Thread by @GrandTurion

Was Rothbard a Holocaust denier? 🤔🤨🧵

Rothbard promoted Holocaust deniers Barnes and Martin while at Cato:

https://twitter.com/timstarr2001/status/1577334106542821380

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Elm…

https://twitter.com/timstarr2001/status/1475345057163141123

Rothbard about Jews: muse.jhu.edu/article/804147 @jpjjr1961

Rothbard about Hitler: "Hitler was put in the wrong in the eyes of Europe and the world, when he was eminently in the right" mises.org/library/review…

Rothbard about Holocaust denier Harry Elmer Barnes:
"a cause for which Harry fought and suffered all of his life: the cause of peace and justice and historical truth." mises.org/library/harry-…

Awful piece by Rothbard. The revisionism and errors/lies would deserve a thread of their own. He certainly doesn't express any concern about Nazi rule over more territories and what it implied for, e.g., the Jewish minorities. Notice the conclusion, too:
mises.org/library/review…

"fervent commitment to individual liberty" 🤡

David Hoggan? Yes, yet another Holocaust denier..
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_L._…

Note that Hoggan, Rothbard, and Gary North all worked together at the Volker Fund...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_V…

... Gary North, of course, being also a Holocaust denier, among other lovely opinions of his...

reason.com/1976/02/01/wor…

Gary North was also an associate of Ron Paul btw. So Ron Paul, Rothbard, and the "Mises" Institute all somehow chose to ignore all of this 😇 (this Taliban lunatic and his popularity among the #paleocretins crowd would also deserve a thread of his own..)

en.liberpedia.org/Gary_North

Holocaust denier Mark Weber embraced Rothbard as one of their own:

web.archive.org/web/2014011419…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Weber

Another one: notice the only mention of "holocaust" is about something the US could do. Not something Nazi Germany did 🙄 (again, the WWII revisionism here is awful on its own). Holocaust, Hungerplan, etc are mere "domestic programs",if not denied entirely
mises.org/library/revisi…

This revisionism kinda needs Holocaust denier to work, don't it?

More revisionism and implicit Holocaust denial: No reason at all to mention the Holocaust when ridiculing the idea of Nazi Germany being a threat to anyone, right?

For the sake of completeness, here's 1 article from 1983 where Rothbard does seem to acknowledge the Holocaust.... or maybe he just needed to for his (valid) criticism of Gandhi?
mises.org/library/new-me…

Note also that this was for Libertarian Forum, whereas the awful pro-Hitler piece above was an internal memo. Rothbard seems to be more antisemitic the more private the publication is. @jpjjr1961

*needs Holocaust denial for it to work

Rothbard also endorsed Pat Buchanan for President...
rothbard.it/articles/for-p…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Bucha…

...and worried about "anti-anti-semitism" (sic), while deriding Elie Wiesel as a "professional Holocaust survivor" (sic) web.archive.org/web/2022031017…

Of course Rothbard wouldn't like Elie Wiesel. Of course.

In "The Irrepressible Rothbard", we find another rare mention of the Holocaust... about Waco: "holocaust of the Branch Davidians at Waco" mises.org/library/irrepr…

In "Guilt Sanctified" (same book) Rothbard is complaining about "Holocaust guilt", ironically, in a part called "On Resisting Evil". In another article (same book), he complains about accusations of "insensitivity", in quotes:

More interesting for us in this volume is "Those Awards" from March 1994. Rothbard goes out of his way to criticize... Schindler's List, without even having seen it (!)

Between various despicable sarcasms about the importance of the Holocaust, Rothbard seems upset about a particular scene (again, of an award-winning movie which he didn't even bother to see, yet just *had* to rant against), while having some ideas of his own about how to run a KZ

Well, guess what...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krak%C3%B…

britannica.com/biography/Amon…

gradesaver.com/schindlers-lis…

What's the "not-agreeing with Holocaust denial" interpretation of praising a Holocaust denier for his dedication to "historical truth"?

Why would a non-Holocaust-denier look forward to a book about Nazi Germany by ... a Holocaust denier?

Why complain about "Holocaust guilt"?

Why would a non-Holocaust-denier hate a movie about the Holocaust without even seeing it... yet still go out of his way to defend the portrayed Nazis?

Would anyone claim that Nazi Germany was innocent of everything and "in the right"... except for the Holocaust?

How would a non-Holocaust-denier square appeasing Nazi Germany with ... the Holocaust? (And don't get me started on Tracey-style blame-shifting...)

Why deride Holocaust victims raising Holocaust awareness?

Why worry about "anti-anti-semitism" more than about anti-semitism?

Rothbard shows no signs of having any knowledge at all about Hitler's plans either from Mein Kampf or from Zweites Buch en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitlers_Z…

(Taylor, whose book he liked so much, neither, incidentally: "according to Kathleen Burk’s biography of Taylor, he did not read Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf until after writing the book."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origi…

Taylor himself revised his views after that: )

Obviously, besides Holocaust denial, no awareness of other genocide plans such as the Hungerplan... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunger_Pl…

... of Einsatzgruppen (conveniently ignored, just like by Tracey)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsatzgr…

... of Postenpflicht... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postenpfl…

... or Genickschussanlage. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genicksch…

In conclusion, it is no crime to be ignorant of history. But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on historical subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance. And this goes doubly for Rothbard's followers, who have even less excuses (Internet).