Damn, this thread started up 3 days after the last time I was on the forum. Well, Speaking as the token Jew on the OWF, I'll put in my two cents.
Firstly; I have no problem with Jacob starting this thread. He made it very clear that he was just trying to come to terms with something he did not know enough about. That said, there are plenty of websites that respond to Holocaust denial that he could have checked out. I've taken a few classes about holocaust denial but it was a while ago so I can't give you details. The one thing I remember was that we were told to
never get into a discussion with a denialist as a rational person will always lose because they rely on facts whereas denialists have no problem in making up crap. A perfect example is what Jacob posted and Dino corrected about the Zyklon B gas (BTW 10 points to Dino for that).
A lot of people have made mention of the other groups killed by the nazis and other recent genocides. There seems to be the perception that Jews demand all the sympathy for themselves and do not accept anyone else. This has never been 100% true and is certainly not true now with the second and third generations. Jewish people have been the strongest to demand action against the various genocides occuring around the planet in the last few decades. As an example, the Israeli government has been working with the Armenian people to raise awareness of the Armenian Genocide (by the Turks) - which is itself remarkable as Israel is dependant on its good relationship with the Turkish Government for a number of resources.
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I still have to put up with all this crap and the word "Jew" has become a sort of buzz word that you have to be careful with otherwise people might think you're a nazi.
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As compared to the word 'Black' or the word 'Oriental'? Any descriptive word can be insulting in the wrong context. As Kate Monster* says, people should just be more careful about the touchy subject of Race.
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It doesn't have an importance at all. It's clearly rediculous to say "we can look back on it and learn from our mistakes" because that's like saying world war two consisted of "oops! I tripped, fell, and accidentally gassed several million jews, oppressed an entire nation, and went to war with most of europe!".
What can we learn from World War II? Don't become an evil nazi dictator? I'll try to remember that valuable nugget of wisdom.
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You must not forget that Hitler did not suddenly pop on the scene. He started off sounding
oh so rational, talking about national pride and the shame of the WWI reparations and everything went down from there.
A few years ago there was a far right politician in Australia called Pauline Hanson who was advocating various policies that would disadvantage Aboriginals and Asian immigrants. Similarly there was an Austrian politician called Jourg Haider (?sp) who's policies were similarly controvercial. In both cases the problem was that they sounded so reasonable until you read the fine print. My point is that we must always be looking out for the next Hitler/Pol Pot/Saddam and never give them the opportunity to come to power because one day you'll (metaphorically speaking) open the newspaper and read that the Reichstag has been burnt down and your country has a new chancellor. And then you'll be up shit creek without any rowing instruments or a life-vest.
If you need an unbiased opinion on whether the holocaust occured or not you should look at
David Irving v Penguin Ltd and Prof Deborah Lipstadt. David Irving (the most famous current holocaust denier) sued Lipstadt for writing a book saying how full of shite he was. The case in the British High court weighed up the evidence from both sides and eventually decided that, not only did the holocaust occur but the methods taken by Irving and his peers to disprove it are immoral and unconscionable (my words).
I would urge everyone to research this matter further but be warned that there are way more websites by deniers than real historians.
*If you haven't seen Avenue Q yet, go now and see it. Even if you have to stow away in the luggage compartment of an airplane to get to NYC, just go.