Holocaust uniqueness

The Holocaust is often described as a unique event, as implied by the term "The Holocaust".

The book The Holocaust Industry stated that one reason that this is seen as very important is because "unique suffering confers unique entitlement." See also Oppression Olympics.

The uniqueness claim may also be an important part of Holocaustianity.

Even if accepting the politically correct views on mass killings during the Holocaust as correct, then this uniqueness claim is still dubious. There have been many large scale mass killings throughout human history.

Claimed large scale killings

A prominent example is World War II itself, with the non-Jewish casualties outnumbering the Jewish casualties by around ten times, even if accepting the politically correct numbers regarding the Holocaust. Most these non-Jewish casualties were civilians.

Controversially, the book Crimes and Mercies: The Fate of German Civilians Under Allied Occupation 1944-1950 argued that Allied policies such as of expulsion and starvation in the post-war period caused the premature deaths of 5.7 million German civilians, 2.5 million ethnic German refugees from Eastern Europe and 1.1 million German POWs.

These numbers have been criticized, but also other books have stated very high numbers, such as the book After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation. "A nation in tatters, in many places literally flattened by bombs, was suddenly subjected to brutal occupation by vengeful victors. Rape was rampant. Hundreds of thousands of Germans and German-speakers died in the course of brutal deportations from Eastern Europe. By the end of the year, Germany was literally starving to death. Over a million German prisoners of war died in captivity, where they were subjected to inadequate rations and often tortured. All told, an astounding 2.25 million German civilians died violent deaths in the period between the liberation of Vienna and the Berlin airlift. [...] brutality which has been largely ignored by historians or, worse, justified as legitimate retaliation for the horror of the Holocaust."

See also the article on Claimed mass killings of Germans by the WWII Allies on more details on this topic.

More generally, even if ignoring all military casualties, and all civilian causalities in military conflicts, there are still many large scale killings or unnatural deaths of civilians. Some of the more well-known genocides against specific peoples include the Armenian genocide and the Rwandan genocide. Many tens of millions died during the mass killings under Communist regimes, which also included targeted genocides of specific peoples suspected of being potential enemies, such as the Volga Germans.

There are also numerous other argued large scale killings of civilians, including many after WWII. See the following links for examples. Most are likely completely unknown to most people.

The book Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction accepts the politically correct version of the Holocaust but states regarding the supposed uniqueness of the Holocaust that "On no major analytical dimension – speed, scale, scope, intensity, efficiency, cruelty, ideology – does it stand alone and apart. If it is unique in its mix of these ingredients, so too are most of the other major instances of mass killing in their own way. I also believe that uniqueness proponents, like the rest of us, were severely shaken by the holocaust in Rwanda in 1994 (see Chapter 9). The killing there proceeded much faster than the slaughter of the Jews; destroyed a higher proportion of the designated victim group (some 80 percent of Rwandan Tutsis versus two-thirds of European Jews); was carried out by “a chillingly effective organizational structure that would implement the political plan of genocide more efficiently than was achieved by the industrialized death camps in Nazi Germany”; and – unlike the Jewish catastrophe – featured active participation by a substantial portion of the general population."

Many of the large scale killings are completely or to a large degree unknown to general public and have received little or no media attention, unlike the enormous amount of Holocaust media productions.

Another issue, in particular in Holocaust fictional descriptions, is often incorrectly giving the impression that Jews were the only group imprisoned in the Holocaust camps, increasing the impression of Jewish uniqueness. See also Jewish influence: Media.

See also Holocaust demographics: Five million killed non-Jews claim on Simon Wiesenthal inventing this number, but it now being criticized and viewed as problematic for Jewish Holocaust uniqueness claims.

Claimed large scale killings by Jews

The Jewish Bible has been argued to have sanctioned ethnic cleansing of non-Jews. The "Promised Land", when the Jews arrived out of the desert according to the Bible’s account, was owned by non-Jews, who were killed, ethnically cleansed, expelled, or forcibly converted in order to create a Jewish state. The Hasmonean dynasty for a period gained Jewish independence (140 BC–63 BC). The Jewish Bible again describes large scale killing, ethnic cleansing, expulsion, or forced conversion of non-Jews. More generally, Jewish religious writings have been argued to in some cases approvingly describe or condone genocides or other mass killings of various non-Jewish groups. Important Jewish holidays have been criticized for containing elements which have been argued to be celebrations of mass killings of non-Jewish enemies. This has been argued to have negative influences (such as on the views of some Israelis on Palestinians) but is argued to be seldom mentioned or criticized in the mainstream discourse.

Jews revolted several times against Roman rule. Dio Cassius claimed regarding the Kitos War (115–117 AD) that Jews massacred almost half a million people in Africa and Cyprus alone. The Romans in turn killed and enslaved large numbers of Jews.

Some Jews have been seen as having a responsibility for the mass killings under Communist regimes. Many of the important ideologues of Marxism, which advocates a revolution and a consequent "dictatorship of the proletariat" were Jews, Jews often had influential positions in the states and organizations responsible for the killings/unnatural deaths (such as in the Soviet secret police organizations), and some communist atrocities have been argued to be motivated by some Jews seeking revenge against the anti-Jewish Tsarist regime and National Socialist Germany For example, anti-German propaganda by Ilya Ehrenburg have been seen as contributing to large scale atrocities against German civilians. See also Jews and Communism.

The Morgenthau Plan by the Jewish Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. and his Jewish Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Harry Dexter White as well as the book Germany Must Perish! have been argued to have amounted to planned genocides of Germans. The Morgenthau Plan was formally rejected after public protests after it was leaked. However, very harsh measures were despite this implemented on occupied Germany during the first postwar years, which have been argued to have caused effects such as mass starvation and mass deaths, as stated in the previous section and the article on the Morgenthau Plan.

During the postwar period, groups such as the Nakam and Tilhas Tizig Gesheften are alleged to have killed at least hundreds of individuals they suspected may have been involved in the Holocaust. The Nakam group is furthermore alleged to more generally have intended to kill six million Germans.

The book An Eye for an Eye: The Story of Jews Who Sought Revenge for the Holocaust argued that after the Second World War, many concentration camps were established for purposes of the indiscriminate internment of mostly German victims, many of whom were to die an agonizing death there. The book argued that mostly Jewish concentration camp guards in Polish camps took gruesome revenge on innocent Germans who had been rounded up more or less at random.

Israel and the Israel lobby has been argued to be in part or wholly responsible for many massacres and unnatural deaths during the creation of Israel, later Israeli wars, and later proxy wars by others against Israel's enemies.

The Samson Option is the name given to an alleged Israeli threat of massive use of nuclear weapons, if Israel's existence should be seriously threatened and often justified by referring to the Holocaust, allegedly including threats not just against Islamic countries but also against Europe, or even against the entire world.

See also

• Holocaust Memorial Day
• Holocaustianity
• List of Holocaust memorials and museums