Published in the Jewish Herald Voice July 19, 2007

MUSINGS # 24

 

Trivialization of Holocaust – Part Two

By Emil Steinberger
 

            The issue of what defines ‘Holocaust’ became a focal point of limitless debates, learned articles, books, scientific treatises or a propaganda tool used by a variety of groups attempting to name, call, define, or classify various forms of ‘suffering’  of ‘peoples’, as “Holocaust”. This can be illustrated by the expressions used in world’s literature: “Rwandan Holocaust” (the Rwandan genocide of 1994), “Cambodian Holocaust” (mass killings by the Khmer Rouge regimen of non-communist population in Cambodia), or “African Holocaust” (the act of slave trade and colonization, “Maafa”), etc.

          While some are striving for the dubious distinction of having the label “Holocaust” attached to their sufferings, others are trying to prove to the world’s audience that the attempt to annihilate the Jews, arbitrarily defined by the Nazi fanatics as the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question”, was not by definition a “Holocaust”! They support their conclusion by reasoning that not a large enough number was killed to justify the “elevation of these murders to the levels of ‘Holocaust’”. To demonstrate and to prove their point, the ‘deniers’, in addition to using vivid imagination and most dubious sources, rummage, grope and poke through all available documents and data sources. They endeavor, with a dedicated degree of determination, to find some evidence in support for their conclusion that 6,000,000, cited as the number of Holocaust victims, is wrong, a great overestimation, that the real number is considerably less thus the episode does not deserve to be classified as “Holocaust”. The ‘deniers’ apparently believe that the most effective mean to attack “Jewish Holocaust” is to demonstrate that the six million number is a “hoax” and that actually much smaller number of Jews lost their lives during that time.

          Shortly after the war, the Unite States’ occupational forces in Germany established in a small town of Bad Arolsen located in central Germany, a huge archive dealing with the concentration camps records and other documents dealing with Holocaust. The archive consisting of over 33 million pages of documents was sealed, placed under the control of a committee and made unavailable to any country, organization or an individual for any, including scholarly, studies. Late last year, in response to strong pressures exerted from various sources, the archives were prepared to open its doors, albeit partly, to carefully selected audiences. The ‘deniers’, grasping for a straw, instantly pounced on this opportunity.

           Recently, Hal Turner, who describes himself as “so far to the right he makes Rush Limbaugh look like a liberal”, advertised widely and proudly on his “Hal Turner Show” broadcast from Bergen, New Jersey, that “official records from the International Red Cross prove ‘Holocaust’ was a fraud”. He supports his claim be exhibiting a digitized page from Bad Arolsen Archives with a stamp on its face stating: “From International Red Cross, Bad Arolsen, West Germany”. He interprets this document as proving that only 271,301 Jews were murdered in the Nazi concentration camps. The document is a copy of a hand written list of deaths in 13 concentration camps (out of the almost 3,000 Nazi camps). It is unclear to what period of time it refers to, what authority prepared it or what the list is meant to represent.

          Accepting Mr. Turner’s conclusion based on one handwritten page out of 33 million other pages in the archives, as true as one must accept that indeed 271,301 of innocent humans (Jews) were murdered by the Nazis in concentration camps. Thus, a mass murder perpetrated by the Nazis had occurred, despite Mr. Turner’s feelings that a murder of this magnitude may not constitute a horrible, major crime, but only a minor, insignificant episode! This is actually irrelevant. The fact is that he, a ‘denier’, demonstrates and agrees that a major, several hundred thousand people large, murder did occur. The question that bags itself is how many innocent Jews need to be murdered, according to Mr. Turner, before the act becomes a horrible crime, more than 271,301, possibly more than 971,301 or more than 3,971,301. Apparently, according to Mr. Turner and his ilk, 6,000,000 or more Jews have to be murdered for such an act to be justifiably classified as a horrible crime, a ‘Holocaust’. Consequently, according to this reasoning, we are not debating the occurrence of this crime but only the NUMBERS.

        The commission of a crime as related to the murder of Jews under Nazi regimen was clearly stipulated by the Nazi machine as exemplified by the following and by countless other records depicting identical orders. “On November 10-11, 1941, Friedrich Jeckeln, SS commander, received precise liquidation instructions in the Prinz Albhrechtstrasse headquarters from the Reichsfuhrer-SS Himmler, who followed Hitler's wish for physical liquidation and liquidation through labor of Jewish deportees.”

          The documentation of the orders for mass murder, targeting specifically the Jews is incontrovertible, so is its occurrence. Now, the ‘deniers’ have only one tool left, trivialization of the numbers.

 

 

The Author may be reached at: esteinberger1@comcast.net

Further information at: http://esteinberger1.home.comcast.net