The Holocaust, Palestine, and Israel: Revision, Denial, and Myth
"It is in the serious
questioning of rigidly held belief systems that humanity – sometimes – advances
beyond simple duality, arriving at a relatively reasoned interpretation based
on objective study of material evidence . . ."
by Frank Scott
The murderous treatment
of European Jews during the Second World War has become almost legendary in its
depiction as a unique and singularly important example of bigoted inhumanity,
carried to barbarous extremes. No other experience from among the overwhelming
number of historic cases of mass brutality has ever achieved such status in Western consciousness, partly because most of the other slaughters were of Third World, non–white people. But despite this specific outrage being
portrayed as an unparalleled tragedy, injustice, bigotry and mass murder have
been practiced and gone relatively unquestioned since its occurrence, contrary
to the lessons supposedly learned from its example. Given this contradictory
impact, it should be permissible to look, as clearly as evidence will allow, at
exactly what took place, what its moral lesson could be, what its political use
has been, and how it has helped perpetuate rather than end notions of racial
superiority and division that have dogged the world for millennia.
The patriarchal belief
systems on which Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all based depend on faith,
far more than material evidence. What historic evidence exists is subject to
human interpretation, and as an example of how varied that interpretation can
be, we have these three religions. All are founded on the same original story,
with similar scriptures, prophets, and the alleged word of God. God's words
apparently say different things to different people at different times.
Religious history, in which faith and interpretation loom large, is really not
that different from secular history.
The original story of
the United States, for instance, was one of European discovery, heroic
conquest, incredible development and national triumph. That was from the
standpoint of the official historians, before the revisionists had their say. A
more modern interpretation of that story includes the near physical and
cultural genocide of the native populations of the continents which Europe
discovered, even though people had been living on them for thousands of years.
A newer view of American history also saw chattel slavery as something beyond
an unfortunate economic arrangement which led to civil war and racial
misunderstanding, and more as an experience of murderous human degradation
carried to inhuman marketing extremes, with social repercussions still apparent
and still not fully understood.
Historic views and
re-views of the past are taken by those with possible preconceptions based on
their education, training and belief systems; historians can find selective
truth in the material evidence at hand, while creating immaterial evidence as
well, often doing so unconsciously, without any balance, and even stressing
extremes. In doing this they are not substantially different from religious
believers who pick and choose from what material evidence exists, if any, to
fit into the belief system. God and the accepted prophets are cited to back up
whatever is seen as good, righteous and just, and a Satan, with demonic
assistants, is created to account for the evil, craven brutality that is the
darker side of human development. Substitute us for God, and them for Satan,
and we have much secular history.
The religious or
scientific system produces its historians, who are responsible not only for
interpreting the evidence according to the preconceived rules of faith and
politics, but in many cases, for the creation of evidence to fit within the
mental structure that thereby strengthens and reinforces the system's
foundation.
This is not unique to
one religious or national group, but is common to all which have an established
story of origin, and a following interpretation of history to neatly fit into
the original premise. Given the dualism of Western religious science, logical
materialists who claim physical objectivity as their basis supposedly have
nothing in common with the magical immaterialism of religion. But despite age
old battles between secularists and deists, neither side in this either-or
conflict really knows any more than what is believed, accepted, and verified by
the evidence that solidifies the foundation of its system of belief. Anyone who
contradicts that evidence is either disregarded, or tossed out of the realm of
accepted reality. In the most extreme cases, the contradictor is either
imprisoned, or burned at the stake.
It is in the serious
questioning of rigidly held belief systems that humanity – sometimes – advances
beyond simple duality, arriving at a relatively reasoned interpretation based
on objective study of material evidence, free of previously learned bias. In
these cases, divine good and demonic evil are left to the immaterialist
community, and the attempt is made to learn from previous experience and hope
for a better future that does not repeat past mistakes. That hope is
nonexistent when free thought and critical appraisal are denied. It is in
particular danger today, more so than in the darkest ages of our past, when
wanton slaughter may have been the order of the day, but the weapons to affect
it were infinitely more primitive.
In the aftermath of the
Nazi assault on European Judaism, we have seen a modern form of biblical
interpretation evolve out of an historic event. This interpretation is based
almost as much on faith as on verifiable fact. What should be at least fairly
conclusive according to examined evidence has become a religious belief system
in which no examination or question of evidence is allowed unless it
strengthens the already existing and accepted story. The event is not only
treated as unquestioned as the word of God, but if dared to be questioned at
all, punishable as blasphemy. Such is the modern burden of what is called The
Holocaust, having even its name reflect a biblical sounding event, like The
Creation.
A terrible price was
paid by the Jews of Europe in the experience of this awful episode of history,
but a heavy price is still being paid, in some sense by the whole world, but
mostly by Palestinians, who played no role in these atrocities, though they
have paid dearly, and unconscionably, in their aftermath.
The effect of the
Holocaust on 21st century life continues to be as profound, and dangerous, as
its impact on the previous century. What is euphemistically called "The
Middle East Problem" was really created by the Western holocaust, and
dumped on the people of the Middle East. The solution to this problem involves
the West confronting its own responsibility, and ending its punishment of the
Arab world, especially the Palestinians, who have absorbed generations of abuse
and had a horrific, biblical vengeance visited upon them for something they
never did. Further, the accepted story of the event, seemingly free of any
material forces or consequences save depravity and hatred of age old origin,
invites a fatalism which accepts ancient beliefs in a natural evil at the core
of humanity. Or at least, a majority of humanity, which seems historically
predisposed to persecute and murder a specific minority.
There might be no better
place to begin seeking a solution than at the very event that has served to
help create the problem. But any attempt at reconsideration of this particular
tragedy in a way that questions some of the accepted story is treated as
sacrilegious, insane, unthinkable anti-Semitism, and in the most extreme cases,
as a crime punishable by jail or deportation. This was the case with Ernest
Zündel, one among many Holocaust Revisionists who dare to challenge religious
and political orthodoxy by questioning our understanding of a human disaster
which has helped perpetuate human disaster.
Zündel and other
revisionists are called "holocaust deniers" by those who label them
in discriminatory fashion in order to remove them from any serious
consideration. The denigrating label makes it seem as though they deny that any
Jews were murdered, or that Jews did not suffer terribly at the hands of Nazis
and their supporters. Calling these people names in order to reduce them as
beings is a bigotry no different, in essence, from using derogatory labels like
nigger, spic, kike or redneck. The label's purpose is to belittle and deform,
reducing people to caricatures and worse; beings outside the realm of
acceptability and not worthy of consideration by "normal" people.
There may be unsavory
and bigoted types among those who call themselves holocaust revisionists, but
such people exist in business, government and religion; do we entirely dismiss
those worlds because some of their practitioners may not meet our standards for
acceptability? Some who claim to be revisionists simply change the pejorative
"Nazi" to the pejorative "Communist" and charge the same
wholesale slaughters and incredible death tolls, only with different victims
and different murderers. Far more important are the revisionists unmotivated by
anything more than a sense of human inquiry, who simply attempt to confront
and question accepted history with as much or as little bias as the official
historians.
Zündel should be free to
present his viewpoint and entertain his beliefs, however unpopular they may be
to those who often know nothing more than what they have been told. This biased
telling of the story of individuals and events is a problem not only of the
historic past, but one we experience in everyday life. We are fed tales which
provoke bloody warfare and are devoutly believed and supported by some, and
just as devoutly disbelieved and opposed by others. But neither school of
thought is, as yet, proposing that all opposition to its belief system be
completely silenced, totally disregarded or jailed. Some have indeed suffered
such a fate, but they are still the exception and not the rule. Unfortunately,
among holocaust revisionists, the rule is persecution; first, of the very idea,
and next, of the person expressing the very idea.
Our political economy of
religious science depends on the double standards of dualism, but the issue of
free speech tends to be revered by people from all sides of the political and
social spectrum. It would be better for us all if we were less selective about
where, when, and on what subjects such freedom could be exercised.
Revisionists try to make
the murderous history of the Holocaust an aspect of reality, rather than a
religious experience of unquestioned worship and sorrow. This is their sin, but
it is not only they who suffer; all who profess a belief in freedom of expression, speech and thought pay a price. Yet, the attack on Zündel's free
speech was barely noticed by the general public. Even though it took place in
Canada, it received no criticism from an American civil liberties community
which would be totally aroused if such blatant suppression occurred in almost
any other area of life, and in any country. But that is not the case in the
area dubbed "holocaust denial", where any outrage against free speech
and free thought is not only allowed, but righteously supported and even
vindictively applauded, wherever it occurs.
The double standard
regarding this issue is among the most troubling of our social hypocrisies. One
can easily imagine those depicted as demons, like Saddam Hussein or Slobodan
Milosevic, being regarded as heroes, had they persecuted alleged holocaust
deniers instead of operating against Israeli and American interests, for which
they now face trial as war criminals.
Zündel may be the best
known among many who are critical of the holocaust story, but who hardly deny
that Jews were viciously persecuted and murdered by the Nazis. He has been
dogged for years because of his expressed doubts regarding many aspects of the
accepted history, and as a result suffered physical attacks, the firebombing of
his home, and costly court cases finally leading to his imprisonment. Among his
blasphemous thought crimes he dares to believe that all Germans were not
uniquely evil, inhuman monsters, as they are depicted in much of the holocaust
story. Germany has been the main financial backer of Israel, contributing billions
of dollars in retribution payments, and has been most fierce in smothering free
speech when it comes to this issue. But there are still many who believe that
Germans should be judged as unparalleled among humans for their collective sin,
and this has been internalized by their government. In keeping with its guilt
driven policies, Germany locked Zündel in jail as soon as Canada expelled him
for his crime. And what was this offense? Under cover of visa problems and
alleged influence on potentially violent groups, Zündel was really guilty of
daring to express doubt in the official story of the Holocaust, that doubt
usually being not only about the number of dead, but also concerning the plan
and method of carrying out mass murder. His is only the most serious and
recent attack on a revisionist. Many others have suffered loss of jobs,
physical attacks, and been imprisoned. In several nations, it is a punishable,
criminal offense to dare question the Holocaust in any ways that displease the
keepers of its official history.
The horrendous treatment
of European Jews, their forced exodus from national homelands to concentration
and slave labor camps, and their further brutalization and murders, are
believed part of a centrally planned process of annihilation. This historically
unique crime was industrialized, with an around-the-clock production line of
transport, gas chambers, crematoria and almost unimaginable cruelty. That is
the brief outline generally accepted by most of the world, or at least the Western world, which might as well be the whole world given the power balance.
Of course, gas chambers were not alleged to be the only method employed for
these mass murders, and the basic crimes were known of before that aspect of
the story was established. But though official records and scholarship account
for many deaths attributable to other causes and methods, the popular
acceptance of the phrase "six million died in the gas chambers" is
hardly ever discussed as being impossible. In fact, there is almost as much use
of the dreadful sounding "six million died in the ovens", with many
believing that six million living human beings were actually thrown into mass
fiery pits. The world was witness to the awful films of the liberated camps,
the emaciated survivors, and the piles of skin and bone corpses. It is as if
these sickening images were not enough, and even more ghastly ones have to be
created in order to identify this as history's most terrible crime.
That such an incredible
murderous deed, of such massive proportions, was concealed from the world until
long after it took place is barely acknowledged as worthy of any question.
Several histories of the war were written at its end which made no mention of
this particular horrendous crime. Some survivors of the concentration camps
wrote of their terrible experiences, with no mention of gas chambers. Are we to
believe that all these writers, including Eisenhower and Churchill, were
simply anti-Semites?
This awful scheme for
exterminating an entire people was ordered by passionate zealots who were
motivated by irrational hatred. Yet, conversely, it was organized by a core of
dispassionate, bureaucratic clones, and then carried out by a stoic force of
robotic killers. And this hideous production was performed while Germany
suffered devastation in the war, with many of its people going hungry, its
economy sorely lacking industrial supplies and its imminent defeat looming.
Might there be legitimate cause for questioning at least some parts of the
generally accepted story? Should critical reappraisal be completely forbidden,
given that this insane act of collective murder was the major rationale for the
displacement and destruction of another people, the Palestinians, far removed
from any connection to Europe save for their domination by its colonial power?
And considering the
depiction of Germans as a collection of homicidal monsters, couldn't one of
these satanic sadists have considered a photograph of his, and their,
horrendous work with gas chambers? Is there any wonder that the same
bureaucratic number crunchers who tabulated every single person rounded up and
sent to a camp, were unable to tabulate the actual murders? And since all gas
chambers were allegedly destroyed by the Germans – who seemed anxious to get
rid of all evidence of the crime, but were extremely careless about leaving
alive participants in committing the crime – isn't it worthy of question that
their existence is based on stories and confessions after the fact, with no one
actually witnessing these mass murder machines in action?
It should not be a crime
to wonder why not one actual photo of a gas chamber exists, that all were
destroyed and only reproductions of them are offered as evidence. The only
photos are of doors or passages leading to such chambers, and showers said to
have served as gas chambers, but these all defy logic and only serve belief.
Would we accept explanation for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki by
being presented with photos of roads leading into town? Or the testimony of
survivors and participants in the bombings, but with no other evidence except
their testimony that the cities were devastated by such a weapon?
Given the overwhelming
evidence that clearly verifies the persecution and murder of so many, why is it
that this major part of the story is so reliant on after the fact memories or
detective work? That several million people were killed this way and that not
one photo exists is certainly worthy of questioning, given that so much else
was recorded in photos and film. We have abundant pictorial evidence of the
dreadful conditions of the camps, the horrible images that have been imprinted
on us over the years. Yet, none of these showed a gas chamber, its ruins, or
recorded comments about its existence. How can it be a sin and why should it
be a crime to question this story? Is it odd that some might see the denial of
that freedom as part of a political program to insure that Israel is above any
criticism and kept a safe place for world Jewry, even though its reality has
been quite the opposite? The record of an earlier episode of inhuman brutality
in the United States offers an uncomfortable contrast.
During the wretched era
of American lynching, more than two thousand blacks were dragged from their
homes or prison cells and publicly hanged, often having their bodies literally
torn apart after killing. These bestial events were sometimes viewed by
hundreds of people in an often festive atmosphere of collective madness.
Countless photographs exist of these bizarre, barbaric affairs, with families proudly
posing, even smiling, in front of a brutalized black body hanging from a tree.
There may be legend and myth surrounding much of this period, but there is
undeniable evidence of the bloody deeds in these photos, some of which were
made into postcards and mailed to friends and families, later becoming exhibits
at museums and galleries.
Should this terrible
episode of American history be offered as proof that we were the most beastly
race on earth? Far worse than later Germans, who didn't gleefully photograph
their atrocities and happily share those photos with friends? Why not try to
learn more about this sordid past, rather than simply see the atrocities as
acts of a deranged people, having no basis in material history save as a
description of mass psychosis, based on age old biblical hatred of...Africans?
After all, we have no historic verification for how many Africans were murdered
during what was called, less biblically, "the passages", when slaves
were stuffed onto ships like animals, and beaten, starved and drowned while
crossing the Atlantic Ocean, with death toll estimates ranging from a few to
many millions. Has it been blasphemy to examine that history, as closely as
evidence will allow, in order to arrive at something approximating what actually
took place? Does any reexamination of this brutal period, including a
revisionist pointing out that some slaves lived in more material security than
some workers, indicate a form of "slavery denial"?
We certainly cannot
change the fact of inhuman chattel slavery in our past, nor the tremendous
impact it has had on our national development. But confronting our past might
help us change the present. Nearly half the prison population of the USA is
black, and ghettos and poverty-wracked communities still number black
residents in the hundreds of thousands. That should be reason enough to want to
learn more about that past and how it affects our society today. Really
confronting such questions and seeking answers based on social justice and
humanitarian values could mean social revolution, but even if we don't go that
far, knowing more can at least help us mythologize less.
We would not make the
crimes committed by the Nazis any less horrid by removing myths, legends and
emotional slander from the very real pain and suffering they caused. What of
the many alleged tales of their ghastly practices, like making soap from the
body fat of dead Jews, stuffing pillows with their hair or making lamp shades
from their skin? Some of these are still repeated by those who simply accepted
any tale of German degeneracy, no matter how mindless sounding or lacking any
basis in fact. The generally accepted and horrendous enough toll of a million
deaths at Auschwitz was once believed to be more than four million. These
inflated death toll figures and tales of bizarre brutality are no longer
tolerated by anyone with claims to serious scholarship, with agreement here
between revisionists and the official historians of Holocaust studies.
Survivors are no less
cursed with memories of an awful reality when these kinds of exaggerations are
faced as fabrications born of panic, gullibility, and retaliatory hatred. This
at one time unquestioned parade of inhuman horrors became part of accepted
history and helped lead to the birth of a new nation, Israel, established as a
haven for the persecuted survivors of this bloodcurdling, genocidal campaign
conducted by the Nazis.
Israel's existence since
its origin in 1948 has remained critically unquestioned by the mainstream West
and its officially sanctioned political opposition, mainly because of the
horrors the world learned about the Holocaust. And learned, and learned, and
relearned. Hardly a day passes that some TV program, film, workshop, museum
display, lecture or school curriculum is not dealing with what took place, in
horrifying detail. People are gripped and shaken by the vicarious experience of
this tragedy, recreated in veritable theme parks of misery and suffering. They
are compelled to wonder how people could perform such contemptible violence,
and how it could have happened without outside intervention. But these same
people still support doctrines of racial supremacy and the mass murder of war;
they draw no connection to the lesson supposedly learned from the holocaust
tragedy, since that lesson seems specific only to that single experience and
its relation to the unquestioned need for Israel as a haven for Jews.
State organized
violence, human persecution and bigotry continue, and civilized populations
still tolerate racial and colonial policies that treat people and their
homelands as worthless, unless owned, occupied or exploited by superior beings.
These matters are relatively unquestioned by many who are moved to tears by the
story of the Holocaust, since that event is treated as an almost separate
reality from human history, let alone the sub-category of Jewish history, whose
thousands of years seem reduced to about five during the war. And Israel is
still perceived by many as a home for people rejected by the world, with no place
else to go. This is a gross simplification, but so is the larger story. Israel
did not just "happen" in 1948, though that might as well be the case
given popular ignorance of its history.
In the late 19th
century, when the European Zionist movement for a Jewish homeland was
established, most Jews wanted no such home. They were content being citizens in
the nations where they had become part of the fabric of life, having worked
hard to overcome bigotry that saw them as "other". Many of them took
serious issue with Zionism, which existed long before most Nazis were born, let
alone in power. This historic fact is not just overlooked, but is unknown to
people who think of Zionism only in its socialistic form of the kibbutz, and
see Israel as something that happened purely because of the Nazi assault on
European Jews.
Among several proposed
sites, Palestine was the biblical real estate most desired by many Zionists as
a national homeland, since it was believed to be their source, even by
allegedly secular Jews who claimed to be atheists. That contradiction still
prevails; one can strongly assert no belief in God, while accepting a homeland
for Jews in Israel, because that land was promised to them by...God. The
Holocaust helps make it possible to overlook this contradiction by citing the
Jewish tragedy at the hands of the Nazis as verification for the need to create
Israel. And even though most of the world's Jews are moved to at least
psychologically support Israel's existence, they have never been there and have
no plan to even visit, let alone become settlers.
The fact that as late as
1942, some Zionists and Nazis were discussing the island nation of Madagascar
as a possible homeland for Jews – with as little concern for the native people
there as in Palestine – is another little known aspect of the relationships
between two groups proposing the same alienating idea, along decidedly
different lines; that Jews did not belong with "others" and should be
living in their own, separate country.
With no consideration
for some of these matters, we inherit a history with little if any context,
negating any awareness of events that lead to or connect from one to the other
in any understandable, if occasionally mind-boggling way. Things suddenly
happen, with no explanation for events other than their being caused or
provoked by saintly angels or demonic monsters. Are there material, worldly
reasons for these events? Where do these situations and creatures come from? We
are not to ask once the story, the gods and the demons have been established.
That is, if we wish to remain helpless creatures shaped by history, rather than
active beings who play a conscious role in its creation.
The revision of all
history, literally to look at it again, is necessary if we wish to create a
future without repeating past mistakes. The maligned school of Holocaust
Revision could make a contribution towards understanding and peace, rather than
represent a criminal assault against political religious belief, as it is
portrayed. Taking a new look at any part of history, recent or past, may lead
to greater awareness of material forces which are controllable by humans. This
contradicts the fatalistic view of humanity as inherently beastly and in need
of control by elites, which are usually working for God. This biblical notion
at the core of many human acts of mass murder flies in the face of real human
experience and calls for more, not less questioning of what we are told about
anything.
Whether it is fed to us
as legend, myth or alleged fact, nothing should be treated as unquestionable.
Facts are too often based on as little proof as the legendary and mythological.
For a recent, obvious example, we need look no further than "weapons of
mass destruction" in Iraq. Thousands of people are dead and a government
was destroyed because of those alleged weapons, which do not, and did not,
exist.
The suffering of the
Jews in Europe during the Second World War would not become less tragic under
critical appraisal, though its political impact might change, and this is the
major reason for its being kept an untouchable topic. In order to maintain
Israel's position as a special nation, the myth of the Jewish people as a
forever endangered species is perpetuated. The Holocaust is seen as the
culmination of a long history of murderous persecution of Jews by the rest of
the Gentile world, with no allowance for anything but continued misery and
eternal threat. This incredibly negative and narrow view estranges people from
humanity, and in so doing helps create a warped history of isolation. A
contradictory ideological need to be separate and different from
"them", while humanistically desiring similarity and equality with
"them", can only prolong the problem of what is called anti-Semitism,
despite that language confusion which so labels Europeans who are no more
Semites than are people from Finland or Nigeria.
Given the verifiable
history of Jewish persecution in the past, can that possibly justify the
persecution of Palestinians in the present? Assuming that there was indeed a
plot by European Gentiles to murder all the Jews of the continent, why should
people who have no real or fictional connection to such a sin be the ones to
pay the awful price of its atonement? And even if it is necessary to insist
that one inhuman episode was unique and different from others, that one
suffering was more painful than another, how can any benefit be gained by
causing still more suffering? No horror experienced in Europe should serve as
rationale for punishment inflicted on people other than Europeans, if any at
all are to still be paying for this experience of inhuman slaughter among,
sadly, many such historic experiences. A more recent human disaster can offer
several comparisons, even if only in the treatment of the story.
As an example of how
closer examination of events which take on near legendary proportions can lead
to better understanding, consider the disastrous day Americans remember as
"911". It did not become less tragic when investigation revealed that
the original estimated death toll of nearly 7,000 was actually just over 3,000.
The bereaved were no less saddened, the nation no less shocked. Nor,
unfortunately, were political forces swayed to change their policies based on
this lowered figure. But history was served in moving the story from
exaggeration, arrived at during chaotic moments when all matters were barely
verifiable, to the actual human cost and impact of all those deaths. Lowering
the death toll was not a form of 911 "denial", and it did nothing to
change the essence of the event.
Many still believe it
was the worst thing to ever happen, if limiting the area of events to the USA.
But far more people have been killed in bombings in other countries than died
that day in America, and to acknowledge that fact – still generally
unacknowledged – might help to better understand why this act of terrorism
might have taken place, rather than viewing it as a gesture of sadistic madmen
who didn't like our style of dress, our democracy, or our social behavior
patterns . Were they simply "anti-Americans", for some ancient,
irrational biblical reason? Or were there social and political as well as
religious motivations for their murderous attack? Would it hurt us to move
beyond simplistic, reductionist explanations in order to arrive at some
understanding of material reality that might help our relations with the rest
of the world?
The reexamination of 911
did not overlook the enormous cost in death benefits and the number of hustlers
who rushed to claim money, posing as kin of those who allegedly perished. In
this, it bore a relation to what some call the "Holocaust Industry",
referring to the money making aspects of that tragedy that entice scam artists
as well as legitimate victims. Finding an actual, verifiable death toll saved
money for insurers, but the material evidence was examined not only to save
money, nor to hurt the memory of survivors, but to help see the disaster from a
more reality-based perspective. We are still learning about the poorly reported
and even more poorly explained 911 events, and the wars and further terrors
they have unleashed in Afghanistan and especially Iraq. Many still believe that
Arabs had nothing to do with them, and that they were organized and executed by
the U.S. government. Others claim it was the Israeli Mossad, and some believe
it was the act of a vengeful God, punishing us for whatever sins these divinely
oriented conspiracy freaks perceive. But none of these theories, though they
may be argued, laughed at or ridiculed, are forbidden. Nor are those who
entertain them threatened with jail. This is as it should be, but isn't, where
the Holocaust is concerned.
Israel's seemingly
spontaneous "immaculate conception" in 1948 is no more materially
verifiable than the older religious legend, but is as devoutly believed by a
community of the faith. The Palestinian people who lived in what later became
Israel were conveniently removed from material or critical consideration. They
were denied as a people and never considered as humans of any importance, so
it was easy to buy them out, kick them out, or wipe them out if they resisted.
Their painful history of injustice has outraged most of the world, as evidenced
by countless votes in the United Nations which go against continued theft of
Palestinian land and brutalization of the Palestinian people. But the nature of
their suffering receives hardly a blink from the center of global power in the
USA, where real Palestinian Deniers are an infinitely greater problem than any
alleged Holocaust Deniers.
The American government
and major opinion shaping institutions have participated in the creation of
Israel as a lily-white land of suffering inhabitants, first escaping the horror
of the Nazis, and then preyed upon by the dreadful Arabs, portrayed as bloodthirsty
demons anxious to "push Israel into the sea", as one of the favored
slogans has it. This colorful defiance of geography and politics may have
actually been expressed as a desire by some witless opponent; more likely, it
came from an Israeli and has become useful to repeat in provoking fear and
anxiety among Jews all over the world, as the horrible holocaust story is rerun
in their imaginations each time a threat to Jews is perceived or alleged. And
these threats usually seem to happen in a social vacuum, occupied by an
innocent people in a rarified world befitting a fairy tale as much as a
physical reality.
The contradictory notion
of Jews as a historically blessed, special, privileged sector of humanity, and
at the same time as a historically scorned, hated and brutalized group as well,
is reinforced by the conflicting histories of Israel, Palestine, the Holocaust
experience and the status of Judaism in the world today. To say that a people
hated and persecuted by the Gentile world – which means just about everyone
else – for thousands of years, and then slaughtered in the worst pogrom of them
all, could become powerful enough to hold sway over governments and public
opinion is dismissed as just another form of anti-Semitism. The mere mention of
Jewish power, exercised in obvious fashion and so acknowledged by many Jewish
groups and publications, reduces not only Zionists but large segments of the Gentile world, including its left-wing, to screeching charges of anti-Semitism
at those who defiantly refer to "the power that dare not speak its
name". But the U.S. government and media and their global subordinates do
not hesitate to follow the story so outlined, perpetuating the myth that
becomes reality when so many not only believe it, but act on that belief.
Jewish ethnic and
cultural gifts to the arts and sciences have made incredible contributions
toward making the human community whole. Biblical and ideological Judaism
contradicts that wholeness by treating the rest of the world as
"other" and insisting on its own uniqueness. Much of the world is
drawn to the warm, humanistic culture, while it is repelled by the cold,
alienating ideology. Just as mainstream science and much non-biblical religion
reject difference and see humanity as one race with common origins, a biblical
fundamentalist view holds to an ancient notion that divides us into a deity's
less or more favored races. The political, economic and psychological burdens
of maintaining such older belief systems are at the root of a global crisis. In
an all too real sense, we continue struggles with believers in immaterial
legend and fable, while reality demands that we wake up and face a material
world threatened by our wasteful and destructive divisions. These ancient
belief systems might be beneficial if their humanitarian messages of equality
for all took precedence over their patriarchal teachings of the superiority of
only some. We face failure the longer we continue paying halfhearted lip
service to the wisdom of their most loving prophets, while we incur the cost of
paying wholehearted debt service to the deceit of their most hateful profiteers.
Human suffering and
brutality are a sad part of our history, but we needn't mythologize their
experience or make them special; rather, we need to understand that they impede
our development. We can learn from our most terrible mistakes, but not if we
fetishize and treat them as unique, almost divorced from history rather than
representing a terrible example of our worst behaviors, practiced in the selfish,
short-sighted ignorance that continues to rule our relations. Our bloody past
and present make it clear that it is possible to slaughter hundreds, thousands,
even millions of people, without an extermination plan or gas chambers.
History is full of wholesale
massacres, of people being regarded as worse than insects or rodents, and
barbarically murdered in horrendous acts of brutality. Some of these were
perpetrated over many years, some over a few weeks, some a few days, and some,
instantly. During the same war that killed so many European Jews, the cities of
Dresden and Tokyo, among many others, were reduced to ashes in firestorms that
killed tens of thousands of people in a matter of minutes. These poor souls
were indeed, burned alive, and there was no need to deliver them to death camps
or crematoria; the crematoria were delivered to them. Yet these and other
brutal acts of mass murder were written off as excusable acts of war that
killed "the enemy", said enemy deserving such a fate for being part and
parcel of the war. Had the outcome been different, how many Allied Generals
would have been tried for these mass murders, and executed as war criminals?
Why does one horrible
slaughter receive an unending stream of commemorations and reparations, while
hundreds of others are barely a drip in the brain pan of humanity? Why does the
Holocaust loom so large, and yet serve as a rationale for the brutalization of
a people who had absolutely nothing to do with Nazis or Europe? And who can
certainly not be guilty of anti-Semitism, In as much as they are, unlike the
Ashkenazi Jews of Europe, Semites themselves? Could a better understanding of
what happened to the Jews of Europe, and of the underlying causes that brought
about fascism, help the world to better understand itself?
It can't possibly hurt
us to learn what was at the root of the Nazis' blind hatred of communism,
democracy and Judaism, and why they linked those hatreds, rather than continue
accepting ridiculous notions that reduce world history to perverse
psychosomatic disorders. What role did material events play in the creation of
national socialism in Germany, and how widely was it supported by other
nations? Contrary to simplistic belief, which has it that the world instantly
opposed the demonic evil of the Nazis, many Western powers were quite fond of
their rabid anti-communism and their strengthening of German finance capital.
It is possible to learn more about a terrible episode of history without
denigrating those who suffered, but also by not making a totally different kind
of human out of them, thereby perpetuating a dangerous myth of original
difference, when we most need to acknowledge that we are all members of the
same human race.
Fear of present
victimization because of past history, whether based on fact or fiction, is not
healthy for any human individual or group. Rising above our past mistakes, our
legends and our superstitions in order to deal with real problems can contribute
to growth in knowledge and assurance of a future possibility for all of
humanity. That assurance is a necessity for the success of the human race, and
not just one nation, sect, religion or clan.
Seeing the rest of
humanity as historically bent on persecuting and eventually murdering all Jews
is hardly the healthiest way to sustain religious, ethnic, national or personal
survival. One has to major in the inhumanities to entertain such dreadful
thoughts. When carried for generations, they cannot help but lead to more
suspicion, misunderstanding and divisions which help create the inhuman mental
and physical horror that was the reality of the Jews in Europe, and is the
reality of the Palestinian people now. Bigotry and murder do not need
commemorative death tolls or special killing machine techniques to make them
worse or better; they need to stop.
The
"revisioning" of the Holocaust might help Israel, Palestine and
Judaism itself by confronting contradictions based on ancient beliefs which
have no place in the modern world, and which help create murderous
misunderstanding the longer they are accepted. Controversies involving which
war, which mass murder, or which act of totalitarian brutality was worse than
another can only make it seem that some were better than others. But it is all
acts of brutality that must be seen as the problem , and not just one in
isolation, if we are to arrive at a solution.
If we do not learn from
history, it is said that we are condemned to repeat it, and that has been the
case with the Jewish experience of one war, and the resultant Palestinian
suffering that could lead to a greater war. Coming to grips with what was
called the Final Solution could bring about confrontation with what could be
humanity's final problem of racial and ethnic hatreds which are used to help
perpetuate ideologies of domination. We need a peaceful "final
solution" in confronting the greatest problem humanity has ever faced.
Nuclear and biological weapons have replaced the more primitive bloody tools of
the old political testaments and while we have seen what those weapons could
do, we have not yet fully realized the lesson of their creation. They are
products of age old biblical inhumanity, brought to modern technological
perfection in exercising mass murder in post biblical fashion. We have to
become a civilized people and learn to work together, before we revert to
primitive savagery and literally blow ourselves apart.
The Holocaust was
representative of the darkest side of humanity, but unfortunately, it still
covers many with its shadow. Bringing light to such darkness involves much more
than rethinking one episode of history, but given its enormous impact on
collective consciousness, this one issue could have an effect on many more.
They may seem an unlikely source, but Holocaust Revisionists could help bring
about an enlightenment that enables us to see through inherited doctrines of
ignorance and bigotry, kept alive by political and biblical systems of
superstition which contribute to furthering the danger to humanity.
Confronting the real
tragedy of what was done in the past, and the role it has played in furthering
human suffering and injustice in the present, will be necessary for us to end
such suffering in the future. The hateful anti-Semitism that was at the core of
Nazi treatment of Jews cannot be forgotten, but it shouldn't be remembered by
developing a ridiculous philo-Semitism that places one event, nation or people
above critical reproach. Like the Zionists and Nazis who agreed that Jews were
different from everyone else, this is either/or dualism at its worst. Just as
past bigotry and brutalizing of Jews has scarred humanity, so does present
bigotry and brutalizing of Palestinians disfigure us all. And just as we
demythologize the American story and create a more hopeful future by doing so,
we need to demythologize the mass injustice in Europe, and the mass injustice
it brought about in the Middle East. Two wrongs do not make a right, any more
than two lies can make a truth. And while the truth may not set us absolutely
free, it could certainly help us move closer to relative freedom.
*May 14 is the anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel
© 2005 by Frank Scott.
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