Book Notes. (cover story)
New York Amsterdam News
09/21/2000, Vol. 91 Issue 38, p1, 2p
Finkelstein, Norman

The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Human Suffering

Editor's note:

Mr. Norman Finkelstein, a scholar with impeccable credentials who teaches at Hunter College of City University, has written an important book about the Holocaust. When in Europe recently, we heard of the book reviews which were, in the main, quite favorable, and even when not favorable it was suggested as a "must read" for those who wish to know the truth of the Holocaust.

There was not a buzz about the book in literary circles here in New York when we returned from Europe, and we wondered why. We knew that there had been a devastating review in the New York Times that treated a scholarly work as a piece of garbage. Other than that, there was hardly anything at all that suggested that a book of this importance had been written.

Then came a surprise; a surprise in that a review of this book, written by Todd Venezia with the headline "Jewish writer condemned as a traitor," appeared on page 23 of the New York Post on Sept. 19. It was, to our way of thinking, a fairly accurate and fair-minded presentation of the writer and his book.

The New York Post surprised us because we almost never see any matter of scholarly or historical importance discussed in their pages. We believe that some editor there was asleep at the switch when this review was allowed to get into the papers.

The writer of this book is, himself, the child of Holocaust survivors who were liberated from concentration camps. All of his other relatives died or were killed in concentration camps. His credentials to criticize Jews, the Holocaust and the Holocaust industry simply could not be challenged.

He makes serious charges when he refers to icon Elie Wiesel as a "silly figure" for using his stature to generate a $25,000 fee per appearance for him to lecture. Further, Mr. Finkelstein says, "the Holocaust industry has reduced the memory of the Jewish people's suffering to that of a Monte Carlo casino." He backhands such groups as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and calls them, essentially, liars for their interpretation of the Holocaust and their raising money on the backs of those who have died while offering little to those for whom they are alleged to be raising money in compensation who still live.

In short, Mr. Finkelstein claims that the works of the American Jewish Committee, the ADL and Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center are little short of being charades, for they have raised millions and millions of dollars -- little of which went to the Jewish poor in America -- in order to enhance the work of their own organization's support for Israel and the causes in America that they really cared about, or in which they had personal interests.

In a surprising conclusion, he contends that most of the people involved in the Holocaust industry are involved for their own profit and self-aggrandizement, especially Rabbi Hier, whose family takes in $500,000 a year for their Holocaust work.

There is so much more in this book ($23), published by Verso Press in London.

Our interest in this book led us to the writer and the publisher of the work, which is controversial, and whether advertised or approved of by newspapers and book reviewers, will take legs. For there are many elements of truth in Mr. Finkelstein's assessment that the book will live, no matter how much effort is made by those who run the Holocaust industry to condemn and suppress it.

In a telephone interview with the writer, we asked whether there had been any attempts at censoring his book. He answered:

The book officially came out in the United States and England in July. In England it was front-page news in every major British periodical and serialized across two editions of the British Guardian. I was also on more than 20 BBC radio and television programs when I went to England in the middle of July. The book then became front-page news in the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. In Switzerland, the book is No. 1 on the best-seller list. In Germany, two books have been written about "The Holocaust Industry" and are coming out soon. Both are entitled "The Finkelstein Debate," from two different publishers.

In Canada, the book is No. 11 on the best-seller list. I have major interviews scheduled for Brazilian, Danish and Swedish news outlets. Translation rights have been bought for publication in eight different languages: Dutch, Danish, Polish, Swedish, German, Arabic, Turkish and Portuguese. All this, and the book just came out in July. Compare all that with the United States.

In the United States to date, there have been only two reviews of the book. I sent out, prior to the book being published, 250 review copies together with quite extensive and expensive press packets. For small publishers, we went the limit. Initially there was a very small reaction, but still something. Maybe four or five places showed the courage to react.

Brian Lamb of C-Span's "Book Notes" program offered a spot for Sept. 14. We confirmed it and they subsequently killed it.

Then Talk Magazine commissioned a profile of me and the book, which was given almost a 100-percent guarantee of publication. The author was Laura Secor, managing editor of Lingua Franca magazine. That too was killed. There was a small number of reactions, but every one of these was killed. There were also other interests in reviewing the book and every one of these was killed. Now the book is essentially a non-book in the United States.

As Christopher Hitchens put it in Nation magazine last week, "The book now has a samizdat [underground] status in the United States of America. By that I mean circulated underground." Actually, now, just before the Amsterdam News called, I was talking to my publisher and we wanted to take out an ad in the New York Times book review section, and at the end of the ad we wanted to say, "available in all good bookstores." The ad department of the New York Times book review called and said, "You can't use the word 'good' because it implies that if they don't carry your book they are not good." We had to drop the word "good" and make it "major."

Basically, that is where matters stand. It is absolutely imperative, in my opinion, that the gangsters and profiteers who manage the Holocaust industry in this country be publicly exposed, those such as Abraham Foxman and the Anti-Defamation League, Elan Steinberg, the World Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Committee. Elie Wiesel I consider to be an exploiter. A salary of over $500,000 for Rabbi Hier, his wife and son, who run the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles as a family business, is outrageous. According to their 1996 federal tax returns, they collectively took in over $500,000 that year. Who knows? We can only speculate as to what was taken for expenses. Mr. Elie Wiesel gets paid $25,000 in personal income for lectures, and we think this is a bit much.

Our final question to Mr. Finkelstein was: Where did you get this kind of courage, to attack an institution which you, yourself, describe as an industry? To this, Mr. Finkelstein replied:

I do not consider myself to be courageous. I do have integrity. Courage is a 5-year-old child going out to face a tank with a stone. Integrity is simply being able to get up in the morning, look in the mirror and face who you are.

It seems to us, here at the Amsterdam News, that there is an attempt at censorship of this book by those who benefit from the Holocaust industry, as described. As another writer put it, "truth crushed to Earth will rise again."

We have not heard the last of "The Holocaust Industry" by Norman Finkelstein. Nor do we believe that Mr. Finkelstein can be effectively censored. His website is www.normanfinkelstein.com. A review of his book will appear in the Amsterdam News shortly.
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