bombsaway wrote:To take a step back, the original question was about the historical establishment and their view of Holocaust as best evidenced genocide. I'm sure if they would viewed the bombings as genocide they would see they were more evidenced. If you're talking about Dresden in particular, there's probably not as much there in terms of quantity as the entire body of Holocaust evidence.
Again, I am more of a reader trying to make up my mind about various things here. Posts from those more established (owners, moderator, regular posters) along with others, like yourself, I will also read and take measure of. There is a lot of baggage accreted to the whole question over the years which, annoyingly perhaps, I don't have to carry when reading, evaluating or participating in the relevant questions. And since Holocaust/WWII Atrocity Propaganda/Something Else (take your pick) awareness is now bubbling up thanks to the Gaza Holocaust/Plucky Israel's Stout Resolve/ Something Else that is occurring on the back of whatever license the Brazen IDF/ Heroic IDF are operating on, Revisionists and Orthocausts alike are going to be faced with people, like me, who will give opinions without feeling obliged to carry this weighty baggage.
So we can be shown the evidence for, e.g., the Dresden event, and we can be shown the evidence for the mass gassings at Auschwitz. And we can make up our minds without having to say so without first clearing our throats by reciting some outward manifestation of "the Jews suffered terribly during the war = Holocaust". Instead, we are free to say something like, "If there was a Holocaust during World War II it doesn't seem to have happened in Auschwitz".
I mean no disrespect to anyone with this, least of all anyone who suffered in the World Wars and also not to Revisionists who have lived under the threat of violence, lawfare and imprisonment, or with these actual outcomes, owing to their investigations. For someone for which the scales have recently fallen from my eyes (even following the developments just from what the Orthodox sources publish, this is possible), I think the foisting of the Holocaust term itself on all who discuss WWII has resulted in the constant acting out of a parlour game. If it turns out that I can no longer believe that there were mass gassings of Jews in the Reich then I will refuse to use the term Holocaust (at the moment it remains only a hypothetical to me). The Orthodoxy have drastically revised down, for example, the number of gas chambers at Majdanek. I'm not sure what else to conclude by this but it seems awfully like they are comforting themselves in a
I expect there are just a few little men in there fallacy.
We were not sold Israel, nor German Guilt, on this sort of Holocaust, I am taking my Holocaust back to the shop and refuse to consider buying another Holocaust until I know exactly what it is I am being sold.
To the point,
bombsaway wrote:If you're talking about Dresden in particular, there's probably not as much there in terms of quantity as the entire body of Holocaust evidence.
Is that the criterion you are asking me to evaluate claims on? The physical weight of evidence that correlates to an allegation? Which correlate do you favour? Allied governmental documentation for an Allied bombing spree versus all the government documentation of the Nationalist Socialists during their 12 years in office for the Jewish Holocaust? We just just compare Kg values or reams used? How about column inches of coverage in the press? I had no idea law could be so easy. Or do we just compare the magnitudes of the crimes being alleged, and decide that the evidence the prosecutions will present will be greater for crimes of greater magnitude and therefore only the larger crime occurred? We just ignore the quality of the evidence and the way the evidence was gathered and other facts, e.g., the evolving history of this process?
Wow! Colin Pitchfork was convicted and jailed for
only two rape-murders in 1988. I wonder if he could secure his release by establishing the non-existence of his crimes by comparison to the Holocaust? He has been languishing in jail for decades for a crime that could not have occurred, especially when it is considered that the evidence that they convicted him on is so small that it cannot even be seen using a microscope. Weigh that against all photocopies of the Wannsee Protocols!
bombsaway wrote:If I point out how "miserable, mendacious and nasty" the victors were, in WW1, in WW2 etc this is a prerequisite for Hoax, not something that would necessitate a hoax or make it even vaguely likely if nothing had happened. You're talking about not only fabricating documents and witness testimonies, but mass coverup and destruction/suppression of resettlement, millions of people, countless administrative documents - silencing their own side even, that would have seen all these Jews being resettled. In addition to being "miserable, mendacious and nasty" the victors would have to have incredible competence in terms of deceit. This has been far from demonstrated, in fact the opposite has been demonstrated. My main point here would be that you can't draw much of a causal line here.
This is the widest possible summary of why we are all here, from the Orthodox point of view. I am here to make up my mind.
bombsaway wrote:...The Holocaust could have happened and the allies still would have been "nasty" just like they were in WW1.
The universe of things that cannot be ruled out by the nastiness of the Allies at the end of WWI is not the largest infinity amongst all imponderable infinities, but it is pretty humungous. The nature of the National Socialist treatment of Jews (in particular) being partly fabricated and grossly exaggerated by allies being "nasty", just like they were in WW1, can certainly not be ruled out by it.