Debunking Holocaust Denial - Denier Argument #2: "Baking 6 million Cookies"

A Holocaust denier by the name of Nicholas Fuentes was holding some sort of stream, when one of his fans denied the Holocaust by trying to use a mathematical argument.

He stated:

"If I take one hour to cook a batch of cookies and cookie monster has 15 ovens working 24 hours a day every day for 5 years, how long does it take cookie monster to make 6 million batches of cookies?"

Obviously, the fan is referring to the Holocaust. By cookies, he means Jews, by cookie monster, he means Nazis, by ovens, he means concentration camps.

Now, this is one of the worst attempts at presenting an argument which "disproves" the Holocaust. This argument ignores basic facts about the Holocaust which can be found in a literal google search.

First of all, there were far more than 15 ovens. I'm not going to list every single concentration camp, extermination camp, and slave labor camp, but here is a map of the camp locations.

As you can see, there are far, far more than 15 "ovens". Not only that, but this argument straight up ignores the shootings and massacres by the Einsatzgruppen, SS, Wehrmacht, and Order Police, the starvation of Jews in ghettos, the deportation of Jews, and other methods used by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Deniers lied once again. A common misconception about the Holocaust is that 6 million Jews were killed solely in camps alone, but this is not the case, as concentration camps and extermination camps were not the only ways the Nazis persecuted Jews. 

But, the most ridiculous and outright hilarious part of this argument, is that his own math leads to more than 6 million Jews killed.

1 batch of cookies (12 cookies) x 15 ovens = 180 

180 cookies baked per hour x 24 hours in a day = 4320

4320 cookies baked per day x 365 days in a year = 1,576,800

1576800 cookies baked per year x 5 years = 7,488,000 

So the denier, in his attempt to lie about the Holocaust and try to use false methods to "debunk" it, ended up using a formula which literally goes against his own point, thus making himself look like a clown. Did you really expect a person who unironically believes that the Holocaust never happened to be smart?

The truth is, you cannot prove how many people died in the Holocaust, or any genocide for that matter, using the denier's statistic. The Nazis did not have a specific pace in which they killed the Jews. Historians don't use this false formula to calculate Holocaust deaths, they use official documents, memoirs, population loss, letters, and plenty of other primary sources to calculate the amount of people who died in the Holocaust.

SOURCES:

https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/image/main-nazi-camps-and-killing-sites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsatzgruppen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutzstaffel#The_Holocaust

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordnungspolizei

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht#Reprisals_and_the_Holocaust

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_ghettos

Lerman, Anthony (1989), The Jewish Communities of the World, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 100–101

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence_and_documentation_for_the_Holocaust

Holocaust Denial - Index

 This is an index for my "Debunking Holocaust Denial" series.

What is Holocaust Denial?

Debunking Holocaust Denial - Denier Argument #1: No Jewish population decrease?

Debunking Holocaust Denial - Denier Argument #2: "Baking 6 million Cookies"

Debunking Holocaust Denial - Denier Argument #3: All extermination camps found by the Soviets?

Debunking Holocaust Denial - Denier Argument #1: No Jewish population decrease?

On July 16, 2008, infamous Holocaust denier David Irving held a meeting in New York with some of his supporters and fellow Holocaust deniers.

Some individuals who were not Holocaust deniers came to document the meeting and ask questions. During the meeting, an un-named Holocaust denier approaches one of the interviewers and says:

"How could 6 Million Jews be murdered in gas chambers, and not be a decrease in the world's Jewish population?"

This is a common argument used by Holocaust deniers to try and claim that the Holocaust didn't happen. However, there is one crucial flaw in this argument: It is completely false. There was a massive decrease in the Jewish population during and after the Holocaust, and this is just one part of the mountains of evidence that the Holocaust happened.

As you can see right here, there was a massive decrease in the global Jewish population from 1939-45. This was due to the Holocaust. Deniers lied once again.

SOURCES:

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-population-of-the-world#A

Zambrow Massacre, 1939

From 13-14 September 1939, Polish POWs were murdered by the Wehrmacht in Zambrow.

From September 11-13, 1939, there had been heavy fighting near Zambrow between Polish and German troops. The Poles were ultimately pushed back. 4,000 to 5,000 prisoners were taken.

The Germans constructed a POW camp near Zambrow for these prisoners. The Germans kept horses near the camp. 

On the night of September 13, 1939, the Germans told all the Polish POWs that any attempt at escape would result in being shot.

Later in the night, horses from the camp came near the positions of the Polish prisoners, and the prisoners began to move to avoid getting trampled. At this point, the German guards began shooting the Polish prisoners with machine guns and other small arms. For about 10 minutes, Polish POWs were gunned down by the Wehrmacht, but the shooting stopped after friendly fire ensued.

About 250 Poles were killed by the Wehrmacht, and the massacre is considered to be one of the worst war crimes of the Wehrmacht during the Invasion of Poland.

SOURCES:

Tomasz Sudoł, ZBRODNIE WEHRMACHTU NA JEŃCACH POLSKICH WE WRZEŚNIU 1939 ROKU

"11 września – rocznica walki o Zambrów w 1939 r." zambrow.org. 2006-09-11. Retrieved 2019-09-13.

http://germanwarcrimes1939.blogspot.com/2018/02/zambrow-massacre.html

What is Holocaust Denial?

The Holocaust was the genocide of Jews by Nazi Germany and its Axis allies in Nazi-occupied Europe and North Africa.

Millions of Jewish men, women, and children were murdered by the Nazis either in Nazi Concentration Camps, or in other ways. In total, 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust. The Holocaust is the most well-documented genocide in human history.

Unfortunately, there is a small group of people who claim that the Holocaust did not happen, or that several aspects of the Holocaust (such as gas chambers, gas vans, or the death numbers) are a hoax. These people are known as Holocaust Deniers.

Holocaust Deniers are wrong about the Holocaust in almost every single way. They are unable to cope with the simple reality that the Holocaust happened, because they are anti-semitic people who wish to make the Nazis look good. Very few other groups engage in the same amount of misinformation, hatefulness, and racism as Holocaust Deniers.

Some Holocaust deniers have tried to fabricate evidence and distort truth in order to try and "prove" that the Holocaust did not happen. They make a variety of arguments to try and prove their point. All of this "evidence" is false, but it may seem true at first glance. That being said, I am going to start a series of blogposts in which I refute each Holocaust denialist argument.

Einsatzgruppen massacres against Jews and other civilians in Kharkov, 1941

On October 24, 1941, German forces captured the city of Kharkov in Ukraine.

In December 1941, they began the mass murder of Jews in Kharkov. 

On December 14, 1941, a German military commander issued orders for the Jewish population of Kharkov to be moved to the outskirts of the city, where they were to be shot. The Germans constructed a ghetto in the area for the Jews. On December 15, 1941, 15,000 Jews and other "undesirables" were killed in Drobytsky Yar. The massacres were performed by Einsatzkommando 4a.

On December 28, 1941, the Nazis burst into the ghetto and killed about 60 people. Anna Yosifovna Chernenko-Nazvich, a survivor of the ghetto, states that occurrences like this were common.

When the Red Army liberated Kharkov, there were almost no Jews left. Most of them had been massacred by the Nazis. 

SOURCES:

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/evidence-on-the-killing-of-jews-in-kharkov

Bazyler, Michael J.; Tuerkheimer, Frank M. (2014). Forgotten Trials of the Holocaust, pp. 18

Bazyler, Michael J.; Tuerkheimer, Frank M. (2014). Forgotten Trials of the Holocaust, pp. 21

Common Questions regarding Axis War Crimes

Q: Was the German Army (Wehrmacht) involved in the Holocaust or other war crimes during World War 2?

A: Yes. The Wehrmacht played an extremely significant role in the Holocaust and their complicity led to the deaths of millions. 

https://joeylonglegshistory.blogspot.com/2021/07/major-axis-war-crimes-index.html (Under Wehrmacht)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_of_the_Wehrmacht

Q: Is it true that the German Afrika Korps never committed any war crimes in North Africa?

A: No. The Afrika Korps committed numerous war crimes, including the rape, murder, and plunder of civilians in Libya and Tunisia.

https://joeylonglegshistory.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-afrika-korps-was-not-clean-war.html

Q:  Is it true that the Soviet Red Army treated civilians worse than the German Wehrmacht?

A: No. While it is true that the Soviets commonly disobeyed the laws of war and committed numerous war crimes during the entire war, the Wehrmacht killed more civilians than the Red Army, raped more women than the Red Army, and treated POWs worse than the Red Army.

https://www.quora.com/When-it-comes-to-treatment-of-civilians-war-crimes-and-post-war-effects-was-the-Wehrmacht-or-Red-Army-worse/answer/Josiah-Slednicio

Q: Did the Italians participate in the Holocaust during World War 2?

A: Yes. Most notably, the Italians had multiple Jewish concentration camps in North Africa; Giado, Sidi Azaz, Tagiura, and Buqbuq. Thousands were sent to these camps and many perished.

https://campifascisti.it/scheda_campo.php?id_campo=264

https://campifascisti.it/scheda_campo.php?id_campo=1028

https://campifascisti.it/scheda_campo.php?id_campo=1029

https://campifascisti.it/scheda_campo.php?id_campo=1009

Q: Did German general Erwin Rommel commit any war crimes during World War 2?

A: Yes. Most notably, he ordered summary executions of captured Italian partisans and other soldiers in 1943. 

[The Orders can be found in the German Bundesarchiv, Militärarchiv Freiburg, RM 7/1333 und RH 27-24/26. They are partially printed in Jürgen Förster: Wehrmacht, Krieg und Holocaust. In: Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt (ed.): Die Wehrmacht – Mythos und Realität, München 1999, p. 961.].

To Be Continued.

Axis War Crimes - Index

 This is an index for all blog posts regarding war crimes of the Axis Powers.

Germany

Wehrmacht (Heer)

The Afrika Korps was not Clean! War Crimes of the Afrika Korps, 1941-43

Nazi-Slovak 'anti-partisan' actions, March 26-April 6, 1942

Zambrow Massacre, 1939

Regular SS

Yel'sk Massacre, summer 1941

Einsatzgruppen

Einsatzgruppen massacres against Jews and other civilians in Kharkov, 1941

Italy

Libyan Genocide, 1930-33

Top War Criminals of World War 2 - Part 1: Italy

Giado Concentration Camp in Italian Libya

Document on the deportation of Greeks in Italian East Africa to concentration camps by Italian forces

Yel'sk Massacre, summer 1941

In Summer 1941, during Operation Barbarossa, German soldiers captured Yel'sk, Belarus. 

The Germans had arrived with about 12 trucks and had "God is with us" on their belts. The Jews from the closeby town of Skorodnoye had been brought with them, and were to be executed here.

The Germans did not shoot the Jews, but instead placed them inside a wooden slaughterhouse building, which was burned. About 1,000 people in total died.

The perpetrators were likely members of the SS, as they had SS symbols embedded on them.

SOURCES:

https://yahadmap.org/#village/yelsk-gomel-belarus.986

Nazi-Slovak 'anti-partisan' actions, 26 March-April 6 1942

From March 26th to April 6, 1942, the 707th Security Division, 315th Police Battalion, and a Slovak Infantry Regiment took part in the mass killing of civilians in the Hlusk district of occupied Belarus under the guise of "anti-partisan actions". These actions were codenamed "Operation Bamberg".

Plans for the operation began on February 26th, 1942. In the north, the operation was to be conducted by the 707th Security Division. In the area of Mosyr-Shitkovichi the 315th Police Battalion along with a Slovak Infantry Regiment were to conduct the operation. 

The goals of Bamberg were:

1. Destroy the main partisan bands

2. Pacify the area

3. Collect the grain and other resources like livestock

On March 26th, 1942, Bamberg came underway. The 707th Security Division along with the 315th Police Battalion destroyed villages and massacred the inhabitants near Kopakewiczi. 1,350 people were locked into their houses and then killed in Chwoineja. 190 were killed while in a clubhouse at Oktiabrskij. At Kowali, children were burned to death.

There was not much resistance at all during the operation, and most of the victims were civilians instead of partisans, as was common with almost all Nazi "anti-partisan" sweeps. Most of the partisans in the area got away. 7 Germans did die, and the Axis lost 47 firearms during Operation Bamberg.

In total, about 3,500-5,000 were killed by the Axis occupation forces during Operation Bamberg. The actions of the 707th Security Division at Kopakewiczi count as a Wehrmacht war crime, as the 707th Division was a part of the Wehrmacht.

SOURCES:

"Major Anti-partisan actions in Belorussia"

"The General Staff and High Command of the Armed Forces. The Nuremberg Charges. Part IV". Archived from the original on 2009-03-21. Retrieved 2009-01-13.

Nechama Tec, Defiance: The Bielski Partisans

Top War Criminals of World War 2 - Part 1: Italy

World War 2 was the largest war in human history. Many war crimes were committed by all nations during the war.

In this series, we will be examining some of the top war criminals from each nation.

Starting with Italy.

The war crimes of Italy during World War 2 are a lot less known than other nations, but many of the top generals in the Italian military were war criminals. 

Some of the people on this list didn't commit war crimes during World War 2 itself, but I will still be including them, as they were key players in the war as a whole.

Benito Mussolini

Crimes:

-Authorized the use of chemical weaponry during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War

Rodolfo Graziani

Crimes:

-Engaged in the deportation of Libyans during the Pacification of Libya to Concentration Camps

-Used chemical weaponry against Ethiopian soldiers in Gorahei on October 10, 1935

-Bombed Red Cross hospitals and ambulences for Ethiopian soldiers

-Ordered the massacre of up to 30,000 Ethiopian civilians from February 19-21 1937

Pietro Badoglio

Crimes:

-Ordered for the deportation of Libyans in Cyrenaica in June 1930

-Used chemical weaponry against Ethiopian soldiers in 1936

Mario Roatta

Crimes:

-Ordered summary executions, hostage-taking, reprisals, and burning of houses and villages in occupied Yugoslavia

Alessandro Pirzio Biroli

Crimes:

-Took part in executions of Yugoslav civilians in the Governorate of Montenegro

Mario Robotti

Crimes:

-Issued an ethnic cleansing policy in June 1942, saying, 

"I would not be opposed to all Slovenes being imprisoned and replaced by Italians. In other words, we should take steps to ensure that political and ethnic frontiers coincide."

Carlo Geloso

Crimes:

-Ordered the pillaging, bombing, plunder, and deportation of Greeks after partisan attacks

Ettore Bastico

Crimes:

-In a telegram on 9 September 1941, gave orders for the expulsion of Libyan Jews from Italian Libya

-Used Jewish forced labor and controlled concentration camps in Italian Libya

Pietro Koch

Crimes:

-Murdered hundreds of partisans and rounded up deportees in the Italian Social Republic. Executed for war crimes in 1945.

SOURCES:

Rainer Baudendistel, Between Bombs and Good Intentions: The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935–1936, pp. 264–67.

Hidden in Plain Sight: Italian Concentration Camps in Cyrenaica: 1930-1933 p.16

Pankhurst, Richard (1999). "Italian Fascist War Crimes in Ethiopia: A History of Their Discussion, from the League of Nations to the United Nations (1936–1949)". Northeast African Studies. 6 (1–2): 127–136. doi:10.1353/nas.2002.000

Thomas P. Ofcansky, Chris Prouty, Hamilton Shinn, David (2004). Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 89

Hidden in Plain Sight: Italian Concentration Camps in Cyrenaica: 1930-1933 p.17

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2020/02/21/italian-war-criminal-rodolfo-graziani/

Barker, A. J. (1971). The Rape of Ethiopia 1936. New York: Ballantine Books p.56

James H. Burgwyn (2004). General Roatta's war against the partisans in Yugoslavia: 1942, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Volume 9, Number 3, pp. 314–329(16)

Pajović, Radoje (1987). Pavle Đurišić (in Serbo-Croatian). Zagreb, Yugoslavia: Centar za informacije i publicitet p. 109

Tommaso Di Francesco, Giacomo Scotti (1999) Sixty years of ethnic cleansing, Le Monde Diplomatique, May Issue.

Santarelli, Lidia (2004). "Muted violence: Italian war crimes in occupied Greece". Journal of Modern Italian Studies. 9 (3): 280–299

Terracina, Giordana, Hidden responsibilities, The deportation of Libyan Jews in the concentration camp of Civitella del Tronto and the confinement town of Camerino, p.12

Hoppe, Jens (2018). "Italian-occupied North Africa". The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945, Volume III: Camps and Ghettos under European Regimes Aligned with Nazi Germany. Indiana University Press. p. 527-529

Nicholas Farrell, Mussolini A New Life, Phoenix, 2004, pp. 449-450