For some decades the consensus has been that the greatest calamity to befall the Jewish people has been the Nazi Holocaust, in which six million Jews met their cruel demise.  Therefore, if you want to make a Jew happy, tell him that far fewer than six million Jews died in that holocaust.  Surely, once you explain that there are difficulties with the official account of those events, he will eagerly and joyously soak up every word you have to say on the matter.

Alas, this is not likely to be the case.  Instead of paying attention to what you have to say, he will probably mock you and call you a "neo-Nazi".  Not only will your words not be heard, but you will be persecuted for saying them.  In some countries, you can get thrown in prison for speaking them.  This is because the Nazi Holocaust has morphed into a religion of its own – the vast majority of Jews pay far more credence to the official account of the holocaust than they do to the Torah.  Even if you don't actually dispute the official version, but suspect less than noble intentions for those who promote it, you can lose your job and become a pariah.  Just ask Norman Finkelstein.

Many years ago, I decided to abstain from reading about the holocaust or watching any movies about it.  To do so would only bring me pain and I saw no benefit in torturing my soul over a past I could do nothing about.  I even refrained from asking the survivors I've known about their experiences.  Some of them bore the infamous numbers tattooed onto their arms.  This was testimony enough.  Recently, however, a friend sent me the book "Debating the Holocaust" by Thomas Dalton, ph.D.  I reasoned that reading about how so many Jews did not die would not cause depression – and I was right.

At the beginning of the book, Dalton feigns impartiality and tells us how he is going to present both sides of each issue.  However, as the book progresses, it becomes clear that the author favors the revisionist side.  If his claims about the tactics of the pro-"orthodox" camp are accurate, then we should not blame him for this.  After all, if one side of a debate ignores the most powerful arguments of the other while focusing only on the weakest ones – and doesn't even do a good job at that – is that side worthy of equal respect?

One of the statistics, cited in the book, that I found most shocking was the sheer number of books about the holocaust that are published each year.  They run into the tens of thousands if we include all languages.  At this rate, it would not be surprising if each holocaust victim ended up having his own book eventually.  A recent visit to the largest book store in the U.S., Powell's Books, verified this.  There were dozens of holocaust books and, indeed, they seemed to outnumber those on Judaism proper.  Will I make it my life's mission to disprove the official account of the holocaust?  Will I spend years poring over those countless books in order to gain more insight?  No and no.  I am perfectly content with the knowledge that far fewer Jews may have been victimized than I'd been led to believe until now.  This is a comforting thought.

Even after reading the book, I am not 100% convinced that the revisionists are correct.  But, in my mind, the single most damning piece of evidence against proponents of the traditional view is that they resort to throwing revisionists in prison, assassinating their character, destroying their careers and disrupting their meetings.  To me, this behavior is tantamount to an admission that they are being deceitful.  To them I say, "if you have nothing to hide, then meet the revisionists in open debate, read their books and answer their objections."  I've seen this kind of cowardice before.   It is the default tactic of those whose views are based on emotion rather than reason.  Since they lack solid arguments to use in a debate, they resort to thuggery and book-burning.

I am glad that there are those who fight for the truth.  I applaud people like Thomas Dalton and Norman Finkelstein – because the holocaust continues each day and its victims continue to pile up.  These are the Palestinians who are murdered, tortured and whose houses are demolished.  The Jewish children who are raised to believe the whole world is out to get them and who are made to relive the suffering of those "six million" who perished.  The American and European taxpayers whose money is extorted to perpetuate the racket that the holocaust industry has become.

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Peace.

Michael Santomauro
Editorial Director
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