Was the Holocaust a Mistake?

Today, a friend sent me an article entitled “All European Life Died in Auschwitz” by a writer called Sebastian Vilar Rodriguez and allegedly published in a Spanish newspaper on 15 January 2008. I told my friend I would blog the email but, as I read it more carefully, I began to feel uneasy.

The fact that the “Spanish newspaper” was not named, that no date of publication was included and that on the web, Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez’s name only exists in reference to this article made me mistrust it. Bernie at Planck Constant also reckons that no European Paper would have the courage to publish anything as provocative as this article. Jihadwatch reports that since 2004, reports that Spain, where the article is said to have originated, has been encouraging Muslim immigration since 2004.

It looks as though the article originally appeared on the Spanish website Gentiuno (after all, who’s going to firebomb a website?).

What also began to ring alarm bells for me was that the latter half of the article was cobbled together from at least three other email postings I’ve received in recent years. Even if the piece is as fake as a 40 pence coin, there is much in it that is true. But the piece bears all the marks of a clumsily stitched together diatribe.

The article begins:

I walked down the street in Barcelona , and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz ... We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.

The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.

All well and good but the article concludes ominously:

We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.

What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe.

To say Europe made “a terrible mistake” in killing six million Jews falls horrendously far short of the mark. To call the Holocaust a “mistake” is to trivialise a crime of monumental proportions. The Holocaust was a devilish attempt to exterminate the Jewish people. If, however, Mr Vilar Rodriguez is saying Europe killed the wrong people – that the Nazis should have killed 20 million Muslims instead of six million Jews – his views are as racist and as fascistic as those of the people he attacks.

Islam must be confronted not by cartoons of its prophet, nor by scorn, hatred and violence. Islam must be conquered by the peaceful message of the Jewish Messiah who in love gave his life for both Jews and Gentiles. Therein lies the secret of a peaceful Europe and a peaceful world.