Rating: 
Summary: The Holocaust Industry.
Review: _The Holocaust Industry_ offers the reader the rather bold thesis that the Holocaust is being used by the Jewish elite to fund an exploitative state (Israel) and to demand further reparations from the Swiss and various other nations. To the European reader, however, this book offers very little aside from the comments on the various hoaxes and shams used by the Holocaust Industry. The book focuses almost entirely on the infighting between the various groups of Jews. Also, the book suffers from a decidedly anti-American bias. For instance, the author repeatedly suggests that America should offer up reparations to the Africans for slavery and to the Native Americans. This is absurd in my opinion. While the reader of this book may learn a great deal about the particular dealings of various Jewish groups in their efforts to further their own degree of control, very little is offered in the way of further understanding. Movies such as "Schindler's List" and books such as _Hitler's Willing Executioners_ have attempted to smear the entire nation of Germany for the slaughter of the Jews in the Holocaust. Also, repeatedly ignored in any discussion of the Holocaust is the murder of the Gypsies, the mentally deficient, and various other ethnic groups. This is indeed unfortunate. Further, in a new form of political correctness, individuals on the Left have attempted to brand the Catholic Church with the evil of the Holocaust. This is particularly ridiculous considering that many Catholics were persecuted by the Nazis precisely because they were Catholic. In addition, Holocaust literature has become more and more far-reaching, including levels of exploitation that in fact never really existed. While the original works on the Holocaust are being ignored, modern updated, politically correct works on the Holocaust are continually being mass marketed by the Holocaust Industry.
Rating: 
Summary: Misguided Praise
Review: Contrary to what some Amazon reviewers think, this book is not better or worse because its author's parents were concentration camp survivors, just as my criticism of it is not more or less valid because my great-grandmother and her family that remained in Lithuania did not survive the Holocaust. It is hard to tell how much Finkelstein intends for his words to be metaphor and hyperbole, and how much he intends for his words to be literal statements of fact. Does this book's title mean that its author believes that there is a "Holocaust industry" the way there is an advertising industry which produces advertisements or an automobile industry which produces automobiles? I suspect that Finkelstein may believe that there is literally a "Holocaust industry," but I cannot tell in this book where the metaphor and hyperbole ends and the alleged literal truth begins. The author severely underestimates the extent to which the average Jewish-American understood the Holocaust forty years ago. One need only look at popular films like Exodus and The Pawnbroker, bestselling novels like Last of the Just and Mila 18, and even popular expressions such as "she is so skinny that she looks like a concentration camp survivor." In order to explain why this alleged minimization of the Holocaust occurred in the 60s, Finkelstein then overestimates the extent to which the economic and political situation of the Jewish community has changed over the past forty years. He provides a leftist, class-based analysis of why Jews allegedly focus on the Holocaust more now than in the fifties. Most American Jews by the 1960s were native-born children of native-born parents who lived in the suburbs and were predominantly Democratic. That remains the situation today. It may not have been the case with respect to the author's own family, but he was not typical. Again, it is not clear what parts of the author's analysis are metaphor and what parts are intended to be literally true. Perhaps Finkelstein's allegation of a change in the class status of American Jews over the past forty years is also a metaphor. Who can tell?
Rating: 
Summary: Deep!
Review: I Found professor finkelsteins book to be very informative and one of the few sources I have found that is not afraid of exposing the truth on one of the biggest extortion rackets of all time.
Rating: 
Summary: A highly familiar ideological bent
Review: One of the two central facts of Jewish life in the 20th century was the almost unfathomable suffering of the Holocaust. The moral enormity of that crime has posed the terrible dual responsibility on Jews specifically and civilised people generally of commemorating the dead and protecting future generations from the awful consequences of anti-Semitic bigotry. Sometimes (I can think of certain exhibitions at the Holocaust museum in Washington) the attempt to meet that historical obligation has failed by descending into kitsch. As the historian Lucy Dawidowicz observed, considering the Holocaust presents the perennial temptation to indulge in inappropriate analogy (e.g. the appalling history of slavery and racial segregation in the United States: a monstrous evil but not an act of genocide). There is much that could be written about the difficulties of discharging this moral obligation to past and future generations, and the diverse answers that Jews and others of goodwill have given. But to attempt such an account demands of a writer moral imagination, sensitivity and historical awareness. it is an understatement to say that Finkelstein's polemic does not exhibit these qualities. It is intemperate, abusive, obtuse - and at times astonishingly sentimental. Rather than provide historical or ethical insight into the Holocaust, Finkelstein prefers to mock and exploit the Jewish dilemma of how to make new generations aware of it. He derides historians of the Holocaust as "worthless" purveyors of "shelves upon shelves of shlock". Their efforts in commemorating the Holocaust are, in Finkelstein's judgement, also "worthless, a tribute not to Jewish suffering but to Jewish aggrandisement". The Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, a moral giant of our times, is denounced as a "charlatan" who has a "shameful record of apologetics on behalf of Israel". And there, in that last judgement, lies the nub of Finkelstein's rhetoric. His book is not a sociological or historical inquiry about the Holocaust at all: it is a means of propounding his own far-Left politics. By denouncing what he perceives to be a "Holocaust industry" - supposedly a racket that preys upon the generosity of European nations to extract wealth and gain influence - Finkelstein exemplifies an ideology that is eerily familiar. It has its roots in the 1930s, when the French Communist leader Jacques Doriot founded his Parti Populaire Francais, which aimed to preserve France from Jewish influence, and it extends to the anti-Zionism of the totalitarian Left today. Quite apart from its dubious politics, Finkelstein's thesis is consistently unreliable in its historical judgements. The immediate post-war period was very far from being a favourable one for the Jewish national movement or for the development of a supposed (and I invoke Finkelstein's language reluctantly) "Holocaust industry". There was certainly no wave of sympathy for the Jews. Those western statesmen who were instinctively sympathetic to the Jews, such as Harry Truman, felt vindicated, but Ernest Bevin, who as British Foreign Secretary inherited the Palestine mandate, was frankly hostile to the cause of Zionism. More to the point, Jews had become so traumatised by the terrible events of the war years that it took years for Jewish communities to examine in any systematic way the sufferings that they and their families had undergone. For Finkelstein to malign this painful process as a politically-inspired act of mawkishness is a device that, for this reader at least, brings to mind the famous remark of Joseph Welch to Senator McCarthy in the darkest days of wild accusations made against decent men: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
Rating:
Summary: Sensational
Review: What a fantastic read. Finkelstein has done his homework and displays facts and figures many mainstream Jewish organizations take pains to keep out of the New York Times. Anyone reading this book with an eye for objectivity will walk away much more enlightened.
After reading this I can't help but feel that the Holocaust Industry (Finkelstein's term for the shakedown) is cheapening the memory of all the victims of World War II fascism. As Finkelstein notes, the H.I. has handed anti-semites tantalizing tidbits of ammunition. Hopefully this extortion racket will eventually be exposed in the establishment media, however I'm not holding my breath. Finkelstein has done a tremendous service for the public with this cogent scholarly critique. Ingnore the rantings of those who'll accuse you of being anti-semitic, and read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting claim, but why the Platonic hatred of fiction?
Review: Ok, the author's claim, though it has a compelling grain of truth, is unorganized, not very well written, and in the end not too persuasive. There IS a Holocaust industry. I grant Finkelstein as much. There is also a "Gender Studies" industry, there is an "Analytic philosophy" industry, there is a "history of Slavery" industry etc. There are a lot of "industries" fueled by a blossoming American academia which churns out scholarship - most of it repetitive and unexceptional, and by a prolific movie industry that often turns to history and current ideas and events as sources for its standard 2 hour exercises in shallow catharsis. Why it is such a scandal that the Holocaust has been commodified and commercialized in our post-modern, post-capitalist age is beyond me. It is almost to be expected... everything else has been commercialized, why not the Holocaust? At least Finkelstein has given voice to the problem: maybe it isn't a great thing when people get rich by educating others about - or at times simply taking advantage of - crimes against humanity. I might add as an after thought, is it really such a bad thing though? Sure, lawyers must get paid, and sure, the makers of Schindler's List made a lot of money, but is our understanding of our past, or of the wrongs committed diminished by such self-serving activities? Or is our understanding of the Holocaust and its effects enriched by such work? The only thing that really got on my nerves was Finkelstein's hatred of Kosinksi. Kosinski was a Jew, a Pole, and a child who was seperated from his parents for a number of years during the Second World War. He survived, found his parents, lived under communism and eventually made his way to the US. But we should also remember, Kosinski was a novelist, a fiction writer, a man more concerned with art than fact. The Painted Bird is a fascinating novel, and I admire Kosinksi for writing it. But the idea that he is a fraud who is just trying to get rich is an insult to my intelligence as a reader of fiction. It reminds me of Plato's condemnation of poets as liars. Kosinski never claimed that his first novel was a historical fact, although he made it clear that as an author there were elements of autobiography in the book... a common occurence for writers penning their first novel. But Finkelstein's condemnation of Kosinski seems gratuitous, and in the end not very clever or convincing as evidence in support of Finkelstein's thesis.
Rating: 
Summary: Readable interesting , but a difficult subject
Review: This is a passionate essay by Norman Finkelstien. Finkelstien is Jewish but would appear to be both secular and left wing. A number of his publications have appeared in publications like New Left Review. The publication of this work has led to some reasonably savage attacks on the author. The book although short has a number of themes. Although the various accusations tend to move around the central thesis runs something like this. During the second world war a large number of Jewish people were killed by the Nazis. The number is not critical but somewhere between five and eight million. At the wars end, a large number of Jewish people who had not been killed were freed from concentration camps. They were clearly the victims of incredible cruelty. The suffering of the Jews one aspect of the cruelty of the Nazi regime. In addition to the Jews, Gipsies, the Handicapped, Russians and Poles were also killed. Up to 1967 the Genocidal killing of the Jews led to only limited academic study. There in fact appeared two books in print describing what happened. Both of these books were high quality works which described in detail the Nazi final solution. Main stream Jews outside Israel however preferred to get on with their lives instead of dwelling on the evils of the period. In fact in America Jews as a group drifted to the right politically and advanced remarkably. The old anti Semitism which been part of the life of Europe and America passed away. After 1967 the situation has changed radically. Instead of 2 books on the topic there are now 10,000. Instead of the subject being forgotten, there is now what Finkelstein describes as "an Industry". This "Industry" consists of a collection of people and organisations who make a living out of teaching and explaining the Holocaust. Large numbers of Universities now have subjects on the topic using some of the 10,000 published works. Finkelstien suggests that a large amount of this scholarship is poor. He quotes two frauds, the novel Fragments by Wilkomirski and the Painted Bird by Kosinski. He has also been a long term critic of the scholarship of Goldhagen and Wiesel. He suggests that a lot of the Holocaust scholarship has a narrow ideological function of supporting the state of Israel. That is that the unique nature of the Holocaust demands a Jewish state and that one should thus turn a blind eye to the short comings of that state and its human rights record. He spends some time suggesting that the Jewish experience is not unique. To do so he points out that the suffering of other groups was comparable. Gipsies for instance had about 50% of their community murdered. He also quotes the Congo a country which under Belgium Colonialism lost around ten million people. In addition to the academic side, there has been money to be made out of governments who were involved in the process. Germany for instance has paid some repatriation's to surviving members of camps. However there is a potential for obtaining more money and assets. Thus a significant number of Jews who were killed either owned property or had bank accounts. In Poland the Jewish Community was large and held many public assets such as schools. In talking about the assets Finkelstien is at his most passionate. Basically in dealing with such assets there are problems over what to do with the money. To track down either survivors or the descendants can be difficult. Thus there can be temptations to give it to an organisation which is meant to benefit the community more broadly. Finkelstien suggests that a number of organisations are being active in seeking out such money and are loath to give it to actual victims. The book is something which no doubt will outrage a lot of people. However it contains a lot of material which is interesting. For example Switzerland has been the subject of legal action over the buying of gold from Jewish Victims, for making it difficult for relatives of the deceased to access band accounts and for its rather restrictive policy of accepting Jewish refugees. The United States however also had a policy of purchasing Nazi gold, also made it difficult for descendants to access bank accounts and accepted a similar number of refugees to Switzerland. The United States however is never mentioned in Holocaust publications. The book is very passionate and readable but it occasionally meanders a bit. The author also assumes some knowledge of figures such as Wiesel who I for instance have not heard of. Never the less an interesting read.
Rating:
Summary: Cashing in on Tragedy
Review: Norman Finkelstein is to be commended for tackling such a divisive issue as this one. The holocaust is an event that has the capacity for causing heated emotions. With a word, a phrase or a smirk, one can be branded an anti-Semite or worse. Finkelstein takes his chances and charges into the fray. As a Jew, Finkelstein seems to have even more to lose than most, although criticism of Jewish issues by a Jew seems to be more acceptable than if the criticism came from a non-Jew. Finkelstein targets what he calls the "holocaust industry." This industry is made up of writers, lawyers and others who benefit from appropriating Hitler's campaign of genocide against the Jews for their own monetary gain. Writers such as Jerzy Kosinski, Finkelstein reveals, are frauds that try and make a buck off legitimate suffering. The lawyers are even worse. These legal attack dogs sue companies that are supposedly responsible for aiding or abetting the Third Reich. These same lawyers have gone after Swiss banks that supposedly have hidden funds deposited by Jews who subsequently died in the concentration camps. The damages sought by these lawyers are astronomical and have no direct relation to actual events. If the companies or banks don't give in, media systems are used to intimidate and threaten, with hysterical cries of anti-Semitism thrown about with seeming indifference. Even worse, the lawyers end up pocketing most of the awards. No one, Finkelstein included, denies a holocaust against Jews. It is important to remember that many others died in the camps, such as Gypsies, Slavs and others. The death of Jews in no way elevates their suffering over any other people. Finkelstein's concern seems to be that these blackmail schemes will ultimately cheapen the holocaust and open the way for the deniers. Anyway you cut it, the tactics used by the holocaust industry are shameful and should be condemned as such.
Rating:
Summary: Imperfect but provocative
Review: First things first: either Verso should provide Norman Finkelstein with a better copy editor, or the Professor should audit the Freshman Comp class. His stylle is grating, overly personal and obtuse. His prose style lends ammunition to his detractors who portrtay him as a shrieking hysteric. Defective writing aside, Finkelstein has produced an invaluable, if somewhat incomplete work. The "Holocaust Industry" has two major interconnected theses. The first is that the Holocaust achived its current cultural status as a result of shifts in American politics and strategic thinking. After the Six-Day War, American elites became highly supportive of Israel, seeing that nation as a strategic asset. Since the Holocaust wass a useful ideological tool for supoorters of Israel, it became a useful tool for American elites as well. This view is sensible if one acepts the idea that cultural iconography conforms to the power relations of a society. Finkelstein second thesis is that, as the Holocaust became useful for the American ruling classes, an exploitative and "Holocaust industry" emerged. For Finkelstein, the ultimate example of the industry's treachery was the Swiss bank settlement, which filled the coffers of establishment Jewish organizations and rich tort lawyers, while doing little for survivors of the camps. While many people take the "how dare he?" approach to attacking Finkelstein, is it that implausible that major charitable organizations can be as cynical as any corporation or government agency? Do the shenanigans at the United Way ring a bell? While we can all argue various facts surrounding the Swiss affair, my instincts tell me that anything that Alfonse D'Amato with is less than honorable. Finkelstein's arch-nemesis, the attorney Burt Neuborne, who collected some hefty fees for his work on the supposed behalf of the survivors, have slugged it out in numerous letter-writing exchanges. On the whole, Finkelstein wins by a unanimous decision.
Rating:
Summary: Provocative and Brimming With recent Historical Detail
Review: Historian Norman Finkelstein, the son of Jewish Auschwitz survivors, argues that the holocaust has been hijacked for political and economic purposes with the help of international bullying by the United States. Although his economic analysis is ad hoc, Finkelstein's documentation of exploitation, extortion and de jure political correctness opens the door for further analysis of a highly sensitive subject. The suffering of European Jews during the 1930s and 1940s gave rise to a stock of moral capital that was a measure not of exceptional moral actions by Jews as a group, but of acts committed by their Nazi oppressors. The holocaust label evokes that suffering and those acts. The Holocaust, distinguished by initial capitalization (a distinction I maintain throughout this review), is an ideology that has grown up around these interactions. The holocaust created moral capital. A "Holocaust Industry" exploits it by making a market in the suffering of "needy holocaust survivors"... ...The disadvantages of moral capital are that it is less productive than most other forms of capital and that its value depreciates quickly as memories fade and the public sense of guilt and compassion wanes. Its highest value lies in its capacity to be transformed into more enduring political (rent-seeking) capital. The transformation process requires entrepreneurship as an input and spawns an industry that produces entrepreneurial returns for its creators and patrons... ...These points are the foundations of historian Norman Finkelstein's slim volume, The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. The book complements a short list of recent works by Jewish scholars (several of which Finkelstein critiques) that reflect on the upturn of interest in books, movies, and television documentaries about the holocaust and that ask (some skeptically): "Why here, and why now?" (See, for example, Peter Novick, The Holocaust in American Life [Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999].) Finkelstein argues, against the grain, that this interest is "a tribute not to Jewish suffering but to Jewish aggrandizement" (p. 8). He documents economic exploitation by the Holocaust Industry, which he calls an "outright extortion racket" (p. 89). He also documents the U.S. role in facilitating the extraction of holocaust rents (which he inexactly terms "profits"). He argues that the Holocaust Industry would not exist without international bullying by the United States, which is why this country is not a target of rent extraction despite having a record on holocaust issues that is scarcely distinguishable from that of the recently extorted Swiss... ...Finkelstein's book will probably disappoint readers hoping for an economic analysis along the lines of that by Ekelund and others. Finkelstein uses a historical approach that is like descriptive political economy. Accordingly, he develops no positive theories whose implications can be tested against the anecdotal evidence he has amassed. The result in places is a patchwork of ad hoc explanations leading to conclusions that are not obviously superior to those he criticizes. Nevertheless, the book is provocative and brimming with recent historical detail. With a bit of luck, it will attract the interest of academic economists... ...The author clearly is sensitive to the economic aspects of his subject, even though he does not develop his thesis along positive lines. However, by documenting the legacy of systematic exploitation, extortion, and de jure political correctness with regard to the holocaust, he opens the door to positive analysis of this unique but culturally and politically sensitive aspect of postwar economic behavior. In addition to the book's virtues as a provocative and well-documented case study, this achievement makes The Holocaust Industry both a worthwhile read and a valuable reference.
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