Elie Wiesel just died. He was famous and universally praised for claiming to be a witness to the Holocaust in his huge selling book, Night.
The book is not a first-hand description of gas chambers, or anything like that. It is a short incoherent novel that was put together by a translator, many years after the war.
Wiesel is often described as a Holocaust survivor, but what did he do to survive? Did he sneak out of the gas chambers? Beat up a camp guard and escape? If the Nazis wanted to kill him, why wasn't he dead in 1945?
Wiesel got a Nobel Peace Prize and a lot of other awards. Maybe I am just ignorant, but I don't see why he is such a hero.
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You've referenced Kevin MacDonald (who famously denies the Holocaust) so I have to wonder if you even believe that the Holocaust ever happened. Do you believe the Holocaust happened ? Do you actually doubt that Wiesel witnessed it ? ( you say that he claims to have witnessed it ) What makes you think that it's not a first-hand description ? Anything ? His book was translated, but he wrote it. What makes you think that he didn't and a translator did ? What difference does it make that he wrote the book "many years after the war " ? How does that change anything regarding what he wrote ? What about his other 40 books ? Did he write those ?
What did he survive ? He survived genocide; the Holocaust. Have you seen the photos and films ? Had you gone through what he went through wouldn't you describe it as "surviving" something ?, or do you think he enjoyed it ? Survive: to endure or live through (an affliction, adversity, misery, etc.):to remain alive after the death of someone, the cessation of something, or the occurrence of some event; continue to live.
Maybe you're wondering if you're just ignorant because you don't believe any Jew can be a hero save, maybe those Jews that criticise Jews. In your mind, has there ever been any Jewish heroes ? Can you name a few Jews that you consider heroes ? I think that that's your problem. You don't respect Jews as a whole.
I did not know that Kevin MacDonald denies the Holocaust. Post a link, if you wish, as that surprises me.
I have seen dozens of photos and films about the Holocaust.
I doubt Wiesel because his book is widely reported as fiction. Contemporaneous accounts are more reliable, so yes, it does make a difference that it was written many years later.
You ask if Wiesel enjoyed it. I have no idea about that. He make a whole career out of it, so it is possible that he did enjoy it.
I guess you are suggesting that Wiesel was representative of the Jewish people or of Jewish religious values. He was widely praised by Jewish groups, so that may be true.
He's an "expert" on denying the Holocaust.
"MacDonald started the new millennium off with a bang when he agreed to testify as an expert witness for the British Holocaust denier David Irving in a London libel trial."
Sure you don't know if Wiesel enjoyed the Holocaust. Get serious. Maybe you should go to a location where there's genocide and give surviving it a try yourself ? You might enjoy it.
Okay, you are playing some sort of sick guilt-by-association and name-calling game. I did not think that Irving denied the Holocaust, but I could be wrong about that. But whether he did or not, a witness at a trial does not necessarily agree to everything one party says. There is no merit to anything you say.
Where's the guilt by association ? Where's the name-calling. Macdonald testified on behalf of a holocaust denier as an expert. What do you think an expert witness does, disagree with the side he's helping as an expert ?
David Irving
"It [the Holocaust] is something like a religion.... The Intellectual Adventure is that we are reversing this entire trend within the space of one generation -- that in a few years time no one will believe this particular legend anymore. They will say, as I do, that atrocities were committed. Yes, hundreds of thousands of people were killed, but there were no factories of death. All that is a blood libel against the German people."
Speech in Portland, OR. September 18, 1996. (posted on Internet)
Based on that quote, he is agreeing that there was a Holocaust (hundreds of thousands of people were killed), but has some quibbles with popular accounts on how it was done. This is out of my expertise. He has written a bunch of history books giving his account of what happened. I have not read them. If he is wrong, I am sure that others have pointed out his errors.
As far as I know, Wiesel's famous book did not describe great atrocities or factories of death either.
"Elie Wiesel describes his experiences through the atrocities of the Holocaust," Many people feel that he did describe the atrocities and he did write about the death factories "He allowed thousands of children to burn in the pits, let the crematories burn in the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna and so many factories of death." (from Weisel's book)
Maybe you're wondering if you're just ignorant because you don't believe any Jew can be a hero save, maybe those Jews that criticise Jews. In your mind, has there ever been any Jewish heroes ? Can you name a few Jews that you consider heroes ? I think that that's your problem. You don't respect Jews as a whole.
Okay, I guess there are some discrepancies between Wiesel and Irvin, based on what you say. Is that why they call it a "holocaust"? Because Wiesel said that Jewish kids were burned alive?
I ma in no position to judge Jews as a whole.
What else would you call it. Doesn't the definition fit the description that you just gave ?
an event or situation in which many people are killed and many things are destroyed especially by fire
Source: Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary
In your mind, has there ever been any Jewish heroes ? Can you name a few Jews that you consider heroes ? I think that that's your problem. You don't respect Jews as a whole.
"Maybe I am just ignorant, but I don't see why he is such a hero." Yes, you are just ignorant... Willfully so.
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