Theos-Talk Archives (July 1998 Message tl00067)

[ROUGH DRAFT]

Dear Editorial staff of FOHAT 
[a quarterly publication of the Edmonton 
Theosophical Society, Canada]:

In the latest (Summer 1998) issue of your magazine,
I read with interest the "Editorial" column.  The main theme 
appears to be given in the title of the editorial:

"Truth [about the Holocaust] Needs no Laws to Protect it."  

The editor goes on to say that "people need not make up 
their own minds any more, the establishment is happy to 
legislate their thoughts for them."

Most theosophical students would probably agree
with this general statement.  

To illustrate this point, the editor writes about 
"David Irving, the distinguished British historian on
World War II. . . . This painstaking researcher. . . 
decided to do research on the topic of German
concentration camps. . . . He discovered that physical
evidence at the camps and the archival evidence that
he examined ran CONTRARY to POPULAR conceptions
on the holocaust.  Now David Irving could have ignored
his findings and left the whole matter alone; instead
he published what he found in book form. . . . 
David Irving's research and evidence for his thesis
are readily accessible through his book.  Any
historian of note need only look at Dr. Irving's
research and then demonstrate how he erred in his
conclusions and the whole matter would have been put
to rest.  After all, if Dr. Irving was wrong, historians
should have all of the evidence of truth on their side.
The light of truth has a way of making the shadowy clear.
Instead of dispelling Dr. Irving's thesis, Dr. Irving
has been banned from speaking in many countries, he
has been arrested and tried in Germany.  In fact, new
laws in Germany have been instituted making it illegal
to deny the holocaust. . . Through all of this, few
if any of Dr. Irving's professional colleagues have 
come to his defence or tried to dispel what he says.
Instead of shedding light on the debate there has
been every effort to push the whole matter further 
into the shadows.  Dr. Irving is not the only 
individual to suffer this fate. . . . This whole
matter begs the question as to why the leaders of 
a nation [Germany] saddled with this terrible
and heinous crime would want to legislate
a version of history that MAY NOT have a
foundation, especially at the cost of billions
of dollars annually in reparation payments to 
the state of Israel.  Why are nations all
over the world intent on legislating
the official version of the holocaust?. . . ." 
CAPS ADDED.

I certainly deplore the attempts to ban Dr. Irving from
speaking out and giving his views on the Holocaust.  Nothing
of a positive nature is achieved by pushing "the whole matter 
further into the shadows."

But having said that, what else is the editor attempting
to convey in his words which I have partially quoted above?

Does the editor himself deny the holocaust?  Does he 
agree with David Irving that the "physical evidence
at the [German concentration] camps" and "the archival evidence"
run "contrary to popular conceptions on the holocaust"?

Furthermore, is the editor of FOHAT attempting to convey the
impression that no historian has demonstrated
how Irving erred in his conclusions?

Although it may not have been the intent of the editor, I 
find this editorial slanted and one-sided.

Unfortunately, the title of David Irving's book is not even 
given in the editorial!  The title is:  Hitler's War.

For readers of FOHAT interested in the OTHER side NOT given
in FOHAT'S editorial, one should consult:

David Irving's Hitler : A Faulty History Dissected
by Eberhard Jackel, H. David Kirk (Translator)
Paperback (August 1993) 
Ben-Simon Pubns; ISBN: 0914539086
Available from Amazon.com for $5.95
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0914539086/002-3558440-6137612

There is a Web copy of Dr. Jackel's analysis at:

http://www.nizkor.netizen.org/hweb/people/i/irving-david/jackel/

For more background on David Irving, please consult:

Lipstadt, Deborah E.  Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on
Truth and Memory.  New York: The Free Press (A division of
Macmillan, Inc.), 1993.

"In this first full-scale history of Holocaust denial, Lipstadt shows
how, 
despite tens of thousands of living witnesses and vast amounts of 
documentary evidence, this irrational idea has not only
continued to gain adherents but has become an internationally 
organized movement. 

Dr. Lipstadt writes about Irving in the following terms:

"Irving is one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust
denial. Familiar with historical evidence, he bends it until it
conforms with his ideological leanings and political agenda. A man
who is convinced that Britain's great decline was accelerated by
its decision to go to war with Germany, he is most facile at taking
accurate information and shaping it to conform to his conclusions.
A review of his recent book, `Churchill's War,` which appeared in
the 'New York Review of Books,' accurately analyzed his practice of
applying a double standard to evidence. He demands 'absolute
documentary proof' when it comes to proving the Germans guilty, but
he relies on highly circumstantial evidence to condemn the Allies.
This is an accurate description not only of Irving's tactics,
but of those of deniers in general." (Lipstadt, 179-181)

What have OTHER professional historians had to say about Irving's work?
Consult:
http://www.nizkor.netizen.org/hweb/people/i/irving-david/reviews/

Other background material on Dr. Irving can be found on the WWW at:

http://www.nizkor.netizen.org/hweb/people/i/irving-david/

The Holocaust Deniers have their own site on the Internet and you
can consult their biographical sketch of Dr. Irving at:

http://www.ihr.org/bios/irving.html

For other books on the Holocaust Deniers, see:

Assassins of Memory: Essays on the Denial of the Holocaust
by Jeffrey Pierre Vidal-Naquet
Hardcover, 205pp. 
ISBN: 0231074581                                   
Columbia University Press, Jan.
1993                                         

Available at The Barnes and Noble Bookstore Website.  See:

http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=5UEW113N8K&mscssid=6HJ7RDRW2GS12K5300L1RN6PL6P6M4LN&isbn=0231074581 

This Barnes & Noble web page contains reviews of Dr. Vidal-Naquet's
book.
For example, David Singer writes in THE NEW LEADER:

"The Holocaust deniers have presented themselves as 'revisionists'
engaged in the standard process of re-examining the historical record;
they carefully drape their writings with footnotes, bibliographies, etc.
. . .
Since this bogus scholarship has gained the greatest currency in France,
it is perhaps not surprising that another book unmasking the ugly
enterprise has come from there. Originally published in the French in
1987, it is the work of no less distinguished a figure than Pierre
Vidal-Naquet, the renowned historian of the ancient world, who entered
the fray against those he dubs the 'assassins of memory' almost a
decade and a half ago. . . ."                                    

Other good books on Holcaust Denial are:

Holocaust Denial by Kenneth S. Stern.  New York: American Jewish
Committee, 1993.  Softcover.  193 pages.  Notes.  Index.  $12.95.  ISBN:
0-87495-102-X.;
Hitler's Apologists: The Anti-Semitic Propaganda of Holocaust
"Revisionism" edited by Alan M. Schwartz.  New York: The Anti-Defamation
League, 1993.  Softcover.  86 pages.  Notes.

WEB SITES........................................................

Visit the premier site *advocating* Holocaust Denial:

Institute for Historical Review
http://www.ihr.org/index.html

This Institute has a series of leaflets on the WWW covering
a number of subjects: 
http://www.ihr.org/leaflets/leaflets.html

Below I give a list of these leaflets.  I highlight
with asterisks FOUR of the leaflets and list their
URLs.

A Few Facts About the IHR 
The 'Problem of the Gas Chambers' 
*** Auschwitz myths and facts:  
    http://www.ihr.org/leaflets/auschwitz.html 
*** Let's examine the Holocaust from all sides
    http://www.ihr.org/leaflets/bothsides.html
*** The Liberation of the Camps 
    http://www.ihr.org/leaflets/liberationofthecamps.html
What is 'Holocaust Denial'? 
Inside the Auschwitz 'Gas Chambers' 
***Sixty-Six Questions and Answers about the Holocaust 
   http://www.ihr.org/leaflets/66questions.html
The 'Jewish soap' myth 
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum 
Simon Wiesenthal: Bogus Nazi Hunter 
A Prominent False Witness: Elie Wiesel 

*** Now visit the site of the NIZKOR PROJECT at:  
http://www.nizkor.org/

This site is "Dedicated to the nearly twelve million victims
ruthlessly destroyed by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime."

This WWW site provides *detailed refutations* to
the above Institute for Historical Review's leaflet 
"Sixty-Six Questions and Answers about the Holocaust."

The rebuttal is titled:  A Reply to the IHR/Zündel's "66 Q&A" 
See http://www.nizkor.org/features/qar/

******Other important refutations are to be found at the
Nizkor Project site.  See:

http://www.nizkor.org/features/

Also read Nizkor Project's FAQs 
http://www.nizkor.org/faqs/ 
on:

Auschwitz 
An introduction to the most infamous Nazi death camp. 

Aktion Reinhard 
An introduction to the "Operation Reinhard" death camps: 
Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. 

The Institute for Historical Review 
The Institute for Historical Review has been the "premier" 
source of Holocaust-denial literature for almost twenty years. 

Fred Leuchter & the The Leuchter Report 
Fred Leuchter is the author of the so-called "Leuchter Report," 
a pseudo-scientific examination of Nazi killing facilities, 
principally those in Auschwitz. 

**********************************************

I hope some of the above will give interested FOHAT readers
food for thought on this subject.

As a student of history, I believe that the reality of the Holocaust is
documented with a tremendous amount of evidence.  There is probably no
other series of historical events with as much cumulative evidence:  
(1) evidence from Nazis and German archives;
(2) evidence from the survivors of the death camps;
(3) evidence found at the death camps;
(4) evidence from the Allied forces;
(5) reams of evidence in the possession of the United States government.
Etc.

If this impressive amount of evidence can be denied and "explained
away", 
then I would suggest to the editorial staff of FOHAT that one could
(with 
even greater ease) "explain away" the evidence supporting the claims of 
Madame Blavatsky, the reality of her psychic phenomena, the flesh and
blood 
reality of her Mahatmas, etc., etc.

Let not the deceptive words of David Irving and other "holocaust
deniers" 
blind us to the awful truth that Hitler and his henchmen brutally
murdered 
millions of innocent men, women and children in the death camps.

HOPING that I have possibly read TOO MUCH into the editorial appearing
in the
Summer 1998 issue of FOHAT, I close this long email.

Daniel H. Caldwell
blafoun@azstarnet.com