Volume XXX No. 10 October, 1975 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE ASSOOAim OF XVaSM RERKEES HI GOAT BRITAHI I" C. Aronsfeld Jewish scholars. As far back as 1952, Gerald Reitlinger arrived, in his very conservative calculation, at a maximum of 4,581,000 and a minimum of 4,194,000, and Raul Hilberg, in NEW PERSPECTIVES OF THE PAST 1961, put the total at 5,100,000, so that accord­ ing to the best available knowledge, the figure, inevitably no more than an estimate, is prob­ "Morally Relativistic Views" ably somewhat between 5 and 6 million. But the I remember 10 or 12 years ago talking and the sentence of death against the Germans" "revisionists" altogether deny that millions JVfiting on a subject which I entitled "Did ... A striking illustration of this spirit was were murdered, and even if—what?—a few Jutler ever live?" It was much like the question provided by the biggest of the weekly neo- hundred thousands perhaps had perished, in \hat used to be asked "Did Shakespeare ever Nazi papers, Deutsche National Zeitung, which the admittedly unhealthy camp conditions 'ive?", suggesting that the plays were written has a circulation of 120,000. Its steady cam­ "created by Allied bombing", what about fot by Shakespeare but by a different man of paign of whitewashing the Nazi regime was "Dresden" and the millions of Germans who the same name. The man's image that emerged clinched by a front page banner headline "The were expelled from their homes after the war? jrom the plays seemed strangely at odds with Wrong done to Hitler: 30 Years of Lies are Such is the propaganda of the Deutsche jhat presented in many biographies. The same, enough". National Zeitung and its friends. If it deserves i thought, applied to Hitler. We know the man But the new perspectives are not confined to be called "morally relativistic", it is every JJfid his handiwork—who better?—but under to Germany. In Britain the SOth anniversary of bit the Big Lie of Mein Kampf. 'ne theories of document-ridden historians thf V-Day passed unhonoured and unsung. The The campaign against the six million has "nage began to take on very different features. Sunday Telegraph tersely noted: "The British already spuled over the borders of Germany. The first time this happened was when Mr. almost ignored the event", a reaction described Some splash was caused by a widely distributed ^-.J. P. Taylor published his book on "The lis "quiet and realistic", for "though some brochure which appeared in this country— "ngins of the Second World War" in which things are impossible to forget, the time for "Did Six Million Really Die? The Truth at te held forth that "in principle and doctrine actively stirring up dreadful memories has last", by "Richard E. Harwood", a self-con­ long since passed". fessed pseudonym, purporting to be "with the jutler was no more wicked and unscrupulous University of London" (where nothing is than many other contemporary statesmen", A simUar line was taken by the French. known of him) and associated with the ^hat Mein Kampf was just a set of "day Their President observed an august sUence. National Front. He claimed that "no gas Jjreams", that the Munich "conference" was In "banishing the memory of a great victory chambers existed in the camps in Germany"— ,.a triumph of all that was best and most en- which for others was a crushing defea/t" (a implying that none existed in any German- "ghtened in British life", etc., etc. French commentator remarked), he had acted controlled territory. He asserted that Nazi These opinions were largely dismissed as so as a "good European" seeking to "avoid the policy was ;concemed not with the extermina­ iiany freaks designed to entertain rather than obstacles on the road towards a European tion but the emigration of Jewry—as if their enlighten, but what was a freak ten years back union". slogan had been "Emigrate Judah". not J^no longer so today. New perspectives are "Perish Judah"—and he seriously explained "Pening as the past increasingly appears in- Fate of Nuremberg Trial FOm (later) that "ausrotten. applied to the Jews, J^redible—a tale told by an idiot—and yet refers to expulsion from German life and y.i'^ently in need of rational interpretation, Here again the trend was illuminated by an culture". 'hirty years after the fall of Hitler is perhaps interesting affair which blew up over a new * suitable occasion to consider the process. Most of his allegations had been taken over, film on the Nuremberg trials. The film was often even verbatim, from an anonymous Inevitably it must have a particular signifi- produced by a French director. Marcel Ophuls, American pamphlet entitled "The Myth of the ??nce among the chief droTTiafis personoe. the who had the idea of a critical approach; he Six Million". While discreetly omitting to ac­ J^ermans. The ofiicial view there is of course was troubled by the subject, as perhaps, in knowledge his source of inspiration. "Har­ hiore or less beyond reproach. On the anniver- varying ways, many are. He came to the con­ wood" was candid enough to state that his ^ry of the surrender. President Scheel clusion that it was impossible to pass judgment "research" was done for a puri)ose—to expose peiivered a speech in which he not only on the Nazis in the dock but that at the same the "mythology of the concentration camps" ^'[anded the crimes but also confessed the time it was necessary to do so. The film, there­ as "a form of political blackmail" designed to ^{'ame that Liberation had to come from out- fore, on balance upheld the trials. "arouse sympathy for the Jewish national fde. The German tragedy, he said, began in The idea found, however, no favour in the homeland" and to extort "staggering" amounts f933 not in 1945, for "in 1933 Germany lost eyes of the BBC and British producers. They of compensation from the West German f*^ honour", and he emphasised the crucial wanted a different slant—more outspoken Government; this he hoped to stop. yhportance of good relations not only witti ttie criticism. Nazi war crimes, yes, but what al)out Jewish State but equally with the Jewish Allied war crimes, what atiout the Nuremberg People. judges' "hypocrisy and self-righteousness"? "Did Six Mniion Die?" And what about the US atrocities in Vietnam— was not My Lai much like Auschwitz? Ophuls It would not of course be difficult to debunk German Reactions to Nazi Crimes took a determined stand: he would have no the lies infesting this crude screed, but some ^. On the other hand, he could not help men­ truck with what he called a "morally relati­ of them must be expected to stick, even tioning those, obviously no negligible number, vistic view" which—precisely like A. J. P. among men of integrity and good will who J^ho were tired of feeling sorry—"tired (as Taylor's—levelled everything down to much simply cannot fathom the horror, and they are ^hey put it) of running around in sackcloth the same level of muchness. The argument is to be found in highly respected amd competent «hd ashes because of crimes in which they had still in progress. quarters. A distinguished historian. Professor ^o share". It so happened that about the same The game is being played particularly over Geoffrey Barraclough, recently wrote: "Hitler's "me a Gallup Poll revealed that 70 per cent the most important aspect of Nazi policy—^the antisemitism in the 1920s was entirely con­ r* all West Germans do not want to hear any extermination of the Jews. More thaJn any ventional—that is to say, what he preached Jhore of the Nazi past. They want at last to other crime does this one vindicate the Nietz­ was not the extermination of the Jews but JJVe a "normal Me", unburdened by the schean aphorism: "The memory says, I have their expulsion from Germany. ... I cannot •pemories, and what is more, they feel that by done it; the conscience replies, I cannot have find any convincing evidence of the view that ^son of their achievements in politics and done it. And gradually the memory gives way". Hitler was already planning the destruction of gnomics, they are entitled to make their pre- Against this psychological background, those European Jewry in 1925, when he wrote Mein !>ence felt again in world affairs. who seek to whitewash Nazism hope to advance Kampf'. These may, on the whole, be regarded as by querying the number of the murdered Jews. It does seem strange that the Chichele Pro­ Reputable reactions, understandable at a pinch, The idea plainly is that if belief in the 6 mil­ fessor of Modern History at the University of ^here are others—among those who have lion figure can be sufficiently shattered, then Oxford should have been unable to find any Slither forgotten nor leamt. Guilt feelings?, perhaps other features of Nazi policy also will such evidence. He is unfortunately handi­ .hey say, the German people had been "talked appear in a different light. The "six milliom" capped by the notion that Hitler's antisemitism 'hto them". Poor Hitler had been the victim are regarded as something like the soft under­ was "entirely conventional". It was not, and it °i a "fiendish plan" hatched by the "war­ belly in the new Nazis' campaign. seems pertinent to recall that in his very mongers" Churchill and Roosevelt, and "the Actually the figure, first stated on Eich­ first statement, in 1919, Hitler rejected "con- Nuremberg Laws merely served to reinforce mann's authority, has never been confirmed by Conttnued on page 2, cohiinn 1 Page 2 AJR INFORMATION October, 1975 NEW PERPECTIVES OF THE PAST Continued from Page 1 NEWS FROM GERMANY ventional" antisemitism as "purely emotional" BOMB OUTRAGE IN BERLIN ANTISEMITISM IN COURT ROOM and "ultimately expressing itself in pogroms".