Should the Pope have allowed Bishop Williamson to be to be unexcommunicated even though he has denied the Holocaust ever happened?
I don't know how any one in their right mind can say this never happened.Did the people who did not die in these prisons go out of their way to lie about it?Can the tattoos they were forced to bear,to this day,be a fantasy? Pictures were taken,records were kept by the Nazis and even some survives who are still alive tell the tale of horror they were forced to endure as children.
Someone once said "A country that denies its history has no future".Every country has done things they are not proud of,we had slavery and pushed the Indians off their land but at least we admit it and have tried to live with our mistakes.
I feel Pope Benedict for whatever reason feels this Bishop is worth the forgiveness or he would not have brought him back into the fold.Now that he is forgiven this Bishop needs to make right the things he said and truly mean it or there is no point in allowing him back into the Catholic church.
I feel bad for the Jews it seem like they are always getting slammed by one group or another and to deny the Holocaust ever happened is a slap in their faces.
Today on the history channel I watched a show about the trial of Eichmann and how he denied and try to blame everyone but himself for what he did,he even tried to say it was a way to help the Jews move to Jerusalem and establish Israel,I guess the Jews just didn't know they needed to move good thing Eichmann help them or they would have remained ignorantly happy in the old country.
I guess you can spin things any way you want to convince your self your not a murderer.But even Eichmann paid for what he did with his life.The spin didn't work for him and the people he treated so badly in the concentration camps got a small amount of satisafaction. At least he was allowed a trial which is more then he gave the people he helped kill.
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Unfortunately, Linda, the matter of his denial of the Shoah and his ex-communication being lifted don't go together from a doctrinal/theological standpoint. The ex-communication had to do with the Society of St. Pius X (the SSPX which he is a member of) and the way he and the other three bishops were ordained. It had nothing to do with his views on the Holocaust.
Personally, I believe he needs to recant his views, if for no other reason than the history is there, and there are people who are still alive (not many, but they are still out there) who suffered through that horrible period in our history and lived to talk about it. Further, he is insulting and disrespecting these very people by his position. That is wrong. Sadly, though, it is not going to make any difference, at least with respect to his being restored in the Church.
Hello Walt,
Everyone has heard that the Nazi regime systematically killed some six million Jews in Europe during World War II, most of them in gas chambers. We’re told this repeatedly on television, in motion pictures, in books, and in newspaper and magazine articles. Holocaust education courses are obligatory in many schools. Holocaust remembrance ceremonies are held annually across the country. Every large American city has at least one Holocaust museum. In Washington, DC, the official US Holocaust Memorial Museum attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
Scholars Challenge Holocaust Story
But not everyone accepts the familiar Holocaust story. Skeptics include Dr. Arthur Butz of Northwestern University, Roger Garaudy and Prof. Robert Faurisson in France, and best-selling British historian David Irving.
These “revisionist” writers do not “deny the Holocaust.” They acknowledge the catastrophe suffered by Europe’s Jews during World War II. They do not dispute that large numbers of Jews were cruelly uprooted from their homes, forced into overcrowded ghettos or deported to concentration camps. They acknowledge that many hundreds of thousands of European Jews died or were killed, often under horrendous circumstances.
At the same time, revisionist scholars cite impressive but often ignored evidence to support their view that there was no German program to exterminate Europe's Jews, that numerous claims of mass killings in “gas chambers” are false, and that the figure of six million Jewish wartime dead is an exaggeration.
Many Holocaust Claims Abandoned
Since World War II the Holocaust story has changed quite a lot. Many extermination claims that were once widely accepted have been quietly dropped.
For example, it was authoritatively claimed for years that Jews were killed in gas chambers at Dachau, Buchenwald and other concentration camps in Germany proper. That part of the extermination story proved so untenable that it was abandoned many years ago. No serious historian now supports the once supposedly proven story of “extermination camps” in the territory of the pre-1938 German Reich. Even famed “Nazi hunter” Simon Wiesenthal acknowledged that “there were no extermination camps on German soil.” [1]
Prominent Holocaust historians now claim that large numbers of Jews were gassed at just six camps in what is now Poland: Auschwitz, Majdanek, Treblinka, Sobibor, Chelmno and Belzec. However, the evidence presented for gassings at these six camps is not qualitatively different than the now-discredited “evidence” for alleged “gassings” at camps in Germany proper.
At the great Nuremberg trial of 1945-1946 and during the decades following the end of World War II, Auschwitz (especially Auschwitz-Birkenau) and Majdanek (Lublin) were regarded as the most important “death camps.” The victorious Allied powers charged at Nuremberg that the Germans had killed four million at Auschwitz and another 1.5 million at Majdanek. Today, no serious historian accepts either of these fantastic figures. [2]
In addition, striking evidence has become available in recent years that cannot be reconciled with the allegations of mass extermination at these camps. For example, detailed aerial reconnaissance photographs taken of Auschwitz-Birkenau on random days in 1944 -- during the height of the alleged extermination period there -- show no trace of piles of corpses, smoking crematory chimneys or masses of Jews awaiting death, all of which have been alleged and which would have been clearly visible if the extermination claims about the camp had been true.
The postwar “confession” of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss, which has often been cited as a key piece of evidence for the Holocaust story, is now known to be a false statement that was obtained by torture. [3]
Other Absurd Holocaust Claims
At one time it was seriously claimed that the Germans manufactured soap from Jewish corpses, [4] and that they systematically exterminated Jews with steam and electricity.
US officials charged at Nuremberg that the Germans had killed Jews at Treblinka, not in gas chambers, as is now claimed, but by steaming them to death in “steam chambers.” [5]
American newspapers, citing a Soviet eyewitness report from the just-liberated Auschwitz camp, told readers in 1945 that the methodical Germans had killed Jews there using an "electric conveyor belt on which hundreds of persons could be electrocuted simultaneously [and] then moved on into furnaces. They were burned almost instantly, producing fertilizer for nearby cabbage fields." [6]
These and many similarly bizarre Holocaust stories have been quietly abandoned over the years.
Disease Claimed Many Inmates
Everyone is familiar with the horrific photos of dead and dying inmates found in concentration camps such as Bergen-Belsen and Nordhausen when they were liberated by British and American forces in the final weeks of the war in Europe. Many people accept these photos as proof of “the Holocaust.”
In fact, these dead and dying inmates were unfortunate victims of disease and malnutrition brought on by the complete collapse of Germany in the final months of the war. Had there in fact been a comprehensive extermination program, far fewer Jews would have been found by Allied forces at the end of the war. [7]
In the face of the advancing Soviet forces, large numbers of Jews were evacuated during the final months of the war from eastern camps and ghettos to the remaining camps in western Germany. These camps quickly became terribly overcrowded, which severely hampered efforts to prevent the spread of epidemics. Furthermore, the breakdown of the German transportation system made it impossible to supply adequate food and medicine to the camps.
Unreliable Testimony
Holocaust historians rely heavily on so-called “survivor testimony” to support the standard extermination story. But such “evidence” is notoriously unreliable, and very few survivors claim to have witnessed extermination killings.
The archives director of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust center has confirmed that most of the 20,000 testimonies of Jewish survivors on file there are “unreliable.” Many survivors, wanting “to be part of history,” apparently let their imaginations run away with them, said director Shmuel Krakowski. [8] Professor Arno Mayer of Princeton University has written: "Sources for the study of the gas chambers are at once rare and unreliable... there is no denying the many contradictions, ambiguities and errors in the existing sources." [9]
Captured German Documents
At the end of World War II the Allies confiscated a tremendous quantity of German documents dealing with Germany's wartime Jewish policy, which was sometimes referred to as the “final solution.” But not a single document has been found that even refers to an extermination program. To the contrary, the documents show that Germany’s “final solution” policy was one of emigration and deportation, not extermination.
One of the most important of these is the confidential German Foreign Office memorandum of August 21, 1942. [10] “The present war gives Germany the opportunity and also the duty of solving the Jewish problem in Europe,” the document notes. The policy “to promote the evacuation of the Jews in closest cooperation with the agencies of the Reichsführer SS [Heinrich Himmler] is still in force.” The memo noted that “the number of Jews deported in this way to the East did not suffice to cover the labor needs there.”
The memorandum quotes Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop as saying that “at the end of this war, all Jews would have to leave Europe. This was an unalterable decision of the Führer [Hitler] and also the only way to master this problem, as only a global and comprehensive solution could be applied and individual measures would not help very much.”
The memorandum concludes by stating that the “deportations [of Jews to the East] are a further step on the way of the total solution... The deportation to the [Polish] General Government is a temporary measure. The Jews will be moved on further to the occupied [Soviet] eastern territories as soon as the technical conditions for it are given.”
Hitler and the 'Final Solution'
There is no documentary evidence that Adolf Hitler ever gave an order to exterminate the Jews. Instead, the record shows that the German leader wanted the Jews to leave Europe, by emigration if possible and by deportation if necessary. A confidential document found after the war in the files of the Reich Ministry of Justice records his thinking. In the spring of 1942, State Secretary Schlegelberger noted in a memorandum that Hitler’s Chief of Chancellery, Dr. Hans Lammers, had informed him that “the Führer [Hitler] has repeatedly declared to him [Lammers] that he wants to see the solution of the Jewish problem postponed until after the war is over.” [11]
And on July 24, 1942, Hitler emphasized to close colleagues his determination to remove all Jews from Europe after the war: “The Jews are interested in Europe for economic reasons, but Europe must reject them, if only out of self interest, because the Jews are racially tougher. After this war is over, I will rigorously hold to the view...that the Jews will have to leave and emigrate to Madagascar or some other Jewish national state.” [12]
Himmler's SS and the Camps
Jews were an important part of Germany's wartime labor force, and it was in Germany's interest to keep them alive.
On Dec. 28, 1942, the head of the SS camp administration office sent a directive to every concentration camp, including Auschwitz, sharply criticizing the high death rate of inmates due to disease, and ordering that “camp physicians must use all means at their disposal to significantly reduce the death rate in the various camps.” Furthermore, it ordered: “The camp doctors must supervise more often than in the past the nutrition of the prisoners and, in cooperation with the administration, submit improvement recommendations to the camp commandants... The camp doctors are to see to it that the working conditions at the various labor places are im proved as much as possible.”
Finally, the directive stressed that “The Reichsführer SS [Himmler] has ordered that the death rate absolutely must be reduced.” [13]
Six Million
The incessantly repeated claim of six million Jewish wartime dead is an exaggeration. A leading newspaper of neutral Switzerland, the daily Baseler Nachrichten, carefully estimated in June 1946 that no more than 1.5 million European Jews could have perished under German rule during the war. [14] In fact, millions of Jews “survived” German rule during World War II, including many who were interned in Auschwitz and other “extermination” camps. [15]
One-Sided 'Holocaustomania'
Even though World War II ended more than 60 years ago, there has been no let up in the stream of Holocaust-themed films, “Holocaust remembrance” ceremonies, and Holocaust education courses.
Britain’s chief rabbi, Immanuel Jakobovits, aptly described the Holocaust campaign as “an entire industry, with handsome profits for writers, researchers, film-makers, monument builders, museum planners and even politicians.” He added that some rabbis and theologians are “partners in this big business.” [16]
For many Jews, the Holocaust is virtually a new religion. Rabbi Michael Goldberg writes of “the Holocaust cult” with “its own tenets of faith, rites and shrines.” [17] In this campaign – which Jewish-American historian Alfred Lilienthal calls “Holocaustomania” -- Jews are portrayed as completely blameless victims, and non-Jews as morally retrograde beings who might quickly turn into murderous Nazis.
For many Jews, a key lesson of the Holocaust story is that non-Jews are to some degree always suspect. If a people as cultured and as educated as the Germans could turn on the Jews, so the thinking goes, then surely no non-Jewish nation can ever be completely trusted.
Non-Jewish victims are not deemed worthy of the same concern. For example, there are no American memorials, study centers or annual obser vances for the victims of Soviet dictator Stalin, who vastly outnumber Hitler’s victims, or for the tens of millions of victims of Chinese Communist dictator Mao Zedong.
Holocaust Hatemongering
The Holocaust story is sometimes used to promote hatred and hostility, particularly against the German people as a whole, eastern Europeans, and the leadership of the Roman Catholic church.
The well-known Jewish writer, Elie Wiesel, is a former Auschwitz inmate who served as chairman of the official US Holocaust Memorial Council. He received the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize. This dedicated Zionist wrote in his book, Legends of Our Time: “Every Jew, somewhere in his being, should set apart a zone of hate -- healthy, virile hate -- for what the German personifies and for what persists in the German.” [18]
Who Benefits?
The Holocaust remembrance campaign is crucially important to the interests of Israel, which owes its existence to massive annual subsidies from American taxpayers. It serves to justify enormous US support for Israel, and to excuse otherwise inexcusable Israeli policies.
Paula E. Hyman, a professor of modern Jewish history at Yale University, has observed: “With regard to Israel, the Holocaust may be used to forestall political criticism and suppress debate; it reinforces the sense of Jews as an eternally beleaguered people who can rely for their defense only upon themselves. The invocation of the suffering endured by the Jews under the Nazis often takes the place of rational argument, and is expected to convince doubters of the legitimacy of current Israeli government policy.” [19]
Norman Finkelstein, a Jewish scholar who teaches at DePaul University in Chicago, writes in his book, The Holocaust Industry, that “invoking The Holocaust” is “a ploy to delegitimize all criticism of Jews.” He adds: “By conferring total blamelessness on Jews, the Holocaust dogma immunizes Israel and American Jewry from legitimate censure... Organized American Jewry has exploited the Nazi holocaust to deflect criticism of Israel’s and its own morally indefensible policies.” He writes of the brazen “shake down” of Germany, Switzerland and other countries by Israel and organized Jewry “to extort billions of dollars.” [20]
Another reason that the Holocaust story has proven so durable is that the governments of the major powers have a vested interest in maintaining it. The victorious powers of the Second World War -- the United States, Russia and Britain -- have a stake in portraying the defeated Hitler regime as negatively as possible. The more evil and satanic that regime is made to appear, the more easily can the Allied cause – and the means that were used in pursuit of it – be made to seem justified, or even noble.
Conclusion
In many countries, skepticism of Holocaust claims is suppressed or even prohibited.
In the United States , teachers have been dismissed for expressing heretical views on this issue. In Canada, the United States and France, thugs have brutally attacked Holocaust skeptics. One was even killed for his views. [21]
In a few countries, including France and Germany, “Holocaust denial” is a crime. Many individuals have been imprisoned, heavily fined or forced into exile for expressing doubt about aspects of the official Holocaust story.
In spite of restrictive “Holocaust denial” laws, public censure, intimidation, relentless “Holocaust remembrance” campaigns, and even physical attacks, an informed skepticism about the standard Holocaust story has been growing steadily around the world.
This is a healthy trend. Every chapter of history, including the World War II treatment of Europe’s Jews, should be open to objective, critical study. Unfettered debate and informed skepticism about history -- even “official” history -- is essential in a free, open, and mature society.
Notes
1. Books & Bookmen (London), April 1975, p. 5; “Gassings in Germany,” Stars and Stripes (European edition), Jan. 24, 1993, p. 14; “Wiesenthal Re-Confirms: 'No Extermination Camps on German Soil’,” The Journal of Historical Review, May-June 1993, pp. 9-11.
( http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v13/v13n3p-9_Staff.html )
2. Allied indictment at Nuremberg Tribunal. International Military Tribunal (IMT) “blue series,” Vol. 1, p. 47; Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews (Holmes & Meier [3 vols.], 1985), p. 1219; Peter Steinfels, "Auschwitz Revisionism," The New York Times, Nov. 12, 1989.
3. Rupert Butler, Legions of Death ( England: 1983), pp. 235-237; R. Faurisson, “How the British Obtained the Confessions of Rudolf Höss,” The Journal of Historical Review, Winter 1986-87
( http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v07/v07p389_Faurisson.html ).
4. Mark Weber, “Jewish Soap," The Journal of Historical Review, Sum mer 1991, pp. 217-227.
( http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v11/v11p217_Weber.html )
5. Nuremberg document PS-3311 (USA-293). International Military Tribunal (IMT) “blue series,” Vol. 32, pp. 153-158; IMT, Vol. 3, pp. 566-568; See also: M. Weber, Treblinka,” The Journal of Historical Review, Summer 1992, pp. 133-158
( http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v12/v12p133_Allen.html )
6. Washington (DC) Daily News, Feb. 2, 1945, pp. 2, 35. (United Press dispatch from Moscow).
7. See: M. Weber, “Bergen-Belsen Camp: The Suppressed Story,” The Journal of Historical Review, May-June 1995, pp. 23-30.
( http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v15/v15n3p23_Weber.html )
8. B. Amouyal, “Doubts Over Evidence of Camp Survivors,” The Jerusalem Post (Israel), August 17, 1986, p. 1.
9. Arno J. Mayer, Why Did the Heavens Not Darken? (Pantheon, 1989), pp. 362-363.
10. Nuremberg document NG-2586-J. Nuremberg Military Tribunal (NMT) “green series,” Vol. 13, pp. 243-249.
11. Nuremberg document PS-4025. Quoted in: D. Irving, Hitler's War (Focal Point, 2002), p. 497. Facsimile between pages 606 and 607.
(Also posted at http://www.fpp.co.uk/Himmler/Schlegelberger/DocItself0342.html )
12. H. Picker, Hitlers Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier (Stuttgart: 1976), p. 456.
13. Nuremberg document PS-2171, Annex 2; A. de Cocatrix, Die Zahl der Opfer der nationalsozialistischen Verfolgung (Arolsen: International Tracing Service/ICRC, 1977), pp. 4-5; Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (NC&A) “red series,” Vol. 4, pp. 833-834.
14. Baseler Nachrichten, June 13, 1946, p. 2.
15. See: M. Weber, “Wilhelm Höttl and the Elusive 'Six Million',” The Journal of Historical Review, Sept.-Dec. 2001
( http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v20/v20n5p25_Weber.html )
16. H. Shapiro, “Jakobovits,” The Jerusalem Post (Israel), Nov. 26, 1987, p. 1.
17. M. Goldberg, Why Should Jews Survive? (Oxford Univ. Press, 1995), p. 41.
18. Legends of Our Time (New York: Schocken Books, 1982), Chap. 12, p. 142.
19. P. E. Hyman, “New Debate on the Holocaust,” New York Times Magazine, Sept. 14, 1980, p. 79.
20. Norman G. Finkelstein, The Holocaust Industry (Verso, 2003), pp. 37, 52, 130, 149.
21. See: R. Faurisson, “Jewish Militants: Fifteen Years, and More, of Terrorism in France,” The Journal of Historical Review, March-April 1996, pp. 2-12
( http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v16/v16n2p-2_Faurisson.html );
M. Weber, The Zionist Terror Network ( http://www.ihr.org/books/ztn.html )
And the debate rages on one thing i do know even if only 10 jews were killed because they were jewish that is 10 people to many.Also we seem to forget not every one killed were jewish there were catholics,orthodox,people who were retarded the sick the elderly the younge it goes on and on.if we do not study our history we will be doomed to repeat it.
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