Coming to Grips with the Extermination Thesis - Questions: 8-14

 
8. What is an important basic mistake which many historians have made with regard to assessing the plight of the Jews in Europe during the Second World War?

All too often the status of the Jews in Europe, particularly during the years 1941 to 1945, is considered on an isolated basis without taking into consideration the desperate context of the struggle. For Germany and its allies, the war took on an especially desperate character by virtue of the demand for unconditional surrender, the Morgenthau Plan of September 1944, and the very cruel behaviour of the Soviet troops advancing into East Prussia during the autumn of 1944. The behaviour and demands of the Allies could hardly have been better calculated to prolong the war and make it far more costly for all parties, including the Jews caught up in the fate of the Anti-Comintern nations.

Another important but often overlooked factor was the general shortage of food in nearly all of Europe (even including the neutral nations) during the war as a result of the Allied blockade and loss of ships. War, we must bear in mind, means killing, hunger, decease, confiscation and destruction of property, debts, inflation, expansion of the role of government in people's lives, economic and social dislocation, injustice, hatred engendered by propaganda lies, loss of the best genetic assets of a race (especially the case during the First World War), suffering and anguish in concentration and prisoner-of-war camps and waste of valuable years of young men's lives.

 9. What difficulties have been encountered by German historians who have attempted to examine various aspects of the Second World War?

German records were captured by the Allied armies and were collected in document centres, such as that at Fechenheim near Frankfurt am Main (at which its author worked for some time during the autumn of 1945). Allied records, on the other hand, were not thus laid bare, while German records of the war were laid bare on a selective basis. In later years the Allied authorities have not seen fit to give the public access to many of the documents that would be of crucial importance in obtaining a balanced view on a number of questions, such as the true origins of the war and its conduct. References: Professor Helmut Diwald, Geschichte der Deutschen, first printing of 1978, pp163-165. (These pages were altered in later printings.) Wilhelm Staglich, Der Auschwitz Mythos, pp367-374.
 
10. How effective have the efforts of revisionists been in refuting the Extermination Thesis?

In spite of the meagreness of the resources of the revisionists, there are many indications that their efforts have been having some important effects. The great production costs of such films as Holocaust. Playing for Time, The Diary of Anne Frank, Kitty: Return to Auschwitz, The Wall, Genocide, The Winds of War and others were undoubtedly met partly in order to counter the efforts of the revisionists. Then too, there have been elaborate "Holocaust" seminars sponsored by Jewish groups on numerous university campuses. One could in fact speak of a veritable and sizable "Holocaust" industry. On a more scholarly level, significant concessions have had to be made even by resolute proponents of the Extermination Thesis. The Jewish historian Gitta Sereny, for example, is a resolute adherent of the Extermination Thesis, but she has had to concede that "terrible disservice has been done by those who have exaggerated, carelessly misunderstood, or even invented Holocaust events." Even the Hollywood film actor Robert Mitchum was quoted as casting some doubtful remarks about the usual versions of the "Holocaust" (Esquire, February 1983, p56). If the revisionists have succeeded in nothing else, they have shown Americans how powerful, skilled and unscrupulous the people are who have such extensive influence in the motion picture and television industries. In the past there has been a paucity of public debate on the "Holocaust" question, but that is now changing.

11. Are revisionistic historians who dispute the Extermination Thesis "Neo-Nazis" and what are their objectives?

Typically, those who dispute the Extermination Thesis are highly patriotic, idealistic, and individualistic men are by no means socialists, let alone National Socialists. Many have risked their professional positions and even their physical safety in an idealistic pursuit of the truth. Some are Germans, but men of various nationalities are represented. After all, the National Socialist government passed out of existence in 1945 and no longer has any payroll or even just medals to pass out.

12. What has happened to the historians who have had the integrity and courage to question the "Holocaust" materials?

They have been subjected to name-calling, loss of positions, loss of pensions, destruction of their property, and even physical violence. Such actions on the part of the Zionists indicate a week case for the Extermination Thesis and represent an arrogant attack on the freedom of historical investigation. Such rough and unfair tactics are also an indication of the importance of the Extermination Thesis to the Zionists and their allies.

13. Do revisionistic historians claim that Jews in Europe did not suffer during the Second World War and that no Jews were killed by German, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovakian, and other Anti-Comintern authorities?

They recognize that many Jews suffered and died during the Second World War from a great variety of causes and that many died during internment from malnutrition and disease, a fate common to many prisoners of war during many wars, such as the American Civil War. The revisionists deny, however, that Germany and its allies had a policy of exterminating Jews and Gypsies simply as a result of their racial identity. They consider the six-million figure a gross and deliberate exaggeration of Jewish mortality. Reference: Journal of Historical Review, Vol. I, no. 1, p7.

14. Why have so few academic historians been willing to investigate the Extermination Thesis and to publish their findings?

Although the proportion of Jews in the poorly paid academic professions is a modest one compared to their numbers in medicine and law, the influence of Jews as financial donors to universities is considerable. History is a severely overcrowded field and the competition for the few teaching positions in it is keen. As a result of the disparate propagation of the Extermination Thesis, many administrators, students, and even history professors themselves accept the Extermination Thesis without being aware that there are serious reasons for disputing it. Moreover, academic historians are generally hesitant to write about topics for which reliable documentation is not readily available.