by Robert M. Traxler
As a young child, the s
on of an American soldier stationed in post-World War II (1950s) Germany, I accompanied my father and sisters to Buchenwald, one of the National Socialists’ (NAZI) concentration camps in Germany. During our three years in Germany my father, a man who had a real love of history, took us to many historical places in Western Europe. I was young but still remember the feeling of the presence of real evil at Buchenwald.
Many years later I served in the Army with a man from the Bronx, New York City, who was unshakable in his belief that the holocaust never happened. He maintained that the numbers attributed to the NAZI death machine were impossible to achieve. At that time, the number used was eight million dead in the holocaust, the number of dead used today is six million. His argument was that the German transportation system could just not handle eight million and the gas chambers were simply not large enough to gas eight million, and he was correct.
The problem with exaggerating historical fact is that it can be attacked and it reduces the effect of the argument that the holocaust indeed happened. The fact is that the Nazis murdered millions; six million or eight million innocent people makes little difference. After a group murders a million folks we can stipulate they are evil. The Holocaust deniers use the exaggerated numbers as proof positive the holocaust never happened.
The fact is that many of the bodies we see piled up in the old photos and newsreels were
innocent people interned in concentration camps and starved, who died in a typhus epidemic. The epidemic that swept through Europe in the ending months of WWII did kill many tens of thousands, and not openly admitting that give the deniers a sliver of fact that helps their specious argument. “Falsus in ono falsus in omnibus” or false in one false in all, a Latin term we find in the law that deniers will cite.
Hatred blinds people to fact; President Hassan Rouhani, an Iranian leader, maintained that the holocaust is a fairy tale told by western capitalists to bolster Israel. He cites the scarcity of eye witness testimony from former concentration camp guards as positive proof of his fairy tale theory. Most European nations still prosecute former concentration camp guards, so is it any wonder few have come forward?
Denying the holocaust is illegal in a large number of nations who do not have a first amendment or a constitution, so exaggerated claims and numbers go unchallenged, only aiding the deniers. The free, open questioning of exaggerated facts keeps folks in a free society honest and keeps the truth and facts in history.
Religious beliefs also affect the historical belief systems. Muslims deny the holocaust in large numbers, and to a much lesser extent, a few fundamentalist Christians. Muslims supported the Nazis with tens of thousands fighting in the Wehrmacht (German Army) and Waffen SS (NAZI political Army) and with many Muslims nations embracing Fascism, or as they referred to the National Socialist political system, Baathism.
The point of this column is that history is best when conveyed purely as fact; half-truths and exaggeration only serves to damage the truth and play into the hands of the historical deniers and conspiracy theorists. Why people feel the need to exaggerate one of the worst tragedies in world history must be above my pay grade to understand. No good comes from straying from the facts, truth and reality.
A very large number of Muslims deny 911 ever happened and if it did it was accomplished by the Israeli Mossad working with the Central Intelligence Agency. The reason for the denial of 911 is based on the belief that a Muslim would never murder innocent people, even infidels. The deniers want to believe this horrible slaughter of humanity never happened so they just dismiss the facts.
History is always best when served without emotion along with a side order of pure unadulterated fact.
