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September 10, 2007
Rewriting the Holocaust at The New York Times
Recently, The New York Times Published this story by Isabel Kirshner:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/world/middleeast/06stalags.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Karen wrote a letter to the Editor. They will never publish it, so we do.
Isabel Kershner’s “revelation” (9/6/07) of the existence of "Holocaust Pornography" was misleading and itself, pornographic in its disregard for the atrocities that befell millions of Jews during the Nazi reign. To naive readers who are unfamiliar with the facts on the ground, your reporter hinted that there is speculation as to whether the most humiliating acts of the SS described by the witnesses at the Eichmann trial ever occurred, and that most Israelis perceive the horrors of the Nazi regime as "sadism and pornography."
I never heard of this perverted slant of memory and have been immersed in Holocaust history since my youth and as an adult, learned every detail of the Shoah as a docent at the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, and an interviewer for the Shoah Foundation.
The perversion that passes as "revisionist history" is rife throughout your newspaper in its depiction of the creation of the State of Israel. Now you have committed a greater crime of using this post modern relativism to blacken and contort the oral histories of survivors who recounted the abominations they experienced by the Nazis.
Your correction of the statement made by a Yad Vashem researcher did not clarify whether Block 24 simply existed, or whether the atrocities described there actually took place. There were in fact, brothels, where Jewish women were forced to service SS men. This is not an invention of the pornographic pocket books. Mengele’s documented experiments were worse than anything these pornographers could ever imagine.
My hands are usually blackened after I finish reading the Times, now I feel that they are stained red by the blood of my long lost relatives who died in the Shoah. Their blood calls out from the pages of your newspaper, asking for correction, clarification, and justice. Those illustrations were as incendiary as the depictions of "Allah" that were considered too provocative to publish in your newspaper.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at September 10, 2007 10:26 AM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
I don't really see what's wrong about the New york times article. It makes clear that these comic books were fiction - and that the problem of these books was limited to Israel. It says that theer was almost nothinbg written about the Nazi period in Israel in the 1950's - which is true, nd that around the time of the Eichmann trial this was about the only thing you could find. It says that many Israelis tend to believe what's in the books is true. And that this was stopped and for many years these books were not found any more.
The themse of those books are Nazi SS women abusing prisoners of war.
Posted by: Sammy Finkelman at September 10, 2007 10:57 AM
Dear Robert:
I have met many such "useful idiots", tragically Jews among them,like Rosie O'Donnell, who can't recognize evil as evil and who imagine the whole world thinks exactly like themselves. Thank you for your insightful articles (Osama, the pitch) which atleast try to shake loose some of these crazy notions. My husband and I always enjoy reading your articles in the Jewish press. I wish your voice could be heard by others who most need to hear the truth - like at the Jewish Journal!!
Shana Tova,
Lisa B Cohen
p.s. Is there a way for my husband and I to send a personal e-mail to you that is not posted on the web? Please let me know. Thank you!
Posted by: Lisa Cohen at September 20, 2007 10:32 AM