Gas Chambers Aren't Cheap

In honor of the Arendt Centennial (which is being covered in a big way, in particular by A&L Daily), many books have been written and conferences convened.  But perhaps no symposium could be as laughably inappropriate to her memory as the meeting that gaveled into session today in Tehran:

Holocaust deniers and skeptics from around the world gathered at a government-sponsored conference here today to discuss their theories about whether six million Jews were indeed killed by the Nazis during World War II and whether gas chambers existed.

Featured speakers include "David Duke, the American white-supremacist politician and former Ku Klux Klan leader, and Georges Thiel, a French writer who has been prosecuted in France over his denials of the Holocaust." Duke is expected to argue that gas chambers weren't real, "on the ground that killing Jews that way would have been much too bothersome and expensive when the Nazis could have used much simpler methods."

Celebrate Hannah's birthday by reading Eichmann in Jerusalem, or better yet The Human Condition or The Origins of Totalitarianism. As a bonus, you'll piss off the conferees in Iran tremendously.

Comments

Todd | December 11, 2006, 4:35pm | #

I heard on the radio that Iran was hosting this thing. Of course, don't believe everything you hear - the whole thing is a hoax perpetrated by the Iran Tourism Council to try to get more attention for Iran's tourist hot spots.

There is no such conference.

Aresen | December 11, 2006, 4:46pm | #

Maybe Todd's right, maybe he's wrong.

However, it would be nice if David Duke were to defect.

joe | December 11, 2006, 4:47pm | #

I'm optimistic. Politicians convene panels, hire consultants, and appoint blue-ribbon commissions when they need someone to tell them something they already know, so that they don't have to stick their necks out by being the one who finally says it.

I'm holding out hope that the panel will conclude that, golly gee, there was a coordinated attempt to wipe out the Jews of Europe.

John | December 11, 2006, 4:49pm | #

"I'm holding out hope that the panel will conclude that, golly gee, there was a coordinated attempt to wipe out the Jews of Europe."

I think garbage in garbage out would be the operative phrase here. When you have a conference hosted by lunatics featuring lunatics, chances are pretty good the conference is going to give lunatic conclusions.

Matt J | December 11, 2006, 4:49pm | #

It is much more cost effective to simply throw the Jew down a well.

John | December 11, 2006, 4:51pm | #

"It is much more cost effective to simply throw the Jew down a well."

Or in the case of Iran drop a fusion bomb on the world's only Jewish state.

highnumber | December 11, 2006, 4:58pm | #

For the record, I believe they are holding a conference, but I don't believe that 67 representatives from 30 countries are there. The truth is that there are only 18 representatives from 10 countries.

Todd,
When is our conference?

joe | December 11, 2006, 5:01pm | #

Do I believe there was a conference held about the Holocaust? Yes. Yes. Absolutely. There were conferences held all over the world this month. Some of them were about the Holocaust. But for some reason, all anyone wants to talk about this conference.

Maybe you're right, John. But why would they hold a conference just to confirm what they all know?

John | December 11, 2006, 5:04pm | #

But why would they hold a conference just to confirm what they all know?


To give themselves legitimacy.

J sub D | December 11, 2006, 5:04pm | #

Holocaust deniers, "intelligent design" believers, flat earthers, et al, make me doubt that there is intelligent life on Earth.

Aresen | December 11, 2006, 5:09pm | #

"Holocaust deniers, "intelligent design" believers, flat earthers, et al, make me doubt that there is intelligent life on Earth."

I'm just visiting this planet.

J sub D | December 11, 2006, 5:17pm | #

I'm just visiting this planet.

Arensen, How does that equate with intelligence? I'm just visiting this Nazi rally doesn't really excuse one, does it?

Mad Max | December 11, 2006, 5:38pm | #

I'm going way out on a limb here to speculate that President Imawageajihad may be trying to soften up public opinion preparatory to an attack on Israel.

R C Dean | December 11, 2006, 5:39pm | #

But for some reason, all anyone wants to talk about this conference.

Perhaps because its being hosted by a country that is developing nuclear weapons and has expressed a desire to use such weapons to kill Jews.

I'm just guessing, here.

E. Steven | December 11, 2006, 5:53pm | #

Idea for counter-conference to be held in Israel "Nuking the Shit out of Iran - Cool Idea or Really, Really Cool Idea?"

Aresen | December 11, 2006, 6:08pm | #

J sub D

But it does give me plausible deniability.

J sub D | December 11, 2006, 6:08pm | #

Idea for counter-conference to be held in Israel "Nuking the Shit out of Iran - Cool Idea or Really, Really Cool Idea?"

The Israeli leaders would be irresponsible if they didn't consider it. The Taiwanese and Japanese leaders would be irresponsibe if they did not consider the developement(?) and deployment of nukes.

This is a very depressing chain of thought, I know, but I just wanted to throw it out here and see what responses I get.

highnumber | December 11, 2006, 6:11pm | #

Another thing that strikes me as off about this "conference":
Why would they fly to Tehran to hold it? It would be much cheaper to teleconference.

Aresen | December 11, 2006, 6:32pm | #

"It would be much cheaper to teleconference."

I believe that is due to the fact that the attendees don't know how to use a tegaphone, er, teleprone, er, tenephore. Ah, s##t, one of them long distance talky things.

Just Sayin' | December 11, 2006, 6:55pm | #

You know, the easiest way to solve this issue is to go deep into the tunnels under the temple mount and detonate a high yeild nuclear device. No temple mount, no Dome of the Rock, no rebuilding of the temple, no apocolypse, no worries.

Zeno | December 11, 2006, 6:59pm | #

Hannah Arendt & Martin Heidegger: http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/arendt.html

matt | December 11, 2006, 9:37pm | #

"You know, the easiest way to solve this issue is to go deep into the tunnels under the temple mount and detonate a high yeild nuclear device. No temple mount, no Dome of the Rock, no rebuilding of the temple, no apocolypse, no worries."

More likely, the Israelis would just nuke Mecca if they began to feel too unsafe. I certainly wouldn't put it past them. They share a lot of unflattering similarites to the only other country to use atomic weapons.

thoreau | December 11, 2006, 10:07pm | #

You know, they claim that they held a conference on the Holocaust, but they don't release any rosters. And if they were really using those rooms to hold panel discussions there would be residues of wine and hors doeuvres (or however the hell you spell it).

I want to know why they never want to give you both sides of the story on this.

Mo | December 12, 2006, 7:59am | #

Or in the case of Iran drop a fusion bomb on the world's only Jewish state.

Not even the government of Iran is crazy/stupid enough to try that. Israel would nuke the shit out of Iran if that happened.

R C Dean | December 12, 2006, 8:31am | #

They share a lot of unflattering similarites to the only other country to use atomic weapons.

Such as?

joe | December 12, 2006, 9:49am | #

RC Dean,

"'But for some reason, all anyone wants to talk about this conference.'

Perhaps because its being hosted by a country that is developing nuclear weapons and has expressed a desire to use such weapons to kill Jews."

Like the comment above it, mine was a parody of what holocaust deniers say. In this case, Mel Gibson's answer to the question "Did the Holocaust happen?"

joe | December 12, 2006, 9:50am | #

BTW, I've already abandoned my optimism.

This conference is a farce, except farces are funny.

kohlrabi | December 12, 2006, 10:12am | #

I'm not buying it. If there really were this 'conference', I don't think it would be publicized this much, wouldn't they try to hide it from the zionists?

Eric Atkinson | December 12, 2006, 10:41am | #

Not even the government of Iran is crazy/stupid enough to try that. Israel would nuke the shit out of Iran if that happened.
Well, true enough, Israel would "nuke the shit out of Iran," and or any and all middle eastern states. But with a few exceptions, I don't see many rational leaders in the world of the "religeon of peace." So it may happen. Then the left can talk about the "Muslem Holocust.

Keith | December 12, 2006, 2:20pm | #

I say this doesn't go far enough. It's high time we stopped paying lip service to the myth and admitted to ourselves that Jews are no more real than Sasquatches or the Tooth Fairy.

highnumber | December 12, 2006, 4:13pm | #

I have seen comments posted by someone calling themselves "Keith," but this does not confirm the existence of "Keith." It could be someone else posting under that moniker. I seriously doubt that there is now or ever was in fact a person who truly was "Keith."

Boosh | December 13, 2006, 2:59am | #

Time to move Israel to West Texas...