One of my regular book reviewers sent me his thoughts, always well crystallized, on a review of a review, titled "An Honest Jew Looks at the Holocaust":
It seems that only a Jew can question "The Holocaust." As if to prove the point, Peter Novick has written "The Holocaust in American Life." Although the author of this essay has not yet read the book, he would like to comment on the review of same by Edward Rothstein of the New York Times as it appears in the Arts section of the Louisville Courier Journal of Sunday, September 5, 1999 on page 15.
As described in M r. Rothstein's review, it seems that Mr. Novick has argued that "The Holocaust" has become an obsession in American life through ***deliberate manipulation by Zionist organizations.*** Although Novick reject the claims of "Holocaust Deniers", many of his specific claims must be classified as ***revisionist***.
Thus Novick claims, correctly, that during World War II itself, Jews were not perceived as the primary victims of Nazism. This jibes with the thesis of (revisionist) Professor Arthur Butz that the myth of Jewish extermination was basically a post-war invention.
Further, Novick correctly notes that Jews were only a small percentage of those interned in the German camps. Prior to World War II, the total number of camp inmates never exceeded 20,000 - of whom no more than 10-15% were Jews. This may come as quite a surprise to the average TV-watching American!
Novick stresses a key point - that the amount of attention devoted to "The Holocaust" has increased inversely to the number of years past event. "The Holocaust" as an event hardly appeared in the consciousness of the American public until the Eichmann Trial in Israel in 1961. It was really not until Israel's blitzkrieg victory in 1967 that anyone started reliving "The Holocaust."
(This author, who grew up in the 1960s, can attest to the truth of these words. No one was worrying about or experiencing "guilt" for "failure to rescue Jews" in those happy days of the Sexual Revolution.")
Novick's Number One reason for "Holocaustomania" (Alfred Lilienthal's classic term) may not be completely accurate but nevertheless deserves to be underlined and capitalized: ***It is victimhood - the new American status symbol***!
This is certainly hitting the nail on the head!
But Novick goes further. ***It is victimhood amplified by Jews who hold "strategic positions in the American media".***
At this point, Mr. Rothstein, the reviewer, becomes very agitated. He accuses Mr. Novick of pursuing his own ideological agenda of attacking Jewish "conservative" and Zionist organizations. Thus, Rothstein, paraphrasing Novick, writes: "In service to their own ends, Zionists crassly write off Jewish victims. Jewish organizations don't care about rescuing their brethren; Israel's honoring of 'righteous gentiles' (who helped Jews during the war) actually promotes 'wary suspicion of non-Jews.'"
Mr. Rothstein's righteous indignation to the contrary, Mr. Novick is entirely correct. It would be interesting to determine just how deeply Novick delves into the virtually unknown history of Nazi-Zionist collaboration. Does he discuss the infamous Dr. Rudolf Kastner and his sacrifice of the majority of Hungarian Jewry to the alleged Nazi "gas chambers" to save his friends first? Does he go into the Kastner affair in Israel and the charges by Malchiel Grunewald? Does he even quote David Ben Gurion's famous statement that had he to choose between saving half the children of Jewry and sending the other half to Israel, he would choose ***the survival of the Jewish state first***?
Novick appears to be a leftist. He decries the "inward and rightward turn of American Jewry in recent decades." He finds the glorification of "The Holocaust" offensive ***because of its alleged uniqueness***. This is a polite way of saying that "The Holocaust" is now a form of . . . worship (of things Jewish) camouflaged as a sort of unique catastrophe.
It is hardly fair to judge a book solely by someone else's review of it. Nevertheless, enough information may be gleaned form Edward Rothstein's review to show that some Jews are now seeing through the never-ending Holocaust Hype.
Thought for the Day:
"The 'Holocaust' is really about breaking down the racial and cultural barriers of others, while serving as a rallying cry for Jewish nationalism and cohesiveness. We might do well to remember that ethnic groups that suppress their survival instinct are displaced by those that heed it, and the Jews have been refining theirs for 3,000 years."
(from: White Guilt And The "Holocaust", by Ian P. Mckinney)