SHOAH Lanzmann Fallacies Liebman

Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah, by Stuart Liebman (Editor). 2007

Christian Blame, Selective Pole-Blaming Sound Bites. Rife With Distortions: Wealthy Jews, Cut-Throat Gesture, etc. Corrective Sources Included in Review Below

This entire work is centered on the premise that Jewish suffering was special, and above that of other peoples. This is notwithstanding historian Garton Ash’s statement that the Poles’ situation under German rule was second-worse only to that of the Jews. (p. 140).

CHERRY-PICKING WITH A VENGEANCE

The flawed methodology of SHOAH itself is obvious. Approximately 9.5 hours (p. 103) of taping were culled out of 350. (p. 76). Those interviewed by Lanzmann were not allowed to give prepared responses. (p. 173). Such an approach can twist any individual or group into a bigot or fool on camera.

Legendary courier Jan Karski points out that only 40 minutes was shown of 8 hours of taped interview. (p. 174). The most important part was left out–his mission to the west to warn of the Holocaust, and the indifferent response from western gentile and Jewish leaders. One can guess why.

ANTI-POLISH IDEATION

Lanzmann’s Polonophobia is transparent. He actually believes the canard about the German death camps being situated in Poland because of Polish attitudes. (p. 141, 154). He imagines that his selected soundbites reflect the “real” and “deep” Poland. (p. 137). (Would soundbites showing the JUDENRAT , or crooked Jewish ghetto police, getting rich off the Jews they had dispatched to the death camps, reflect the “real” and “deep” Judaism?)

Lanzmann, a Frenchman, goes after Poland. He is strangely silent about the collaborationist Vichy regime and its sending of 75,000 French Jews to the death camps. (p. 156).

SELECTIVE SOUND-BITES REINFORCE PREJUDICES ABOUT POLES

An interviewed Polish peasant is made to look foolish or bigoted for “remembering” a Jew showing him a box of money. What Lanzmann does not tell the viewer is that Jews ALSO had memes of wealthy Jews having barrels of gold coins. See: Journey to a Nineteenth-Century Shtetl: The Memoirs of Yekhezkel Kotik (Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology).

This work repeats the myth about the Polish peasant’s cut-throat gesture being a mockery of Jews. (p. 12, 75, 119, 213). It was no such thing. In fact, Jews gave the same warning gesture to each other. See: The Holocaust Odyssey of Daniel Bennahmias, Sonderkommando (Judaic Studies Series). See also: Am I a Murderer?: Testament of a Jewish Ghetto Policeman.

DUMPING ON CHRISTIANITY TOO

Lanzmann’s anti-Christian bias is ostentatious. He commits the logical fallacy known as the genetic fallacy by blaming Christianity for the Holocaust. ([A] preceded [B]; therefore [A] caused [B].) Bearing in mind that Judaic teachings about Christ and Christianity were every bit as hostile as the reverse, one could just as illogically argue that these Judaic teachings led to the Holocaust. He makes a contrived progression, wherein Christian missionaries said: “You have no right to live among us as Jews”, and this was replaced by secular leaders who said: “You have no right to live among us”, which in turn was succeeded by the Nazis who decreed that: “You have no right to live.” (p. 31). What a non sequitur, and backward-running view of history!

To begin with, what were Jewish missionaries doing? Second, in most places and times, Jews in Christian-majority nations lived in relative peace and tolerance, often enjoying greater privileges than most Christians. See: Jews, God and History. Finally, Nazism was a secularist ideology that had nothing to do with Christianity (in fact, was anti-Christian).

For further analysis of Lanzmann, see Shoah: The Complete Text Of The Acclaimed Holocaust Film.