The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, New Edition

Rating:
Summary: Remember all the Victims
Review: The halocaust was the terrible outcome of an all-powerful dictatorship. However, I always wondered why the figure of six million Jews killed was mentioned in newscasts and documentaries without the total number of those who died in the camps.
Millions died because they weren't "pure Aryans" or "perfect" in mind and body, because they had different ideologies or because they actively opposed the Nazi regime. According to my research, eleven to fifteen million people died in the labour and extermination camps by accident, hunger, disease, and execution. With five to six million dead, Jews formed the largest group, the scapegoats for Germany's economic ills. An even-handed memorial would recognize all those incarcerated and dead at the hands of the Nazis.
















Rating:
Summary: The exploitation by Finklestein of Jewish suffering
Review: I as preparation for this review read through the responses of approximately half of the one- hundred and eleven people who have written reviews of this book on Amazon. These responses with their frequent delight at bashing the Jews are in a way more distressing than the Finklestein book itself. Also the fact that the most anti- Semitic responses were given ' voted for' by the majority of Amazon readers of this particular item is a cause for great concern. It may well be that anti-Semites are simply more attracted to a Jew- bashing book like this, while a much larger proportion of decent people simply turn their attention to more pleasant items. I do not know. It is a well- known fact that one of the negatives of easy Internet publication is not simply the publication of vast amounts of drivel written by incompetents, but also the publication of vast amounts of hate- literature written by various kinds of bigots, including anti- Semites.
Norman Finkelstein is such a purveyor of hate- literature. He is intelligent and sophisticated, but underneath it all he knows that what he is doing is insulting the memory of the victims of and the survivors. He knows that the overwhelming majority of survivors of the Holocaust are strong supporters of Israel, and so he understands when he condemns Israel he is insulting them. He knows they too are extremely sensitive to criticism of the Jewish community and so when he criticizes it he is hurting them.
One might say that he nonetheless has an obligation to ' the truth' and therefore if he has discovered something wrong with the way Jewish organizations have dealt with the reparations issue he has an obligation to tell that truth. If it were only however this simple. For what one repeatedly sees in the writing of Finklestein is a vicious hatred of Israel and the organized Jewish community. There is also in addition a despicable hatred of the one nation in the world which has done more for the good of mankind than any other, the United States of America .
Finkelstein also slanders individuals including the most well- known witness of the Holocaust, the human rights activist and Nobel Prize Winner Elie Wiesel. Finkelstein does not deserve to have his name mentioned in the same sentence with Wiesel. Wiesel is a courageous and consciencious individual whose story of his own experience in the Holocaust ' Night'is one of the most moving human documents ever written. Wiesel has spent a lifetime battling for human rights throughout the world and is a hero of mankind. Finkelstein's attack on Wiesel is shameful.
As for Finklestein's major argument as to there being a ' Holocaust Industry ' this is too insulting and offensive from the outset. There was a Murder Industry of the Nazis which destroyed one third of the Jewish people .This Industry also confiscated tremedous amounts of property . The efforts by Jewish organizations to recover some small part of that and provide some of the victims in their old age with compensation have never seemed to me anything but a marginal footnote to the Holocaust story. The Holocaust story is the millions of dead, and injured, the countless incidents of cruelty and suffering. It is also the effort of the survivors to make new lives for themselves, and to try insofar as possible to restore human hope and dignity to themselves. The state of Israel enabled many of those survivors to make new lives for themselves. Their rehabilitation is one of the few encouraging signs in this story. That Finklestein, who is a propagandist for Palestinian Arab terror, dares to condemn the state which has done the most for restoring the souls and the lives of the victims is hypocritical and disgusting.
This book has made many Anti-Semites happy, and may even create a few new ones. But decent , fair - minded people, Jewish and not - Jewish alike will see through it for what is , a bigoted propaganda propogated by a cruel and inhuman exploiter of his own people's suffering.


Rating:
Summary: A Case of Blaming the Messenger
Review: Today I read a report about people taking advantages of the victims of the Sumatra tsunami disater and those who want to help them. Although we find such actions despicable, the sad truth is swindlers and hucksters often exploit tragedy for personal gain. Imagine, though, if our ire wasn't turned against those who are exploiting the tsunami victims but instead was directed at the reporter who exposed them. We would think that basic morality had been turned upside down. We would say the idea is to be angry at the criminals, not those who expose them. These thoughts made me think of Finkelstein and *The Holocaust Industry: Reflection on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering*.

Any objective reader of this book will find the controversy surrounding it bewildering. Finkelstein doesn't deny the reality of the holocaust; indeed, his parents were victims of it. He simply argues that some individuals and organizations who claim to represent holocaust victims have exploited the tragedy for personal and political gain, particularly in the area of victim reparations. If Finkelstein is correct, then hasn't he done us a service? One would think so, but this book has created a whirlwind of controversy. And most of Finkelstein's detractors don't disagree with him on the level of facts or conclusions. Rather, they despise Finkelstein himself and most of their "replies" take the unmistakable tone of invective and ad hominem attack.

Yet, as far as I can tell, Finkelstein makes no bald assertions in the book and he justifies his claims through painstaking research, considerable citation of original material and detailed factual analysis. If Finkelstein is wrong, it is on the level the details and their significance. That is where this debate should be held.

Rating:
Summary: Invaluable Left-Wing Polemic
Review: Finkelstein's argument is polemical and motivated by a far-left political agenda (it is very interesting how many far-right elements revel in this far-left revisionism because it is ostensibly anti-Jewish while ignoring the fact that Finkelstein is a Jewish communist (the Nazi stereotype of the most perfidious Jew most deserving of death)).

1. Finkelstein's agenda is profoundly shaped by a pathological hostility, evident throughout his book, towards the United States. Finkelstein's hostility towards Israel and non-radical Jews is properly seen as a corollary to his Chomsky-like hatred of the United States with which these two phenomena are (positively) associated today.

2. The entire premise of the book is belied by the tactics used by Finkelstein in its promotion. Finkelstein constantly reminds his readers that he is the son of Holocaust survivors as some form of disclaimer to the content of his work. According to Finkelstein himself, this is ipso facto an exploitation of the Holocaust for profit and (will to) power. Of course, criticism of the group to which one purportedly belongs is no sign of the validity of that criticism. This is a logical fallacy. Michael Moore's criticism of the United States is no more true on the basis of that fact that Moore is himself American. Continuing in the same vein, Michael Moore is no less anti-American because he is by default American, just as Finkelstein is no less antisemitic just because he is of Jewish descent.

3. Finkelstein's argument is very unconvincing for those with extensive knowledge of Holocaust historiography. Finkelstein seems to imply that those who perpetuate the memory of the Holocaust tend to be sensationalist, self-serving and beholden to ulterior motives (such as support for Zionism and Israel). In reality, the most widely respected Holocaust authorities tend to be centre-left historians ambivalent if not openly hostile to Israel. Further, these authorities -- authors like Michael Marrus, Christopher Browning, Yehuda Bauer, etc. -- almost always make the greatest efforts to divorce emotion from their analysis of historical events (unlike Finkelstein). Moreover, and contrary to Finkelstein's claim, many Holocaust historians and institutions have been and are at the forefront of comparative genocide studies in an attempt to shed light on the similarties and differences between various mass murders in history and in an attempt to stop such mass murders from reoccuring (re: Robert Melson). These scholars do not attempt to downplay the importance or the study of other genocides, even though they recognize, as do most historians, that there were certain aspects to the perpetration of the Holocaust qua Jewish genocide which are not to be found in other genocides.

4. Finkelstein would like readers to believe that a Holocaust Industry exists to further ethnocentric Jewish political agendas. A serious problem with this interpretation is that the Holocaust as an historical event is almost always packaged as a human tragedy with a universal message against intolerance, racism, and the like. As such, the Holocaust tends to function to reinforce the validity of liberal universalism and cosmopolitan multiculturalism, which, of course, function antithetically to the ethnonational enterprise of Zionism or Jewish politics per se. The Holocaust's lesson as it is taught today tends to undermine Zionism more often than not, and the narrative of the Holocaust is just as often used to indict Israel as to defend it (re: Israelis as "Nazis", "oppressors" of Palestinians, oblivious to their own history of persecution, etc.).

Finkelstein's work is an excellent and intriguing expression of a dying breed of Jewish radical who are at once obsessed with their own kind and disdainful of them (perhaps because of that obsession whereby they wish all Jews to be subversive radicals and left-wing fanatics like themselves). "The Holocaust Industry" also serves to shed light on the way in which radical left-wing politics functions in the contemporary period both politically and ideologically. In this sense, the work is invaluable.

Rating:
Summary: An author desperate for attention.
Review: This book deserves no excuses. And Chomsky was involved in writing it as well. You should read about all the things Chomsky
has written by the way. If you agree with these people it is most unfortunate. These author's are desperate for attention just like Michael Moore, who a psychiatrist on the radio said was totally narcisstic. Yes, some people have their own agendas somrtimes due to self-hate and these two are too sick to experience their own self hatred, which serves and fuels their sicknesses so well.
What a shame. They should have had chronic larengitis and carpel tunnel syndrome. Then they would then be less destructive to others and not reinforce the adgendas of others who are even sicker then these authors are. And the ironic thing is that Finkelstein
has written a book that precisely cashes in on his ugly notions, quite literally. Therefore he is a hypocrite as well. Did his book sell well? What a shame if it did! (I know I made some spelling mistakes and if I had a paperback dictionary, I would use it. To use an online dictionary would have made this letter
disappear. I hope readers recognize the few misspelled words for not only what they are, but why they were used.

Rating:
Summary: Meticulous research, and shocking discoveries
Review: This book comes recommended by authorities no less than Noam Chomsky and Raoul Hilberg. Its easy to understand Finkelstein's outrage given the exploitation of this great tragedy by a coterie of rich profiteers who also made sure that the fruits of this industry remain forbidden to the ones who were most in need, the Holocaust victims.

Rating:
Summary: Vicious, intentionally inaccurate, and counterproductive
Review: There have been plenty of slaughters in human history, including many ethnic slaughters. The slaughter of millions of Jews by the Nazis in World War 2 was especially atrocious. It was marked by several unusual features including large-scale long-standing discrimination and incitement, widespread propaganda, and a very highly organized extermination industry the likes of which had never been seen before. It took place in an era where the entire world had a chance to participate in giving potential victims a place of refuge. That is sufficient reason for anyone to reflect on its significance.

This book could have seriously discussed false conclusions that some people have tried to draw from the history of Jewish suffering. Instead, it viciously slams those who wish to memorialize the dead, claim reparations for stolen property, teach about the catastrophe as a means to avoid repeating it, or defend Jewish rights in Israel. These attacks are unnecessary, misleading, and invalid. On top of that, they serve to support those who oppose human rights today.

Rating:
Summary: A Study in Ethnocentrism
Review: Finkelstein takes on the Holocaust industry with a tart-tongued wit. Reading it may make your eyebrows lift at the holocaust industry's narcissistic focus on the suffering of the Jews, which is "unique" according those running the Holocaust industry. A lot of the shakedowns for more money for the holocaust can be seen as just one ethnic groups' way of claiming more resources and power for themselves under the guise of being good humanitarians. Most of the money taken does not go to the few survivors left but is redirected unethically to the Jewish community and to politicized and biased holocaust education. Finkelstein is concerned that the industry may be increasing anti-semitism by behaving in such a way as to confirm stereotypes of Jews as being greedy liar lawyers. He however only criticizes the Jews of the powerful holocaust industry and not Jews as a whole.

I suppose though that all ethnic groups feel that their sufferings are special in some way and are emotionally attached to them. That could be a mitigating factor in any judgements against the industry. A lot of cries of injustice and for reparations are somewhat hypocritical since it seems all ethnic groups act amorally towards one another at times and will probably exploit the underdog group if given the chance and if they have enough power to do so. They seem to work hard to get enough power to do so. Reparations can be seen as a form of revenge.

Things weren't always this way with the nazi holocaust. Before Israel's winning of their war in the Middle East in 1967, there were better, more objective books written about the holocaust; some of which present a more universalist message that we could all learn more about ourselves from the holocaust and there wasn't much mention of Jewish suffering as being unique. Finkelstein covers some books which he thinks are valuable and one's he thinks are garbage. He accuses Zionists of using the holocaust to deflect criticism from the questionable actions of Israel and Holocaust Industry itself. After the 1967 war, the US backed Israel as a cold war ally and gave them lots of ammunition.

Finkelstein has a leftist take on his criticism of the industry. Why don't we give reparations to African Americans for slave labor? Why don't we give reparations to the Vietnamese for tearing up their country during the Vietnam War? Why don't we include the others who were in concentration camps in holocaust memorials such as the Catholics, the gypsies, and the handicapped? Why don't we focus on what nazi gold was taken from Jews that are still in US banks? Why do we go after just the European banks? Why are certain American Jews obsessed with their victim status when they are one of the richest ethnic groups in the world? A lot of people will consider his views unpatriotic or a form of Jewish self-hating.

The reader may come away with the impression that reparations are not a good idea in any case because it brings out too many people who want to exploit the situation while not necessarily being a victim and reparation seekers tend to point fingers at people who aren't necessarily guilty of alleged past wrongs.

A lot of fraudulent literature and claims have come up over the years, which Finkelstein exposes well. He is similar to Noam Chomsky who has documented, if debatable theories about how America is an economically imperialist nation. That theme is sounded as well in the book.