1. Holocaust ignoring is worse than holocaust denial.
The “Holocaust ignoring, holocaust denial” site is dedicated to exposing holocaust commission, genocide commission, holocaust ignoring, genocide ignoring, holocaust minimization, genocide minimization, holocaust denial, and genocide denial.
Holocaust in general involves the death of large numbers of people. Examples include the WW2 Bengali Holocaust (the first WW2 atrocity to be described as a holocaust per se, by N.G. Jog in 1944 in his book "Churchill's Blind-Spot: India", New Book Company, Bombay; 6-7 million Indians were starved to death under the British in the 1943-1945 Bengal Famine) and the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (Shoah; 5-6 million victims, 1 in 6 dtying from deprivation) which was part of the WW2 European theatre Holocaust in general (30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies killed).
A clarifying distinction must be made here between "Holocaust denial" (a term commonly very loosely and confusingly applied to alleged denial or minimization of aspects of the WW2 Jewish Holocaust or Shoah) and the general term "holocaust denial" applying to denial of this or of other holocausts. Thus the unfortunately very widespread use of the term "holocaust" to apply solely to the Shoa and not to the WW2 Holocaust of which the Shoa was a part or indeed to other holocausts is an example in itself of "holocaust denial", "holocaust minimization" and "holocaust ignoring".
Genocide is defined legally by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention (see: http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide/convention.html ) which states that “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
Holocaust or genocide ignoring is far, far worse than holocaust or genocide denial or minimization. Thus holocaust or genocide denial or minimization is active and invites scholarly research and discussion whereas holocaust or genocide ignoring (e.g. most notoriously by Mainstream media, politicians and academics in relation to Western-complicit non-Jewish holocausts) is passive and simply blocks public perception and hence public discussion.
Holocaust or genocide denial, minimization or ignoring is wrong and utterly repugnant for 3 major reasons: (1) it is falsehood; (2) it is profoundly offensive to the memory of the victims, survivors of such atrocities, their loved ones and indeed to all of decent humanity; and (3) it increases the probability of repetition of such awful crimes – history ignored yields history repeated.
Notwithstanding the offensiveness of holocaust or genocide denial, minimization or ignoring, the vital importance of free speech and of science-based scholarly research argue against punitive criminalization of such acts (e.g. in relation to the Jewish Holocaust or the Armenian Genocide in some Western European countries). Such punitive criminalization has alarmed academics and others who believe that it punishes free speech and potentially constrains critical scholarly research into horrendous crimes against humanity (e.g. there have been many holocausts and genocides and scholars in these areas may differ in quantitative assessments and may only concern themselves with particular holocausts in their writings).
In contrast, “no-penalty criminalization of holocaust or genocide denial, minimization or ignoring" could be useful in that it exposes, arraigns, tries and convicts "holocaust deniers" and "genocide deniers" – but preserves free speech and scholarly freedom by applying no penalty other than the ignominy and public disgrace of transparent, public, judicial conviction for the crime of holocaust or genocide denial, minimization or ignoring (see Gideon Polya, “Genocide denial - no-penalty criminalization required now”, MWC News, February 2007: http://sites.google.com/site/iraqgenocideessays/genocide-denial .
2. Iraqi Holocaust ignoring and minimization by taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) (Australia’s equivalent of the UK BBC).
| A recent (June 2009) news report from the genocide-ignoring Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) underestimates post-invasion Iraqi war dead by a factor of 26 - it reports 90,000-100,000 dead (see: “Iraq forces on alert as US pulls out”, 30 June 2009: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/30/2611934.htm ), whereas authoritative sources indicate 2.3 million post-invasion violent and non-violent Iraqi excess deaths (as of 2009; for details see below) – a 26-fold under-estimate. Apartheid Australia continues to be involved in the active and passive murder of Indigenous people in Australia, Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan but chooses to resolutely ignore the horrendous consequences, further enhancing its reputation as a racist, war criminal, climate criminal country with an entrenched culture of lying. Apartheid Australia has made race-based laws that specifically prevent Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory from the provision of the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act and from reading, seeing, consuming, purchasing or transporting things that are available to all other Australians – the Australian Human Rights Commission opposes these race-based laws (see “Racial Discrimination Act 1975 “: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_Discrimination_Act_1975 ). I have made a formal complaint to the International Criminal Court over Australian involvement in Aboriginal Genocide (circa 2 million excess deaths since Invasion in 1788; 9,000 Indigenous excess deaths annually); Iraqi Genocide and Afghan Genocide (post-invasion non-violent excess deaths 1.0 million and 3 million, respectively; post-invasion violent excess deaths 1.3 million and up to 4 million, respectively; post-invasion non-violent and violent excess deaths 2.3 million and 3-7 million, respectively; post-invasion under-5 infant deaths 0.6 million and 2.3 million, respectively; refugees totalling 5-6 million and 3-4 million, respectively, with a further 2.5 million Pashtun refugees generated under Obama from the NW Province of Pakistan); and Climate Genocide ( climate criminal Apartheid Australia is a world leading greenhouse gas (GHG) polluter, intends to roughly double its domestic plus exported GHG pollution by 2050 and is a disproportionate contribute on a per capita basis to worsening climate Genocide that is estimated to kill 10 billion non-Europeans this century, including 6 billion infants, 3 billion Muslims, 2 billion Indians and 0.3 billion Bangladeshis) (see: “Formal complaint to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court re Australian Government involvement in Aboriginal Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide and Climate Genocide“: http://climateemergency.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html ). The taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is no exception to this national culture of lying and is actively involved in propagating racist lies of omission and commission about the consequences of Australia’s genocidal activities. Indeed while a search of the ABC (July 2009; see: http://www.abc.net.au/ ) finds brief and "controversial" reference to "Aboriginal Genocide", the terms Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide, Palestinian Genocide and Climate Genocide are completely absent. This ABC lying is a dishonest, misplaced effort to shore up Apartheid Australia’s flagging international reputation – in particular racist, genocidal Apartheid Australia (population 22 million) wants a seat on the UN Security Council to the exclusion of peaceful, law-abiding, non-racist countries such as, for example, India (population 1,100 million) (for an official statement of Apartheid Australia’s case by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) see “Australia: United Nations Security Council candidate 2013-2014”: http://www.dfat.gov.au/un/unga.html ). However the DFAT case naturally enough omits to mention Apartheid Australia’s sustained involvement in mass murder of Asians that continues to this day. Apartheid Australia has been involved in all post-1950 US Asian wars, genocidal conflicts that have been associated, so far, with 25 million Indigenous Asian excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that need not have happened) (for details see my recent books “Body Count, Global avoidable mortality since 1950” : http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ and http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya ) and “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability”: see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ). The ABC News recently reported the US withdrawal from Iraqi cities and stated: “Since March 2003, more than 4,300 US troops died in Iraq. According to some estimates, between 90,000 and 100,000 Iraqi civilians have also been killed” (see: “Iraq forces on alert as US pulls out”, 30 June 2009: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/30/2611934.htm ). 3. The awful truth about the Iraqi Genocide is otherwise as set out below (date related to 2009). The highly-credentialled US-based Just Foreign Policy organization estimates from expert US medical epidemiological and UK commercial surveys that 1.3 million Iraqi have died violently due to the US invasion (see: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/156 ) . UN Population Division data (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/ ) indicate that post-invasion Iraqi non-violent excess deaths total about 1.0 million and that post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.6 million. In addition one can estimate 1.7 million Sanctions excess deaths (1990-2003), 1.2 million under-5 infant deaths under Sanctions, and 0.2 million Iraqi Gulf War deaths (see “Iraqi Genocide”: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Messages190308.htm#polya ) and refugees reached 5-6 million (see “Brussells Tribunal”, notably “US genocide in Iraq” by Dr Ian Douglas: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/ ) . About 90% of the under-5 infant deaths have been avoidable i.e. Apartheid Australia has been actively involved in the active and passive mass murder of 0.9 x 1.8 million = 1.6 million Iraqi under-5 year old infants under Sanctions (1990-2003) and Occupation (2003-2009), this number being greater than the number of Jewish children who died under the Nazis (1.5 million). The reason for this carnage: WHO (see: http://www.who.int/countries/en/ ) informs that the “total annual per capita medical expenditure” permitted by the US Alliance Occupiers in Occupied Iraq is currently $124 as compared to $3,122 in Apartheid Australia. Apartheid Australia is grossly violating the Geneva Convention which demands that an Occupier must supply life-sustaining food and medical supplies “to the fullest extent o f the means available to it” (see Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm ). 4. Holocaust estimates by David Irving (WW2 Jewish Holocaust) and Sir Martin Gilbert (WW2 Jewish Holocaust and WW2 Bengali Holocaust). (A) Irving. Just imagine genocide and holocaust reporting about Germany, that omitted any mention of the Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) - indeed David Irving was sentenced to 3 years in prison in Austria for conceding only 1 million violent Jewish deaths and asserting that Jewish concentration camp deaths were due to deprivation and disease. For an interview with David Irving see: http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/00/05/Silver.html ; quote: “Interviewer: Israeli and German researchers tried independently to estimate how many Jews died. They came to similar conclusions, between 5.6 million and 6.1 million. If you don't accept such figures, how many Jews do you think did die? Irving: I'm quite satisfied that the shootings on the Eastern Front happened, that these probably reached a total victim figure of one million. Interviewer: What about the people who died in concentration camps? Irving: We have to ask two infuriating questions. Who is a Jew? And what do you mean by died? I appreciate the criminality of being taken out of your home in Vienna or Budapest and sent to Auschwitz, where you died of typhus. But is that being killed, or is it dying?” David Irving’s minimizing of the WW2 Jewish Holocaust atrocity (according to Irving, 1 million killed plus people dying from deprivation in concentration camps); stands in marked contrast to authoritative estimates of 5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation; see: Gilbert, M. (1969) (with Banks, A., cartographer), Jewish History Atlas (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London) and Gilbert, M. (1982), Atlas of the Holocaust (Michael Joseph, London)). Thus, on the basis of the above interview and his other observations, historian David Irving underestimated the WW2 Jewish Holocaust deaths by a factor of about 5 at the most while making clear Hitler’s culpability. (B) Gilbert. Eminent British Jewish historian Professor Sir Martin Gilbert estimated that 1.5 million Indians starved to death in the 1943-1945 Bengal Famine or Bengali Holocaust in British-ruled India (see his book “A History of the Twentieth Century. Volume Two 1933-1951”) – underestimating by a factor of about 4 the actual death toll of 6-7 million Indians murdered by the British in the WW2 Bengali Holocaust (see the recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/bengalfamine_programme.html ) . I should add that Professor Martin Gilbert in his book “A History of the Twentieth Century. Volume Two 1933-1951” (William Morrow, New York , 1998) is remarkable and praiseworthy in British historiography for actually mentioning the Bengal Famine, [my correcting additions in square brackets]: “In the summer of 1943, as supplies of rice ran out [incorrect], famine spread through Bengal. Its ravages were savage and swift. The poor, and villagers in the remoter regions were its main victims [people starved in Calcutta], not only in Bengal, but in neighboring Orissa and distant Malabar. Within a few months, as many as 1,500,000 Indians had died [6-7 million died, 1943-1945 i.e. up to 5 times more than Gilbert’s estimate]. The Bengal Famine was one of the worst famines of the century [p522]…Between 1939 and 1945 disease and hunger had taken their toll, with war conditions making it much harder to organize alleviation. In Bengal, a million and half Indians died of starvation [6-7 million died in Bengal, Assam and Orissa] [p725]”. Thus historian Sir Martin Gilbert under-estimated the WW2 Bengali Holocaust deaths by a factor of about 5 while excusing Churchill’s part in this atrocity. Indeed Gilbert explicitly excuses Churchill in an opinion secured by The Churchill Centre, London, re an article by me about Churchill’s involvement in the WW2 Bengali Holocaust: “Mr.[sic] Polya begins by dismissing all historians who disagree with him as Anglo-American and Zionist propagandists, including official biographer Sir Martin Gilbert—who, since it’s always a good idea to question the accused, we asked for comment. “Churchill was not responsible for the Bengal Famine,” Sir Martin replied. “I have been searching for evidence for years: none has turned up. The 1944 Document volume of the official biography [Hillsdale College Press] will resolve this issue finally.”” (see “The Bengali Famine”, The Churchill Centre, http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/in-the-media/churchill-in-the-news/575-the-bengali-famine ). However the genocide-ignoring Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) underestimates the 2.3 million post-invasion Iraqi war-related deaths by as much as a factor of 2.3 million/90,000 = 26. [As of 2011, post-invasion Iraqi war-related deaths total 2.7 million; see “Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ ; “Iraqi Genocide, Iraqi Holocaust”: http://iraqigenocideiraqiholocaust.blogspot.com/ ]. 5. Summary. Holocaust ignoring is far worse than holocaust denial because at least the latter admits of sensible discussion. The taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) (Australia’s equivalent of the UK BBC) has under-estimated the war-related deaths in post-invasion Iraq by as much as a factor of 26 (while avoiding Australian complicity) . In comparison David Irving may have under-estimated deaths in the WW2 Jewish Holocaust by at most a factor of 5 (while unequivocally indicating Hitler’s responsibility) and Sir Martin Gilbert under-estimated the WW2 Bengali Holocaust deaths by a factor of about 5 (while excusing Churchill’s part in this atrocity). Searches of the ABC for the terms “Bengali Holocaust”, “Bengali Genocide”, “Iraqi Holocaust” and “Iraqi Genocide” yield zero (0) results whereas searches for “Jewish Holocaust” and “Holocaust” yield numerous results. Sir Martin Gilbert is a member of the UK Chilcott Inquiry into the Iraq War. PS. Some works variously dealing with the “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust in context include the following: N.G. Jog's “Churchill's Blind Spot: India ” (New Book Company, Bombay, 1944) (which in referring to this Bengali Holocaust was the first to refer to a WW2 atrocity as a “holocaust”). Paul Greenough's “Prosperity and Misery in Modern Bengal: the Famine of 1943-1944” (Oxford University Press, 1982) is a detailed and definitive account of the WW2 Bengal Famine. Brilliant Bengali film maker Satyajit Ray's film "Distant Thunder" is a profoundly moving account of part of this disaster and concludes with an estimate that 5 million Bengalis perished. Gideon Polya, “Biochemical Targets of Plan Bioactive Compounds. A pharmacological reference guide to sites of action and biological effects ” (Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, London & New York, 2003). Gideon Polya, “Bengali Famine”, ABC Radio National, Ockham’s Razor, 1999): http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s19040.htm Gideon Polya, “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality”, ABC Radio National, Ockham’s Razor, 2005: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm . Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 1998, 2008: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ). Madhusree Mukerjee, “Churchill’s Secret War. How Britain ravaged India in World War II” (Basic Books, New York, 2010) (for my review see “WW2 Bengali Holocaust: “Churchill's Secret War” By Madhusree Mukerjee”, Countercurrents,13 Jiuen 2011: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya130611.htm ). Tom Keneally, “Three Famines”.(Knopf, 2010). Colin Mason, “A Short History of Asia” (Macmillan, 2000). Corrmac Ó Gráda, “Famine” (Princeton, 2009). Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen, “Hunger and Public Action” (Clarendon, 1989). Gideon Polya, “The forgotten holocaust – the 1943/1944 Bengal Famine”: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/2005/07/forgotten-holocaust-194344-bengal.html .
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