[This piece is based on an article posted by Annie Alpert, anny@ix.netcom.com, on May 1st, 1996, in response to an article from a "revisionist."] To reiterate our conversation so far, I posted an essay about Butz's use of a figure that obviously came from the pen of Ben Freedman, self-proclaimed Honorary Aryan. In the scheme of things, this isn't a big issue, of course, but I think it's noteworthy because it's indicative of the type of copycatism that passes for research in the world of "Revisionism." anny@ix.netcom.com (Annie Alpert) wrote: Despite Mr. Kominsky's hyperbole, I still admire the piece of work he did on Freedman. In my interest in brevity when writing that essay, I left out the fact that the NY Times printed a retraction for that 15-18 million figure the following week. Since Mr. Butz didn't know this and used the figure, citing the NY Times directly, I am drawn to the conclusion that Mr. Butz got the number from Freedman, not the NY Times. Lousy research skills, in my opinion. To which you replied: Don't be so sure that Butz didn't know it; c1980 "Louis Brandon" wrote an article in the Journal of Historical Review which gave an entirely different account. You then quoted: THE BIG LIE TECHNIQUE IN THE SANDBOX, Spring 1981. It took me a while to track down this article, but I finally got a copy of it. After reading it, I find myself terribly disappointed with you, Alexander. I thought you were more discriminating! The author of the article, "Lewis Brandon", of course, is David McCalden, the rabid British revisionist who died of AIDS a few years ago after denouncing his previous beliefs. Here is an example of HIS research skills: From The Big Lie Technique in the Sandbox, Spring 1981, Journal of Historical Review, p 35-43: Newspapers are also subject to Zionist "revisionism." In the New York Times of 22 February 1948 a feature on the Jewish putsch... The article in question made no mention of a "putsch." Hanson's 02/22/48 article (NY Times, page 4) was entitled "Armies for Palestine: Need for International Force of 70,000 Believed Indicated as U. N. Faces Decision." Buried in the text was this: ...The Jewish areas of Palestine are an enclave surrounded by Arabs. There are 650,000 to 700,000 Jews in Palestine and about 1,250,000 Arabs. Another 500,000 Jews inhabit other Arab countries in the Middle East. The Arab population these states, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Trans-Jordan, is more than 30,000,000. In these countries, the Jews are tied by bonds of religion to the rest of the fifteen to eighteen million Jews of the world, and most of the Arabs share their religion with the rest of the world's 221,000,000 Moslems... NOTE: in context, we see that while Baldwin provides literal numbers for the various population figures (i.e. 1,250,000), he gives figurative numbers (i.e. "fifteen to eighteen million") for the estimated population of Jews. It would seem he didn't think it was important to get the number exact for this article. ...in Palestine gave a population figure of 15 to 18 million Jews in the world. This figure would, of course, make the "Six Million" a demographic nonsense, as there were 15 million Jews in the world in 1940... NOTE: this figure is uncited, and presumably sprang from the head of Mr. McCalden. ...Immediately, the Zionist Lobby "appealed to the reason"... Huh? Who said this? Where? When? ...of the publishers, and four days later, the following codicil was published: "Last Sunday's article incorrectly estimated the Jewish population of the world at 15 to 18 million. No census has been conducted since the war, and estimates are only approximate, but most authorities agree that Hitler's wholesale massacres of Jews during the war reduced the Jewish population to perhaps 12 million today." Sensing that something was rotten in the state of publishing, the ardent anti-Zionist Jew Benjamin Freedman investigated the case in 1959.... WRONG! By Mr. Freedman's description he arrived at the offices of the NY Times on the MONDAY after the article appeared in the Sunday NY Times in 1948. ...In his newsletter Common Sense... Wrong, "Common Sense (A Newspaper Upholding Christianity and Patriotism)" was a newspaper published by Conde McGinley in Union, New Jersey. Mr. Freedman was a frequent contributor. ...of 1 May 1959 he described how he had been allowed to visit the Times offices "through the courtesy of Mr. Arthur Hays Sulzberger" (at that time somewhat of an anti-Zionist Jew) in order to examine the reference file of the original article. He claimed to have met with the Military Edition, Hanson Baldwin, who showed him the results of the(ir) searching investigations."... To be precise, here is what Mr. Freedman wrote in Common Sense in 1959: On February 22, 1948, the New York Times published figures taken from their 1947 secret census indicating a minimum of 16,150,000 and a maximum of 19,200,000 so-called "Jews" in the world for 1947. Through the courtesy of Mr. Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of the NY Times this author conferred on February 23, 1948 with Commander Baldwin in his office where this author examined documents fully supporting the figures published by the NY Times on February 22, 1948. This author was allowed to examine the file containing the results of the searching investigations conducted by the NY Times through its own offices throughout the world and with the collaboration of governments and religious bodies in those foreign countries. Continuing your "Big Lie Technique" article: ...Eight years later, a Zionist writer Morris Kominsky... Obviously, here, the word "Zionist" is used as a code-word for the more pedestrian word "Jew." ...investigated Freedman's investigation. Baldwin this time claimed that he had never met Freedman, as far as he could remember, and that the original figures were simply lifted from the 1948 edition of the World Almanac. The affair is discussed at length in Kominsky's book "The Hoaxers" Brandon Press (no relation!)... Oh, ha ha -- except it's BRANDEN Press, not BRANDON. ...Boston 1970. To be precise, here is Mr. Baldwin's letter, reprinted from Mr. Kominsky's book: Dear Mr. Kominsky, Thank you for your letter of inquiry of January 6. The world Jewish population figures printed in this story came from the 1948 edition of the World Almanac. Later we checked it with the American Jewish Committee and other sources and said in the correction, as I noted to you in my previous letter, that the authorities agree that Hitler's wholesale massacre of Jews during the war reduced the Jewish population to perhaps 12 million today (2/26/48). If Mr. Freedman met with me I do not remember it. The problem is of course, that you are talking about events that took place 19 years ago. I see hundreds of people per year, many of them only for a few minutes so I could not swear that I did not see Mr. Freedman but if I did it made no impression either upon me or upon my assistant. I do not know what Mr. Freedman means by examination of documents but to my knowledge we had no particular documents bearing on the issue in question. I hope this answers your questions; if there is anything else you wish to know please do not hesitate to write again. Sincerely, Hanson W. Baldwin (Military Editor) WHY BOTHER WITH THIS? In 1976, Arthur Butz wrote "The Hoax of the 20th Century. In a discussion of pre- and post-war population figures (p 13), Butz stated: Hanson Baldwin, N.Y. Times Military expert, in an article written in 1948 dealing with the then forthcoming Arab-Jewish war on the basis of information available at the UN and other places, gave a figure of 15 to 18 million world Jewish population, as well as figures for such things as Jews in Palestine, Jews in the Middle East, Arabs in Palestine, total Arabs, total Moslems, etc. (footnote 6). Footnote 6 cites the original NYT article. No mention of the retraction printed the following week. Are we to believe Butz plucked this factoid out of the 1948 NYT times himself. Give me a break! Obviously, there was no "secret census", no "file containing the results of the searching investigations conducted by the NY Times through its own offices throughout the world and with the collaboration of governments and religious bodies in those foreign countries". Just a beleaguered ex-military man, appointed editor, who looked up some numbers in an almanac to make a deadline. Mr. Freedman, in his eagerness to prove a point, unwittingly caused a chain reaction of errors that were perpetuated by people who didn't bother to check the facts. A lot of times, when I'm verifying claims made by revisionists and racists, I find errors, quotes out of context and selective presentation of data. This is just another example of it. It's hard to take the revisionist position seriously when it's this easy to debunk the basic tenets. Emailed and posted -- Annie Alpert
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