The Holocaust Industry (21 page)

1999; citing
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
).

74
Hilberg,
The Destruction
(1985), v. iii, Appendix B.

75
In an interview with
Die Berliner Zeitung,
I cast doubt on the Claims Conference's 135,000 figure,

citing Friedlander. The Claims Conference curtly stated in its rebuttal that the 135,000 figure was

"based on the best and most trustworthy sources and is therefore correct." Not one of these alleged

sources, however, was identified. ("Die Ausbeutung jüdischen Leidens," in
Berliner Zeitung,
29, 30

January 2000; "Gegendarstellung der Jewish Claims Conference," in
Berliner Zeitung,
1 February

2000) Replying to my criticisms in an interview with
Der Tagesspiegel,
the Claims Conference

maintained that some 700,000 Jewish slave laborers survived the war, 350,000-400,000 on the

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territory of the Reich and 300,000 in concentration camps elsewhere. Pressed to supply scholarly

sources, the Claims Conference indignantly refused. Suffice to say that these figures bear no

resemblance to any known scholarship on the topic. (Eva Schweitzer, "Entschaedigung für

Zwangsarbeiter," in
Tagesspiegel,
6 March 2000)

76
"Never before in history," Hilberg has observed, "had people been killed on an assembly-line

basis."
(Destruction, v. iii,
863). The classic treatment of this topic is Zygmunt Bauman's
Modernity

and the Holocaust.

77
Guttenplan, "Holocaust on Trial." (Hilberg) Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against

Germany, "Position Paper — Slave Labor," 15 June 1999.

78
"We Condemn Syria's Denial of the Holocaust," in
New York Times (9
February 2000). To

document "increased anti-Semitism" in Europe, David Harris of the AJC pointed to relatively strong

survey support for the statement that "Jews are exploiting the memory of the Nazi extermination of the

Jews for their own purposes." He also adduced the "extremely negative way that some German papers

reported on the Jewish Claims Conference . . . during the recent negotiations over compensation for

slave and forced labor. Numerous stories depicted the Claims Conference itself and the mostly Jewish

lawyers as greedy and self-serving, and a bizarre discussion ensued in mainstream newspapers about

whether there are as many Jewish survivors as cited by the Claims Conference." (Hearings before the

Foreign Relations committee, United States Senate, 5 April 2000) In fact, I found it nearly impossible

to raise this matter in Germany. Although the taboo was finally broken by the liberal German daily

Die Berliner Zeitung
, the courage displayed by its editor, Martm Sueskind, and US correspondent,

Stefan Elfenbein, found only a faint echo in the German media, in large part owing to the legal threats

and moral blackmail of the Claims Conference as well as the general German reluctance to openly

criticize Jews.

79
Hearings before the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, House of Representatives, 11

December 1996. J.D Bindenagel (ed.),
Proceedings, Washington Conference on Holocaust-era Assets:

30 November - 3 December 1998 (US
Government Printing Office: Washington, DC), 687, 700-1,

706.

80
Hearings before International Relations committee, House of Representatives, 6 August 1998.

Bindenagel,
Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets,
433. Joan Gralia, "Poland Tries to Get

Holocaust Lawsuit Dismissed," in
Reuters
(23 December 1999). Eric J. Greenberg, "Polish Restitution

Plan Slammed," in
Jewish Week
(14 January 2000). "Poland Limits WWII Compensation Plan," in

Newsday
(6 January 2000).

81
Theo Garb et al. v. Republic of Poland
(United States District Court, Eastern District of New York,

June 18,1999). (The class-action lawsuit was brought by Edward E. Klein and Mel Urbach, the latter a

veteran of the Swiss and German settlements. An "amended complaint" submitted on 2 March 2000

was joined by many more lawyers but omits some of the more colorful charges against the postwar

Polish governments.) "Dear Leads NYC Coumcil in Call to Polish Government to Make Restitution to

Victims of Holocaust Era Property Seizure," in
News From Council Member Noach Dear
(29

November 1999). (The textual quote is from the actual resolution, No. 1072, adopted on 23 November

1999.) [Anthony D.] Weiner urges Polish Government To Repatriate Holocaust Claims," US House of

Representatives (press release, 14 October 1999). (The textual quotes are from the press release and

actual letter, dated 13 October 1999.)

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82
Hearings before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, United States Senate, 23

April 1996.

83
Hearings before the International Relations Committee, House of Representatives, 6 August 1998.

84
Hearings before the International Relations Committee, House of Representatives, 6 August 1998.

Isabel Vincent, "Who Will Reap the Nazi-Era Reparations7" in
National Post
(20 February 1999).

85
Hearings before the International Relations committee, House of Representatives, 6 August 1998.

Currently an honorary vice-president of the American Jewish Committee, Eizenstat was the first

chairman of the AJC's Institute on American Jewish-Israeli Relations.

86
Hearings before the International Relations committee, House of Representatives, 6 August 1998.

Marilyn Henry, "Whose Claim Is It Anyway7" in
Jerusalem Post (4
July 1997). Bindenagel,

Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets,
705. Editorial, "Jewish Property Belongs to Jews,"

in
Haaretz
(26 October 1999).

87
Sergio Karas, "Unsettled Accounts," in
Globe and Mail (1
September 1998). Stuart Eizenstat,

"Remarks," Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and Austria Annual Meeting

(New York: 14 July 1999). Tom Sawicki, "6,000 Witnesses,"
in Jerusalem Report (5
May 1994).

88
Bindenagel,
Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets,
146. Michael Arnold, "Israeli

Teens Frolic With Strippers After Auschwitz Visit," in
Forward
(26 November 1999). Manhattan

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney proudly informed the House Banking Committee of a bill she

introduced, the Holocaust Education Act, which "will provide grants through the Department of

Education to Holocaust organizations for teacher training, and provide materials to schools and

communities that increase Holocaust education. Representing a city with a public school system

notoriously lacking basic teachers and textbooks, Maloney might have set different priorities for

scarce Department of Education funds. (Hearings before the Committee on Banking and Financial

Services, House of Representatives, 9 February 2000)

89
Zweig,
German Reparations and the Jewish World,
118 Goldmann was founder of the World

Jewish Congress and the first president of the Claims Conference.

90
Marilyn Henry, "International Holocaust Education Conference Begins," in
Jerusalem Post
(26

January 2000). Marilyn Henry, "PM We Have No Moral Obligation to Refugees,"
in Jerusalem Post

(27 January 2000). Marilyn Henry, "Holocaust 'Must Be Seared in Collective Memory,"' in
Jerusalem

Post (30
January 2000).

91
Claims Conference,
Guide to Compensation and Restitution of Holocaust Survivors
(New York:

n.d.). Vincent,
Hitler's Silent Partners,
302 ("expropriation"); cf. 308-9. Ralf Eibl, "Die Jewish Claims

Conference rings um ihren Leumund. Nachkommen jüdischer Sklaven....," in
Die Welt
(8 March

2000) (lawsuits). The Holocaust compensation industry is a taboo subject in the United States. The

H-Holocaust web site
(www2.h-net.msu.edu),
for example, barred critical postings even if fully

supported with documentary evidence (personal correspondence with board member Richard S. Levy,

19 - 21 November 1999).

92
Ilan Pappe,
The Making of the
Arab
Israeli Conflict, 1947 - 51
(London: 1992), 268.

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93
Clinton Bailey, "Holocaust Funds to Palestinians May Meet Some Cost of Compensation," in

Intemational Herald Tribune;
reprinted in
Jordan Times (20
June 1999).

94
Elli Wohlgelernter, "WJC: Austria Holding $10b. In Holocaust Victims' Assets," in
Jerusalem

Post (14
March 2000). In his subsequent Congressional testimony, Singer highlighted the allegation

against Austria but — typically — maintained a discreet silence on the charges against the US.

(Hearings before the Foreign Relations Committee, United States Senate, 6 April 2000)

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CONCLUSION

It remains to consider the impact of The Holocaust in the United States. In doing so, I also want to

engage Peter Novick's own critical remarks on the topic.

Apart from Holocaust memorials, fully seventeen states mandate or recommend Holocaust programs

in their schools, and many colleges and universities have endowed chairs in Holocaust studies. Hardly

a week passes without a major Holocaust-related story in the
New York Times.
The number of

scholarly studies devoted to the Nazi Final Solution is conservatively estimated at over 10,000.

Consider by comparison scholarship on the hecatomb in the Congo. Between l891 and 1911, some 10

million Africans perished in the course of Europe's exploitation of Congolese ivory and rubber

resources. Yet, the first and only scholarly volume in English directly devoted to this topic was

published two years ago.
1

Given the vast number of institutions and professionals dedicated to preserving its memory, The

Holocaust is by now firmly entrenched in American life. Novick expresses misgivings, however,

whether this is a good thing. In the first place, he cites numerous instances of its sheer vulgarization.

Indeed, one is hard-pressed to name a single political cause, whether it be pro-life or pro-choice,

animal rights or states' rights, that hasn't conscripted The Holocaust. Decrying the tawdry purposes to

which The Holocaust is put, Elie Wiesel declared, "I swear to avoid . . . vulgar spectacles."
2
Yet

Novick reports that "the most imaginative and subtle Holocaust photo op came in 1996 when Hillary

Clinton, then under heavy fire for various alleged misdeeds, appeared in the gallery of the House

during her husband's (much televised) State of the Union Address, flanked by their daughter, Chelsea,

and Elie Wiesel."
3
For Hillary Clinton, Kosovo refugees put to flight by Serbia during the NATO

bombing recalled Holocaust scenes in
Schindler's List.
"People who learn history from Spielberg

movies," a Serbian dissident tartly rejoined, "should not tell us how to live our lives."
4