Holocaust: Up for Debate? Really?!

Read Holocaust Conference in Iran in NY Times 12/12/06

Does this sound crazy to anyone? I don't mean the intended-to-be-funny lack of poignancy kind of crazy (think The Onion), or even crazy as a loon--much less crazy in the sense of zooming head-first down an Olympic luge course. Just pure crazy. Indeed, stated the White House, crazy. And perverse. As much as I usually avoid putting my beliefs in line with this Administration, I'm glad those men and women agree with me, and that I agree with them. Almost makes you feel warm and toasty inside. Almost--then the 300-pound gorilla in the room starts sweating again, and smells real bad.

For the past few months, since I read an article citing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran's publicized disbelief in the Holocaust, that large, hairy gorilla has lurked in the shadows, noticed by many, probably laughed at by some, and generally scorned--or so my hopeful side tends to think. That's why this "conference" even happening in the first place means something: first we'll let out a deep sigh, shake our head, then pull out the history books, point to the ugly facts, the pictures, the "statistics," sobering, saddening as they may be.

I hope everyone at the conference is assigned a reading list with Elie Wiesel's Night and Cynthia Ozick's The Shawl and the writings of Primo Levi. And then they better take a field trip over to the Auschwitz concentration and labor camps, then to others with names like Belzec and Chelmno and Treblinka.

I can only imagine the deafening silence upon arrival of a busload of these"deniers" to western Poland's Sobidor death camp location. I think the bus driver would probably stop cracking jokes at about that point; maybe even try to put things into historical context.

"No, seriously folks," he'd say. "Not a joke. Nope, sorry Mr. Iranian President, not a myth either. Please have a seat back there, all deniers will get a photo op in a moment."'