It was pretty easy to jump on the band wagon and become a holocaust denier, because it seemed so obvious. Not to mention them darned Jews, right? But something never sat right with me, something along the lines of if it was so obvious why are deniers a minority.
So I did a bunch of research independent of any forums, because let's face it any one on a forum already has an axe to grind.
In the end I really did have to agree that:
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Deniers cherrypick. I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of war related documentation there is available and deniers only ever seem to use the few bits that suit their purpose, and then they beat that like a kettle drum.
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Overwhelming evidence about the gas chambers NOT being gas chambers turned out to not be so overwhelming afterall. Again deniers seem to only use evidence or methodology that suited their objectives.
So either the Jewish conspiracy is so huge and well funded that they are able to perpetuate a hoax of a scale grander than I can even imagine. Or there actually is a lot of truth there. I do remain open to any new information on or approaches to the subject however.
Anyhow, am I the only one?
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clamhurt_legbeard ago
Are you talking about the idea of Jews being put into concentration camps?
Or specifically "6 million Jews died from gas chambers"?
There are a lot of claims. The sheer volume of people supposedly gassed and cremated is beyond physics, and the Jewish censuses from before and after WWII don't support such high numbers of deaths.
Definitely many did die, and Jews were specifically targetted (along with many others). But the thing that seems to always get missed is nearly all holocaust deaths were Polish civilians and Soviet POWs, and only half were Jewish. We would expect lots of deaths when a country gets invaded, from many causes. These deaths seem to be lumped together as a specific targeted extermination, though. Forcing Germany to pay reparations would certainly encourage that.
GoddammitMrNoodle ago
Interestingly your points pretty much echo what I saw when doing research. As well that there's a tendency, probably largely due to movies and such, for people to think of The Holocaust as a single large event with 6 million Jews being marched into the ovens (well not actually but you know what I mean). The reality was much more complex and unclear. Are the Nazis responsible for 6 million dead? Yeah, in some way or another pretty much so.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
The Nazis are responsible for specifically targeting Jews (and others), unquestioned fact. They openly stated this and explained their reasons.
The Soviets are responsible for millions of deaths, too. They specifically targeted their own ethnic minorities (like Ukranians) and Christians.
Slaughtering millions or causing intentional famines to slowly starve the "undesirable elements" is horrible. But why do we only talk about the crime committed primarily against Jews instead of the equally atrocious crime, committed in the same time period, committed primarily by Jews?
These are more questions that aren't even holocaust denial, but that gets you the same label of "antisemitic holocaust denier", this is illegal, put him in jail....
GoddammitMrNoodle ago
Pretty much how I see it too.