Critical Review: Norman Finkelstein's The Holocaust Industry

I have recently read Norman Finkelstein’s book The Holocaust Industry.[1] Finkelstein is a Jew whose family were destroyed in the Nazi holocaust, “Apart from my parents, every family member on both sides was exterminated by the Nazis.” (p. 5) I find the book difficult to read simply because the Holocaust is such an emotive subject and, without Finkelstein’s ethnicity and family past, I would find it difficult to give the book any credence at all. While Finkelstein in no way suggests the basic facts of the holocaust are incorrect, he does accuse the Jewish political elites of misusing “The Holocaust”, (a public diplomacy construction, as opposed to “the holocaust”, an historical event) as a propaganda tool for political gain; public diplomacy for the Jewish nation, if you like. The following quote is the opening statement of the book, and the remainder of the book seeks to authenticate the veracity of this assertion.

“It seems to me the Holocaust is being sold – it is not being taught.”

Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, Hillel Director, Yale University[2]

The purpose of this Holocaust framework, according to Finkelstein, “preclude(s) the possibility that animus toward Jews might be grounded in a real conflict of interests, ... Invoking The Holocaust was therefore a ploy to delegitimize all criticism of Jews: such criticism could only spring from a pathological hatred.” Finkelstein quotes Edward Alexander, ‘The uniqueness of The Holocaust is “moral capital”; Jews must “claim sovereignty” over this “valuable property”[3] and that this “moral capital” is Israel’s “prize alibi” in the “moral and emotional claims that Israel can make…. on other nations” [4] For anyone who seeks to criticize Israel’s policies in the occupied territories, or anyone who follows others, such as Finkelstein or Chomsky, that do, will be well aware of the label of “self-hating Jew”, or if the critic is not Jewish, “anti-Semite”.

“Holocaust awareness,” the respected Israeli writer Boas Evron observes, is actually “an official, propagandistic indoctrination, a churning out of slogans and a false view of the world, the real aim of which is not an understanding of the past, but a manipulation of the present.” [5]

This is not the whole premise of the book, but it makes it essential reading for anyone who experiences that knot of trepidation when seeking to legitimately criticize any of Israel’s policies. It exposes for me the real, raw emotional power that can be present in public and cultural diplomacy.

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[1] Verso, London, (2000)

[2] Michael Berenbaum, After Tragedy and Triumph (Cambridge:1990), p. 45

in The Holocaust Industry p.1

[3] Edward Alexander, Stealing the Holocaust, in The Holocaust Industry, p. 48

[4] Peter Baldwin (ed.), Reworking the past, in The Holocaust Industry, p.48

[5] Boas Evron, Holocaust: The uses of disaster,” in Radical America July/august, 1983, p.15. Quoted in The Holocaust Industry, p.41