Elie Wiesel attacked by Holocaust denier

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

In a bizarre attack, a well-known author and Holocaust scholar was dragged out of a San Francisco hotel elevator by an apparent Holocaust denier who reportedly had been trailing him for weeks.

[...]

According to police, the suspect accosted Wiesel in the hotel elevator at around 6:30 p.m., saying he wanted to interview him. Wiesel said he would do the interview in the lobby. That’s when the attacker pulled him out of the elevator, police reported.

In a posting Tuesday on the anti-Zionist Web site ZioPedia, a writer using the name Eric Hunt takes credit for the attack: “After ensuring no women would be traumatized by what I had to do (I had been trailing Wiesel for weeks), I stopped the elevator at the sixth floor. I pulled Wiesel out of the elevator. I said I wanted to interview him.”

Wiesel grabbed at his chest and yelled for help, according to the posting. “I told him, ‘Why don’t you want people to know the truth?’ His expression changed, and he began screaming again. …” the posting reads. Police reported that the suspect tried to force Wiesel into one of the rooms, but ran away when Wiesel started yelling.

The online posting states that the writer intended to “bring Wiesel to my hotel room where he would truthfully answer my questions regarding the fact that his non-fiction Holocaust memoir, Night, is almost entirely fictitious.” Later in the posting, the Holocaust is portrayed as a “myth.”

Police haven’t officially idenitifed a suspect...

http://www.examiner.com/a-556256~Author_at...S_F__hotel.html

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Perhaps its appropriate to mention that Elie Wiesel is nearly 80 years old.

[Robor007 0]

####### is it with these people who deny it ever happened? Take him to one of the camps and let him experience an oven or gas chamber first hand.

[Mags 112]

####### is it with these people who deny it ever happened? Take him to one of the camps and let him experience an oven or gas chamber first hand.

It is easier to deny than face the truth for some people.

[Robor007 0]

####### is it with these people who deny it ever happened? Take him to one of the camps and let him experience an oven or gas chamber first hand.

It is easier to deny than face the truth for some people.

What I don't understand is, why deny it? Chances are the attacker in this case wasn't involved in or even alive during the Holocaust. It would be like me denying slavery existed because I didn't want it to be real. The Holocaust and slavery are awful parts of human history but it's pointless to deny/ignore them.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

####### is it with these people who deny it ever happened? Take him to one of the camps and let him experience an oven or gas chamber first hand.

It is easier to deny than face the truth for some people.

What I don't understand is, why deny it? Chances are the attacker in this case wasn't involved in or even alive during the Holocaust. It would be like me denying slavery existed because I didn't want it to be real. The Holocaust and slavery are awful parts of human history but it's pointless to deny/ignore them.

Unfortunately there is often a point to denying the holocaust - usually as a basis for furthering white supremacism and anti semitic racism. It's also used by apologists of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis by people who think that they had "good ideas".

Genocide and ethnic cleansing is only possible because the people who do it (who are/were for the most part quite normal people) dehumanise the victims. Ultimately, its easier to kill an animal than it is a human being - unless the person involved is a complete pyschopath (psychopaths make no distinction between humans and animals).

[Robor007 0]

####### is it with these people who deny it ever happened? Take him to one of the camps and let him experience an oven or gas chamber first hand.

It is easier to deny than face the truth for some people.

What I don't understand is, why deny it? Chances are the attacker in this case wasn't involved in or even alive during the Holocaust. It would be like me denying slavery existed because I didn't want it to be real. The Holocaust and slavery are awful parts of human history but it's pointless to deny/ignore them.

Unfortunately there is often a point to denying the holocaust - usually as a basis for furthering white supremacism and anti semitic racism. It's also used by apologists of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis by people who think that they had "good ideas".

Genocide and ethnic cleansing is only possible because the people who do it (who are/were for the most part quite normal people) dehumanise the victims. Ultimately, its easier to kill an animal than it is a human being - unless the person involved is a complete pyschopath (psychopaths make no distinction between humans and animals).

I think every rational person lumps that entire first group (white supremacists & anti-Semites) into the category of bigoted idiots. Dangerous, but brain dead morons nonetheless.

I agree with you on the dehumanization part but I can't understand it. I watched 'Hotel Rwanda' and 'Sometimes in April' and couldn't believe the brutality one human could do to another just because they're 'different'.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I agree with you on the dehumanization part but I can't understand it. I watched 'Hotel Rwanda' and 'Sometimes in April' and couldn't believe the brutality one human could do to another just because they're 'different'.

What's important to point out is that the people who do these things are by and large, normal people who ordinarily don't have violent impulses. People can't understand that so they assume incorrectly that those people have some sort of predilection towards violence - its the reverse of the process. It says something about human nature that people can only understand inhuman things by demonising the perpetrators (essentially dehumanising the perpetrators).

Extraordinary (and stressful) situations can bring out the best in people. Unfortunately, they frequently bring out the worst...

[Robor007 0]

I agree with you on the dehumanization part but I can't understand it. I watched 'Hotel Rwanda' and 'Sometimes in April' and couldn't believe the brutality one human could do to another just because they're 'different'.

What's important to point out is that the people who do these things are by and large, normal people who ordinarily don't have violent impulses. People can't understand that so they assume incorrectly that those people have some sort of predilection towards violence - its the reverse of the process. It says something about human nature that people can only understand inhuman things by demonising the perpetrators (essentially dehumanising the perpetrators).

Extraordinary (and stressful) situations can bring out the best in people. Unfortunately, they frequently bring out the worst...

That (bolded) is very true. Just look at 9/11. I'm against the war but just after the attack I'll admit I was one of those who wanted blood.

[GaryC 7]

In my experience the white supremacist that I have met don't deny the holocaust but they do agree with the premise of Hitlers reason for doing it. Judging by what I see in the news it is mostly the Muslim extremists that want Israel to be disbanded that spout that BS.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

In my experience the white supremacist that I have met don't deny the holocaust but they do agree with the premise of Hitlers reason for doing it. Judging by what I see in the news it is mostly the Muslim extremists that want Israel to be disbanded that spout that BS.

Neo-Nazis deny it too. They are only a subset of the general white supremacist population.

[Alex+R 0]

[MichelleandCraig 1]

Just terrible....poor man. M.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

What's important to point out is that the people who do these things are by and large, normal people who ordinarily don't have violent impulses. People can't understand that so they assume incorrectly that those people have some sort of predilection towards violence - its the reverse of the process. It says something about human nature that people can only understand inhuman things by demonising the perpetrators (essentially dehumanising the perpetrators).

As even mentioned in Robert S. Payne's Massacre (1972/3), which mentioned the massacres done by Stalin, Hitler, etc (though the book mainly dealt with Pakistan's ill-conceived 1971 "Operation Searchlight").

Relevant as Pakistan has never come to terms with it; and Payne's point was proven in Witness to Surrender written by Siddique Saliq--in 1971, press officer; later an aide to Zia, and sent to hell along with the latter in 1988--who described parts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts region as "inhabited by wild beasts and Mizos" (which showed that Saliq equated Chakmas and Mizos with animals anyway).

Edited February 10, 2007 by CherryXS

[Robor007 0]

In my experience the white supremacist that I have met don't deny the holocaust but they do agree with the premise of Hitlers reason for doing it. Judging by what I see in the news it is mostly the Muslim extremists that want Israel to be disbanded that spout that BS.

I saw a documentary on skinheads in Aryan Nation. They were anti everything that wasn't white - except if they were Jewish whites. They marched in a town in the south (can't remember where) shouting their hateful message (including many nig... references) while black police officers kept the peace right beside them. It was uncomfortable to watch.