It will take a few years before the memory of the Holocaust, of the 6 million, fades and is possibly erased. But reading the interview that director David Fisher gave to Haaretz's "Gallery" weekend section on Jan. 13, one fears he could be seen as helping Holocaust deniers.
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Tonight, Israeli cable channel HOT8 will screen Fisher's documentary film that casts doubt on how accurate the 6 million figure is. It's very possibly that Fisher's research led him to a conclusion that "only 5,050,000 Jews were murdered, not 6 million. Or that "only" 200,000 million were murdered. Would a different number do anything to reduce the horror of the terrible crime? I say to David Fisher that any figure that aspires to be exact, or one that drops (or raises!) the accepted count that is so symbolic will not be remembered or replace "6 million." That number has been imprinted on the global discussion ever since the end of World War II.
This was also the crux of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' doctorate at Moscow University. The PA leader is proud of his "finding," which helps other Holocaust deniers like himself. "Six million" is not a detail from the world of statistics, but the very heart of the most horrific crime in the history of humanity. Fisher's intention of challenging, or reaching a different conclusion about, the number of Jews killed reminds me of something the late historian Professor Yaakov Talmon said. Talmon mocked ridiculous aspects of the research into the facts of an event in Chronicles and gave the example, "It wasn't Moses who came down form Mount Sinai holding the tablets with the 10 Commandments, but rather his brother-in-law, whose name was also Moses."
Even when it first came into use, the accepted term "6 million" carried a kind of halo. No other number will take its place. How will we respond if a researcher pops up who after careful study informs us that Pharaoh wasn't afflicted by 10 plagues, as cited in the Passover Haggadah, but only eight? And the researcher might expand and say that the climate conditions in Egypt in the time of the pharaohs made it impossible for there to be 10 plagues and allowed for only eight of them. If so, wouldn't it be appropriate to be exact about the "10 plagues," as well?
According to the Fisher interview, Professor Yehuda Bauer – one of the most important Holocaust researchers – told the interviewer that "This matter, the 6 million number, isn't of absolute importance, and the questions Fisher raises are marginal. What is important is that the Holocaust was the most extreme genocide there has ever been."
After Fisher's film, "The Round Number," is screened tonight, there is room to worry that someone who was raised by parents who survived the Holocaust will be the one to supply Holocaust deniers with heavy ammunition. In aiming to do good, he has wound up doing evil, and indirectly – making a denial.
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