The Holocaust Industry

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A scathing argument against those who exploit the Holocaust to shield Israel from criticism—by a major figure at the center of the Israel-Palestine debate

“The most controversial book of the year.” —Guardian
 
In his iconoclastic and controversial study, Norman G. Finkelstein moves from an interrogation of the place the Holocaust has come to occupy in global culture to a disturbing examination of Holocaust compensation settlements. It was not until the Arab–Israeli War of 1967, when Israel’s evident strength brought it into line with US foreign policy, that memory of the Holocaust began to acquire the exceptional prominence it has today. Leaders of America’s Jewish community were delighted Israel was deemed a major strategic asset and, Finkelstein contends, exploited the Holocaust to enhance this new-found status.
 
Recalling Holocaust fraudsters, Finkelstein contends the main danger posed to the memory of Nazism’s victims comes not from the distortions of deniers—but from prominent ‘guardians’ of Holocaust memory, who deploy it as a shield against any criticism. He exposes the double shakedown of European countries as well as legitimate Jewish claimants, concluding the Holocaust industry has become an outright extortion racket.
 
Thoroughly researched and closely argued, The Holocaust Industry is all the more disturbing and powerful because the issues it addresses are so rarely discussed.“The most controversial book of the year.” —Guardian

“Finkelstein’s downright pugilistic book delivers a wallop – mostly because few authors have had the courage or nerve to say, as he does, that the Nazi genocide has been distorted and robbed of its true moral lessons and instead has been put to use as ‘an indispensable ideological weapon.’ It’s a provocative thesis that makes you want to reject it even as you are compelled to keep reading by the strength of his case and the bravura of his assertions.” —LA Weekly

“If his indictment is a true one, it should prompt prosecutions, sackings, protest. The book shouts scandal. It is a polemic, communicated at maximum volume.” —The Times

“Finkelstein has raised some important and uncomfortable issues.” —Jewish Quarterly

“Into this minefield, through which most have trodden perhaps a little too gingerly, has bust Norman Finkelstein, a Jew and a self-professed iconoclast, heretic and enemy of the American-Jewish establishment – and he is lobbing grenades.” —Spectator

“A short, sharp, and copiously noted polemic.” —Times Higher Educational Supplement

“Finkelstein is at his best when he skewers those who would sacralize the Holocaust.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

“His basic argument that the memories of the Holocaust are being debased is serious and should be give its due.” —Economist

“Clever, explosive, sometimes even wryly funny.” —Salon

“This is, in short, a lucid, provocative and passionate book. Anyone with an open mind and an interest in the subject should ignore the critical brickbats and read what Finkelstein has to say.” —New Statesman

“He deserves to be heard … he is making some profound points that many younger and more thoughtful Jews have quietly been attempting to debate, but whose voices have been stilled by the establishment, particularly in the US.” —Evening Standard

“Finkelstein should be credited for writing a well-researched book that can help shut down the Holocaust Industry when the public becomes aware of its dishonesty and its vulgar exploitation of Jewish suffering.” —Z Magazine

“The reality of the Nazi holocaust remains. Memory can still enable us to recognise new victims, extend sensitivity and monitor signs of impending genocide. Books like The Holocaust Industry can help us if we let them.” —Red PepperNorman G. Finkelstein taught political theory and the Israel–Palestine conflict for many years. He is the author of eight books, which have been translated into more than forty foreign editions, including What Gandhi Says; This Time We Went Too Far; Beyond Chutzpah; and Image and Reality of the Israel–Palestine Conflict.GB

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