December 16, 2006. We live in times in which any kind of objective truth is under assault. Historical facts were never challenged so boldly than they were this week at the ‘Holocaust Conference’ in Tehran, Iran. Some conferees maintained that the death statistics were greatly exaggerated; others maintained that there was no evidence of the systematic killing of Jews during WWII. This of course, flies in the face of a preponderance of evidence supplied by the Germans themselves, Jewish folk who survived the death camps, and the Western liberators.
Objective historical facts: The Nazi regime kept exact and meticulous records. No German official or officer ever denied the existence of the ‘final solution’ or Holocaust during the trials at Nuremburg, following the war. Over 6 million Jews that were known to be alive before the war were missing at the end. Some may have died from the ravages of war and from sickness. However, the Nazi’s own documents and testimonies confirm that the vast majority were systematically killed by the Nazi war machine in six extermination camps.
During this week, I listened in horror to several radio talk shows where one caller after another expressed their opinion that the Holocaust never happen and was merely a ‘Jewish’ conspiracy put forth to justify the founding and existence of the State of Israel. Talk about propaganda! Wow! That sounded just like Pres. Ahmadinejad. I could not believe it!
Most of the callers claimed to be college graduates who gained this perspective in one class or another, or at some special conference dealing with the middle east ‘problem’ (Israel). I was shocked and I am still shaken. In light of this type of academic preparation, will the writing and documentation of any kind of objective history or pursuit of the truth be possible in the future? Will we soon be facing an entire generation of academics in the Western world which will mimic Pilate’s famous declaration: “What is truth?”