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The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering is a book by Norman G. Finkelstein, who is jewish, which argues that an "industry" has exploited the memory of the Holocaust to further Jewish and Israeli interests, and has corrupted the Jewish culture and Jewish heritage of Judaism as well as the history of the Holocaust. Look up book in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Norman G. Finkelstein (born 1953) is a Jewish American professor of political science at DePaul University known for advocating controversial positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and for criticizing the way the Holocaust is handled by most parties and organizations. ...
Selection at the Auschwitz ramp in 1944, where the Nazis chose whom to kill immediately and whom to use as slave labor or for medical experimentation, such as those of the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele. ...
Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people with around 14 million followers (as of 2005 [1]). It is one of the first recorded monotheistic faiths and one of the oldest religious traditions still practiced today. ...
Content of the book
In the foreword to this edition Finkelstein explains his aim: - My concern in this book is not at all Swiss bankers or, for that matter, German industrialists. Rather, it is restoring the integrity of the historical record and the sanctity of the Jewish people's martyrdom. I deplore the Holocaust industry's corruption of history and memory in the service of an extortion racket.
The book's controversial thesis is that the memory of the Nazi genocide of Jews during WW-II was hijacked by a number of American Jewish organizations in the service of improper goals. Historically, a martyr is a person who dies for their convictions or religious faith, such as during the persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire. ...
Among the specific charges Finkelstein documents are:
- That powerful Jewish groups are exploiting the tragedy of the Holocaust for political and financial gain.
- That numerous fraudsters are falsely claiming to be survivors of the Nazi Holocaust.
- That some attempts to redress the grievances of Jewish Holocaust victims have been dishonest.
- That some agencies claiming to represent Holocaust survivors in reparations suits have kept cash payments due to survivors.
- That many American Jews are not practicing Judaism but have replaced it with a dogma of fund-raising for Jewish causes.
A new, expanded edition of the book has been published. Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people with around 14 million followers (as of 2005 [1]). It is one of the first recorded monotheistic faiths and one of the oldest religious traditions still practiced today. ...
Reparations refers to two distinct ideas: Reparations for slavery of groups or individuals War reparations: Payments from one country to another as compensation for starting a war under a peace treaty, such as those made by Germany to France under the Treaty of Versailles. ...
A lawsuit is a civil action brought before a court in which the party commencing the action, the plaintiff, seeks a legal remedy. ...
Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people with around 14 million followers (as of 2005 [1]). It is one of the first recorded monotheistic faiths and one of the oldest religious traditions still practiced today. ...
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In printmaking, an edition is a set of prints off one plate, composing a limited run of prints. ...
Reviews and critiques The critical response has been varied. In addition to prominent supporters, such as Noam Chomsky and Alexander Cockburn, especially notable is Raul Hilberg, one of the most famous and distinguished Holocaust historians, whose multi-volume The Destruction of the European Jews is widely regarded as the first seminal study on the Jewish Holocaust, has praised Finkelstein's book. Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is the Institute Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ...
Alexander Claud Cockburn () (born June 6, 1941) is a progressive Irish journalist who has lived and worked in the United States since 1973. ...
Dr. Raul Hilberg Raul Hilberg (born June 2, 1926) is one of the best-known and most distinguished of the Holocaust historians. ...
Concentration camp inmates during the Holocaust The Holocaust was Nazi Germanys systematic genocide (ethnic cleansing) of various ethnic, religious, national, and secular groups during World War II. Early elements include the Kristallnacht pogrom and the T-4 Euthanasia Program established by Hitler that killed some 200,000 people. ...
Book cover The Destruction of the European Jews is a three-volume work published in 1961 by historian Raul Hilberg. ...
The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ...
Concentration camp inmates during the Holocaust The Holocaust was Nazi Germanys systematic genocide (ethnic cleansing) of various ethnic, religious, national, and secular groups during World War II. Early elements include the Kristallnacht pogrom and the T-4 Euthanasia Program established by Hitler that killed some 200,000 people. ...
- When I read Finkelstein's book, The Holocaust Industry, at the time of its appearance, I was in the middle of my own investigations of these matters, and I came to the conclusion that he was on the right track. I refer now to the part of the book that deals with the claims against the Swiss banks, and the other claims pertaining to forced labor. I would now say in retrospect that he was actually conservative, moderate and that his conclusions are trustworthy. He is a well-trained political scientist, has the ability to do the research, did it carefully, and has come up with the right results. I am by no means the only one who, in the coming months or years, will totally agree with Finkelstein's breakthrough. [1]
Others have said that Finkelstein misrepresents history, and that he promotes anti-Semitic stereoypes. Some prominent historians have denounced the book in harsh terms, though few have written detailed reviews.[2] However, in his review of The Holocaust Industry for The New York Times, Omer Bartov, Professor of History and European History at Brown University, wrote: The New York Times is a newspaper published in New York City by Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. ...
- What I find so striking about The Holocaust Industry is that it is almost an exact copy of the arguments it seeks to expose. It is filled with precisely the kind of shrill hyperbole that Finkelstein rightly deplores in much of the current media hype over the Holocaust; it is brimming with the same indifference to historical facts, inner contradictions, strident politics and dubious contextualizations; and it oozes with the same smug sense of moral and intellectual superiority.
- "There is something sad in this warping of intelligence, and in this perversion of moral indignation. There is also something indecent about it, something juvenile, self-righteous, arrogant and stupid...
- This book is, in a word, an ideological fanatic's view of other people's opportunism... Like any conspiracy theory, it contains several grains of truth; and like any such theory, it is both irrational and insidious. Finkelstein can now be said to have founded a Holocaust industry of his own.[3]
Andrew Ross reviewed the book in Salon magazine and said about Finkelstein: - On the issue of reparations, he barely acknowledges the wrongs committed by the Swiss and German institutions — the burying of Jewish bank accounts, the use of slave labor — that gave rise to the recent reparations drive. The fear that the reparations will not wind up in the hands of those who need and deserve them most is a legitimate concern. But the idea that survivors have been routinely swindled by Jewish institutions is a gross distortion. The chief reason why survivors have so far seen nothing of the $1.25 billion Swiss settlement, reached in 1998, is that U.S. courts have yet to rule on a method of distribution. On other reparations and compensation settlements, the Claims Conference, a particular bete noire of Finkelstein, says that it distributed approximately $220 million to individual survivors in 1999 alone.
Finkelstein responded to his critics in the foreword to the second edition: 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...
1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...
- Mainstream critics allege that I conjured a "conspiracy theory" while those on the Left ridicule the book as a defense of "the banks". None, so far as I can tell, question my actual findings.
This proposed logo for the US Information Awareness Office was dropped due to fears that its pseudo-Masonic symbolism would provoke conspiracy theories. ...
The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view. ...
A bank is an institution that provides financial service, particularly taking deposits and extending credit. ...
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