The ignorance of Dan Sova shows how important it is to reject the argument that too much attention has been given to the Holocaust, and that 20th century historians have over-emphasized Jewish suffering.
On March 17, 1990, for example, Pat Buchanan wrote in the New York Post about what he called “so-called Holocaust survivor syndrome,” which he said involved group fantasies of martyrdom and heroics.
It is painful that some Holocaust deniers, trying to make the case against the existence of Israel, have argued that Jews should be regarded not as victims but as victimizers. The Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson, who in November 2008 denied the existence of Nazi gas chambers (although he did say that between 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps) also declared that the Holocaust was a Jewish invention so that “we would prostrate ourselves on our knees before them and approve their new state of Israel.” As Deborah Lipstadt has written, these people accuse Jews of using “the world’s sympathy to displace another people so that Israel could be created.”
One can admit that Nazi Germany was not the only perpetrator of villainous and criminal behavior. The twentieth century abounds with similar criminal acts. One should acknowledge and deplore, especially, threats of genocide, the treatment of Armenians, people in Cambodia, Tibet, Mali, Nigeria, the Balkans, Sudan, and the Congo. Yet, the Holocaust was unique in its scope and number of casualties. It remains unique in spite of the cavalier denial or minimization of it by ignorant and bigoted people like Dan Sova.