German Guilt Diffusion A GERMANLESS HOLOCAUST Ezergailis

Nazi/Soviet Disinformation About the Holocaust in Latvia, by Andrew Ezergailis. 2005

THE GERMANLESS HOLOCAUST: A Definitive Work on the German Guilt Diffusion Blame-Others Strategies. Example: So-Called Jedwabne Massacre

Holocaust scholar Andrew Ezergailis has written an eye-opening book. He focuses on the blame-the-locals memes energetically and successively promoted by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and modern Germany. (And now as well by the Holocaust Industry–as part of its extortionist demands [so-called property restitution] from Poland.)

THE JEDWABNE “VERDICT” IS BASED ON A STALINIST-ERA TRIAL OF DUBIOUS CREDIBILITY

Ezergailis considers the 1949 Lomza trials, of the Polish Jedwabne defendants, as Stalin-era show trials. (p. xv). Show trials are characterized by the following: Consideration of the status (social class) of the accuser and defendant, the presumption of guilt, and the emphasis on suspicions, scripted confessions, and self-incrimination (PEDAGOGIKA WSTYDU in Polish)—all backed up by duress, if not torture. (p. 55, 118).

THE DOUBLE STANDARD: COLLECTIVE GUILT ON EASTERN EUROPEANS; NO COLLECTIVE GUILT ON GERMANS

Ezergailis, a Latvian-American, inveighs against the way Poles have been treated over the Jedwabne affair, “Although by now it is established that the Holocaust was Hitler’s project, it is asserted even today, by both historians and prosecutors, that there were also numerous other local Holocausts, where Jews were killed by ‘neighbors’ without German orders and guidance. The concept of collective guilt in general is rejected, except when it comes to East Europeans. For example, when Daniel Goldhagen accused the German nation of collective guilt, numerous historians rose to defend the Germans. However, the reverse happened concerning Poland when Jan Gross’ book NEIGHBORS implicated the Poles in collective guilt.” (p. 3).

LINGERING PREJUDICES AGAINST EASTERN EUROPEANS. NOW PART OF HOLOCAUSTIANITY?

The author also suggests that too many western intellectuals have a condescending attitude toward Eastern Europeans, and this facilitates the blame-shifting strategy that is exemplified by Jedwabne. He comments, “Especially among historians the independence of the new Europe was resented, the people of Eastern Europe were portrayed as near barbarians who did not deserve their liberation and who had mishandled their independence.” (p. 5). [Now the same attitude is exhibited by LEWAKS, Euracrats, globalists, cultural Marxists, etc.]

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GERMAN GUILT DIFFUSION STRATEGY: “MANY LOCAL HOLOCAUSTS” (ALL MADE UP) THAT DILUTE THE (REAL) GERMAN-MADE HOLOCAUST

Even before the actual start of Operation Barbarossa (June 1941), there was a very real and concerted Nazi German strategy of trying to pass off German crimes as the spontaneous pogroms of the Zydokomuna-oppressed locals. (pp. 7-on). Ezergailis shows that this was true even of Hitler and Heydrich. (pp. 9-on). This Germanless Holocaust strategy was energetically pursued by Brigadefuher Franz Walter Stahlecker, the Commander of Einsatzgruppe A. (pp. 12-on; p. 116).

German photographers purposely made the massacres appear to be the spontaneous acts of locals. (pp. 79-80; 88). In fact, Ezergailis has compared the deceptiveness of this German propaganda photography with the classic photo of Polish cavalry charging German tanks in 1939. (p. 79).

Holocaust scholar Ezergailis points out that there is no evidence of Latvian-led pogroms, against Jews, in the period between Soviet rule and Nazi German rule in mid-1941. (p. 129).

From the Nazis, the Germanless Holocaust became the tool of the Soviet Stalinists (and their successors), followed by the aptly-named neo-Stalinists in the West (e. g., Jan T. Gross, Jan Grabowski). Ezergailis: “The KGB men were not the first ones to invent the idea of a Germanless Holocaust in occupied Latvia, but they were the first ones who managed to bring the idea to the attention of the world, to scholars and to prosecutors hunting Nazis.” (p. 73).

The German blame-shifting has been very successful. Ezergailis quips, “Although the Nazis in general were unsuccessful in hiding the murder of the Jews, the Nazi point of view about the Holocaust in Eastern Europe, as evidenced in Jan Gross’s NEIGHBORS and the [Latvian-accusing KGB] pamphlet under discussion in this study, has managed to prevail to a surprising degree.” (p. xv).

GERMAN GUILT DIFFUSION STRATEGY: INVENTING DE NOVO SUDDENLY-DEVELOPED GENOCIDAL IMPULSES IN EAST EUROPEANS: THE CASE OF JEDWABNE

Ezergailis: “East Europeans had lived next to Jews for centuries and nothing like this [Holocaust] had happened while they were in power…The pogroms of Tsarist Russia were pin-pricks in comparison. There is nothing in the history of Poland to anticipate the purported Jedwabne massacre as described by Jan Gross.” (P. 88).

GERMAN GUILT DIFFUSION STRATEGY: MISREPRESENTING COMPELLED SERVICE TO THE GERMANS AS VOLUNTARY COLLABORATION

The following facts fall under the media-promoted meme of “complicity in the Holocaust”—an amorphous, all-purpose, Orwellian construct.

The author stresses that, “Everything that happened in Latvia was organized by the German occupation forces, but it was important for the Nazis to proclaim that everything was done voluntarily.” (pp. 128-129).

Ezergailis takes a middle view between the extremes of complete duress and total free will. With reference to the German-made police or militia units, he writes, “The Germans called their organizations ‘volunteer’, but in most cases the membership was by invitation, order, or draft. It would be wrong to call these formations entirely coerced, but the situation was not fully free of blackmail.” (p. 138).

GERMAN GUILT DIFFUSION STRATEGY: CHANGING THE SUBJECT FROM GERMAN CRIMES TO ALLEGED ACCOMPLICES OF GERMAN CRIMES (COLLABORATORS)

The Germans love to talk about collaborators, all the while confusing the likes of Quisling and Petain with the totally-subjugated East Europeans. Ezergailis comments, “In reference to the Holocaust literature on Eastern Europe, especially that from Germany, there is an overuse of the concept of collaboration, which had its origins in Western Europe and Scandinavia. Every second article written by a German scholar about Eastern Europe has the word collaboration in it. In Eastern Europe, the population of which the Nazis considered to be UNTERMENSCHEN, collaboration could not but have different modalities from those in the West.” (pp. 38-39).

GERMAN GUILT DIFFUSION STRATEGY: TRANSFORMING THE HOLOCAUST FROM WHAT IT IS—A PERPETUAL GERMAN LIABILITY—INTO A PERPETUAL ALL-EUROPEAN OR WORLDWIDE LIABILITY

Ezergailis: “It may be correct to say that anti-Semitism was a European problem, yet to say that the Holocaust is also a European or world problem is historically and sociologically inexact.” (p. 22).

GERMAN GUILT DIFFUSION STRATEGY: A SMOKESCREEN OF ORWELLIAN BUZZWORDS

Holocaustianity has many tentacles. Ezergailis presents a whole list of naughty words–as determined by the standard leftspeak and Holocaustspeak. For example:

NATIONALISM: Ezergailis: “The concept of ‘nationalism’, instead of serving as an analytical tool, has become a potent hate-mongering weapon in historical, sociological, and general discourse…This concept fails to distinguish between the evils of empires and those of small nations. It is applied to states that conquer as well as it is to those that defend.” (p. 20).

FASCISM: Ezergailis: “Fascism, if possible, has suffered a worse etymological contortion than nationalism…a portmanteau hate-mongering concept…This profligate use of ‘fascism’ is a reductionism that leads to a simplistic view of history and politics, especially those of Eastern Europe. To call all non-democratic non-laissez-faire governments fascist leads to a confusion of political systems and ultimately to misreading the world.” (p. 21).

REVISIONISM: This can be good or bad (e. g, Holocaust denial). Ezergailis concludes, “Overemphasis on East Europeans as perpetrators of the Holocaust is a form of ‘revisionism’” (p. 21).

ANTISEMITISM (what else?): Elaborated separately below.

GERMAN GUILT DIFFUSION STRATEGY: CONFUSING EXTERMINATORY GERMAN ANTISEMITISM WITH THE ORDINARY ANTISEMITISM THAT HAD EXISTED SINCE TIME IMMEMORIAL

It all boils down to anti-Semitism, huh? Ezergailis: “If that were so, then since the Middle Ages there would have been an uninterrupted massacre of the Jews. European history is proof that anti-Semitism and Jews can coexist…Even the Christian-induced attacks on Jews during the Middle Ages or the pogroms within the confines of the Russian Empire were pinpricks in comparison to the Holocaust.” (p. 22).

“German anti-Semitism was a unique cocktail that no other people of the world imbibed.” (p. 23; See also p. 88).

Enough debunking of Holocaustianity.

A superb book!