Bishop Robert Williamson (AP)
Last month, The Vatican lifted the excommunication of four bishops who belong to the ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X.
Among the group was Bishop Robert Williamson, who just four days prior to The Vatican’s ruling told Swedish television that he didn’t believe The Holocaust took place – at least not to the degree that history conveys.
The rage that followed was predictable. Jewish groups around the world are expressing outrage at the comments, and many members of the Catholic Church have voiced equal disgust.
Aware of the tempest Williamson has brought on the Church, The Vatican has called on Bishop to recant his denial before he can be reinstated.
And while reports say that Williamson has apologized to Pope Benedict XVI, he has refused to comply with the retraction order.
“It is about historical evidence, not about emotions,” Williamson told the German magazine Der Spiegel, “And if I find this evidence, I will correct myself. But that will take time.”
Among the comments the Bishop refused to repudiate were his claims that only 200,000 – 300,000 Jews were killed during World War II, and that none of them had been gassed.
When pressed by the Spiegel writer to take it upon himself to visit Auschwitz, Williamson replied: “No, I will not travel to Auschwitz. I've ordered the book by Jean-Claude Pressac. It's called ‘Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers.’ A printout is now being sent to me, and I will read it and study it.”
Perhaps the good Bishop should start with a copy of “The Diary of Anne Frank” and work his way up.
You might also enjoy these:
Comments
You expect this in the lunatic fringe of 9/11 "truthers," "New World Order" paranoids, etc., but certainly not in a respected institution such as the Roman Catholic Church. I don't understand the Pope's reasoning here but he certainly hasn't done the Vatican's attempts to erase the memory of a church that was more a co-conspirator with the Nazis in the crime of the millenium than a holy institution. Interestingly, the crime of the previous millenium would have been the slaughter of an estimated 80 million Hindus and Buddhists during the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan and Pakistan and for which the Hindu Kush (meaning Hindu death) mountains were named.
That isn't a photo of Bishop Williamson. That is a photo of the saintly Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Shows what you guys know.
It's Bishop RICHARD Williamson not Robert. Just a hint of the 3rd rate journalism on this overblown story.
So the photo is of Lefebvre and not of Williamson and it's ‘Richard’, not ‘Robert’ and that's supposed to show "what you guys know". As far as Richard Blake's rant is concerned - well, I’ll give it a miss - tyring to work out what he's saying through the his unintelligible broken syntax ("I don't understand the Pope's reasoning here but he certainly hasn't done the Vatican's attempts to erase the memory of a church that was more a co-conspirator with the Nazis in the crime of the millenium than a holy institution" - huh?) is more than I'm up to at the moment.
The point is this, why should the good Bishop recant (yes, I admire him)? Are we dealing with an article of faith? Is Holocaust questioning (he is not a denier btw) a heresy?
The answer to both questions is 'Yes.
Let the priest support homosexuality - this is acceptable. Let him agree with the Jewish slaughter of human beings in Gaza, or in Iraq Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iran - who are we to judge him? Let him deny every part of the Nicene Creed and deny the very existence of God - and be regarded as a modernistic, free-thinking priest, an encourageable rascal who regularly appears on TV programmes as among the first to be consulted on 'matters of faith'. "What a guy!"
BUT: Should the priest ask, in the mildest way:
"Are you sure that this building was a gas chamber? Where's your evidence for this?"
Then the armoured legions of the pope will march against you, shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish inquisition, the millions of unthinking rabble driven before them, pitchfork and cudgels in hand, screaming their holiest hatred, fired by their most sacred blood-lust, as they pile up the tinder for the auto da fe.
For nowadays there is but one permitted faith, one universal religion- Holocaustianity. The formerly 'Christian' churches have exorcised Jesus Christ. As ALL the church leaders have avowed, the ONLY essential stipulation for membership of the church is one's unquestioning belief - faith - in and assertion of the Holy Holocaust. The unforgivable, excommunicable sin is now heresy - infidelity to the only remaining tenet of the church- the magic '6M'.
I agree that it is important to rely on verifiable truth rather than emotion in order to find opinion. What amazes me, however, is that a person could have risen to such a high post within a religious institution without having already learned about this particular episode in history.
well, why anne frank? I mean, the high court of new york has stated that the diary of anne frank is fake.
This brings questions up to me..
Please. There's never been any question where the evidence leads. This is a vicious anti-semite who would rather defy his own church than give up his hatred of Jews.
I can't believe this is even newsworthy, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. Whether it be rational or not. I am Jewish and have studied the Holocaust extensively and he is right. There is no proof that 5 million Jews were eliminated. There is proof that some died, around 500,000 at the most. Sometimes, I think my people are too sensitive on this subject. We always pull the anti-semite card on people who disagree with us. This man is only basing his opinion on historical facts. Leave him alone!! Why don't we sorry about something more important like current events, and stop dwelling on the past?
I can't believe this is even newsworthy, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. Whether it be rational or not. I am Jewish and have studied the Holocaust extensively and he is right. There is no proof that 5 million Jews were eliminated. There is proof that some died, around 500,000 at the most. Sometimes, I think my people are too sensitive on this subject. We always pull the anti-semite card on people who disagree with us. This man is only basing his opinion on historical facts. Leave him alone!! Why don't we sorry about something more important like current events, and stop dwelling on the past?
Gee. I wonder what his thoughts are concerning the various Inqusitions?
Michel Scholl:
I'm just curious then where did milions of Jews go? On vacation?
There were many people got killed during the war, not just jews.. Jews abused it so much and made people sympatize themselves because of such a big lie. Today you can't even deny holocaust in many countries, because you re taken into jail. just google it you will see many scholars are in jail already. I believe Holocaust is the biggest lie in the history of mankind.
Bishop is right! well come on! Lets not be emotional but rational. Jews never let conduct any good and neutral research on the issue. Noise makers, Party Spoilers!
Freedom of speech simply does not exist---cannot exist---as long as Zionist racism infects the minds and media of the Western world.
What a freakin egg head. They are the biggest CULT in the world, I guess he brain washed himself!
RT
www.anon-tools.us.tc
Michel Scholl, are you really Jewish or just trolling the boards? You seem to have as much proof of what you are saying as the Bishop up here. Visit ‘Auschwitz lately or do you prefer the book as well?
This is a much better opinion on the subject:
media.www.universitychronicle.com/media/storage/paper231/news/2009/02/09/Opinions/Editorial-3619660.shtml
Mike:
Nobody is denying Auschwitz, try looking at the books and videos that show it just didn't happen the way it is portrayed in Urban folklaw.
To me, the gassing of Jews is like the year 2000 bug, global warming and all these other over dramatised events.
They haven't been able to extract gas residue from the original walls, only from a small hut that was used to fumigate the clothes and so forth. The British Special Intelligence helped stoke the myth to get everyone gee'd up to hit the Nazi.
Anyway, read about it, see an opposing view for once.
Mike and ScenicKing. Yes I am Jewish, and like I said, I have studied this extensively. There is no proof that 5 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Only about 500,000!! I have been to Auschwitz, but I didn't see any gas chambers there. I saw a plaque on the ground that has been changed several times with the actual number of dead decreasing with each new plaque. Why is that? Because there is no proof. The Nazi's kept extensive records about what they were doing and they didn't have 5 million Jews in their dossiers.
They had 500,000!!! So, if you guys really want to argue with me on this, check up on the actual facts!! Just because you were taught by your parents or read a book about 5,000,000 imaginary people dying doesn't mean it's true. And where did all the Jews go? All over the place!! Another thing that urks me about this common misconception is that people think that Jews are a "race" of people. Nothing could be further from the truth, Judaism is a "Religion" not a race!! That would be like calling Christians a race of people. There are black,spanish,asian Jews too. What about them? No one is helping them....
Come on my fellow Jews, let's leave him alone.
Mike and ScenicKing. Yes I am Jewish, and like I said, I have studied this extensively. There is no proof that 5 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Only about 500,000!! I have been to Auschwitz, but I didn't see any gas chambers there. I saw a plaque on the ground that has been changed several times with the actual number of dead decreasing with each new plaque. Why is that? Because there is no proof. The Nazi's kept extensive records about what they were doing and they didn't have 5 million Jews in their dossiers.
They had 500,000!!! So, if you guys really want to argue with me on this, check up on the actual facts!! Just because you were taught by your parents or read a book about 5,000,000 imaginary people dying doesn't mean it's true. And where did all the Jews go? All over the place!! Another thing that urks me about this common misconception is that people think that Jews are a "race" of people. Nothing could be further from the truth, Judaism is a "Religion" not a race!! That would be like calling Christians a race of people. There are black,spanish,asian Jews too. What about them? No one is helping them....
Come on my fellow Jews, let's leave him alone.
The number is six million, not five, and it is overwhelmingly well-documented, as is the paper trail of the technology and organization devoted to the well-documented explicit Nazi purpose of exterminating the Jews. Read the Irving vs. Lipstadt decision for an unbiased analysis of holocaust denial as the looney, vicious fraud that it is.
The word "race" is routinely misused as applied to human beings. Nonetheless, the Jews constitute a people, not a religion (though the Hebrew religion is the traditional one of these people.) Being Jewish is an ethnicity very much like being "spanish," or Irish, or Italian, that is, based on uninterrupted descent from common ancestors, and maintained by traditions of marrying within the group, especially for women (those who married out essentially left the group, and the identity, behind). The evidence for this too is overwhelming, in terms of a large range of genetic and biological markers. It is possible, for instance, to use genetic data to distinguish Jews of eastern European background from Sephardic Jews.
That said, the pre-WWII Jewish populations of Europe, especially but not exclusively eastern and central Europe, were largely gone by the end of the war. There really is no question about the missing six million, except in the minds of those with some personal agenda for refusing to believe it.
The number is six million, not five, and it is overwhelmingly well-documented, as is the paper trail of the technology and organization devoted to the well-documented explicit Nazi purpose of exterminating the Jews. Read the Irving vs. Lipstadt decision for an unbiased analysis of holocaust denial as the looney, vicious fraud that it is.
The word "race" is routinely misused as applied to human beings. Nonetheless, the Jews constitute a people, not a religion (though the Hebrew religion is the traditional one of these people.) Being Jewish is an ethnicity very much like being "spanish," or Irish, or Italian, that is, based on uninterrupted descent from common ancestors, and maintained by traditions of marrying within the group, especially for women (those who married out essentially left the group, and the identity, behind). The evidence for this too is overwhelming, in terms of a large range of genetic and biological markers. It is possible, for instance, to use genetic data to distinguish Jews of eastern European background from Sephardic Jews.
That said, the pre-WWII Jewish populations of Europe, especially but not exclusively eastern and central Europe, were largely gone by the end of the war. There really is no question about the missing six million, except in the minds of those with some personal agenda for refusing to believe it.
As I read in a previous post... 'not a single defendant at Nuremberg, with their lives on the line, thought to make such a preposterous claim as to deny the gassing.'
I guess they must have thought that it was so obvious a lie that everyone already knew it, right?
You're opposing view of the gas in the walls is referring to a debunked report (obviously rejected by an extremist Jooooowish conspiracy, right?) that the scientist failed to appropriately test for Zyklon B residue. His report was issued and later found fatally flawed because he didn't just test the surface of the walls but a whole chunk, which diluted the results. It was later retested and found to contain the chemical.
Your conspiracy theory is along the lines of 9/11 being an inside job. Please don't tell me that you follow this rubbish like our Bishop friend here. Otherwise, you'll make millions of people hit their foreheads in frustration.
If you guys have the guts, check out the link below, somehow, I think none of you have the guts to read and comment on the material contained in this link.
I have family members that were "guests" of Auschwitz. They of course cannot give a number of people that were gassed, but they have told to me, first hand accounts of the gassings. I also have written accounts from one of my uncles who had to carry out the dead and naked bodies of the Jews killed in the gas chamber at Auschwitz, and put them in a pile to be burned. These bodies, that he and several other prisoners had to remove, counted by him, numbered 2,107, that is in one day.
Seeing how bent on proof you all are, you should talk to him for 20 minutes, and run your fingers over the numbers tattooed in his arm, and then run your hands over the scars on his back and the bottom of his feet from the beatings, you would most certainly be a believer!!!!! And then the comments of this so called, man of God, would ring as evil to you as they do to me.
www DOT fordham DOT edu/halsall/mod/1946hoess DOT html
If you guys have the guts, check out the link below, somehow, I think none of you have the guts to read and comment on the material contained in this link.
I have family members that were "guests" of Auschwitz. They of course cannot give a number of people that were gassed, but they have told to me, first hand accounts of the gassings. I also have written accounts from one of my uncles who had to carry out the dead and naked bodies of the Jews killed in the gas chamber at Auschwitz, and put them in a pile to be burned. These bodies, that he and several other prisoners had to remove, counted by him, numbered 2,107, that is in one day.
Seeing how bent on proof you all are, you should talk to him for 20 minutes, and run your fingers over the numbers tattooed in his arm, and then run your hands over the scars on his back and the bottom of his feet from the beatings, you would most certainly be a believer!!!!! And then the comments of this so called, man of God, would ring as evil to you as they do to me.
www DOT fordham DOT edu/halsall/mod/1946hoess DOT html
If you guys have the guts, check out the link below, somehow, I think none of you have the guts to read and comment on the material contained in this link.
I have family members that were "guests" of Auschwitz. They of course cannot give a number of people that were gassed, but they have told to me, first hand accounts of the gassings. I also have written accounts from one of my uncles who had to carry out the dead and naked bodies of the Jews killed in the gas chamber at Auschwitz, and put them in a pile to be burned. These bodies, that he and several other prisoners had to remove, counted by him, numbered 2,107, that is in one day.
Seeing how bent on proof you all are, you should talk to him for 20 minutes, and run your fingers over the numbers tattooed in his arm, and then run your hands over the scars on his back and the bottom of his feet from the beatings, you would most certainly be a believer!!!!! And then the comments of this so called, man of God, would ring as evil to you as they do to me.
www DOT fordham DOT edu/halsall/mod/1946hoess DOT html
Thanks, Luann. Worth noting, I think, is that Fordham is a Jesuit, that is, Roman Catholic university.
People will believe, or refuse to believe, anything if they want to. The bigoted comments by some of the people posting here, as well as on other blogs, give us a good idea of why they might want to deny reality. Others seem to think it's a matter of "opinion" or that there are "opposing views"; there aren't -- there's just the plain truth and vicious lies. It's not "Urban folklaw" either (you mean urban "myth"?) -- the eyewitnesses have been testifying and recording their memories for over 65 years now. Being skeptical is often a good thing, being credulous and foolish is not.
I may not be the biggest Jew fan here, but I think it's insane to deny that the holocaust happened.
If you guys have the guts, check out the link below, somehow, I think none of you have the guts to read and comment on the material contained in this link.
I have family members that were "guests" of Auschwitz. They of course cannot give a number of people that were gassed, but they have told to me, first hand accounts of the gassings. I also have written accounts from one of my uncles who had to carry out the dead and naked bodies of the Jews killed in the gas chamber at Auschwitz, and put them in a pile to be burned. These bodies, that he and several other prisoners had to remove, counted by him, numbered 2,107, that is in one day.
Seeing how bent on proof you all are, you should talk to him for 20 minutes, and run your fingers over the numbers tattooed in his arm, and then run your hands over the scars on his back and the bottom of his feet from the beatings, you would most certainly be a believer!!!!! And then the comments of this so called, man of God, would ring as evil to you as they do to me.
www DOT fordham DOT edu/halsall/mod/1946hoess DOT html
Luckily nobody gives a crap about what random strangers post on comment threads beneath articles. If I thought that anyone gave a turd what you crazy skinhead loonies think then I would be concerned. Since you are such a tiny minority in the world I can rest happily confident that your stupidity and paranoid insanity will remain with you and your fellow neo-nazis. Rant on, stockpile those guns.
While it's stupid to claim the Holocaust never happened, I don't see what exactly is the problem. Since when is it morally wrong to half your own beliefs, no matter how stupid they are? If he had said he believed the English Revolution never happened, would that have caused an outrage too?
I suppose he denied jewish people the right to be martyrs, which, at least to me, makes no sense.
One day, people will realize the BS that is religion and maybe we wont be bothered with this crap any more...
There is overwhelming evidence that Treblinka was NEVER a concentration camp or Death camp. NO biological evidence has ever been found there.
What if you witnessed a Bank Robbery and then were arrested when you identified the Robber.
That's the environment the Jews have created if you even QUESTION the holocost story.
Just do you own research if you REALLY care, and you will find there is absolutley NO evidnce of the Gassing and HUGE evidence proving it never happened.
Its not about about religeon, ideology or politics its about forensics and evidense only....
Its all about how the diary of anne frank is a work of fiction and it isnt hard to look that up.
Is insanity contagious? T- you have obviously gleened your impressive knowledge from residents of an insane asylum...... Contrary to your claim that Treblinka was NEVER a concentration or death camp, it is well documented in highly respected and historically correct ENCYCLOPEDIA'S! Researched, tested and written by scholars with I.Q. levels higher than the size of the foot you have in your mouth. These scholars also have access to a DICTIONARY, if you need help finding one, I believe they are sold at any local book store. Check your FACTS from reputable sources before you erroneously refute eye witness accounts as well as evidence that has been found, documented, tested and proven.
Sorry, Blogs don't count as factual evidence in any court on the globe.
Good for him!!! Unless the lying zionists can come up with some rock solid SCIENTIFIC evidence I would say they are fighting a losing battle since scientific testing done at All CAMPS have turned up empty in their search and the soil has been undisturbed since the last Ice Age. Science is not 'anti-Semitic', neither is the truth.
I have no time for catholics, but I suspect that the bishop is correect.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!