Holocaust motivations

Holocaust motivations in this article refer to various argued motivations in relation to the claimed events during the Holocaust (including related aspects such as pre-war camps and deportations), by parties such as National Socialist Germany, the WWII Allies conducting Allied psychological warfare, Zionists, and other Jewish and non-Jewish special interest groups.

The politically correct view on the Holocaust can be found in numerous easily available sources. This article will mainly describe some of the less often mentioned argued motivations in relation to the Holocaust.

Holocaust revisionist views on motivations for the camps and deportations

Pre-war camps

Holocaust revisionists argue that interment camps were built soon after Hitler’s assumption of power in 1933 and were used for argued militant political opponents: most of the inmates were Communists. Communists had considerable support among the population (the pro-Stalin Communist KDP parry received 14% and the socialist SPD party 22% of votes in the July 1932 election) and part of the reason for Hitler gaining power was due to increasing political violence, fear of Communist violence against opponents, and a possible Communist coup followed by persecutions similar to those in the Soviet Union.

The number of prisoners was 27,000 in October 1933, but fell as the political situation stabilized to around 7,000 by February 1934. In addition to political prisoners, the prisoners also included hardened criminals and “Asocials” (tramps, beggars etc.). The death rate was very low. Before 1938, Jews were not imprisoned only for being Jews. The Kristallnacht was followed by imprisonment of 30,000 Jews, but most were soon released.

WWII camps

After the start of WWII, the camp system expanded rapidly. One reason was the partisan/resistance movement(s) in the occupied territories. Camps were also needed for prisoners of war (POWs).

The term "concentration camp" was created during the Second Boer War (1899-1902), when the Boer civilian population were interned in camps, in order to prevent help to the Boer forces and partisans. The term was after this used in reference to argued similar policies by the United States, Spain, and the Soviet Union, long before the Second World War. It was also applied to camps in National Socialist Germany, long before the war. Prison camps had existed before the Boer Wars, such as during the American Civil War, when both the North and South maintained camps for POWs and suspected enemy sympathizers; considerable percentages of these inmates died, mostly from epidemics. At the Southern prison camp of Andersonville as well as in the camps for Boer civilians the mortality rate was around 25%.

Argued reasons for National Socialist mistrust of Jewish influence included the German Revolution of 1918–19, the stab in the back theory, argued Jewish communism, and the then already partially known atrocities of communism. After the creation National Socialist Germany, a number of hostile declarations were made by Jews and Jewish organizations, which included threats of "war", "destruction", and "sabotage". Boycotts were organized. See also Pre-WWII anti-National Socialist Germany boycott. Jews are argued to have constituted a disproportionately large proportion of resistance members and partisans in all German-occupied territories. See also National Socialist Germany and partisans/resistance movements.

This has been argued to have contributed to Jews being deported and placed in camps. Groups seen as having potentially hostile members were also placed in camps in the Allied nations, such as many people of Japanese heritage (and in some cases people of German and Italian heritage) in the United States. Several ethnicities in the Soviet Union, suspected of being potentially disloyal, were to various degrees persecuted, killed, and deported. For instance, the Soviet Union brutally deported to Siberia and caused the death of many Volga Germans. Britain during the 1939-1948 has been stated to have placed tens of thousands of Jews in concentration camps in Palestine, with 70,000 Jews going through just one of the camps, where many died due to poor living conditions. Israel during the 1948-1955 period has been stated to have had at least 22 concentration and labor camps for thousands of Palestinians, with living conditions far below what would be considered appropriate by international law at that time.

The increased demands for laborers by the war industries, conscription of many men, war casualties, and evacuations/deportations of able workers by the Soviet Union before the German advance is argued to have created constant labor shortages in Germany and many occupied areas. Therefore, another argued reason for the deportations and the camps was to use Jews as forced laborers.

Also during the war, there were various non-Jewish groups in the camps, such as partisans/resistance members, POWs, gypsies, homosexuals, ordinary criminals, and political prisoners such as Communists (not all members of such groups were sent to the camps, but typically those seen as having committed more severe offenses). There were also many releases of certain groups from the camps. An important difference between camps is argued to have been whether the ordinary criminals or the political prisoners (in particular the Communists) were in control among the prisoners themselves. Both groups are argued to have practiced widespread terror against and stolen food from other prisoners, in effect often meaning a death sentence.

Argued long-term policy regarding the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question"

Revisionists argue that the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" meant voluntary emigration by or forced deportations of Jews from Europe. They further argue that measures taking the during war, such as the camps and deportations to Eastern Europe/Western Russia, were seen as temporary solutions, with the "Final Solution" to the "Jewish Question" to be fully implemented only after the war.

See World War II statements argued to support Holocaust revisionism on more on this.

See also the article on Jewish expulsions.

Argued exploitation

Various groups are argued to have exploited the politically correct Holocaust version. Some of these arguments accept the politically correct version as correct, but still argue that it has been used for exploitation.

Other exploitation arguments rely on the revisionist version of what happened. Revisionists also argue that such exploitation by various groups is the main explanation for why the politically correct version appeared and continues to be influential.

By the Allies

Briefly, various forms of exploitation by the Allies and associated groups have been argued, as discussed in more detail later in the section:

• to distract from, justify, or cover-up large-scale Allied atrocities, including mass deaths, mass rapes, and material mass destruction before, during, and after the war (see Claimed mass killings of Germans by the WWII Allies).
• to distract from, justify, or cover-up other war hardships (for example, see The World Wars and mass starvation).
• for the Western Allies, in order to distract from or to justify allying with Stalin and allowing half of Europe to fall victim to Stalinist terror, claiming that this was the lesser of two evils.
• for Communists, to distract from, justify, or cover-up mass killings under Communist regimes.
• to discredit internal resistance to Communist oppression by associating such resistance with support/participation in the Holocaust.
• during the war, to increase support for anti-German partisans and resistance groups (notably in the Holocaust camps, with the (Communist) resistance groups making atrocity accusations benefiting from this by increased support from camp prisoners).
• to increase support for the war in Allied and neutral countries, where support often was weak after the horrors of WWI.
• to demoralize Germans and non-German allies during war.
• to justify various demands for postwar reparations from Germany.
• to justify various postwar actions, such as large-scale ethnic cleansings, forced labor, and appropriation of German patents, scientists, factories, and art.
• to demoralize Germans after the war, in order to prevent a situation similar to that after WWI, when many Germans objected to the argued unfair peace treaty.

Many of the early Holocaust claims originated from the Communist Soviet Union and from Communist influenced resistance groups in the Holocaust camps and started after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. See Timelines of Holocaust historiography and revisionism. From a revisionist point of view, this may explained as that anti-German Communist propaganda was limited as long as National Socialist Germany and the Soviet Union were allies, but that the anti-German Communist propaganda became very large-scale once war occurred.

Revisionists argue that the German propaganda after the discovery of Soviet atrocities in the German occupied Soviet Union was extremely successful and among other things caused one million foreign volunteers to join Germany's struggle against the Soviet Union, the biggest volunteer army in the history of mankind to ever fight for a foreign nation.

In response the Allies, the revisionists argue, went to extreme lengths to invent or back similar stories of mass murder and blame them on the Germans. This included British propaganda spreading stories originating from the Communist influenced Auschwitz resistance regarding very large scale killings, which the British knew were false, since they had cracked the German radio codes the camp commanders used to send encoded messages to Berlin about the numbers of prisoners in each camp. Top Allied intelligence officers stated that they did not believe the propaganda that was spread was true. Thus, the Chairman of the Allied Joint Intelligence Committee in 1943 stated that the accounts about gassings which originated from Polish and Jewish sources were invented and were like the false propaganda about the Germany during the First World War.

During the First World War, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph published an article falsely claiming that the Germans had murdered 700,000 Serbs in gas chambers. During the Second World War the same newspaper in 1944 claimed that the Germans had murdered 700,000 Jews in Poland in gas chambers. At this time, the British Government had asked the British media and churches to help spread more anti-German propaganda, in order to distract from the atrocities it expected to be committed by the Soviets, as soon as they invaded Germany. In its circular, the British government expressed its regret that, after the exposure of the First World War propaganda lies, greater efforts would be necessary to succeed this time.

Stories of mass murders spread also as rumors among the camp populations and may have caused many in the camps to believe that mass killings were taking place. The Communist influenced resistance groups in camps likely gained from this, such as by being able to recruit more members.

"Revisionists generally hold that the Allied governments, and in particular the Soviets, decided to carry their wartime "black propaganda" of German monstrosities over into the postwar period. This was done for essentially three reasons. 1. The Allies felt it necessary to continue to justify the great sacrifices that were made in fighting two world wars. 2. The Allies wanted to divert attention from, and to justify, their own particularly brutal crimes against humanity. Soviet atrocities alone caused the death of uncounted millions of civilians in the Soviet Union and in all countries of eastern and central Europe. American and British saturation bombings of German and Japanese cities causing over a million civilians to be burned or buried alive. 3. The Allies needed justification for postwar arrangements involving the total dismantling of German industry, a policy of starvation causing the deaths of many millions of German civilians, the robbing of German patents worth trillions of dollars, and the annexation of large parts of Germany into Poland and the USSR. These territories were not disputed borderlands but consisted of 20% of the entire German territory. The twelve million Germans living in these regions were robbed of their property and brutally expelled. More than two millions perished during this most heinous ethnic cleansing of world history."

See also the articles on Claimed mass killings of Germans by the WWII Allies and The World Wars and mass starvation‎.

Furthermore, the Western Allies, faced with the accusation of having given up half of Europe to Stalin and Stalinist terrors, could counter this with the argument that this was the lesser of two evils.

Another aspect is the widespread resentment in Germany and the other defeated countries against the treatment by the Allies and the peace treaties after World War I. Avoiding such resentment after World War II may have been seen as desirable and very important.

Another argued use for false Holocaust propaganda is by the Soviet KGB, which in the postwar period instituted a disinformation campaign intended to discredit Ukrainian and Lithuanian nationalism, and to cause Jewish hostility to such opposition to the Soviet system. This included fabricating black propaganda and fabricating evidence of participation in alleged "Nazi" war crimes against Jews. One example is John Demjanjuk.

The Soviet Union before WWII already had a long tradition of and extensive experience on rewriting and falsifying history, by methods such as show trials, "confessions" and "testimonies" obtained by using a variety of methods, and editing and forgery of photographs and documents. In some cases, such as the Katyn Massacre, when the victims were non-Jews and the massacres were useful as propaganda by the West against the Soviet Union, it has been admitted that the Soviet Union falsely accused National Socialist Germany of war crimes and submitted large amounts of fabricated evidence, including faked forensic evidence and false witness "testimonies", at the Nuremberg trials.

See also Allied psychological warfare.

Some of the Allies allowing criticism of other Allies and not emphasizing Jewish Holocaust uniqueness

Communist Poland in the postwar period published material allegedly written by Rudolf Höss, which included some indirect criticisms of other Allies, such as regarding Höss being tortured by the British and Höss mentioning Soviet atrocities known to the Germans. This indirect criticism (and other similar cases of some of the Allies allowing some indirect criticisms of other Allies in alleged Holocaust evidence) has been seen as evidence against the Allies fabricating Holocaust claims. However, this ignores that while the Allies were united against National Socialist Germany, they were also rivals, with strong hostility between Communist and non-Communist countries before and after the war (see the Cold War) and there also being various strong tensions within the Soviet controlled Communist bloc of countries. This was manifested, for example, during various violent uprisings against the Soviet Communist control and during the "Polish October"/"Polish thaw" after the death of Stalin, when Poland for a time allowed indirect criticisms of the Soviet Union and of Soviet atrocities. Höss "memoirs" were published at this time. See also the article on Rudolf Höss on other argued reasons for allowing indirect criticisms of other Allies. Also, there is no explanation for why the Communists would not have controlled and censored what was written on the Holocaust, when they applied such control and censorship on all other areas.

A similar argument is that Holocaust claims originating from the Communist countries in some cases did not emphasize Jewish Holocaust uniqueness, but instead emphasized claims of atrocities against non-Germans in general, including against the Slavs in the Communist countries, and sometimes spoke only of alleged victims in general, such as at the Holocaust camps, without mentioning any specific ethnicities, Jewish or non-Jewish. This has been seen as evidence against fabrications of atrocities with Jewish victims.

• However, this ignores that it was a general Communist policy to try to minimize and suppress ethnic differences, while instead promoting divisions based on class. That the Soviet Union would try to emphasize alleged German atrocities against many groups, rather than just against Jews, is not surprising.
• Communist originated claims of German atrocities that did not mention any specific victim ethnicity may still be cited as evidence for atrocities against Jews.
• Another aspect is that those making this argument indirectly state that the Communist Holocaust claims are unreliable and politically influenced.
• Those making this argument may misleadingly cite anti-Semitic Soviet policies during the last years before Stalin's death, while ignoring more pro-Jewish Communist policies before and after this period.
• That Communist countries alleged atrocities against non-Jews does not mean that there were not also specific allegations of atrocities against Jews. Some examples of Communist organizations which alleged atrocities against Jews include the Soviet Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, the Auschwitz Museum in Communist Poland, and the International Auschwitz Committee based in Communist Poland. Communist countries "revealed"/published various texts which alleged atrocities against Jews, such as the "memoirs" of Höss, the Stahlecker Reports, and the Jäger Report. The Soviet Union and Communist Poland produced reports alleging atrocities against Jews at locations such as at Treblinka. The Soviet Union supported the verdict of the International Military Tribunal, which included Holocaust allegations. Communist countries allowed alleged witnesses to travel to Holocaust trials in the West, where allegations of atrocities against Jews were made.
• See also the article on Allied psychological warfare and the sections on Poland and the Soviet Union, on pro-Holocaust propaganda by numerous individuals and organizations associated with Communist countries, as well as the article on Holocaust testimonial evidence and the section on "Communists and witnesses".

By Zionists

See the article on Holocaust demographics and the section "Early history of the number six million Jews" on argued propaganda use of this number by Zionists, long before WWII.

"During the war, and in the postwar era as well, Zionist organizations became deeply involved in creating and spreading Holocaust stories. Their purpose was to drum up world sympathy and support for Jewish causes, especially for the creation of the State of Israel."

"Zionists did use stories of Nazi atrocities (real and imagined) against Jews during WWII to gain sympathy for the Zionist cause of creating a Jewish state. At a mass rally in Madison Square Garden in March 1943, Zionist activist and first president of Israel Chaim Weizmann was quoted as saying: “Two million Jews have already been exterminated…The democracies have a clear duty before them…Let them negotiate with Germany through the neutral countries concerning the possible release of the Jews in the occupied countries…Let the gates of Palestine be opened to all who can reach the shores of the Jewish homeland…”"

Zionists have even been argued to have actively and influentially opposed Jews emigrating to other countries than Palestine (before, during, and after the war) and to have even seen persecutions of Jews as beneficial for their cause, by increasing emigration and by increasing support for Zionism.

As an excuse for starting wars and as a general moral justification - "Never again"

The threat of a possible new Hitler and a new possible Holocaust, sometimes involving alleged weapons of mass destruction to be used for this Holocaust, has frequently been used as a justification for wars, and gaining support for these wars, in particular wars against the enemies of Israel. More generally, phrases such as "Never again", with reference to the Holocaust, are used as moral excuses for various actions, such as Israel having weapons of mass destruction. Currently a popular target is Iran.

Stated examples include that "A few weeks after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, Begin stated that after the Holocaust the international community had lost its right to demand that Israel answer for its actions. Begin declared in the Knesset, “No one, anywhere in the world, can preach morality to our people.” A similar statement was included in the resolution adopted by Begin’s cabinet after the massacres in Palestinian refugee camps on the outskirts of Beirut. [...] According to Israeli education-corps officer Ehud Praver, “too many soldiers were deducing that the Holocaust justifies every kind of disgraceful action.”"

For other pro-Jewish propaganda purposes

The Holocaust has also been argued to be used for other propaganda purposes by Jews and others.

One argued example is the Holocaust being used to increase solidarity among Jews and to increase wariness and mistrust of non-Jews.

A 2013 survey of Jews in the United States asked what was an essential part of being Jewish. "Remembering the Holocaust" was the most common answer.

A 1989 book by an Israeli author stated that "Israelis and American Jews fully agree that the memory of the Holocaust is an indispensable weapon — one that must be used relentlessly against their common enemy … Jewish organisations and individuals thus labor continuously to remind the world of it. In America, the perpetuation of the Holocaust memory is now a $100-million-a-year enterprise, part of which is government funded."

A 1966 critical book stated that "Ever since the Jews invented the libel charge of “anti- Semitism” in the 1880s. It was first published in the Jewish Encyclopedia (1901 Vol. 1, p. 641), and has been built up with Jewish money, organizations, propaganda and lies (such as the Holocaust — Holohoax), so that now the word is like a snake venom which paralyses one’s nervous system. Even the mention of the word “Jew” is shunned unless used in a most favorable and positive context."

The elsewhere mentioned book The Holocaust Industry stated that "Invoking The Holocaust was therefore a ploy to delegitimize all criticism of Jews: such criticism could only spring from pathological hatred" and "Deploring the ‘Holocaust lesson’ of eternal Gentile hatred, Boas Evron observes that it ‘is really tantamount to a deliberate breeding of paranoia… This mentality… condones in advance any inhuman treatment of non-Jews, for the prevailing mythology is that ‘all people collaborated with the Nazis in the destruction of Jewry,’ hence everythingis permissible to Jews in their relationship to other peoples."

For financial and status gain

The book The Holocaust Industry, by the Jewish professor Norman Finkelstein, has described enormous financial and other forms of gains from the Holocaust.

Thus, Israel and "Holocaust survivors" have received and receive large reparations and other forms of economic benefits from Germany, other countries, and various banks and other companies somehow claimed to be associated with the Holocaust. Many "Holocaust survivors" have furthermore gained economically through books, lectures, or simply through having the always mentioned "Holocaust survivor" distinction. There are an increasing number of Holocaust museums, memorials, educational programs, and so on, making a living on memorializing the Holocaust. An enormous amount of films and television programs involving the Holocaust has been produced. Many scholars are paid to promote the politically correct view of the Holocaust. Organizations such as anti-racist and pro-Jewish lobby organizations usually prominently promote the Holocaust in order to scare Jews and other into giving large donations.

Former Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Abba Eban stated "There’s no business like Shoa business".

Other forms of argued gains include respect and status as a "Holocaust survivor".

By non-Jewish groups

Various non-Jewish groups, who gained from the results of the Second World War, have been argued to have a vested interest in the politically correct version of the Holocaust. Such groups have been argued to include groups in Germany, Great Britain, Poland, Russia, and the United States. This has been argued to contribute to the persistence of the politically correct version.

For example, regarding West Germany and Germany, it has been argued that "While the government in West Germany was less totalitarian in nature than that in the East, the West German political establishment could still rightly be classified as a colonial government of the United States, Great Britain and France. The occupation powers retained the right to manage German domestic affairs and administration and to nullify German legislation. [...] As a puppet creation, this ‘German’ political establishment necessarily had an interest in the lies of the conquerors and behaved accordingly. [...] The “Nazi extermination camp” mythology was declared “historical truth” at the Nuremberg trials, and it was then used as an ideological cornerstone for the Allied installed governments in postwar Germany. The conquered Germans were to be fully indoctrinated with the Holocaust ideology [...] the Holocaust mythology still remains an ideological cornerstone of the present German government. Indeed, in April 1999, the German Federal Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer stated: "All democracies have a basis, a cornerstone. For France it is 1789, for Germany it is Auschwitz." [...] It is in this sociopolitical context that we must decipher German motives. Since the governing class’s position of power and influence is “justified” and “legitimized” by the Holocaust ideology, it makes sense that they would aggressively indoctrinate the German masses with it. All German politicians must accept and promote the Holocaust mythology, for in the present German political culture they cannot do otherwise. [...] Germany was incapable of growing sufficient food for its growing population [...] The present German government is faced with delicate problems with regard to approval from other nations, for the reason of satisfying the basic economic needs of the nation. [...] Financial restitution to Jews was the price to pay for German entry into the Western alliance. [...] The promotion of the Holocaust ideology in the Federal Republic of Germany is not to be explained because of its inherent truth or reasonableness. Rather, its dominance is largely explained by the fact that it serves to "justify" and "legitimize" the entire sociopolitical structure in the Federal Republic".

Another example is post-Communist Poland, a country of special importance due to it containing much of the Holocaust material evidence. The large scale postwar Polish expulsions of Germans and Polish annexation of German territories are argued to in effect be justified by referring to the Holocaust. Furthermore, "The Auschwitz-Birkenau complex is a major tourist site that provides the Polish economy with much needed revenue. In 1989, 700,000 people from eighty-nine countries visited the camp. In 2008, it experienced more than one million visitors, and in 2009 a record number of 1.3 million toured the site. [...] For the Polish nation, not only does the Holocaust mythology serve as a cornerstone of Polish nationalism, a useful ideological weapon against Germany, a “justification” for anti-German hostility, and a source of much needed revenue for its sometimes sluggish economy, it also provides a "safeguard" against any future German demand that Poland give back the disputed territories to Germany. Many Poles fear in their hearts that the post-war state of Poland stands and falls with Auschwitz." Claimed German Holocaust atrocities and anti-Polish atrocities may also be used in various way against claims that Poland or Poles persecuted minorities (such as Germans and Jews) before and after the war (such as at Jedwabne).

Many other causes have also been stated regarding these and other countries. See the linked source.

By opponents of eugenics

The rise of the "Holocaust Memorial Movement" has been linked to opposition to and decline of eugenics in Western countries (but not in Israel). Thus, the movement has been argued to be an important contributor to large scale genetic deterioration harmful for both individuals and societies. Also regarding the relationship to eugenics, see the Eugenics article and in particular the sections "History", "National Socialist Germany", and "Jewish and Israeli eugenics".

By race denialists, genetic denialists, advocates of White guilt, non-Whites, and leftists

Race denialists, genetics denialists, advocates of White guilt, non-Whites, and leftists have been argued to use the Holocaust for purposes such as discrediting their opponents. Again, this has been argued to contribute to the persistence of the politically correct version.

Motivations of Holocaust witnesses and confessors

See Holocaust testimonial evidence.

Argued religious motivations

Some aspects have been as having religious aspects and motivations. See the Holocaustianity article.

Holocaust revisionism and "hate speech"

See The Holocaust: Holocaust revisionism and "hate speech".

External links

• Why the Holocaust Story Was Invented
• The Non-Jewish Stake in the Holocaust Mythology: Why the Continued Success of a Failed Ideology?