Rating: 
Summary: Absolute nonsense
Review: I can think of about six million pieces of evidence that disprove the authors' theories.
This book is nothing more than unsubstantiated antisemitism masquerading as historical fact.
Rating: 
Summary: Thought Provoking and Disturbing
Review: I first heard about this book from someone I worked with. This person told me that the Nazis had never committed genocide against the Jews and that those who died in the concentration camps had died from typhus. I was shocked and angry, but I couldn't argue with him because I had never really questioned the Nazi genocide story.
When he told me that there was a book that proved it never happened I became determined to read the book for myself. I meant to prove, at least to myself, that "The Hoax of the Twentieth Century" was wrong. I intended to read other books, books that supported the story of the mass murder of the Jews.
I expected the book to be a vicious racist diatribe. It was nothing of the sort. It was well reasoned, and the author backed up what he said with good sources. Indeed, I found his sources much easier to check out than the sources of the more mainstream history books on the subject.
If you are looking for a book on this subject that will merely confirm your preconceptions, then you don't want this one. If, on the other hand, you are someone who is willing to consider unconventional points of view, you might find this book enlightening, as well as disturbing, and certainly worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Starting Point
Review: I first read Butz' work some ten years ago; without doubt it has go down as one of the landmark works in contemporary history. One can excuse the poor layout and typeset, a problem faced only because the work has never found itself being released by one of the many well-funded international publishing houses. To use this to scoff at the author is somewhat puerile. As a historical researcher and student of the Nazi holocaust - everyone involved in the subject has his or her unique this idea on what this may mean - I feel that Butz' work is a good starting point, in that it both points out the pertinent facts and encourages the reader to actually go away and seek out standard mass-published works. As the book can be classified as being pre-Leuchter, it is best read in conjunction with more contemporary revisionist works and articles; nevertheless, it serves its purpose well enough for one to call it an informative and at times even shocking read - shocking in that the reader is genuinely shocked when he or she takes note of verifiable facts that have been either hidden or distorted by contemporary commentators. All in all, 'Hoax' is well worth the money, and provides a powerful and concise counterpunch to the prevailing school of thought.
Rating: 
Summary: Unbiased review
Review: I stumbled onto this book in a shop and having heard about the controversy still surrounding it, I was curious of it's merit and content. I will emphatically state that I read it with a completely "open mind" and hope my statements regarding it reflect that. After the first few chapters, what disturbed me most about the book was it's tone. It is written at times like the words are being yelled at you, which to me makes me a little suspect in terms of accuracy. One of the functions of an intelligent historian should be an objective approach to the subject matter. When a writer loses that objectivity, he no longer functions in the role of an historian, but indeed, assumes a different role, which makes you wonder what exact role is Dr. Butz actually playing. He makes statements which he tells you are proof of "this hoax," yet to me, the reader, they are not only unproven, his arguments are not even conclusive. He takes considerable time to verify to the reader that Jewish testimony is unreliable and inaccurate, yet never holds the same standard to his own sources, which he never questions. He wants you to believe the Nuremburg trials were corrupt and fixed in favor of the Jews and the creation of the Jewish Holocaust myth, but gives no explanation or even much thought to the obvious question of "Why, then, did some of the those on trial get off scott free and others with light sentences along with the ones who were condemned?" I also had to go to outside sources for explanations which happened to be in opposition to his position, explanations that Dr. Butz neglects to mention in his arguments, explanations that are so obvious and important, it has to be a "conscious" decision to omit them. One wonders again, what is his role? . In something so massive as the Holocaust, there will always be mistakes made by those trying to tell the whole story, but certain inaccuracies do not invalidate the whole picture, and certainly do not "prove" malicious intent. The book is very unprofessional, and left me feeling I had spent time with someone hostile, certainly not someone I would trust to tell me an honest account of something which is blatantly very personal and emotional to them as a person. I can only recommend this book to readers who are curious about the origins of this movement.
Rating:
Summary: Sad, so sad
Review: It is sad that there are books like this and even sadder that supposedly sane, thoughtful people can consider the fabrications in the book to be the truth. I could not finish the book - I only got through about 40% of it since it was more of the same over and over, ad nauseum and my blood pressure could not take it.
I must give Butz credit for one thing - he is clever. He couches his book with comments that make him out to be an 'historian' and seeker of truth rather than a raging anti-semite. This is necessary because if he came across as an anti semite he would not be taken as seriously. Whereas in this case he can be seen as "unbiased".
Unbiased in NOT what Butz is. His endless dissertation is filled with more heresay than can be imagined. He constantly makes reference to holocaust evidence which he claims is either fabricated, non-existant or otherwise flawed. yet his own assertions must be taken at face value.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of deputations made by survivors, allied soldiers, GERMAN soldiers, and other public personell that support each other. There are tens of thousands of photos available - just search for them on the internet - that attest to the horrors of the death camps. How Butz simply denies these is amazing. As well, it would take a conspiracy of the entire world to coordinate such a "hoax" as he calls it. How was this orchestrated by a ragtag band of Jews (all 6,000,000 survivors spread throughout the globe) who were abhorred and kicked out of most countries. Remember that anti-semitism was rampant during the 40's 50's and into the 60's in most countries. How then did the Hoax come about Mr. Butz?
At first I was angry, now I'm just sad.
Rating:
Summary: Antisemitic jargon
Review: Mr. Butz' book is not scholastic, nor is it a fact or something to be taken as 'the other side'. There is no other side; if someone were to claim that they were a prehistoric dinosaur, that's not their point of view - they are lying, or else they are insane.
In her book, "Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory," Deborah Lipstadt repeatedly states that she will not argue with Holocaust deniers; to argue means to acknowledge there is validity in their statement, of which there is none.
For the reviewer who claimed there is more evidence for the denier side, consider this: thousands of published testimonies, photographs, mass graves, careful records by the murderers, from both death camps and the Einsatzgruppen (themselves. Pretty elaborate for an international hoax. For someone to deny the Holocaust, you must first question their motives: why would they want to fly in the face of overwhelming evidence? Do they have something against the Jews, or Israel, or are they merely Germano/Hitlerophiles? Regardless, the outcome is the same: it demeans the Jewish people and their suffering.
Most, if not all, Holocaust denial books are antisemitic works, and Butz is no different. He belongs up there with Zundel and Irving for sure.
To understand the real 'truth' of this book, one must only look at the company who published it...Noontide Press.
Noontide press also publishes "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," arguably the biggest hoax in history.
If you want to read this book, the choice is yours - but at least read a real book on the Holocaust, such as Elie Wiesel's "Night," or Raul Hilberg's "The Destruction of European Jewry," or Jan Gross' devastating book, "Neighbours"
And then come back and talk about the validity in a book such as Butzs'
Rating:
Summary: Butz is a man with the courage to question
Review: Please people. Oh gosh, please, anyone who gives this book more than one star or believes a word of it should be brought to a mental hospital. To even think that the "Holocaust" didn't happen (and to dare put " around it, like it's some big joke) means that you havn't the slightest idea of anything. You are naive and the autor, Butts, should be ashamed, as people who belive him. Maybe you think you know what you're talking about, but don;t you dare say it didn;t happen until you have seen photos. There are PHOTOS of hundreds of dead bodies piled on top of each other. Naked, in a big hole. Innocent Jews that were torutred and killed, stripped of their dignity and then BURNED. Charred in an OVEN. You are going to believe the book of a giant stupid butt over PHOTOS?! Horrifying photos! I am only 14 years old, and I am so incredibly horrified at the thought of the Holocaust. To even think about it makes me cry for long periods of tikme, sometimes uncontrollably. To disrepect the MILLIONS of innoncent people that died, to make them animals even after they were torutred and killed, then piled up and burned, is sinful. Maybe you should type in "Holocaust photos" in a search engine before reading this book. Maybe you can find some of the photos of Jew's heads and body parts in jars. Hitler's psycho scientists that chopped up and tortured Jews and then stuck them in a jar. And there's photos, but, I'm sure they were "made up" and that head in the jar was totally "exxagiatted". Belive what you want, but where what you belive is that it happend or it didn't... there's an easy way to reslove it. Without reading this stupid book. The Holocaust was very real. Real people, innocent like you or me, died. They were stipped of their diggnity and they were killed. And to even think for a moment that it's not entirly real, is a horrible dishonor to the people who were slaughted.
Rating:
Summary: Butz is a man with the courage to question
Review: Regardless of whether one agrees with Butz, one should support his right to express himself.I read Mr. Butz's work several years ago, along with the works of other Holocaust revisionists/scholars such as David Irving and Ernst Zundel. I have to admit that many of the facts they present are compelling. For instance, no one can really pinpoint where the "six million" figure arose and the sheer logistics of murdering six million people (during a war where supplies and manpower were scarce) are hard to swallow. The attacks on Mr. Butz are disturbing. This author is entitled to express his views. The Holocaust is the ONLY event in history that one is forbidden from questioning or probing. Why??? Why is this event any different from the many other genocides that have been committed in history? (For instance, the mass murder committed by Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolultion, to name only one.) In terms of numbers, Stallin killed a staggering twenty million individuals yet we are taught that the Holocaust is unique. Well, it isn't any more disturbing then other mass murders in history. If other historical events are open to scholarly debate and questioning, why should the Holocaust be treated any differently? If the facts about the Holocaust all have merit, they will be proven true in the marketplace of ideas -- why the need to censor Mr. Butz? I applaud Arthur Butz for the courage to question the "facts" that have been force-fed on the world for the past fifty years. This book is a must-read.
Rating:
Summary: Butz: A Pathological Liar
Review: This author has some nerve trying to rewrite history. Most of my grandmother's family was murdered by the Nazis. To compound this tragedy by denying that 6 million Jews were killed is a further atrocity. The fact that anyone can believe this crap is alarming. The Holocaust DID happen. If you don't believe it, go to any Holocaust memorial (Washington, DC, etc) and see the documentation and photographs for yourself. Also, Yad Vashem (a memorial in Israel) may have a website. The Simon Weisenthal Center also has a website.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!!
Review: This book is a must read for anyone wanting to know 'the other side' of the story. Keeping clear of racial polemics, this book is written in a calm and most factual manner and presents clear and objective evidence that at least forces one to reconsider the classic historical arguments about a policy of deliberate extermination on the part of the Third Reich. There is no hate here. No so-called anti-semitism. No pro-Nazi rhetoric. Anyone claiming so is either lying blatantly or simply hasn't read the book. Some holocaust authors claim they will not argue with revisionists like Butz! Of course! Because they simply cannot explain away or refute many of the arguments presented by the so-called 'other side'. Raul Hilberg is a classic example. His cross-examination at the Toronto trial of Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel was a complete farce. He could not explain away many of the ambiguities in his book 'Destruction of the European Jews'. Rudolf Vrba (I Cannot Forgive) was another who, when confronted on the witness stand, hemmed and hawed and finally cited 'poetic license' as the reason for many of the questionable claims recorded in his book. To the average person, I say, do your own research. Don't be afraid to consider other facts and points of view especially when they can be substantiated enough to claim some degree of credibility. This book by Arthur Butz is a big and important step in that direction. There are many footnotes and sources cited and the work is written in a very scholarly manner. One word of caution. Possession of works like this in some countries is considered a crime. For this reason alone, this book is a must read!!
|
