Different views on historical events ... how do you determine which is correct?

[Deleted User]

The official figure of Jewish victims of the Nazi inflicted Holocaust and plan of extermination European Jewry which is commonly accepted and even written in several countries' laws is "6 million" Jews.

Now, here's a link to a book first published in Britain decades ago which propagates quite a different view:
[The Hoax of the Twentieth Century](http://www.unz.com/book/arthur_r_butz__the-hoax-of-the-twentieth-century/ "The Hoax of the Twentieth Century" by Arthur R. Butz)

Question: How does one determine (or at least more objectively examine and try to determine) which of contrary views is in fact in line with reality and more likely true?

I would think it is obvious that it doesn't help anyone to simply label anything not in accordance with the official political view as "conspiracy theory" and think that this is evidence or proof of any kind ... not only doesn't it help anyone, it is also indicative of not walking circumspectly as a Christian and instead falling pray to "any wind of doctrine"

GaoLu

I had a great history prof in college who assured that us we have relatively few actual facts compared to what is alleged as fact. We have lots of written accounts and archeology and resulting data. Data can be interpreted in many ways and is. Like so many "facts" from history there is relatively little we can prove. What we know, based on stories told by real people, written accounts, figures offered, and artifacts such as those in Holocaust museums, is that apparently, something very bad happened to a lot of people called Jews-whoever they were and whatever the number.

I suggest we don't hang up on so-called historical facts any more than we do so-called political facts. The "facts" may be a wobbly compass needle pointing the direction of truth, but almost certainly isn't the whole truth. Probably the efforts to find truth from data we have is more accurate than conspiracy theories--but not in every case.

Then I think of dear Neta, the Jewish girl who is my friend in Israel. She can trace her lineage back to her tribe, though not person by person. She is about as Jewish as a Jew can get. Her family loves the land the religion, the people, the culture that dates back for millennia. Neta says times are changing, yet she traces many of her family traditions back, mostly unchanged for thousands of years. Her grandparents fled Europe (I am not sure where) to Russia before resettling in the historically proper region of Israel (from where her ancestors originated) when the UN declared it a legitimate nation given back to Israel.

Neta is a Jew. She lives in a land with boundaries declared by God thousands of years ago (long, long before any present-day neighboring nations were even imagined), and restored by God to the people to whom He promised it would remain in it. There they are. There they shall remain. That is Biblical. That is God's decree.

Dave_L

@GaoLu said:

Neta is a Jew. She lives in a land with boundaries declared by God thousands of years ago (long, long before any present-day neighboring nations were even imagined), and restored by God to the people to whom He promised it would remain in it. There they are. There they shall remain. That is Biblical. That is God's decree.

“The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.” (Leviticus 25:23)

“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” (Galatians 3:16)

“For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” (2 Corinthians 1:20)

Jan

Since the database of names at Yad Vashem contains already a list of 4.5 million names of Jews who had existed before the Shoah, and were no longer found alive afterward, I find such works as the mentioned book very very very questionable.

If the author claims that only 1 million Jews perished during WWII, he has to account for at least 3.5 million documented cases of missing persons.

Or were documents (birth certificates etc.) faked in the millions? If so, where is the evidence for that?

C Mc

What happened, happened! Stop trying to re-write history. Don't give oxygen to the nonsense. Israel is not going anywhere! Forget the historical noise and believe Israel's truth. "Never again"! CM