The Holocaust Industry (32 page)

humanitarian reasons the USA blockades Cuba... In it all, the lesson of The Holocaust makes selective

intervention holy.

But was there no humanitarian reason in East Timor? Or South Central Africa? What about apartheid South

Africa, or closer to home, Duvalier's Haiti? et cetera ad nauseum.

Whether these humanitarian missions actually work, in particular or in general, is not a subject of study, for no

sooner has the smoke cleared than another urgent situation requires immediate action.

The one shining lesson that we can pull from this mess, though, is that the masses, even here in the USA, do

have their hearts in the right places. From the information they are given they understand a wrong and wish to

right it. But they are not given the right information. If all gross inhumane acts could be highlighted through the

media and the schools, and analysied in a free and open manner, we could vanquish so many nightmares for

millions of our fellow humans. I think people are well-intentioned. Ironically, under current conditions it is these

very best intentions that lead to hell on earth for so many.

But what if there was a full account? What if people knew the whole story? What if there were a stream of annual

specials on the Kibya massacre, or the hundred or so other genocidal attacks on Palestinians over the last half

century? What if we got decent news coverage from Africa? Why can't we care about the very real help the rich

and powerful USA could give to this world in pain right now in the present? People buried alive in a stinking

mountain of garbage, which is their hideous home, still, to this day --why? Children hungry when over 50% of

Americans are over-weight --why? Tuberculosis, the disease of poverty, quadrupling in Russia, when Wall Street

experiences an expansion and profits of such magnitude and duration as to be unprecedented --why?

I am told to forget these torments and enjoy life. I have so many privileges, and life is short. To follow that advice I

think I may need a lobotomy...But you know me, you know I think life is wonderful. I don't need a cranial erasure...

We also know there is enough to go around... so why not?

Keep up your research,

And all the best From your old BCPC comrade,

Chris Brady

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After reading so much about the holocaust for the past few years, I began to become a little bit Holocaust weary

and was thus intrigued by your book. I was not dissapointed.

"The Holocaust Industry" is a fantastic piece of work. Whilst it's been reviewed by various different critics and

such, I think some of its stengths are being overlooked, notably the quality of your writing. It reads like an airport

paperback, easy to read and capivating at the same time. I even found it witty in places and laughed at loud at the

line.. "An Israeli flag: never leave home without it."

"The Holocaust Industry" answers those questions which had been lingering in my mind about the Holocaust. My

hat goes off to you, this is a tremendous book.

Yours Sincerely,

Richard Scannell

_________________________________________________________________

Dear Professor Finkelstein,

Your book has enriched and troubled my life.

Enriched because you have freed my mind...troubled because of its truths.

One of your students, Christine, who works at Manhattan Plaza, gave me your email address. I trust that this

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does not intrude.

'Never again!', a phrase echoing through my life, has led me to appreciate and respect the struggles of all

oppressed and suffering people.

Then one day, not so many years ago, news came that the Israelis, under the righteous banner of The Holocaust,

had initiated Kristalnacht and other civil abuses against the Palestinians.

I have been questioning "Jewish" rights ever since.

Whenever I have been vocal on the use of the Holocaust as an overrriding reason to lessen the deaths of so

many others I have been labeled an "anti-Semite" and shunned as such.

That is, until I heard of your book.

Your voice is one of courage, justice and decent investigation. I applaud you, Professor Finkelstein. And I am

enormously grateful for your work.

Sincerely,

(Name Withheld)

_________________________________________________________________

Dear Norman,

I finished the book within hours after speaking to you about it. Bravo!

Thank you! I have already sent off copies to friends and relatives.

I have used the term "The Holocaust Industry" in conversation for a number

of years. I don't remember if it was something that I had seen in print or

heard or just fashioned as a vague description of an offensive and evasive

manipulation of history. Your work is sharp and unsparing in its demolition

of the disgusting icons of "Holocaust" correctness.

My father came from a small city in southeastern Poland, Przemysl. His

family left there in 1912. We took him back for a brief visit in 1991 and

made a one day stop in Warsaw on the way. The monument to the fighters of

the ghetto uprising sits in the corner of a bleak expanse. "They fought for

the dignity of mankind," reads the inscription. Dad pointed out that the

text was in Hebrew and Polish. Yiddish still remains buried there with the

three million Polish Jews who spoke it every day.

Of course neither the Nuremburg Tribunal nor the Eichmann trial helped

explain the criminal complicity of the allies in the rise of fascism. On the

contrary. Israel's leaders latched on to Eichmann as a shield to deflect and

bury criticism and real investigation. The Soviet Union didn't help much

either.

Is there some decent scholarship on that topic? Or are you in the midst of

doing it yourself? If so, I would like to volunteer to help.

By the way I thought your reference to the JDC was quite tame.

Bravo to you once more! I look forward to meeting you in New York.

Levi

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Dear Professor Finkelstein,

Your book has enriched and troubled my life.

Enriched because you have freed my mind...troubled because of its truths.

One of your students, Christine, who works at Manhattan Plaza, gave me your email address. I trust that this

does not intrude.

'Never again!', a phrase echoing through my life, has led me to appreciate and respect the struggles of all

oppressed and suffering people.

Then one day, not so many years ago, news came that the Israelis, under the righteous banner of The Holocaust,

had initiated Kristalnacht and other civil abuses against the Palestinians.

I have been questioning "Jewish" rights ever since.

Whenever I have been vocal on the use of the Holocaust as an overrriding reason to lessen the deaths of so

many others I have been labeled an "anti-Semite" and shunned as such.

That is, until I heard of your book.

Your voice is one of courage, justice and decent investigation. I applaud you, Professor Finkelstein. And I am

enormously grateful for your work.

Sincerely,

(Name Withheld)

___________________________________________________________

13 October 2000

dear mr. finkelstein:

i have red your new book "the holocaust industry" and found it to be

courageous and insightful. i think that it is important that you tried to expose

the way some organizations try to make a profit on the holocaust and the USA's hypocrisy in dealing with its own

history.

i found it also necessary that you once again emphasized that not only

jews, but also gipsies (zigeuner), mentally ill (minderwertiges leben) and

so called antisocial people (asoziale) as well as gays and lesbians

(homosexuelle) perished in the holocaust. i think that it is important to

tell that there is no hierarchy of victims.

however, in one point i strongly disagree with you. you write that "the

holocaust", as every other historic event, is unique and can therefore not

be more unique than another event. you claim to "restore the Nazi holocaust

as a rational subject of inquiry".

but in my opinion, of all known genocides, the holocaust just is not

rational. it is the most diabolical crime ever commited in mankind. as far

as i know, an industrial genocide such as the holocaust never occured in

history. i do not know of any genocide for which special facilities or

inventions have been designed and built to kill effectively. the

extermination camps were nothing more but slaughter-houses for human

beings. and i guess that is worth never to be forgotten!

many regards

j. n. mettler, switzerland

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15 October 2000

Dear Mr. Finkelstein,

I'm living in Germany as a German for 56 years, I studied Slavic

languages especially Russia. In school we had not be informed about the German crimes in Eastern Europe. I

learned it as a student. I'm convinced the Germans would have never been engaged in helping the East-

Europeam victims of the Second World War. They had forgotten them for 50 years. Without the Yewish "pressure

groups" nobody would

remember. It's paradox!

Keep in mind another fact: The Bertelsman Publishing House published

Goldhagen's book, but this old Nazi-Publishing company would have never

published your book. It's paradox too! But fact is too, that your book will encourage antisemits in Germany. It's

paradox, but I agree to your statement in S üddeutsche Zeitung

about publishing your researches. We have to publish the truth,

nothing but the truth. But you are underestimating the deep roots of

antisemitism and racism in the German society which have survived

"SILENTLY" in the hearts of men for fifty years after the Second World

War. They never felt as "sinners" who had to show "REUE" (REPENTANCE).

They only felt guilty because they didn't win the Second World War, and

nowadays there are a lot of attempts to win the war afterwards. As a

member of the Yewish-Christian Society in the university town of

Marburg I could send you dozens of examples about the German "Unfähigkeit zur

Reue" (incapability for repentance). Unfortunately Alexander

Mitscherlich's famous book "Über die Unfähigkeit zu TRAUERN" helped the

Germans not to be "repentant". They were SAD indeed, but nothing more.

My father, a war prisoner in Russia for eleven years, came back to West

Germany in 1955. These war prisoners had been received as "heroes", as

winners, not as loosers. Having been again well established by the new

German Army (cold war policy!) he declared very outspoken his hate

against Russians and Yews. In those times that was not "correct", but

when my mother protested and tried to be divorced the whole company

(family, old friends etc.) criticized her very sharply and she felt

very, very alone for many years.

God take care of you, all of us

(Gott schütze Sie, uns alle)

Sincerely yours

Bernd E. Scholz, M.A.

(publisher)

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Subject: the holocaust industry