Holocaust Exceptional Common Misconceptions Hayes

Why?: Explaining the Holocaust, by Peter Hayes. 2017

Some Good Information, But Also Considerable Distortion. Alternative Scholarly Sources Provided

Popular author Peter Hayes makes some dubious statements. Consider the following correctives:

The Nazi German extermination of 5-6 million Jews is a fact: The Nazis-were-out-too-kill-every-single-Jew (the usual talking point for the privileged status of the Holocaust) is not. For instance, a significant number of prominent German Jews were declared Aryans [given the DEUTSCHBLUTIGKEITSERKLARUNG (declaration of German blood)], by top Nazi officials (including Hitler himself):

[[ASIN:0700616381 Lives of Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers: Untold Tales of Men of Jewish Descent Who Fought for the Third Reich (Modern War Studies (Hardcover))]]

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Who decides if a genocide is irrational or rational, and who decides that only tangible gain for the perpetrator can make a genocide rational? Besides, such sophistry is moot. It turns out, there is no valid dichotomy between material-gain and non-material-gain considerations behind Nazi policies towards the Jews:

[[ASIN:0521743575 Jewish Forced Labor under the Nazis: Economic Needs and Racial Aims, 1938-1944]]

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“Choiceless Choice” considerations, if applied evenhandedly, would also exonerate many gentile collaborators. In addition, Jewish culpability for collaboration with the Nazis cannot summarily be dismissed under this simplistic rubric:

[[ASIN:0191001600 International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law (The Collected Courses of the Academy of European Law)]]

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It is not unilaterally true that fugitive Jews, in rural areas of German-occupied Poland, had little chance of surviving. Nor were Polish rescuers of Jews just a handful of altruistic individuals. Thus far, over 100 “chains” of Polish families, and entire villages, have been identified as having rescued Jews in an organized manner:

[[ASIN:B00DUF887O Golden Harvest or Hearts of Gold? Studies on the Wartime Fate of Poles and Jews]]

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Here is a much more complete and objective work, on the Poles and fugitive Jews of rural Dabrowa County, than the decidedly-slanted JUDENJAGD (HUNT FOR THE JEWS) of Jan Grabowski:

[[ASIN:8385601333 Krwawe Upiory (Polish Edition)]]

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Looting was no more a Polish disease than it was a Jewish disease. It is common, war-related behavior. For example, Jewish soldiers and civilians systematically stole from Palestinian Arabs during the 1948 War:

[[ASIN:0805058966 1949: The First Israelis]]
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Especially during and after wars, it is standard procedure for the belongings of the deceased to become the belongings of the living. In no sense did Poles “get rich” on post-Jewish properties after the Holocaust. Millions of Poles had lost their lives and their homes during the war and occupation. Despite the vacant post-Jewish properties now available to Poles, there remained a severe shortage of housing in Poland long after WWII:

[[ASIN:B00352P0KK I Saw Poland Betrayed. American Opinion Reprint]]
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A number of Jewish (never mind Polish) testimonies, on Jedwabne, are being ignored. They state that the Germans, and not the Poles, were the main killers of Jedwabne’s Jews:

[[ASIN:9659070101 Deliverance: The Diary of Michael Maik, a True Story]]
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Regardless of what exactly did or did not happen at Jedwabne and environs, massacres and pogroms, involving Poles and Jews, went both ways. Did you know that Jews murdered Poles at villages such as Brzostowica Mala, Naliboki, and Koniuchy?

[[ASIN:B00A7CANYY Intermarium: The Land between the Black and Baltic Seas: 0]]
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The massive overabundance of Jewish officers in the dreaded Communist security forces (U. B.–BEZPIEKA), minimally at 37% of total leadership against only 1% Jewish share of Poland’s post-WWII population, cannot be airbrushed out of history:

[[ASIN:8311092664 Aparat bezpieczenstwa w Polsce w latach 1950-1952: Taktyka, strategia, metody (Dokumenty) (Polish Edition)]]

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