The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering

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 American is an economically imperialist nation. That theme is sounded as well in the book.

Rating:
Summary: Ugly Businesses Are Rampant Worldwide
Review: It seems a little odd at first glance that activists of the Anti-Nazi movement criticise this book like Mike Simons did in "Socialist Review" in September, 2000.
But it does totally make sense, as Simons wrote; "[The] memory of the Holocaust is the biggest barrier to the rebirth of a modern Nazi movement." I think they want to say at heart; "You should not throw a wet blanket over the righteous movement."

Still, those Anti-Nazi activists and other left-wingers who call the Israeli state "Fascist" make the matter indigestible.
It seems to me that there are no differences, apart from the motivation, money on one hand and ideology on the other, between both the Jewish cheaters and the agents of the Anti-Nazi movement because both of them are, in reality, profiting from the Holocaust Industry.

By the way, Holocaust Industry seems to be not only one industry of such kind that makes profits for various people worldwide involving money and ideological activities.

Here, I name "Nanking Massacre/ Rape of Nanking", which was coincidentally called "forgotten holocaust of the world war 2" by Iris Chang, the author of the best-selling book, "the Rape of Nanking", for another "Industry".
Although many contemporary documented evidences suggest that such massacre on both civilians and the soldiers (other than legitimate executions of unlawful soldiers) never happened, the propaganda story has evolved into a large-scale profit-making machine hugely supported by a still influential historical view of the Tokyo Trial for over half a century.

In this "Industry", however, as well as other "Japan's Wartime Atrocities Industries" mostly the Tokyo Trial created such as "Comfort Women Industry" and "Unit 731 Industry" and so on, there is a quite peculiar side that "the Holocaust Industry" never has: bogus perpetrators.

Among those bogus perpetrators, there are a few hundreds of the victims of the Chinese "brain-washing" who "confessed" horrible crimes before the Chinese People's Court after "reformed" their "inhumane thought" to "righteous" Anti-Japanese Imperialism at the Fuxuan War Criminal Camp in China for 5 to 10 years after transported from Russian slave labour camps in Siberia in July, 1950, by the direct order of Stalin. (Of course, by doing that, both China and Soviet Union was violating the Potsdam Declaration art. 9 which stated the Japanese soldiers should be returned "to their homes" after the war.)
They were returned to Japan as planned and formed "Association of the Soldiers Returned from China" to advocate the Anti-Japanese Imperialism publishing books and giving lectures throughout Japan and China.

However, the biggest profit they have made so far is, actually, not for themselves but for the Anti-Japanese campaigners of both the Japanese and the Chinese. (Sometimes for the Korean, too.)
Sadly, they will never be able to come to realisation that they were actually "brain-washed" and, most importantly, are not real perpetrators of the barbaric crimes they "confessed", therefore, there is no need for them to suffer from those painful guilties, just because the Chinese Communist Party and their sympathisers in Japan, as well as other left-wingers who are anti-Japanese, never ever let them unless, like the U.S. authority did to their own "brain-washing" victims of China, some decent authority in Japan take care of them as "victims" of the mental manipulation called "thought reform". But, that is unlikely because there are strong "China school" in Japanese authorities such as Foreign Ministry and the Justice Department and some MPs even in the "conservative" parties, not to mention both the Japan Communist Party and the Japan Socialist Party, that are said to be having some good "kickbacks" from the Chinese government.

Having so much enjoyed those lucrative but ugly businesses, the profit-makers of both sides would have no intention to search for the truth of history. Never. The profits are too juicy and too many people involved to give up altogether.
Finkelstein and other's struggle to reveal the truth and to change the situation to better one is, therefore, inevitably endless.

Rating:
Summary: Finally some rational discourse on the Holocaust.
Review: When Elie Wiesel refused to condemn the carpet bombing of Beirut by the IDF in 1982, claiming that he would support whatever Israel did because of the Holocaust, he was doing exactly what Finkelstein deplores in this book...Using the Holocaust to excuse any moral short-coming or hypocrasy of modern day Jewish groups.

In this book, Finkelstein documents that the aboce example is not an isolated incident. He demonstrates that Jewish activist groups have been exploiting the Holocaust for the advancement of thier own agendas on a large scale. These agendas range from supporting the state of Israel to claiming that Jews, the wealthiest ethnic group in America, are a victim class!

This book does NOT deny the Holocaust or the suffering of individual Holocaust survivors. It does, however, take issue with the large number of Jews who falsely claim to be Holocaust survivors. Only between 100,000 to 250,000 Jews survived the concentration camps, yet several times that many claim to be survivors. It does not take a mathematical genius to figure out that some people are lying to cash in on the victim power capital of the Holocaust.

Finkeltstein also does a brilliant expose of the Swiss lawsuit, in which he accuses the Jewish activists involved of behaving like an extortion racket.

Many ethnicities have experienced atrocities on a similar scale to the Jewish Holocaust among the are:

Ukrainians: Between 1929-1932 Stalin and his chief mass murderer Lazar Kaganovich unleashed genocide on the Ukraine by creating an artificial famine and authorizing the NKVD to conduct mass shootings of Ukrainians. Some 7 million people (25% of the Ukraine's population) perished. This is higher than the 6 million figure for the Holocaust.

Cambodians: One third of Cambodia's population perished under Pol Pot's rule between 1976-1979.

Serbs: During world war 2 some 2 million Serbs were butchered by Croat and Muslim thugs. While the numeric figure is lower than the Holocaust, the Serbs actually suffered higher PER CAPITA losses than the Jews in World War 2.

Armenians: The Young Turks in Turkey slaughtered anywhere from between 1.5 to 3 million Armenians during World War 1. Annihilating some three quarters of the Armenian population.

No one suggests that present day members of these ethnic groups recieve any special excuses for moral short comings, nor should they. And the same should apply to people of jewish decent.

Why did i give this book 4 stars instead of 5. This book neglects to mention one of the biggest uses of Holocaust exploitation: The accusation that Christianity bears responsibility for the Holocaust. Jewish groups have claimed that the Holocaust was inspired by Christian teachings in order to obtain many concessions from Christian Churches, even to the point that some of them want the New Testament censored! Read the Book Hitler, the War and the Pope for a thorough debunking of the ridiculous claim that Christians should feel guilt about the Holocaust. (I do not have time on this review to go in to all the details).