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© Copyright 1998, Jim Loy
"We knew when people were dead because their screaming stopped." Rudolf Hoess (Höss), commandant of Auschwitz
A holocaust is, in general, a huge destructive fire. Specifically, "The Holocaust" was the attempted extinction of the Jews, by the Nazis in World War II. Did the Holocaust happen? Kind of a stupid question, isn't it? Of course the Holocaust happened. It has been proven, many times over. But some people, American Nazis for example, claim that it never happened. It is easy to say things that are not true. It is easy to believe things that are not true.
What kind of evidence is there, at this late date? There is a lot. There are eyewitness accounts, of Jews and Nazis and bystanders. There are confessions. There are mountains of documents. There are graves and crematoriums. And there are missing people, individuals and huge parts of populations, gone, murdered.
A person who says that the Holocaust did not happen, says more about himself/herself than about history.
Addendum #1:
I received email from someone who says that the Holocaust did not happen. He said that I shouldn't say things like the above if I cannot prove them. I guess I cannot prove what I say. All I did was some research in encyclopedias, almanacs, and history books. And I watched Schindler's List, and The Diary of Anne Frank, and Nuremburg, and some of Shoah. Little of this is first hand documentation, I must admit. For example, Anne Frank's fears while hiding are not hard evidence that she and others were murdered at Auschwitz. The history books are not perfect, by a long way. But, this second and third hand documentation seems fairly impressive.
Addendum #2:
At Nuremberg, in 1946, several people were convicted of the following general crimes (specific crimes were also proven). This list is by Robert H. Jackson, prosecutor at this trial, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice:
These people were mostly convicted using "documents of their own making, the authenticity of which has not been challenged except in one or two cases." It was during these trials that the word "genocide" was first used. And most of the defendants were convicted of the above crimes against humanity, mainly the attempted extermination of the Jews. Hans Frank, one of the defendants, said, "A thousand years will pass and this guilt of Germany will still not be erased."
Just what was the holocaust?
Estimates of the number of Jews killed vary. Adolph Eichmann estimated six million.
Also see Web Genocide Documentation Centre, which covers The Holocaust and other examples of genocide.
Addendum #3:
I have heard people argue that sure some Nazis committed attrocities, but (1) they did not kill millions of Jews, and (2) they did not intend to wipe out the Jewish race. Well, I think that, even though they didn't save death certificates to help us out, it is well documented that they did kill millions of Jews (mostly civilians, including women and children). And, even though we cannot get inside Hitler's mind, and the minds of the other Nazi leaders, we can judge their intentions by their actions, and it certainly would seem that they intended to wipe out the Jews.
Addendum #4:
Here is a friendly little email:
If the holocaust did definitely happen, why has no one ever seen an autopsy? Don't tell me,,, they were all destroyed! How can you kill 2000 people by dropping pellets into a room which could not have been a gas chamber? Why is there never any objective discussion of the alleged holocaust on tv? Why because it is propoganda!!!!, Do you think the Jews could annihalate the Palestinians if they had no holocaust story to protect them. The Jews are the New Nazis of the world, the Palestinians are the new Jews who don't have access to media manipulation like the Jews in the media. Sorry to disappoint you, the holocaust is a lie, a double whopping crock of ****.
This person censored himself with the ****.