Quotes from Norman G. Finkelstein's Book "The Holocaust Industry"

Quotes from Norman G. Finkelstein´s Book "The Holocaust Industry"

Given the pending war against Iraq and Zionists' influence over the American administration, it was thought the following notes from Norman Finkelstein's brilliant book on the holocaust exploitation industry might come in useful in showing how Zionists have used America's economic and financial power to force virtually all European governments into coughing up money to keep the holocaust industry going for another couple of centuries. That the Zionists could manipulate the American government into bullying European governments over the Second World War shows the degree of control they have over the American political system.

Finkelstein's book is highly recommended. Anyone who thinks the Jewish holocaust establishment is an altruistic institution fighting to correct the injustices of the past, and thereby helping to make the world a better place to live in, really ought to read this work. If Zionists can exploit the millions of Jews who perished during the Second World War then it should not be difficult to appreciate they could also exploit the American political system for the benefit of the Zionist state in Palestine. If Zionists are making vast sums of money out of their own sufferingt then they are capable of almost anything.

Notes on Finkelstein's book, "The Holocaust Industry"

The Holocaust Ideology

Finkelstein argues that up until the June 1967 war between the Zionist state and the Arab world, American Jews had little interest in the fate of the Jews during the Second World War or in the Zionist state in Palestine, "Between the end of world war II and the late 1960s only a handful of books and films touched on the subject." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.12).

The Zionists' success in that war led the American government to regard the Zionist state as its ally in the region. The American public looked upon the Zionist state with approval and this enabled American Jews to express their support for the Zionist state. American Jews then started to develop a holocaust ideology to increase support for the Zionist state in Palestine and to cover up its criminal activities against the palestinian people, "It was not Israel’s alleged weakness and isolation, not the fear of a ‘second holocaust’ but rather its proven strength and strategic alliance with the united states that led Jewish elites to gear up the Holocaust industry after june 1967." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.31); "By virtually all accounts, it was only after this conflict (june 1967) that the Holocaust became a fixture in American Jewish life." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.16). Finkelstein believes the holocaust took off after Israel’s triumphal victory in the october 1973 war. p.27).

He argues the holocaust industry is also being used as an ideological weapon. It .. "has been used to justify criminal policies of the israeli state and u.s. support for these policies." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.7-8).

"In this text, nazi holocaust signals the actual historical event, the Holocaust its ideological representation." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.3).

"The Holocaust is not an arbitrary but rather an internally coherent construct. Its central dogmas sustain significant political and class interests. Indeed, the Holocaust has proven to be an indispensible ideological weapon." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.3).

Finkelstein argues that after the Second World War, Jews were able to rise to positions of power in American society, "As anti-semitic barriers quickly fell away after world war II, Jews rose to preeminence in the united states." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.32). Not just prominence but pre-eminence! But, as is invariably the case, as Jews rose through the ranks of society they became more right wing and reactionary, "As American Jews enjoyed greater secular success, they moved steadily to the right politically." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.35).

One of the more ominous developments of Jews' rise to power in America was the use of anti-semitic accusations to fend off any criticisms of what Jews were doing, "Moving aggressively to defend their corporate and class interests, Jewish elites branded all opposition to their new conservative policies anti-semitic. In this ideological offensive, the Holocaust came to play a critical role. Most obviously, evoking historic persecution deflected present day criticism." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.37).

"The motive behind the claim of widespread Holocaust denial is not hard to find. In a society saturated with the Holocaust, how else to justify yet more museums, books, curricula, films and programmes than to conjure up the bogey of Holocaust denial?" (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.68). (He believes very few people around the world, let alone America, are denialists and that the idea is promoted by the Holocaust industry.

"Annual days of remembrance of the Holocaust are a national event. All 50 states sponsor commemorations, often in state legislative chambers. The first question is why we have a federally mandated and funded Holocaust museum in the nation’s capitol." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.72).

Survivors from the Second World War

"The figure for these Holocaust survivors (i.e. those who were in ghettoes, concentration camps and slave labour camps) at war’s end is generally put at some 100,000. The number of living survivors cannot be more than a quarter of this figure now." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.81).

"The israeli prime minister’s office recently put the number of "living holocaust survivors" at nearly a million." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.83).

.. "almost all survivors of the nazi holocaust have already passed away ..." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.138).

Reparations as Extortion Racket

(Monies given to Jewish organizations for victims). "Large sums were circuitously channeled to Jewish communities in the arab world and facilitated Jewish emigration from eastern Europe." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.86).

"More recently, the claims conference sought to appropriate for itself denationalized Jewish properties in the former East Germany worth hundreds of milions of dollars that rightfully belonged to living Jewish heirs." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.87).

"Lawrence Eagleburger, secretary of state under president Bush, earns an annual salary of $300,000 as chair of the international commission on holocaust era insurance claims." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.88).

"In recent years, the Holocaust industry has become an outright extortion racket." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.89).

"In fact, to believe the Holocaust industry, more former Jewish slave labourers are alive today than half a century ago. As the Holocaust industry plays with numbers to boost its compensation claims, anti-semites gleefully mock the "Jewish liars" who even "huckster" their dead." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.126-127). (Finkelstein goes on to argue that these figures indicate that so many survived the concentration camps that the final solution couldn’t have been close to 6 million dead and that .. "concentration camps conditions couldn’t have been harsh at all; in fact, one must suppose a remarkably high fertility and a remarkably low mortality rate." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.127).

Simon Wiesenthal's "tolerance" centres in Jerusalem/Los Angeles

"With wife and son on the payroll, Rabbi marvin hier runs the Simon Wiesenthal Center as a family business; together the hiers drew a salary of $520,000 in 1995. The centre is renown for its "dauchau-meets-disneyland" museum exhibits ..." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.92). Chad Powers comments, "The most astounding example of such Jewish moral fraud may well be the Simon Wiesenthal's new "tolerance" center in Jerusalem. (The Wiesenthal Center is one of the two best known defenders of Jewish chauvinism, in the guise of fighting intolerance and "anti-Semitism." The other best-known "defense organization" is the Anti-Defamation League, which was caught spying on all sorts of political organizations across the political spectrum, paid off some lawsuits, and in more recent years lost a $10.5 million lawsuit against it by a Denver film producer, William Quigley, who was smeared by ADL as -- what else? -- an "anti-Semite." Both Jewish "anti-hate" monoliths are, meanwhile, emphatic defenders of racist, "hating," dual-moral-standard Israel.) Ostensibly built as a beacon to inter-ethnic "tolerance," the Jerusalem building is built on a Muslim cemetery. It cost millions of dollars to build, and -- despite this astounding embarrassment -- it won't be torn down in shame any time soon. Rather, the Muslim bones will just be swept under the Jewish Tolerant rug, so to speak. What this building symbolizes, then, is that the Jewish demand for "tolerance" is, at root among the broken Muslim spinal cords and femurs, fraud. Jewish and Israeli demand to be beyond the pale of criticism is actually an incessant push for "Tolerance's" opposite: popular passive acceptance of Jewish collective racism, dissimulation, manipulation, and hypocrisy." (Chad Powers 'Welcome to Amerisraelistan' The Jewish Tribal Review January 2002 http://Jewishtribalreview.org/Amerisrael.htm).

Meanwhile on the other side of the planet another Wiesenthal Centre is engaging in silencing its critics, "One principal Zionist organization taking this "out in the open" effort to control the Internet is the Wiesenthal Center of Los Angeles. The Wiesenthal Center's primary operative in the effort is Rabbi Abraham Cooper. Rabbi Cooper has spent millions of dollars lobbying the US Senate and has already been effective in having the U.S. Congress pass a series of repressive measures that have in large measure impeded alternative and independent information services from publishing certain articles, editorials and opinions critical of Zionism. Some of the money used by Rabbi Cooper actually comes from unsuspecting California taxpayers. A former California Speaker of the Assembly admitted shamelessly that he put together over $18 million dollars for Rabbi Cooper. The scam used by the rabbi is to inflict guilt on certain legislators because of the holocaust and to pretend that he is doing it to combat "hate" and so called "antisemitism"." (Ernesto Cienfuegos 'Israelis and U.S. Zionists Escalate Cyber Warfare' La Voz de Aztlan 6.9.2002).

Finkelstein argues that Jewish organizations gained the support of the American congress in order to launch a smear campaign against swiss bankers to embarrass them into paying huge reparations for money which was supposedly deposited with them by Jews prior to the second woreld war. They told lies about swiss involvement in the holocaust that would damage public confidence in swiss banks. Basically the idea was that according to isabel vincent, "If enough mud was flung, it was reasonably assumed, Switzerland would give in." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.97).

"The main weapon used to break swiss resistance, however, was the economic boycott." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.101). (Jewish organizations contacted New York city comptroller, Alan Hevesi (whose father had been a prominent AJC official) and New York state comptroller Carl McCall). "Between them, the two comptrollers invest billions of dollars in pension funds. Hevesi also presided over the u.s. comptrollers association, which invested $30 trillion in pension funds. In february 1996 Hevesi and McCall wrote the swiss banks threatening sanctions." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.101-102). (The swiss were eventually forced to pay a ransom of $1.25 billion).

"Its solicitude for "needy holocaust survivors" notwithstanding, the wjc wants nearly half the swiss monies earmarked for Jewish organizations and holocaust education." (Although the money had been claimed for people in urgent need) "More than a year after the settlement was reached there was still no distribution plan." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.107).

.. "the World Jewish Congress (WJC) treasury has amassed no les than "roughly $7 billion" in compensation monies." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.108).

"Annually an estimated $100-$200 billion arising from political corruption is sent across borders worldwide and deposited in private banks. .. fully half this "illegal flight capital" (is) deposited in American banks with the complete sanction of u.s. law." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.109).

The irony of this situation is that .. "the u.s. record is much worse than the swiss record .." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.116). (American banks confiscated more money from Jewish people fleeing the nazis than swiss banks. There are banks in Israel which also have some of this money). "Unsurprisingly, the holocaust industry didn’t launch a campaign to investigate u.s. banks." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.117).

It is amazing that Jews can manipulate federal and state governments in America in order to coerce other countries into paying reparations. To rephrase this: it is amazing that Jewish people have so much more power and influence in America than the swiss living in America.

(There was a rise in anti-semitism in Switzerland as a result of the Zionists' exploitation of the swiss government. Zionist organizations denied there was such a link, "Yet this ominous development couldn’t possibly be connected with the Holocaust industry’s shakedown of Switzerland." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.120).

"After the Holocaust industry settled with Switzerland in august 1988, it deployed the same winning strategy against Germany in september. Recognizing that the holocaust juggernaut was irresistible, the germans caved in to a substantial monetary settlement by the year’s end." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.121). This has been dubbed as holocash.

.. "the general german reluctance to openly criticize Jews." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.130).

"The shakedown of Switzerland and Germany has been only a prelude to the grand finale: the shakedown of eastern Europe. Pursuing this end with reckless and ruthless abandon, it has become the main fomentor of anti-semitism in Europe." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.130).

"To force submission from recalcitrant governments, the Holocaust industry wields the bludgeon of u.s. sanctions." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.133).

(One Jewish commentator has argued that Austria has $10 billion in Jewish assests and that 50% of America’s total art is looted Jewish art). "The holocaust industry has clearly gone beserk." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.139).

Review of Norman G Finkelstein's ‘The Holocaust industry'

This is a devastating, and shocking, critique of the holocaust exploitation industry. It's a magnificently vicious attack on a vile outbreak of ooman loathesomeness. Truthtellers have to endure the claustrophia of lies emanating from the rich and powerful but eventually they have their day of exhileration when the past suddenly becomes history. Finkelstein is a Jew whose parents survived the nightmare of Auschwitz and then discovered that Jewish organizations were using blackmail to enrich themselves on the compensation that had been given to concentration camp survivors . It was doubtlessly this personal background that pushed an otherwise academic individual into some of the viciousness in this work.

A favourite anecdote is that whilst Raoul Wallenberg is honoured by having a street name after him outside the so called Holocaust museum, "Fellow swede count Folke Bernadotte is not honoured because, although he too rescued thousands of Jews, former israeli prime minister Yitzak Shamir ordered his assassination for being too "pro-arab"." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.74).

Finkelstein accuses Jewish organizations of running an extortion racket when trying to obtain reparations for Jewish victims, "In recent years, the Holocaust industry has become an outright extortion racket." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.89). He points out some of the Jews benefitting from the exploitation of the holocaust, "Lawrence Eagleburger, secretary of state under president Bush, earns an annual salary of $300,000 as chair of the international commission on holocaust era insurance claims." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.88). He accuses the holocaust industry of triggering off anti-semitism across large parts of Europe.

Finkelstein's book is convincing except on a couple of points. Firstly, he argues that Jewish interest in the so-called holocaust began to develop after the 1967 war in the middle east. However, it could be argued that it was hannah arendt's articles in the New Yorker and her subsequent book ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem’ that triggered of such an interest. There was a huge public outcry over these publications.

Finkelstein has argued that in Germany there has been a considerable change in attitude as regards Jewish affairs .. "the general german reluctance to openly criticize Jews" (Verso London 2000 p.130). The same is true in brutland. In the 1970s left wing students frequently condemned the criminality of the Zionist state in Palestine but these days there’s almost a stigma against any criticisms of Jews. In the past people used to talk about totalitarianism and the widescale slaughter of people during the Second World War but these days the main talk is about the holocaust - as if the only people who died during the Second World War were Jews.

The Uniqueness of the Nazi Slaughter

Finkelstein points out that, "Two central dogmas underpin the Holocaust framework: (1) the Holocaust marks a categorically unique historical event; (2) the Holocaust marks the climax of an irrational, eternal gentile hatred of Jews." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.41-42). He argues, "A subtext of the Holocaust uniqueness claim is that the Holocaust was uniquely evil. However terrible, the suffering of others simply does not compare." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.47).

Finkelstein dismisses the notion of the uniqueness of the so-called Jewish holocaust. He compares the so-called holocaust with other mass killings. Firstly, "Ken Livingstone .. has incensed Jews in Britain by saying global capitalism has claimed as many victims as world war II, "Every year the international financial system kills more people than world war II, but at least Hitler was mad, you know?" .. "It’s an insult to all those murdered and persecuted by Adolf Hitler," said John Butterfill, a conservative member of parliament." (International Herald Tribune 13.4.2000 quoted in Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.46).

Secondly, "Between 1891 and 1911, some 10 million africans perished in the course of Europe’s exploitation of congolese ivory and rubber resources. Yet, the first and only scholarly volume in english directly devoted to this topic was published two years ago." (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.143).

Thirdly, "As in the nazi holocaust, a million children have likely perished. Questioned on national television about the grisly death toll in Iraq, secretary of state Madeleine Albright replied that "the price is worth it". (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.148).

He concludes, "The abnormality of the nazi holocaust springs not from the event itself but from the exploitive industry that has grown up around it. (Norman G. Finkelstein ‘The Holocaust industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering’ Verso London 2000 p.150).

Arendt believed that both totalitarianism and the extermination camps were unique. The british may have invented concentration camps but neither they, nor the russians, created extermination camps i.e. gas ovens designed specifically to burn human remains.

The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (PDF)
By Norman Finkelstein. The whole book in English.

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