Did the Holocaust happen? Iran’s Raisi says research needed

September 19, 2022 — The Jerusalem Post reports: “Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi could not confirm that he thinks the Holocaust happened in a 60 Minutes interview on Monday. The interview itself was conducted last Tuesday with journalist Leslie Stahl. 

When asked if he believes it happened, that six million Jews were killed, he responded, per translation: ’Historical events should be investigated by researchers and historians. There are some signs that it happened. If so, they should allow it to be investigated and researched.’ 

Prime Minister Yair Lapid tweeted examples of ‘some signs’ in response to the comments, with pictures of Jews in concentration and death camps. Lapid’s late father was a Holocaust survivor…”  (When Hitler came to power in Germany, the fate of the Jews in Europe was sealed. Like many before and after him, Hitler blamed the Jews for all the ills of society. He saw the Treaty of Versailles that ended the First World War as a Jewish document. Weaknesses in the German economy were attributed to the Jews. He faulted the Jews for the birth and presence of communism in the world. He accused the Jews of being revolutionary and instigating internationalism, a supposed plot of the Jews to destroy Germany and seize control of the world. They became his favorite scapegoat, and their suffering at his hands rivals the most gruesome of human crimes.

Hitler’s persecution of the Jews began in 1933; shortly after he took office. On April 7 of that year he stripped all Jews of offices in the German civil service. Government officials, doctors, lawyers, and workers in educational and cultural fields were all required to sign the following statement:

I declare officially herewith I do not know of any circumstance — despite careful scrutiny — that may justify the presumption that I am not of Aryan descent; in particular, none of my paternal or maternal parents or grandparents was at any time of the Jewish faith. I am fully aware of the fact that I expose myself to prosecution and dismissal if this declaration proves untrue.

Within three months, thirty thousand heads of Jewish families had been deprived of income.

The future sufferings of the Jews were also announced in two lines of a song called “The Horst Wessel Song,” which became the theme of every major parade in Germany. Translated, two lines of the song were: “When Jewish blood flows from the knife, Things will go much better.”

Under Hitler’s direction there was a steady rise in outrageous demands and unlawful acts against all Jews. By 1938 every synagogue in the nation had been burned, the windows of every Jewish establishment had been shattered, and twenty-five thousand innocent Jews were in concentration camps.

In the infamous Buchenwald camp Jews were shipped and tortured during the day, while throughout the night a voice shouted over the loudspeakers, “Any Jew who wishes to hang himself is asked first to put a piece of paper in his mouth with his number on it so that we may know who he is.”

At the end of World War II, General Eisenhower made a decision to personally visit as many Nazi concentration camps as he could. His reason? He wanted to document the camps and their appalling conditions.

In his book Crusade in Europe he stated: “The same day [April 12, 1945] I saw my first horror camp. It was near the town of Gotha. I have never felt able to describe my emotional reactions when I first came face to face with indisputable evidence of Nazi brutality and ruthless disregard of every shred of decency. Up to that time I had known about it only generally or through secondary sources. I am certain, however that I have never at any other time experienced an equal sense of shock.

    “I visited every nook and cranny of the camp because I felt it my duty to be in a position from then on to testify at first hand about these things in case there ever grew up at home the belief or assumption that `the stories of Nazi brutality were just propaganda.’ Some members of the visiting party were unable to through the ordeal. I not only did so but as soon as I returned to Patton’s headquarters that evening I sent communications to both Washington and London, urging the two governments to send instantly to Germany a random group of newspaper editors and representative groups from the national legislatures. I felt that the evidence should be immediately placed before the American and British publics in a fashion that would leave no room for cynical doubt.”

Anticipating a time when Nazi atrocities might be denied, General Eisenhower also ordered the filming and photographing of camps as they were liberated.  Members of the U.S. Army Signal Corps recorded approximately 80,000 feet of moving film, together with still photographs.

Within months after the war in Europe, about 6,000 feet of that film footage was excerpted to create a one-hour documentary called “Nazi Concentration Camp”.  Prosecutors used the film, which is graphically gruesome, to prove that Nazi leaders, on trial at Nuremberg, had perpetrated unbelievably heinous crimes against humanity.

Thomas Dodd, one of the U.S. prosecutors, introduced the film into evidence on the 29th of November, 1945.  When the lights came up, after the trial film was screened, people had a new understanding of what the words “concentration camp” really meant.

Eisenhower wanted to be in as many pictures as possible to prove the death camps really existed. He was sometimes accompanied by Generals Bradley and Patton [such as their visit to the Ohrdruf concentration camp on April 12, 1945].)