Why did Pope reinstate a Catholic Bishop who denies Holocaust

Pope Benedict XVI has rehabilitated an excommunicated British bishop who has claimed that historical evidence refutes the Holocaust.

Traditionalist bishop Richard Williamson, who says historical evidence “is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed” during World War II, was among one of the rehabilitated bishops.

“I believe there were no gas chambers and only up to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, instead of six million,” Williamson told Swedish television broadcast. “I believe that the historical evidence is strongly against – is hugely against – 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler,” Williamson said in the interview, which appeared on various Web sites after its broadcast. “I believe there were no gas chambers,” he added.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi called Williamson’s Holocaust remarks “absolutely indefensible.”

What do you think? Should this Bishop have been reinstated?

Answer #1

okay why even try to discuss differences in opinion even your just going to attack me?

Answer #2

“please dont get on my case about this please…recent evidence actually proves that it is actually impossible to gas that many people at one time”

Er, what? Show us this ‘recent evidence’, please.

Putting a bunch of people in a room and tossing in hydrogen cyanide pellets isn’t really very difficult - and we have nazi party documentation to prove it.

Answer #3

Okay, let’s dissect one particular claim from your second link: “Even if we threw away all the evidence and accounted for every so-called gas chamber, it would have taken 68 YEARS to accomplish gassing six million Jews!”

According to Wikipedia… “According to Rudolf Höß, commandant of Auschwitz, bunker 1 held 800 people, and bunker 2 held 1,200.[178] Once the chamber was full, the doors were screwed shut and solid pellets of Zyklon-B were dropped into the chambers through vents in the side walls, releasing toxic HCN, or hydrogen cyanide. Those inside died within 20 minutes; the speed of death depended on how close the inmate was standing to a gas vent, according to Höß, who estimated that about one third of the victims died immediately” “The gas was then pumped out, the bodies were removed (which would take up to four hours), gold fillings in their teeth were extracted with pliers by dentist prisoners, and women’s hair was cut.[181] The floor of the gas chamber was cleaned, and the walls whitewashed.”

Let’s be extremely, unreasonably charitable, and assume:

  • Auschwitz was the only extermination camp (most definitely not true)
  • They could only process one ‘batch’ a day (at least 2 ought to be possible, given the times listed)

Then, exterminating six million jews at 2000 a day would take 8.21 years. Higher than the time available (about 3-4 years), but a tiny fraction of the 68 years they claim, even giving them unreasonably charitable assumptions. We know from historical documents that Aushwitz, though it was the largest camp, was responsible for less than half the people exterminated in the holocaust, so it’s certainly very reasonable to conclude that the numbers reported could have been killed.

Hopefully that gives you some idea of the quality of the ‘research’ these sites engage in.

Answer #4

I concur..no one should ever have to suffer that. maybe me as an individual feel that it has been romanticized (ms?). I dont doubt t the existence of the holocaust, but I do find some of the things we were taught concerning the holocaust were in a way forced to believe and also over drawn. I dont know how it is elsewhere but here in texas, if you so much analayze the holocaust, you are labled as a nazi.

I think anyone who died in the concentration camps did not deserve it. But I also dont think that because minorities were being killed, in no way does that justify any other form of manslaughter or the removal of a country such as palestine. and if your looking for a holocaust, go to Darfur.

here are some sites: http://www.fpp.co.uk/Auschwitz/docs/reconstruction_2_WSJ.html http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/holohoax.htm http://www.libreopinion.com/members/standarteslc/holohoax01.html

Answer #5

perhaps your reasoning is valid. but I have also found these supposed facts:

1.-Census show no 6 million decrease of the jews population in Europe happned after the war. 2.-The gas said used to kill the prissioners (Cyclon B) leaves very specific traces in the places were it is used. No chamber or rooms in german conceptration camps have traces of Cyclon B. 3.-There are no written orders to attack or extreminate the jews from the SS, Hittler or Germany. 4.-There are no 6 million bodies burried in the concentration camps and no ashes that would suggest they where bruned. The water level in Auswitch is 1 meter deep, this means you cannot burrie anything below that depht. 5.-The first written information about the holocaust dates from 1942, before the germans moved the “unwanted” (jews, gays, gipsy, etc.) to the camps.

again, I dont doubt the existence..I know for a fact it did happen.

Answer #6

I read something about it, I think the reason was becuase the catholic church does not have any policy of kicking out members because of their oppinions outside of religion. What is strange about it is that the catholic church is very strict on other areas, for example if a man is pro abortion they can not give him communion. Granted I myself am against abortion but communion was never intended to be participated by those without sin.

Answer #7

Allure - the VAST majority of evidence was recorded by the nazis themselves. There were many extermination camps all functioning at a high level of efficiency. The mass graves photographed by the nazis is also proof.

What is the recent evidence that disproves the fact that over 6 million people died in the nazi extermination camps?

Answer #8

allure08, I dont think it should matter if its 300,000 or 6 million, the numbers dont really matter. I think what is most important is that a lot of innocent people had to suffer. I’ve had the opportunity to speak to several holocaust survivors and nobody should have to go through the horrors they went through. I dont think smaller numbers make the holocaust less of a crime..people’s lives were taken either way.

Answer #9

allure - I have two statements to make. First - ANYONE who thinks the holocaust is being romanticized is either an idiot or anti-semitic. Second - After reading your posts and visiting the sites you provided, it is obvious that you fall into both categories.

Answer #10

I’m not sure if his personal opinions about it should get him kicked out of his own faith. I think someone needs to explain it to him or something. he’s just extremely naive. there were, and stil are gas chambers, I’ve seen them

Answer #11

He’s not naive - he’s a denier. I’m sure by now he’s fully aware of the evidence, but he refuses to accept the only reasonable explanation.

Answer #12

1.Pre war census figures of European Jews- 8,861,800 Post war census of jews killed by region- 5,933,900

  1. There were two types of gas chambers in Auschwitz: those used for delousing clothes (“delousing gas chambers”) and those used for killing people on a massive scale (“extermination gas chambers”). The delousing gas chambers were a standard feature, and were left intact by the SS (the extermination gas chambers were dynamited in an effort to conceal criminal traces). Also there is a difference between concentration camps and extermination camps.

3.In February 1942 Goebbels wrote:

World Jewry will suffer a great catastrophe at the same time as Bolshevism. The Fuhrer once more expressed his determination to clean up the Jews in Europe pitilessly. There must be nosqeamish sentimentalism about it. The Jews have deserved the catastrophe that has now overtaken them. Their destruction will go hand in hand with the destruction of our enemies. We must hasten this process with cold ruthlessness. We shall thereby render an inestimable service to a humanity tormented for thousands of years by the Jews. This uncomprising anti-Semitic attitude must prevail among our own people despite all objectors. The Fuhrer expressed this idea vigorously”.

  1. At Auschwitz much of the bones and ashes were used to fertilize the German fields. The ground water level during the operation of the camp was significantly lowered with the help of a sophisticated system of drainage ditches, thus allowing the open air incineration of corpses in deep ditches as attested to by various witnesses. An Allied air photo from 1944 shows,to the north of the Birkenau camp, a 2.5-kilometer-long strip of land, running west to east, where a herringbone-pattern system of drainage ditches is visible, approximately 1.25 kilometers wide and expanded in sections to reach right to the Vistula.The photo shows that the drainage work in the western regions was done only shortly before the air photo was taken.

  2. Do you actually believe that the holocaust refers ONLY to those killed in camps? Legislation to remove the Jews from civil society was enacted years before the outbreak of World War II. Concentration camps were established in which inmates were used as slave labour until they died of exhaustion or disease. Where the Third Reich conquered new territory in eastern Europe, specialized units called Einsatzgruppen murdered Jews and political opponents in mass shootings.

You might “know for a fact” that jews were killed but to reduce the number from 6,000,000 to the 100,000 - 300,000 that the sites you provided claim…is to remove it from holocaust to war time killing.

Your “facts” are all from holocaust deniers sites.

Answer #13

The Pope stated that he would need to reconcile with the fact of the holocaust and he has yet to have done that, instead stating that he would need to see evidence. Much like the stand that Iran takes.

Answer #14

Differences in opinion… So, that is what you call denying the holocaust… My grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins would be pleased to know that they did not perish in the camps. That their deaths were just romanticized to strengthen guilt for the jews. You provided the sites and the idiotic thought process.

Answer #15

I NEVER DOUBTED THE EXISTENCE OF THE HOLOCAUST. dont put words in my mouth. I apologize if my opinion bothers you. If thats the case, you can ignore me. you posted a question, I responded. that is it…

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