The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering

A scathing criticism of those who exploit the tragedy of the Holocaust to shield Israel from criticismby a major figure at the center of the Israel-Palestine debate. The most controversial book of the year. Guardian In his iconoclastic and controversial study, Norman G. Finkelstein moves from an interrogation of the place the Holocaust has come to occupy in global culture to a disturbing examination of Holocaust compensation settlements. It was not until the ArabIsraeli War of 1967, when Israels evident strength brought it into line with US foreign policy, that memory of the Holocaust began to acquire the exceptional prominence it has today. Leaders of Americas Jewish community were delighted Israel was deemed a major strategic asset and, Finkelstein contends, exploited the Holocaust to enhance this new-found status. Recalling Holocaust fraudsters, Finkelstein contends the main danger posed to the memory of Nazisms victims comes not from the distortions of deniersbut from prominent guardians of Holocaust memory, who deploy it as a shield against any criticism. He exposes the double shakedown of European countries as well as legitimate Jewish claimants, concluding the Holocaust industry has become an outright extortion racket. Thoroughly researched and closely argued, The Holocaust Industry is all the more disturbing and powerful because the issues it addresses are so rarely discussed.