I knew him before he was banned in Germany, Horatio:
I’d also like to know how the Holocaust death total of 6 million was determined. Is it the sort of number that is so well documented with actual names and perhaps a Nazi paper trail that no historian could doubt its accuracy, give or take ten thousand? Or is it like every other LRN (large round number) that someone pulled out of his ass and it became true by repetition? Does the figure include resistance fighters and civilians who died in the normal course of war, or just the Jews rounded up and killed systematically? No reasonable person doubts that the Holocaust happened, but wouldn’t you like to know how the exact number was calculated, just for context? Without that context, I don’t know if I should lump the people who think the Holocaust might have been exaggerated for political purposes with the Holocaust deniers. If they are equally nuts, I’d like to know that. I want context.
One of the more interesting things about the professional victims groups is the strange way in which they demand one must a) never forget, and, b) never look too close. The fact that an incredible number of Jews were murdered by National Socialist Germans is horrific, but those poor individuals are no more dead than the victims of Lenin, Stalin or Mao. Yet one is never considered a Ukraine Famine denier or a Great Leap Forward denier when trying to figure out if Mao starved 35 million or 50 million Chinese to death.
(This despite the fact that there were, and are, Ukraine Famine deniers out there. Just ask the New York Times about old Walter Duranty.)
The example of the Spanish Inquisition shows that it is entirely possible for what many assume to have been the murder of millions to have in fact been nothing of the sort. Unlike the Spanish Inquisition, in which around 6,000 people were executed by the State, (not the Church, as is commonly supposed), there is no reason to doubt that a tremendous number of Jews were murdered by the Nazis. The exact number, however, appears to be unknown and never will be known if scholars are forced to choose between accepting a big round number or facing jail time.
I am pro-Jew and pro-Israel. I think RJ Rummel’s number of 5.3 million Jewish fatalities is probably the most accurate estimated bodycount for the Holocaust. But like Scott Adams, I have never seen any historical documents that support the six million number and the fact that professional victims groups are so eager to resort to the use of government force to even avoid discussing the matter makes me wonder what it is they are attempting to hide.