Directory of Lost Causes

While I was in London, I received a petition e-mail, one of these that you're supposed to sign and pass on, or just pass on. I signed it, but I did not pass it on. I received it (read it) while I was very drunk, and it immediately prompted me to post something on my blog. I suppose I had trusted the content of the e-mail because I had trusted the person who sent it and because there had been something in the e-mail saying you can check the facts yourself online, which suggested to me that the people who had originally spawned the e-mail had checked their facts, and were confident of them. Still, drunk as I was, I know very well how easy it is for lies and half-truths (sometimes passed on innocently) to be accepted as truth and become 'common knowledge'. Immediately after posting my blog entry, I did check my facts. Of course, I should have done it before. Some of the points I made, though ridiculously bloated by alcohol, were good points. Unfortunately, they were based on what was beginning to look very much like an invalid example. I removed the entry, making a note to do more research at a later date, when I wasn't drunk, to see if I could get a clearer picture of the veracity or otherwise of the claims made in the e-mail.

This morning, from two different sources, I have a similar e-mail on a very different subject. This one, in brief, claims that UK schools have removed the Holocaust from their curriculum for fear of upsetting Moslems [Edit. I've a notion that I shouldn't spell 'Muslim' as 'Moslem', but I should check this out. This would fit with my current theory that the e-mail was started as a clever joke, which I suppose is what a hoax is, anyway, since that was the spelling used in some versions of the e-mail (or did I dream it?), and perhaps I've fallen for it and been influenced subtly to spell the word wrongly. Interesting. Ah, here's something very interesting on the subject.]. This morning I am not drunk, I am sober, and though I supposedly trust the people who have sent this e-mail, I checked my facts. It took me less than two minutes to discover evidence that these claims were false, and, unless there is a 'cover-up' taking place, which, under the circumstances seems preposterous, compelling evidence. Please, check your facts before you send this kind of shit on. It's only common courtesy. You don't have to do a whole research project on it, but you could at least do a Google and look at a number of different articles to get a picture of how reliable the information is. And to the people who actually concoct this kind of e-mail in the first place, without even doing five minutes of research - shame on you. You are either devious and malicious or unforgivably sloppy. I'm not even going to attempt a dissection of the kind of mentality behind this sort of thing (if it's the latter), ready to swallow any piece of shit in order to be righteously offended, without even knowing whether or not it's true. Embarrassing as my own mistake was in this regard, at least I have the feeble excuse of being drunk, and at least I actually did do some research belatedly and rectified my mistake.

Anyway, having had two of these events in a row, I am certainly going to learn from history, and will be even more careful in the future about basing my outrage on hearsay.

Here is the text of the e-mail I received:

It is a matter of history that when Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps, he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.

He did this because he said in words to this effect: 'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the track of history some b*stard will get up and say that this never happened'

'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' Edmund Burke

This week, the UK removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offended' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred.

This is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving in to it.

These photos [there were photos included] were taken in Germany by James Emison Chanslor, an Army Master Sergeant who served in World War II from 1942 until 1945.

Source: Photos courtesy of John Michael Chanslor.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended.

This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated with the German and Russian peoples looking the other way!

Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.

This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide!

Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world.

Don't just delete this. It will only take a minute to pass this along.

let's cover the world and remember because we cannot let it ever happen again.

At the head of this, in both the e-mails I received, someone had appended:

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it (George Santayana).

It is in the nature of soldiers that they learn from history. Unfortunately, it is in the nature of politicians that they never do.

Here is an article from The Times about the subject.

Here is something from New York Post with an annoying pop-up you may wish to avoid (blocked by my computer).

Here and here and here are articles debunking the story. The last one has a pop-up, and should have been proof-read (does no one employ proof-readers anymore?), but there seems to be a fair amount of information there. The website is Boycott Watch.

But if you don't want to read all that, you could just read this article, from the BBC.