Deceit & Misrepresentation Schindler's List
[Continued]
When the actual book quote was posted to the Usenet newsgroup
alt.revisionism, along with the (rather rhetorical) question of how
the "crack revisionist scholars" could have made such a mistake,
the denier response was not long in coming, as
Ross Vicksell posted
the comments from
Jack Wikoff which follow. While it may have been
a response, it would be somewhat inaccurate to call it an answer.
The following is a guest posting from Revisionist publisher
Jack Wikoff, editor of REMARKS, Commentary on Current Events and
History, PO Box 234, Aurora, NY 13026:
Recent postings by
Ross Vicksell, Danny Keren, and Mike Stein
have debated whether it was "physically impossible" for
Commandant Amon Goeth to have murdered inmates with a sniper
rifle from his villa balcony, as depicted in the Academy Award
winning film "Schindler's List."
Ross Vicksell has claimed that: "Wartime aerial photographs of
the Plaszow camp show clearly that the camp was over the crest
of a hill from Goeth's villa. As I've said before, he'd have
needed a mortar or a howitzer to knock off inmates in the
concentration camp yard."
Mike Stein retorted with a claim, based on a passage in the
novel "Schindler's List", that Goeth had done the shooting of
inmates from his "temporary villa" while "They were renovating a
better place for him down at the other end of the camp
perimeter."[7]
Mr. Wikoff not only revises history, but even subtly revises the
framework of the discussion. The primary claim is that there is no
inconsistency between the shooting story and the map and photos.
It shows that the deniers are wrong in *their* claim to have found
an inconsistency which would prove that Goeth could not have shot
anyone, that the shooting never happened. However,
Wikoff tries to
shift the focus from the illegitimacy of the denier argument to the
shooting itself. This shift of focus is another standard
technique.
Wikoff continues:
I have several points to make concerning the dubious historicity
of both the film and novel of "Schindler's List."
1) Goeth could not have shot inmates from the balcony of his
villa as depicted in the film "Schindler's List." The position
of Goeth's villa is clearly marked in a map of the Plaszow camp
which was presented at the 1946 trial of Goeth in Kracow.[...]
[8]
Thus
Mr. Wikoff repeats a claim which has already been shown to be irrelevant!
2) Although the claim has been made by Mike Stein that a
"temporary villa" was actually the place from where Goeth was
shooting, this has not been proven nor has any evidence been
presented to prove this assertion beyond one sentence in the
novel "Schindler's List."
[9]
Again
Wikoff tries to distract from the fact that the issue under
discussion is not whether the shooting occurred, but whether the
map and aerial photos can be said to prove that the shootings could
*not* have occurred. The paragraph above does not address that
point - nor does any other part of
Wikoff's reply. Evading
questions is another hallmark of the denier.
Wikoff now takes another tack, and repeats that the book is simply
a novel. [10]
Mr. Wikoff can repeat this all he likes. It
does not change the fact that Keneally explicitly noted that
he based the book on interviews with the survivors. The "Author's
Note" at the beginning of the book states clearly what is, and is
not, intentionally fictional about the book.
[Continued]
[
Previous |
Index |
Next ]
Home ·
Site Map ·
What's New? ·
Search
Nizkor
© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012
This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and
to combat hatred.
Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.
As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may
include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and
provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist
and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.
The Techniques of Holocaust Denial
& "Revisionist Scholarship"