[Wikipedia-l] Helga's website suggestion

[Julie Hofmann Kemp]

I checked this out, and it's appalling.  I looked at other articles, as
well as the one you suggested.  Helga, if you want people to support
you, please take my advice and direct them to sites that are not
revisionist.  I know that the site claims that it doesn't deny the
Holocaust, and that's somewhat truthful.  What is DOES do is blame the
Jews for the Holocaust, which is almost as bad.  Basically, it's
inflammatory and chooses to publish (or link to, because it's trying to
avoid prosecution under German law) the most obscure and not necessarily
factual articles.  There is often a kernel of truth, but it is so hidden
in warped opinion that we can't trust it.  AS I have said again and
again -- Consider your sources and ask if they are credible.  This
source isn't -- unless we write an article on propaganda and hate groups
and how effective they are at convincing people.

One of the things about history is that our picture is always expanding.
You are correct that many people are only now learning about the
Heimatvertriebene -- just as 30 years ago, people (especially
non-scholars) in English-speaking countries were really beginning to
learn about Stalin's purges -- mostly through reading "The Gulag
Archipelago", which topped the NY Times bestseller list.  Documents are
hidden.  Governments cover things up.  Historians constantly rewrite
history to include more knowledge -- and sometimes that revises the big
picture.   

What I'm trying to impress upon you is that most of the postwar picture
you want included is real -- that is, ethnic Germans, counted perhaps
into the millions, were either exterminated or expelled from their homes
in areas that fell under Communist control.  But we don't play
comparative victims here, and we also have to include facts that
unfortunately don't fit your picture.  I think I can speak for everybody
when I say we want the truth -- but we want it to be told responsibly,
and not by revising history in ways that at present seem entirely
unwarranted.

Julie

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