East. Two wrongs do not make a
right, any more than two lies can make a truth. And while the truth may not
set us absolutely free, it could certainly help us move closer to relative
freedom.
Copyright (c) 2005 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.
This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be archived and
redistributed in electronic form, provided that the author is notified and
no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of
this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author
frank scott
email: frank@marin.cc.ca.us
225 laurel place, san rafael ca. 94901
(415)457 2415 cell (415)847 4105
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