Real History and the Jewish Holocaust controversy

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Re: Memorials, etc.
Reply-To: H-NET List for History of the Holocaust <[email protected]>
Sender: H-NET List for History of the Holocaust <[email protected]>
June 12, 1999
From: Alan Jacobs
I THINK it is time the following be asked, and said. Has anyone here ever had occasion to deal with Elie Wiesel's agent? Do you have any idea what kinds of fees are charged by Wiesel for speaking engagements? He charges a lot of money, a lot...
Rich? Ok, how about wealthy or well to do? The fact is Wiesel has made a lot of money on the Holocaust. And what of all the films made and books written... Do you think publishers and producers lose money? The Holocaust is many things; teaching the Holocaust is done for many different reasons. Some do it for the rights reasons, some for money, some for glory.
But there have been fortunes made on the holocaust. As I have written here before, quoting my old dear departed friend and mentor, Joseph Neuman, Birkenau and Block 11 survivor, Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial witness: There are certain ideas about the Holocaust that keep it an exclusive market, yes market, for some. One is that no one but a survivor can understand it.
As for supporting Israel, my Father did so and I know he wasn't guilty, nor were his Jewish tough guy friends and acquaintances Ben Siegel, Mickey Cohen, Ray Bernstein... They were pissed off! Not guilty. My dad fought in WWII. Saw combat. Whaddya mean, did nothing? Many Jews who supported Israel did so to erect an alternate image of the weak, helpless Jew who wouldn't fight back.
Ignore Novick's thinking? Probably typical of the people he criticizes. He is an important thinker. Holocaust conservative nationalism excludes certain ideas that are not part of the dogma on the subject. Dr. Foster, have you read his book?
Alan Jacobs

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After we posted this, a correspondent informed us (Sunday, June 13, 1999):

"There is--I'm almost absolutely certain--a reference to Mr. Wiesel's speaking engagement fees in a book published but a few short ago titled Why Should Jews Survive? by a Rabbi Michael Goldbloom. This may be found inside a chapter headed (as I recall) "The Holocaust Cult," wherein Mr. Wiesel is described as one who commands five-figure fees for each engagement to which he is often spirited off by private jet."