Holocaust - real or myth?

This is a topic that is, to say the least, highly controversial. To even question the accuracy of how many Jews died in the German Fascist/Nazi death camps during WW2 is asking to be lambasted by some, and be labeled "anti Semitic" and worse.

For many years now, I've wondered why we hear so much and so often about the "gassing of the Jews" and other atrocities, but almost never of others in the same camps, namely Gypsies and homos and perhaps others. I have never made it a deep study, but I have read a fair amount over the years and lately as well some articles giving a different account. I have no strong feelings or alliances except that I am against unfair and inhumane treatment of anybody by anyone regardless of name, nationality, religion or any other "reason".

Of course, I never heard of anyone questioning the accuracy of the stories of the holocaust for many years. I just assumed that it was true, seeing as how it was so prominently and frequently told. But then, why not the others under Hitler? Why not the Russians, of whom many more died? Or the Chinese? Or the Native Americans in what is now the U.S.?

True, we have been hearing a little of the Native Americans, but still nothing about the other groups I've mentioned, and then still others around the world, such as Africa or Indonesia.

Why do we hear so much about the Jews then?

I'm asking this honestly. Anyone who knows me also knows I am not biased toward any group of any kind, and this has been a real struggle for me, because I was born and raised with a lot of harsh discrimation toward blacks in America. I still have corners of my mind where discrimination towards them resides, but much of the original is gone. But I digress....

The last couple of years, I've run into more and more information from seemingly good sources that contradict the holocaust stories. Mind you, no one is denying large numbers of Jews were sent to the "concentration camps" in Germany, or that large numbers of them were mistreated and died. But the gas chambers stories and the total number of Jews dying do not add up. The concentration camps were mainly forced labor camps and many did die there, but not of gassing. Typhus was a big culprit, but also hard labor, poor nutrition and lack of food, and lack of medical care.

My own father died of Typhus (unrelated story), so did Anne Frank, whose house I've been through at least 5 times. Jews have had, and still have, influence in Amsterdam, where I live. Heck, our mayor - quite popular by the way - is Job Cohen. I've stood on the platform at Central Station here where many Jews boarded the trains.... The average Jew has never been a problem, just as the average person of any nationality or religion.

It is when politics, driven and controlled be a few elite, and some extremists, get into the picture that we have problems. I see the extremeists as tools of the few elite.

But I am now seeing that this history was written not as it really happened, which is also true of much other history. I am treating this newer material as any other topic I am confronted with that does not agree with what I learned earlier: Continue to read and ponder. I do not change my opinion on anything quickly, and I need a lot of evidence to do that. But over time, and with enough evidence, I have and will change my view. And that's where I am at the present: Considering material coming to light, doubting some things, questioning others, looking for not only the facts, but also motives. I've been doing this for several years now regarding the holocaust. I still have no firm opinion, but my view is not the same as years ago when I simply 'believed', and find I am leaning to doubting some significant "facts" of the holocaust.

I also have posted little about this here, seeing the volitility and misunderstandings of this subject. Nor have I saved any material or links. Just read and pondered and dropped the matter, only to repeat that many times.

But now I have seen enough to know that what I had learned in the past is not the way it happened. While I do not seek out this subject, I do run across it regularly in my hours of reading every day. And so I have been "letting it happen" instead of trying make it happen.

In no way would I deny the mistreatment and death of a large number of Jews during that time, and other times, in history. But the 'holocaust' story that has been so prominently served to me is also doubtful. And I still continue to wonder why we don't hear much about other, often larger, groups that we know for certain were mistreated and killed.

One question I can ask is this: Who profits by this?

So...that's about where I sit at the moment. Questioning, doubting some significant parts of the holocaust story, but not denying parts we know happened. I do the same with the Native Americans. But I have not even begun with the Russians, Africans, Chinese, Indonesians.....

This is a struggle for me. The struggle is to learn the truth insofar as that is possible. I have been doing this for many years in other areas, particularly my religious and political background. And that is also still not conclusive.

One final thought here: Some Jews are Zionists, but the vast majority are not. Just as in the U.S., some Americans are neocons, but the vast majority are not. And by the way, many of the neocons in influencial positions in the U.S. are Zionists as well, look at Bush's advisors. It is the Zionists that are the problem, just as the neocons are.

What I'm doing here is kind of putting my thoughts on 'paper', not taking a hard position on this volitile subject. But I also have a tag line in my emails that says: "Watch what is done, not what is said." I try to live by that.

For now, I have tagged this subject "Opinion". But I may well tag parts of it in the future as "Deception, disinformation, cover-up" as I already have done with other topics.

The following article is interesting, if not controversial. I do not know about some statements in it, nor do I know if those are accurate, nor is the source a well known one to me. But they are interesting. This article, taken together with many others, must be weighed and compared. Therefore I would label it "interesting". I will not form an opinion on such, just weigh it against many others. Oh yes, I have not read any material by neo nazis or any other anti Jewish or biased group.

This is the article; there are many more....