Holocaust Cross Cultural Perspective - Essay Example

He feels that until now the Europeans have pursued anti-Semitism and have not repented for it. Keneally perceives Europe as one who “brought race hate to its ultimate conclusion” (2). He moves on further to say that the Gentiles must remember the holocaust and receive the warnings inherent in it. Another perspective is the point of view of Emil Fackenheim, an eminent Jewish philosopher. He mentioned in his book, “To Mend the World”, that the holocaust is “a unique part of human history” (American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise ,par.7). He said that it has four distinguishing characteristics making it unique.

Fackenheim claims that the “Final Solution” was “designed to exterminate every single Jewish man, woman and child” (American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise ,par.2). The second characteristic which he mentioned is that being born a Jew justifies the punishment of death which makes them the only people killed for the "crime" of existing. The third distinguishing characteristic he pointed out is that there is no political or economic justification for the extermination of the Jews. “It was not a means to any end; it was an end in itself” (American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise ,par.4). .

xioms he outlined which he described as “incontrovertible assertions” regarding the holocaust, namely: First, the Third Reich wanted to get Jews to emigrate, not to liquidate them physically. Had they intended extermination, 500,000 concentration camp survivors would not now be in Israel to collect fancy indemnities from West Germany. Second, absolutely no Jews were "gassed" in any concentration camps. There were crematoria for cremating corpses who had died from whatever cause, including especially also the victims of the genocidic Anglo -- American air raids.

Third, the majority of Jews who died in pogroms and those who disappeared and are still unaccounted for fell afoul in territories controlled by the Soviet Russians, not in territories while under German control. Fourth, most of the Jews alleged to have met their death at the hands of Germans were subversives, partisans, spies, and criminals, and also often victims of unfortunate but internationally legal reprisals. One reason for my denouncing the Nuremberg prosecutors as lynchers is that they hanged Germans for actions they themselves adopted!

Fifth, if there were the slightest likelihood that the Nazis had in fact executed six million Jews, World Jewry would scream for subsidies with which to do research on the question, and Israel would throw its archives and files open to historians. They have not done so. On the contrary they have persecuted anyone who tries to investigate impartially and even call him an anti -- Semite. This is really devastating evidence that the figure is a swindle. Sixth, the Jews and the media who exploit this figure have never offered a shred of valid evidence for its truth.

At most they misquote Hoettl, Hoss, and Eichmann who spoke only casually of what they were in no position