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The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. Norman G. Finkelstein (official | wikipedia). Paperback. Second edition.

(ZMAG) Norman Finkelstein’s book on the Holocaust Industry is guided by his parents’ legacy. Both of them were survivors of the Warsaw ghetto and the Nazi concentration camps. Thus, the author has a personal interest in preserving the historical record of the Nazi holocaust. Finkelstein’s book documents how the Holocaust Industry transformed the Nazi holocaust into an ideological construct.

Finkelstein argues that for the Holocaust Industry two theses are critical. First, the holocaust is a unique event. Second, it is a climax of an irrational gentile hatred of Jews. The author shows that the facts are contrary to the claims of the Holocaust Industry. The Nazi holocaust is not a uniquely Jewish event. It is well known that Roma (gypsies), communists, Russians, Poles, gays, disabled, and others were also victims of the Nazi and were slaughtered mercilessly. It is disgraceful to try to “monopolize” the Nazi holocaust. The claim of uniqueness is a form of denial because it is based on the dismissal or the trivialization of the suffering of others.

There is no intellectual or moral reason for not comparing the sufferings of one group to another. If anything the suggestion that the pains of others pale in comparison is an immoral one. Some advocates of the Holocaust Industry claim that the Nazi holocaust is special because the Jews suffered. They also assert that the murderous impulse of the Gentile (non-Jews) is eternal and innate. Hence, they share the implicit or explicit assumption of the anti- Semites that killing Jews is a normal phenomenon. The Holocaust Industry basically ignores the role of Count Folke Bernadotte in rescuing Jews from Nazis. It is not kosher to bring up the name of Count Bernadotte because LEHI (Stern gang), a terrorist organization, apparently assassinated him. Yitzak Shamir, who later served as Israel’s Prime Minister, was one of the leaders of LEHI.

“The Double Shakedown.” The number of survivors of the Nazi holocaust at the end of the war ranged from 60,000 to 100,000. Taking the upper bound of the original estimate of approximately 100,000 survivors of the Nazi holocaust at the time of the liberation of the camps and further assuming that one-fourth of the initial number of survivors is alive today, this would mean that are about 25,000 survivors in 2000 (the time of publication of the book). Finkelstein’s mother used to ask, “If everyone who claims to be a survivor actually is one, who did Hitler kill?” The Holocaust Industry exaggerates the number of survivors alive today. For instance, the Holocaust Industry has claimed that 135,000 former Jewish slave workers are alive today. This would imply that about 600,000 were alive after the war. That would mean about half a million less dead than the total number of 5.2 million victims of the Nazi holocaust.

A riveting book that unravels not only the Holocaust industry but consequently US support for Israel and the peculiar and shifting support of American Jewish intellectuals. Interestingly enough the book received little or no attention in the US at first, only to later, when it could be ignored no longer, be demonized. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to claim that the book was better received in Israel even than in the US. Finkelstein notes at one point that

Indeed, even the author of Mein Kampf fared rather better in the Times book review. Although highly critical of Hitler’s anti-Semitism, the original Times review awarded “this extraordinary man” high marks for “his unification of the Germans, his destruction of Communism, his training of the young, his creation of a Spartan State animated by patriotism, his curbing of parliamentary government, so unsuited to the German character, his protection of the right of private property.” (James W. Gerard, “Hitler As He Explains Himself,” in The New York Times Book Review [15 October 1933])

Years after its publication, “The Holocaust Industry” continues to spark debate and serve as the definitive primer on the topic.