A Holocaust denier and uncomfortable truth
A young man stopped by my book table to chat. I explained that my World War Two novel wasn’t about the Holocaust and he perked up.
“Honestly, I think the six million figure is probably a gross exaggeration anyway,” he said with a casual shrug.
I took a deep breath before I spoke. He was, young. Maybe 20.
Majdanek fences
It is a problem I have run into repeatedly while scouring the web, looking for information on the German expulsions and postwar camps. A lot of stuff makes me cringe. Just because the German expulsions are a little told narrative within the Second World War, does not render the Holocaust untrue or grossly exaggerated.
But apparently there are still deniers out there and I was looking right at one of them.
The right of free speech is widely debated. If an identifiable group can show they are oppressed in some way, then speech must not be hateful against them. More and more groups are coming forward as “oppressed,” which presents a dilemma. Should free speech ever be curtailed?
Personally, I think free speech is of such great human value, it should rarely be trumped. The real way to fight error and false ideas is with education and evidence, held up to the light and examined by honest debate. The truth will rise to the top and ideas that can’t stand closer scrutiny will be discarded by reasonable people. Hard facts married with civil and respectful discussion is the way, not finger pointing and name-calling.
I have to admit that when confronted with this young man’s absurd statement, I was tempted to write him off as ignorant. But perhaps that wasn’t entirely his fault. Clearly his education was lacking, so perhaps I could help fill in the gaps.
“Have you ever been to Europe?” I asked, trying to keep my voice level. As I suspected, his answer was “no.” It is so much easier to believe in a massive conspiracy, when the event in question took place on another continent, almost a lifetime ago.
“I have,” I said. “And I’ve seen a gas chamber.”
Gas chamber
I told him about my visit to Majdenek, a Nazi death camp in Poland.
At the close of the war, the SS fled this camp, leaving it in near pristine condition. I described a massive monument, near the crematorium sheltering a pile of human ashes.
Indentations, like ditches mark the ground where the bodies of shooting victims had decomposed. Although we were unable to view inside the buildings, as we had arrived late in the day, we were told one of them was filled with the shoes of the victims of that one camp. Visiting that camp is an experience I will not forget and I tried to get across the enormity of what I saw— clearly indicating the death of thousands in that one camp alone. Furthermore, the Germans were renowned for meticulous record keeping. Approximately 300,000 were interned at that camp during the war. In addition to other prisoners, 56,000 Jewish prisoners with names recorded perished at this camp.
Monument of ashes at Majdenek
Crematorium at Majdanek
Do not tell me the Holocaust didn’t happen or was grossly exaggerated.
It is an uncomfortable, historical fact, evidenced by physical places and objects, documentation and surviving witnesses. Unpopular as it is in the post-modern mindset, truth is truth and the multiple similar experiences of different people, combined with historical records make up history.
As an author, I see revealing truth as my mandate. The young man didn’t say much in reply, but if he went away thinking, I believe I did my job.
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I am always shocked when I read about Holocaust deniers. I suppose a great part of it is the incomprehensible figure of 6 plus million. I hope that young man takes the time to do some serious research.
This comment is not directly related to the problem discussed above - but it opened my eyes even wider to how much was going on and how much ordinary German people during the time didn't even know. I listened to a two-hour interview with one of Hitler's secretaries, Traudl Junge. She stayed in the bunker to the bitter end. She was there when Hitler lost trust in his closest advisers like Goering and Himmler and others, he even tested the cyanide capsule on his beloved dog 'Blondy'' who had babies. She was there when he married Eva Braun, she was there when the Goebbels family poisoned their six kids and the ten-year-old, Helga tried to fight it. Traudl Junge also had one of the cyanide capsules but did not take it. She was taken prisoner by the Russians, later released to the Allies. To listen to her, to see her in this video, to see how she sometimes stopped and at the end uttered "I can't go on..." and put her head down almost into her lap, was incredible. She had kept quiet and 'out of sight' for almost all her 'after-life' - but opened up before she died. It is not an easy video to watch as it is mainly her talking as she remembers, stops and is prompted by the man who is with her, asking very few questions. So it's listening to an eighty-year-old woman talking, a woman with an incredibly clear mind and recall. There are comments one can hardly believe - but it all rings very true. The females, the secretaries, and the cook were kept away from the 'inner circle' and had no idea what was going on in the outside world. They didn't even know what was going on in the male "inner circle" as they had absolutely no access. Traudl Junge was the one out of about six secretaries Hitler chose in the final hour to dictate hisTestament to, his political as well as his personal Last Will.
The video is in German with English subtitles.
It is important to hear from the last witnesses to WW2. How would people find this video?
I knew I should have mentioned it - but had to check with my friends who had the video. They have already passed it on - but to find it on Google: Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary 2002 cover photo Typewriter with white fingers on it.
Also available on Youtube - "Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary 2002"
