Path: news2.digex.net!digex.net!not-for-mail
From: mstein@access4.digex.net (Michael P. Stein)
Newsgroups: alt.revisionism
Subject: Re: Why is "Holocaust Denial" a bad thing?
Date: 14 Jan 1997 06:43:17 -0500
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA
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Xref: news2.digex.net alt.revisionism:142237

In article <01bbfa97$da7c5e50$2b7213cc@server>,
Anthony Sabatini (anthonys@infobahnos.com) wrote:
>[...] I always assumed "Holocaust denial" was really about "gross
>exaggeration" of these events. If someone were to say 12 million died, and
>a "denier" refuses and claims 500,000 were killed instead, I found it odd
>that the latter should be branded anti-Semitic. But from your answer, I
>think you are stating that "deniers" only question whether or not 6 million
>Jews were slaughtered. If this is indeed the case, I would be interested in
>hearing opposing views.

    Oh, dear.  I see we got off the track and nobody actually ever
answered the question.  What you wrote above is not Holocaust denial by
itself - were it so, then Raul Hilberg would be a denier since he put the
total at 5.1 million.  So would Reitlinger, who put it at 4.2 million. 
(The six million figure always was a rounded-up number from something like
5.7 million.) 

    Classic holocaust denial includes most if not all of the following
points in addition to the extreme reduction in death toll: 

    - Most Jewish deaths were the result of disease and starvation.

    - And almost all of that was the fault of the Allies for disrupting
      food and medical supplies at the end of the war.

    - There was no gassing, anywhere, by any means[1].  Any witness who
      says so was a) lying  b) tortured  c) hallucinating  d) intimidated
      into making a false confession by fear of retribution.  Any document
      which refers to gas chambers was a) forged by the Soviets b) 
      misinterpreted.

    - Some Jews were shot, but a good many of those who did deserved it
      for being Communist partisans, and any Jewish women and children
      who were shot were only the victims of a) overeagerness on the
      part of the Nazis to destroy Bolshevism, as Jews were identified
      as Bolsheviks, or b) absolutely legal reprisals for illegal partisan
      warfare, or c) actually deported to Siberia by the Soviets
      themselves.  (Why the Soviets would deport loyal Jewish communists
      to Siberia is something nobody has ever explained to me.)

    - There was absolutely no plan by the Nazi regime to exterminate
      the Jewish people, ever.  The plan was deportation.  The last idea
      was to conquer Russia and deport all the European Jews into areas of
      Russia that the Germans did not want.  Any document that indicates
      otherwise was a) forged  b) misinterpreted.

    - Any Jews that are missing actually  a) went to Israel (never mind
      that there are no records to support that number) b) went to the
      United States (ditto)  c) went into Russia (possibly followed by
      the Siberian deportation mentioned above) d) changed their names so
      as not to be identified as Jews.

    - In its end-stage form, Faurisson's syndrome, even the diary of
      Anne Frank (subjected to extensive forensic testing by the
      Netherlands State Forensic Institute and declared genuine) is
      a forgery.  (Faurisson's "evidence" is that there is some writing
      in ballpoint pen, something not invented in the '40s.  It turns
      out that the ballpoint marks were in just a few places, in a
      different handwriting, and were editing notations added during
      the process of preparing the diary for publication in the '50s.
      The text of the diary itself is in authentic pen and ink for
      the period - but of course Faurisson did not see fit to mention
      just how limited the ballpoint markings were.)

[1] Recently David Cole - who is, ironically, himself Jewish - declared
that he is satisfied that there was one gassing carried out in the
Natzweiler concentration camp for the purpose of creating a Jewish
skeleton collection for Dr. Hirt.  Faurisson in effect excommunicated him
for this heresy. 

    I hope this gives you a better idea of what people mean when talking
about Holocaust denial.

    Posted/emailed.
-- 
Mike Stein			The above represents the Absolute Truth.
POB 10420			Therefore it cannot possibly be the official
Arlington, VA  22210		position of my employer.

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