Let’s face it. By their very belief in Holocaust denial, Holocaust deniers demonstrate day in and day out that they aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer (or the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree, pick your simile). However, occasionally, I come across Holocaust denial that brings stupid to a whole new level, and I was made aware of a couple of such examples last week. Naturally, I could not resist sharing them with you, my readers.
First, Larry Fafarman makes his case for the prize of Stupidest Holocaust Denier Statement, with such gems (excerpted from his “article”) as:
- “Who in the hell cares about protecting the “privacy” of people who have been persecuted, tortured, and murdered?” (Regarding concerns about fears that unfettered access to Holocaust records might violate the privacy of Holocaust victims, both living and dead.)
- “Why would the Nazis have allowed such a document to fall into enemy hands? And we know that some prisoners were allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy alive.” (Regarding one such German document that cites an order from Heinrich Himmler that “no prisoner must be allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy alive.”)
- “Why all the secrecy? I smell a conspiracy here.” (Regarding the 11-nation commission governing the International Tracing Service, an arm of the International Committee of the Red Cross having not more widely opened its records.)
Nice. Lack of compassion and conspiracy-mongering, coupled with a really stupid question about how the Germans might ever have let such records fall in the hands of the Allies. (Ever consider that there wasn’t enough time, as Allied forces advanced from both the East and the West and German cities were being bombed to rubble?) But Larry isn’t finished:
I am finally coming out of the closet. I refuse to be intimidated any longer by the fascist bigots who persecute holocaust revisionists. I am adding two major holocaust revisionist websites, the Institute for Historical Review and the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust, to my link list because I have found no unjustified criticism of Jews or Jewish groups in them.
“No unjustified criticism of Jews or Jewish groups” on CODOH or IHR? Truly stupid. He’s also apparently unaware of Zündel’s ties to far right wing hate groups; either that, or he doesn’t care. (Note: I have posted multiple times before about how much I oppose laws criminalizing Holocaust denial or “genocide denial.” The Zundel case is not equivalent, for example, to the David Irving case.) He even cites long-debunked denier canards:
I am also wondering why the Nazis recorded and saved documentation of their crimes.
Another flagrant example of the poor documentation of the Holocaust has been the wild variation in the official numbers of deaths at Auschwitz, from 1 to 4 million.
Read this article for the real story, about how the “4 million” figure was a Soviet propaganda ploy that serious historians doubted right from the beginning and which was within a few years revised downward as better studies were done. Heck, even Rudolf Hösshimself, Commandant at Auschwitz, only estimated that he had been responsible for 2 million or so victims. Whenever you see a Holocaust denier trot out the old “four million at Auschwitz” gambit, you know you’re dealing with some serious stupid.
But, alas for Larry, he is not the stupidest Holocaust denier of them all. Here, someone blogging under the ‘nym “Liberator” makes his case for that prize:
The Waffen SS – as instructed by Der Fuhrer, were told never to hurt a man that surrenders. When enemy soldiers surrender, it is even un- necessary to disarm them, for they have surrendered knowing they are outnumbered and outgunned, thus if they fire their weapon against a superior numerical force, they will die without question. Therefore, Adolf Hitler/Thomas Jefferson instructed his Waffen SS to just point the way for the prisoners to go, and don’t even disarm them. And this was repeated, in numerous books I have skimmed through. I saw the exact same thing in numerous books that were not collaborating, and then I read about Lt. John Frost who defends the SS and their honor.
What was interesting is that the Jews used incidents where Allied soldiers were not disarmed and just pointed which way to go as panzers rolled on, was that the allied soldiers on their own through down their guns, and as soon as the tanks were out of sight, the allied soldiers picked up their guns again and thought they could gain a medal and survive by attacking further proceeding Waffen SS soldiers, of which they did. These men failed and were executed, they flew a white flag, but then when it was convenient to betray that, they did and then the claims of men who were surrendering were gunned down in cold blood by the Waffen SS – this was not true, yet this lie stands today against the Waffen SS.
Hitler instructed his SS to be totally loose and humane to enemy soldiers who surrendered, and loose they were they didnt even disarm them. Once you surrender to a Waffen SS man it’s your duty and honor to refrain from further combat, we trust you us Germans…
What elevates this stupid above the stupid of most Holocaust deniers is not just the idiocy of claiming that the SS were ordered to treat their prisoners humanely, but coupling that with posting such off-topic idiocy to the newsgroup alt.music.rush. In any case, apparently “Liberator” never heard of Hitler’s infamous “Commissar” directive, issued a few weeks before the invasion of the Soviet Union:
In the struggle against Bolshevism, we must not assume that the enemy’s conduct will be based on principles of humanity or of international law. In particular, hate-inspired, cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners can be expected on the part of all grades of political commissars, who are the real leaders of resistance…To show consideration to these elements during this struggle, or to act in accordance with international rules of war, is wrong and endangers both our own security and the rapd pacification of conquered territory…Political commissars have initiated barbaric, Asiatic methods of warfare. Consequently, they will be dealt with immediately and with maximum severity. As a matter of principle, they will be shot at once, whether captured during operations or otherwise showing resistance.
As Ian Kershaw described it in his recent Hitler biography, Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis:
The order removed punishable acts committed by enemy civilians from the jurisdiction of the military courts. Guerrilla fighters were to be peremptorily shot. Collective reprisals against whole village communities were ordered in cases where individual perpetrators could not be rapidly identified. Actions by members of the Wehrmacht against civilians would not be automatically subject to disciplinary measures, even if normally coming under the heading of a crime..
And, apparently “Liberator” forgot that the Einsatzgruppen, the mobile paramilitary killing units that followed the Wehrmacht into Russia, rounding up Jews and Communist Party officials to be shot, were under the control of the SS and their purpose was murder, as SS General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski confirmed at the main Nuremberg Trial, “The principal task [of the Einsatzgruppen] was the annihilation of the Jews, gypsies, and political commissars.”
Nope. Not even Larry can compete against such stupidity, although famous Usenet Holocaust denier Tom Moran might, through sheer quantity of idiocy.
