Mick Hartley

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The So-Called Holocaust

The report from the Dresden Historians' Commission appears to have upset a few people. The official Commission findings were that the death toll of the Allied bombing raid was "up to 25,000" – far less than many, inspired by the likes of David Irving, liked to believe. Oliver Kamm added a commentary to the Times report today.

Kamm notes on his blog, "the comments underneath the piece are predictable, I'm afraid". Predictable to him, maybe, but I wasn't aware that this subject provoked such strong feelings outside the far right fringe. Try this:

Gee. I'm beginning to think that only think that happened in the last century was the so-called Holocaust. But what's interesting here is that it's OK to revise numbers regarding the murderous deaths of civilians in Dresden by the Allies, but if one tries to revise the numbers regarding the concentration camps in Poland, etc., then one is Holocaust denier. Perhaps we should call those that want to revise the number for Dresden "Dresden deniers", make a law for doing that, and send them to prison for seven years.

That comment, believe it or not, is currently the most recommended, by 32 people, of the 30 comments the article's so far provoked. Either there's a bunch of Holocaust-denying nutters going round searching for references to Dresden, or the Times readership is in a lot worse shape than I thought.

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9 responses to “The So-Called Holocaust”

  1. Dom Avatar
    Dom

    I think you have to consider that the first people (and possibly the only people) who comment on a post are those who disagree with it. This might explain both Kamm’s commenters and those at CiF. Megan McCardle at The Atlantic writes interesting posts from a conservative economist point of view, and she attracts commenters from the left.

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  2. Mick H Avatar
    Mick H

    It’s not so much the comment itself which prompted this post: I accept that there are oddballs with strong views who’ll always want to make themselves heard. What I find astonishing is that it’s the most recommended comment. I’d have thought (hoped) this kind of garbage was lunatic fringe stuff.

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  3. Peter Risdon Avatar
    Peter Risdon

    “Either there’s a bunch of Holocaust-denying nutters going round searching for references to Dresden… ”
    I think that’s the explanation. Google Alerts have much to answer for.

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  4. JDG Avatar
    JDG

    Or it could be simply one or two persistent nutters who log on again and again to get the “recommended” count up. I’ve seen it happen on a small blog all within an hour.

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  5. Mick H Avatar
    Mick H

    I’d assumed, probably wrongly, that they filtered out multiple voting like that.

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  6. JDG Avatar
    JDG

    The filter is generally either a cookie or logging of the voter’s IP address. Both are easily defeated (assuming that the voter is using a dynamic address).

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  7. TDK Avatar
    TDK

    “I wasn’t aware that this subject provoked such strong feelings outside the far right fringe”
    Not so. During the post war era Communist estimates of the death toll were also very high and it served a useful propaganda purpose as a totem of western barbarism. The narrative being that it was deliberately destroyed so that the post war Russian Occupation Zone would struggle to recover. There was less debate about numbers but before Irving gained his final notoriety he was readily quoted by those on the left.
    It fits the Howard Zinn view of the West.

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  8. EscapeVelocity Avatar
    EscapeVelocity

    Looks like the Times pulled the article.

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  9. Mick H Avatar
    Mick H

    It’s still linking OK for me.

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