 "Interesting On Many Levels" | 2008-08-08 |
| - Reviewed By orangeduke |
This is the book that set off the famous libel suit by infamous neo Nazi David Irving which became the subject of a couple of other books. It also purports to be the first examination of holocaust denial and its tactics. As such it is quite interesting. I fond the section on the attempt to place adds in college newspapers particularly interesting. Lipstadt's argument, that holocaust denial should not be given any academic respectability seems at first glance to undermine the idea of keeping from history from being politicized by enforcing an orthodoxy saying the holocaust happened. But of course the truth is the holocaust did happen, and no one would lend credence to a `historian' that claimed that the Second World War never happened. Facts are facts. Worse, the deniers do have an avowed political purpose, and one that advocates the very thing they deny. There are, indeed, some thoughts that are beyond the pale and should not be tolerated in a civil society, lest we lose sight of objective reality and begin to believe that up is down.
The history and phases of the denial movement is fascinating and various players are all well drawn and the book is a rich source of information about the deniers. Highly recommended.
|
| |
 "Just emotion, little if any facts. Hyperbole." | 2008-06-16 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1QIZRMK27I6W2 |
| This book is far from a historical book; it is pure emotion. One has to understand that to many Jews, and especially organized Jewry, the Holocaust has become something like a religion. A lot is riding on this event (the creation of Israel, for example) and thus it is mandatory the official story of the Holocaust be preserved in the public's mind. As a Jew myself, frankly the whole Holocaust industry embarrasses me. Tragedy is wrong, regardless of who the victim is. Organized Jewry wants the world to think a Jew is more valuable than a gentile, thus, they want the world to believe that the Holocaust was unique in this respect. Twenty million Russians died in WWII (according to many estimates) but you hardly see Russia and Russians crying the way Jews do. And frankly, it is absurd to believe that, without question, 6 million Jews died during WWII. Nobody knows for sure, and according to my research, the figure is far lower than 6 million. But don't say that, for that would be blasphemous... because remember folks, this has become a religion: The God is the Holocaust victims, The Devil is ALL Germans, the church's are the numerous Holocaust museums, the disciples are the Deborah Lipstadt's. |
| |
| "Chilling" | 2007-04-05 |
| - Reviewed By tyr124 |
The Nazis murdered approximately 6 million Jews. There is an enormous amount of documentary and testimonial evidence for this genocide, the Holocaust. The denial of the Holocaust is as silly as the denial of the Rwandan Genocide, the Vietnam War or the existence of Australia; there is as little serious debate to be had with a Holocaust denier as there is to be had with a denier of the Rwandan Genocide, the Vietnam War or the existence of Australia.
In "Denying the Holocaust", Deborah Lipstadt argues that Holocaust denial is not only silly, but dangerous. It is dangerous for Jews in particular because it spreads hatred of Jews, who are accused of perpetrating a hoax. But it is also dangerous for society more generally because it attempts to exonerate Nazism and revive fascism. Holocaust denial becomes increasingly dangerous as it is dressed up in a more sophisticated and scholarly veneer, because it becomes less easy to identify it for what it is.
Lipstadt's study of Holocaust denial traces its origins and development. She covers its major figures and their central contentions. She carefully explains the fabrications, distortions and exaggerations of the deniers, how they construct complicated and inconsistent conspiracy theories in order to avoid evidence. She explains their tactics for achieving respectability, while exposing their racism. However, the book does not cover the development of Holocaust denial in the Middle East, and it was written before the recent theatricals in Iran.
The book is organized and written clearly. The coverage is extensive, but detail is not sacrificed. It combines meticulous scholarship with profound psychological insight. I strongly recommend it. |
| |
 "A detailed, but biased read" | 2007-02-23 |
| - Reviewed By tknight85 |
Lipstadt definitely covers the Holocaust Revisionist movement thoroughly, but one can't help but notice that she, herself, is just as political in her motives as are the Revisionists that she so despises. Lipstadt's Jewish ethnicity, as well as her active role in Jewish affairs and studies, makes it impossible for readers to accept that her views and assertions are objective or unbiased. She writes:
"The challenge presented by the deniers is whether disinformation should be granted the same status and intellectual privileges as real history" (p 26).
But who is Lipstadt to decide what "real history" is? Who is she to determine that revisionists don't have a right to participate in the historical debate over Holocaust events and statistics? She's not even a historian! I don't personally agree with revisionist claims, but I do think that readers deserve a less biased source of information. If you're looking to expand your knowledge of the Holocaust Revisionist movement and their beliefs (as well as the evidence that disputes them), I would read Richard Evan's book "Lying About Hitler: History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial." Evans was one of the researchers for the defense during the David Irving v Penguin & Lipstadt trial in the UK. His impartiality is evident in the fact that, when asked by Lipstadt whether he would search Irving's publications, speeches, and research to prove that he knowingly manipulated information to prove his case, Evans replied that he would search to see IF Irving had done so. While he did come to the same conclusion that Lipstadt had, he has far less bias in his assertions because he went into the research with an open mind and came to his conclusions as objectively as one possibly could. In his book, Evans outlines all of the revisionist claims that Irving asserted and disproves them one-by-one, showing how Irving manipulated and misrepresented data to serve his own purposes. His book is far less of a rant that Lipstadt's and provides a lot of historical information as well.
I gave Lipstadt's book 3 stars because she did do her research, however political her motivations were. The book offers a lot of information and can be quite valuable if you are able to distinguish between the facts and the rants. |
| |
 "So, Where Is the Conspiracy Actually?" | 2007-02-20 |
| - Reviewed By kevincurrie2 |
Those who deny or attempt to "revise" the history of the holocaust like us to believe that there is a vast conspiracy. As Lipstadt shows in this book, they commonly discount evidence discordant with their views as the product of a vast conspiracy of Jews and their minions. Eye witnesses lied. Documents were forged. It was a conspiracy of Jews (unless the evidence confirms their viewpoint, and then they don't question its legitimacy!) So Lipstadt's book is an exercise in irony. It takes those who cry, "conspiracy," and shows that it is actually they, rather than those they accuse, of perpetrating a conspiracy.
Thus, let me stress at the outset that this book is not an attempt to historically rebut the 'revisionists.' (That has been done so many times it is sad!) This book is literally an attempt to expose those revisionists who claim neutrality ("I'm just interested in historical scholarship.") and shows their true motives.
Just like "intelligent design theorists" who are trying to inject a bit of old-time religion into biology by claiming the scientific impartiality of their God hypothesis, Holocuast revisionists have been bombarding the general public with a revamped, quasi-intellectual image designed to make them look credible. But, as Lipstadt shows through some serious detective work, hardly any (if any at all) of these 'thinkers' are neutral at all.
Some are smart but have ill motives (like Ernst Zundel, who has a very blatant history of being a neo-nazi). Others might not have ulterior motives, but practice shoddy scholarship (like Fred Leuchter, who's "scholarship" and credibility brought to nill here.) Otheres are both, like Arhtur Butz, who expresses much anti-Jewish sentiment, writes as a historian, but teaches only electrical engineering! Hmm.)
To be sure, this book is quite literally a two hundred page ad hominem attack. As mentioned, Lipstadt doesn't delve into very much historical debunking of these revisionists. This book attacks their character and (lack of) methodology. It is an attempt to show that, contrary to their protestations, these scholars are very little interested in objective historical truth. They are phonies at worst and neo-nazis operating under a lame subterfuge at best.
And this is why I deduct a star. As interesting as this book is, it is easy to see that Lipstadt has every bit as much of an agenda as do her subjects. She is just as passionate as they. And it is hard to see this book as always fighting fair: it is, after all, a continued attack not on deniers' history, but on their character. (And as others have pointed out, Lipstadt hypocritically chastizes these 'historians' for not having training in history, even though she holds no PhD in the subject either.)
Be that as it may, I can only deduct one star becasue as whiny as Lipstadt can occasionally be, her subjects deserve what they are getting here, as they play the character assault game as much, if not more, than she does. (Remember how historians and eye-witnesses are frequently dismissed in their work as biased towards the Jewish conspiracy!)
To close, I should note that a great companion work to this one - that does tackle the 'revisionist' history - is Richard Evans' "Hitler on Trial." For those who don't know, Evans served as a historian in defense of Lipstadt when she was sued by 'revisionist,' David Irving. He was charged with going through Irving's works and debunking them point by point, which he did easily and well. As shown is Lipstadt's subsequent book detailing the trial, Evans was unbiased going into the trial, and thus, cannot be accused of having motives other than accurate history. (He told Lipstadt that he would review Irving's work, but could not garauntee that his history was bad, until or unless he found evidence that it was.) Where Lipstadt's book takes on the motives, Evans' book is a fascinating look at their (mis)use of history.
Buy both. And if you want, buy some books by revisionists, but I think you will be wasting as much time as buying a book on biology by a theologian.
|
| |
| "Holocaust Liar's Handbook" | 2007-01-12 |
| - Reviewed By feraljimm |
For those of you who have sincerely been seeking the truth about the Holocaust, who have done your homework and read a variety of sources and opinions, this book may well push you completely over into the revisionist ("deniers") camp, as it did me.
Deborah Lipstadt is an Emory University professor of Jewish Religion, NOT history. She was evidently supported by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in writing this book; they hold the copyright, not her. Denying the Holocaust is an attempt to respond to Arthur Butz and others who have raised major factual objections to the usual "6 million Jews killed in gas chambers" version of WW II.
Arthur Butz gathered a wealth of research material in his book The Hoax of the Twentieth Century. Ms Lipstadt responds to his scholarship with things such as name calling, twisted logic, half truths, appeals to emotions, failure to produce evidence, failure to define terms, omitting things, assigning bad motives, answering a question with another question, using big words, etc. That is why I call her book, Denying the Holocaust, a Holocaust Liar's Handbook. I value my copy as a wonderful exercise book for seeing through sophistocated lies.
|
| |
| "Hard to do fully" | 2006-03-30 |
| - Reviewed By oldprofessor |
| This is an excellent book in explaining how people can continue to support a concept that is as fully discredited as anything in history. Ask our own army that liberated camps what they found. What more can be said if Amazon protects anti-semites' "right" to lie from honest discussion, especially when it is by anonymous cowards. I doubt this will see the light of day, but I agree with the author, having been grown when the war ended and the denial began in spite of the overwhelming evidence by both sides (including a huge amount of Nazi records). |
| |
| "She Called John Sack An Anti-Semite and A Neo-Nazi" | 2006-02-05 |
| - Reviewed By seekerotruth |
To give you an idea of where Lipstadt is coming from, I need only recount what she called John Sack on Charlie Rose (see title of this review). In a phone conversation afterwards in which he reminded her that he had sent her a favorable note about her book, she told him (he said): "You are worse than a Holocaust denier." This should tell us all we need to know about Deborah Lipstadt's belief (or non-belief) in the indivisibility of the truth. John Sack painstakingly researched Polish concentration camps for Germans, mostly civilians where 60,000 to 80,000 perished, men, women, children, and babies. According to his research, 3/4 of the camps' staffs were Jewish. This is to be found in John Sack's AN EYE FOR AN EYE, whose facts have been carefully checked. Lipstadt is a denier herself of historical atrocities that sort of provide some balance to the Holocaust.
I wouldn't support seeing her treated as Irving, Zundel, and many others have been for real or alleged Holocaust denial because no one should be jailed for their reading or misreading (even intentional misreading ) of history. But what she does is in principle no better than what they do. She denies other atrocities she doesn't want to believe in.
But what is much, much worse is that she wants to deny any forum for those whom she targets. She, herself, is even worse than the Holocaust deniers, because while being a denier of another sort herself, she wants to shut up the other deniers. At least they haven't tried to do that to her, with the possible exception of David Irving and his libel suit against her. Still Irving has never advocated jailing people for their beliefs. I'm not sure how Lipstadt feels about the many jailings in Germany and Austria for Holocaust denial. But the only Holocaust denier or so-called denier that I know of that she says should be released from imprisonment is Irving himself, and her reason seems to be only that she doesn't want to see him made into a martyr. That's not too impressive a record in supporting a humane, free society, my dear, not at all. |
| |
| "examine these oddballs who spew out their vicious lies ." | 2004-12-25 |
| - Reviewed By eric412 |
Once the psychological insides of these people who are obsessed with publicsizing insanity are examined, that will be enough proof that the Holocaust occurred. Who say's that the Vietnam war never occurred? Who says that other genocides didn't occur. But when it comes to the Holocaust, there is always a bunch of
nuts that have the precise adgenda of horrific anti-semitism. Even Nazi's who were put on trial after the war admitted the Holocaust in horrific detail, even though so many of them couldn't care less. Holocaust denial should be considered a hate
crime in this world just like it is in Germany at the present time. Period!
|
| |
| "Good, but read another book." | 2004-06-12 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| This book is good, but one should really read another boook titled 'Denying History'. That book is a more thorough refutation on the Holocaust deniers. |
| |
Expedited Available
