[ Wednesday, January 26, 2005 ]
THE OPEN SOCIETY & ITS ENEMIES - THE STORY OF AUSCHWITZ
by Gilad Atzmon
Sixty years after liberation, Auschwitz has become an international political event. It is no coincidence, and I feel that we should spare a moment asking ourselves: why now, why Auschwitz?
Living in a scientific technological environment, it is natural for most commentators to judge any given narrative reflecting on its positive contents, i.e., the story it tells, the facts it picks up on and the message it conveys. When it comes to Auschwitz, it is always the terrifying numbers, Mengele and the selection, the clinical mass murder, the Gas Chambers, the trains, the famous Arbeit Macht Frei above the front gate, the death march just before liberation, etc. And yet, I would argue that it is at least as enlightening to expose that which the Auschwitz narrative is there to conceal. Every historical tale can operate as a smoke screen; narratives are very effective in encouraging collective blindness. Auschwitz and the Holocaust narrative, in this sense, are no different.
As it seems, without engaging ourselves with the many questions Concerning the validity of the widely accepted holocaust narrative, we can safely ask what the Auschwitz Narrative is there to serve. Who benefits from the Auschwitz account? We are entitled to ask why the official holocaust narrative is so widely promoted by different and opposing political institutions. Is it a result of a highly sophisticated orchestrated Jewish propaganda? I am not so sure anymore.
art [5:41 AM]
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