Was Raul Hilberg a Holocaust Denier?

The Destruction of the European Jews (Student One Volume Edition) is lauded by Michael Marrus of The Times Literary Supplement: “In its originality, scope and seriousness of theme, this is one of the great historical works of our time”. David S. Wyman, writing for the New York Times Book Review, writes “The standard text in its field … by the pre-eminent scholar of the Holocaust”

Pretty heavy accolades for book and author Raul Hilberg, yes? So imagine our shock to read on page 263, “The Germans killed five million Jews.” [NB: we have long understood that Hilberg’s estimation was 5.1 million, but have not seen this in sentence form that states the number so directly.] We reproduce this page for our readers:

Didn’t Hilberg get the memo? The world is reminded again and again that it was SIX million Jews who were killed by the Germans. Here’s a standing reminder on the University of Michigan campus for all the world to see; did Hilberg not visit Ann Arbor to get his facts straight?

Let’s go out on a limb here, and provide a personal definition of “Holocaust”. Once defined (an assignment suggested to this writer by the late Ernst Zundel) we can determine whether Prof. Hilberg falls into the Holocaust “affirming” camp or the “denying” camp:

The “Holocaust” is the specific part of world history – years 1939 to 1945 – during which time the National Socialist (Nazi) government of Germany formulated and implemented a plan – originating with Adolf Hitler and top Nazi officials – to physically exterminate the Jews of Europe. They accomplished this task in a mechanical, assembly-line process, by transporting Jewish and other groups, to “death camps” specifically equipped with homicidal gas chambers. These gas chambers employed hydrogen cyanide gas (marketed by IG Farben as “Zyklon B”) as the killing agent, and were specifically built for the purpose of following the extermination order. By “Death Camps”, we refer to historian Raul Hilberg’s definition “as a facility the primary purpose of which is conveying people to their deaths.” No less than six million Jews died under this extermination program by the Nazis during this time period.

By this definition, we conclude that Professor Hilberg was indeed a Holocaust “Denier”. And, by implication, we find ourselves – members of sister group Deir Yassin Remembered, that is – in pretty lofty company. We recognize that our definition is just one of many possibilities, and we welcome any other definition that may compete with ours. For example, in his book Debating the Holocaust, Thomas Dalton writes: “There can be no denying the Holocaust of the mid-twentieth century; it was called World War II. Roughly 50 to 60 million people died worldwide – about 70 percent of whom were civilians.” For the record, this author – and we can presume Prof. Hilberg – affirm this definition.

Witness for Peace on the Air

This writer was interviewed on Truth Jihad Radio by Kevin Barrett October 27th. The one-hour interview can be found here. Kevin writes:

Henry Herskovitz of Deir Yassin Remembered offers a third opinion on the controversy. Henry hails from a Jewish background, but no longer considers himself a member of the tribe. Henry is well know[n] in Ann Arbor, Michigan for picketing [Kevin, we gotta talk] his local synagogue every Saturday in protest against the Palestinian genocide. Recently a local attorney, Jessica Lieberman, was convicted and sentenced for stealing one of Henry’s group’s protest signs. [we note that Lieberman plead guilty to Disturbing the Peace, not Larcency, as originally charged]

Dedication

This report is dedicated to the memory of our friend Ingrid Rimland Zundel (1936-2017)

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Henry Herskovitz
Witness for Peace
America First Not Israel
Oct. 28 – three vigilers
Nov. 4 – four vigilers