Valdemar Malin | Two unknown holocausts

 

Introduction

This essay is based on the materials of the book Law of Conservation of Jews by Valdemar Malin. The book gives an unusual explanation of an unsolved mystery of Jewish history—why Jews have not so far vanished from the face of the Earth if the chances of their survival were close to zero?

However, this mysterious Jewish phenomenon cannot be understood without understanding other puzzles of Jewish history bound to this phenomenon by some mysterious links. One of these puzzles is the main subject of this essay.

The Jewish people is one of the most ancient people in the world. Jews have been living among other peoples for very long—more than three millennia. It seems that Jews had plenty of time to grow a sizeable population (a few hundred million, at least, as estimated by some historians). Instead, there have always been negligibly small number of Jews in the world. On the other hand, their extinction seemed to be inevitable many times over millennia, but Jews still exist, anyway!

Something unexplainable keeps Jewish population within a certain range. The reason for this phenomenon is a mystery by itself.

Here, you may raise an objection. These reasons are well-known. They are, for example, persecution, assimilation and massacres.

But the point is that these factors, by themselves, cannot fully explain this amazing phenomenon. Obviously, there are other inexplicable factors at play that are beyond human comprehension as will be shown later.

The subject and content of this essay are described by its shocking title—Two Unknown Holocausts. It is shocking because the Holocaust has been considered to be the unique event in Jewish history and the biggest catastrophe of the Jewish people!

The essay disputes this entrenched belief—the Holocaust was neither unique, nor it was not the biggest catastrophe of the Jewish people! Such provocative statement is justified by matching well-known historic events with the relevant data of Jewish demography (the size of the Jewish population) at different periods of Jewish history.

Part 1 of this essay gives the background information necessary for justification of the existence of the unknown Holocausts, while Part 2 gives their descriptions and substantiation.

Strange Anomalies in Jewish Demography

There is a merciless law of nature that rules over all biological species on Earth—multiply or die out! Jews are not an exception. But Jews do not multiply as other peoples do, and they did not die out either for more than three millennia! They simply ignore that law and get away with it.

Inexplicable puzzle! There is another, even more inexplicable puzzle. There have always been very few Jews in the world. All of a sudden, at some cross-roads of history, Jewish population starts growing fast by some unknown reasons. Not just fast, but…explosively fast! Let’s say, dozens or even 100 times faster than usual!

This kind of surges of Jewish population happened not once, but three times in Jewish history! As it turned out, they were the ominous signs of great disasters for the Jewish people.

Sergio DellaPergola, Professor of Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a world-renown expert in Jewish demography, was the first to draw attention to these mysterious surges of Jewish population. He called them “abnormalities” or “anomalies” of Jewish demography. In particular, he identified “three periods of major Jewish population expansions.” They were followed by the corresponding falls.

The first expansion dates back to “the period of the Kings, at the height of Jewish political influence in antiquity” (the reference to the rules of Kings David and Solomon). Based on the King David’s census, Prof. DellaPergola estimated that “Jewish population in the 10th century BCE (before Common Era) was about 2.0–2.5M.” It was possibly less, he noted, because it might “include non-Jews under the Jewish rule.” The expansion was followed by a drop of Jewish population in the 8th century BCE.

The second expansion occurred “during the Hasmonean period (3rd–2nd century BCE).” At that time, Jewish population reached its peak and was estimated “at around 4.5M during the first century CE (Common Era).” Then Jewish population “declined down to around 1M–1.5M or less due to the struggle against the Roman Empire.”

And the third expansion corresponds with the period of “the late 18th, 19th and the early 20th centuries peaking at about 16.5M.” Then Jewish population fell because of WW2 and the Holocaust.

Thus, Prof. DellaPergola was the first who decoded one of the secrets of Jewish demography. He noticed and described three demographic “anomalies”—three sharp rises and falls of Jewish population in Jewish history. 

How Unknown Holocausts Were Found

If Prof. DellaPergola made the first step in decoding the secrets of Jewish demography, the next step was made in the book Law of Conservation of Jews. However, the focus was not only on the sharp surges, but on the following sharp falls of Jewish population too.

A heretic thought about possible existence of unknown Holocausts came unexpectedly. The conclusion was made based on the results of the analysis of Jewish demography that is based on how many Jews lived in different historic periods. Here is the story.

Let’s look, for example, at the 3rd “anomaly” of Jewish demographics (1800–1940 CE). From the end of Judeo-Roman wars (136–to 1800 CE), Jewish population was stagnating. It increased from 1M to 2.5M. Thus, for more than 16 centuries, it increased just by 1.5M (less than 0.1M per century). This is a negligible growth of just 900 Jews per year!

Suddenly, Jewish population started growing at an incredibly high speed and reached almost 17M in 1940 just before WW2. Thus, in 1.4 centuries, it increased by 14.5M (about 10M per century or 110 times faster).

This surge of Jewish population is a well-known fact. Another well-known fact is that the surge was followed by a very sharp fall caused by…the Holocaust. Thus, we are dealing with two historic facts and events of Jewish history:

1) There were three sharp surges and the following sharp falls of Jewish population.

2) One of these sharp falls occurred in the 20th century due to the Holocaust.

These events raise a legitimate question that no one asked before by some reasons: were the other two sharp falls of Jewish population caused by the Holocausts also?

Yes, they were! That’s the answer given in the book Law of Conservation of Jews. These two Holocausts could be lost in the maze of Jewish history unnoticed amid other dramatic events.

Such unexpected and provocative assumption was confirmed by the results of the analysis of historic Jewish demography. This analysis allowed three new surprising conclusions to be made:

1) Each sharp surge of Jewish population known in Jewish history is one of the early warning signs of the coming Holocaust!

2) Each sharp fall was, in fact, caused by Holocaust!

3) These surges and falls are not “abnormalities or “anomalies” of Jewish demographics, but rather the result of an unknown regularity of Jewish history!

Of course, there are people who deny that the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis took place during the WW2. Not many though. However, the assumption that there were other Holocausts in Jewish history may be disputed by many—it sounds so improbable and unbelievable.

Therefore, to substantiate this assumption, the historic events, which occurred during the first two “anomalistic” periods of sharp falls of Jewish population, were reconstructed in more details. The dates, duration and size of Jewish and the world population, as well as population losses were determined more accurately too.

Also, in order to identify, assess and compare genocides or Holocausts between each other, a quantitative indicator was introduced. It was named the lethality rate (or simply lethality) and designed to quantitatively assess the magnitude and the speed of population losses. (The lethality rate will be described in details later).

All these mysterious Holocausts are a part of even bigger mystery—the unsolved mystery of conservation of Jews.

Just a minute! What kind of a paradox is this? Do the Holocausts—the periods of merciless extermination of Jews—have something to do with conservation of Jews?

Yes, they do! But this eternal mystery of Jewish history is not the subject of this essay. It is considered in the book as a separate subject.

What is Holocaust?

The Jewish people suffered many horrific tragedies during 3500 years of their existence. And one of the most well-known tragedies is a historic event named the Holocaust.

The Holocaust was the result of a heinous plan to deliberately and systematically annihilate European Jews under the code name the “Final solution of Jewish question.” The plan was perpetrated by the Nazi Germany and its collaborators in the mid-20th century.

There is a consensus among historians that the Nazi Holocaust was the unique event, and it is the most devastating catastrophe in Jewish history. This belief was challenged in the book Law of Conservation of Jews based on the results of the research in Jewish demographics.

Jewish history is usually viewed as a chaotic mixture of random events, dates and facts. This is not so if to view it at a different (demographic) angle.

For this reason, a sizeable body of data on historic fluctuations of Jewish population was collected. These data, which are published in various sources of information or estimated, were matched to the historic events of Jewish history.

And here came a big surprise—the Nazi Holocaust turned out to be neither unique, nor it was the most horrific tragedy in Jewish history.

The term “holocaust” appeared and gained widespread acceptance after WW2 in which millions of Jewish (and non-Jewish) civilians were exiled, put into concentration camps, killed and burnt down in crematories.

Nowadays, the term Holocaust is sometimes misused being arbitrarily applied to other tragic events in the world and unreasonably compared to the horrific tragedy of the real Holocaust.

So, before discussing the subject, we have to understand what the Holocaust is and what it is not.

Holocaust is the extreme form of genocide. The term was recognized after WW2, but historians could not come to consensus how to define it up to this day.

Some historians believe that there was only one genocide in the 20th century—the Holocaust. But others disagree—there were many, including genocides suffered by Armenians and Tutsis in Rwanda.

Gregory H. Stanton, Professor of law at the George Mason University (VA, USA), presented a model that identifies 10 stages (or processes) leading to genocide. The list includes segregation, dehumanization, discrimination and other processes, with persecution and extermination concluding the list.

But this model is designed to recognize the early warning signs of genocide. It does not intend to compare genocides between each other, and it does not produce their statistical rankings.

Some historians believe that severe persecution (ill-treatment of or hostile acts against a group of people) is genocide. The hostile acts include confiscation or destruction of property, incitement of hatred, imprisonment, beating, deportation, pogroms and sporadic murders.

But others disagree. If persecution is recognized as genocide, then the whole history of mankind may be considered as one endless genocide.

There is an opinion that the Holocaust is defined by the level of human suffering. But suffering of different peoples are not comparable! How to rate human sufferings objectively?

So, how to define genocide or Holocaust?

How to Define Genocide or Holocaust

Since the Holocaust is an extreme form of genocide, the answer can be found in the definition of genocide.

Genocide was defined in the Genocide Convention adopted by the UN General Assembly and signed by 150 countries of the world after the WW2.

Article II of the Convention states that an act is considered to be genocidal if it is deliberately committed against a particular group (national, ethnical, racial or religious) in order to destroy it, in whole or in part.

Particularly, Article II recognized five hostile acts against the members of the target group as the indicators of genocide, such as:

1) Systematic mass killings (extermination regardless of gender and age);

2) Causing physical or mental harm (pogroms, expulsion or taking into captivity);

3) Inflicting unbearable living conditions (creating destruction and devastation to prevent recovery);

4) Transferring children and preventing procreation (facilitating extinction); and

5) Conscious intent to deliberately destroy the entire persecuted group.

Despite long and painstaking efforts to create a complete and clear definition of genocide, some provisions of Article II raise questions and disagreements up to this day.

For example, if a country has just hostile intent, but did not commit mass killings, can such act alone be considered to be genocide?

Or another example. According to the Convention, genocide is a mass killing with intent to destroy a particular group, in whole or in part.

But what does “in part” mean? What part of the group or how many people have to be killed so that an event could be qualified as genocide?

This kind of questions require quantitative rather than qualitative answers. However, the Convention has not so far answered them leaving plenty of room for subjective interpretations.

The book Law of Conservation of Jews gives unexpected answers to these questions based on the proposed demographic (quantitative) interpretation of Jewish history.

The Holocaust is called also the “Shoah” (a catastrophe in Hebrew) to emphasize a special meaning, the uniqueness and a catastrophic scale of this tragedy for the Jewish people.

The indicators of genocide discussed above will be taken into account to assess the direct impact of mass killings on Jewish demographics (Jewish population); to identify unknown Holocausts; and to prove their existence.

Lethality of Genocide

All the indicators of genocide described above are just qualitative characteristics of genocides or Holocausts. But in order to assess, identify or compare genocides or Holocausts between each other, a quantitative indicator is needed.

And such indicator was introduced under the name—lethality rate (or simply lethality). It serves to assess the magnitude and the speed of population losses of a persecuted group.

For example, if such losses are 5%, while duration of the genocide is 5 years, then the lethality rate of this genocide is equal 1% per year (or 100% per century). 

Can you imagine the magnitude and speed of a genocide at the lethality rate just 1% per year? At such lethality rate, the entire group will be exterminated in 100 years if it is not replenished!

Or compare such genocide to horrific rampant killings in such dangerous country as El Salvador. Although the country has the highest homicide rate in the world, it is only 5% per century that is 20 times lower than such genocide.

But if you feel endangered in the US because the 2019-2020 homicide spree jumped by 28%, relax—the lethality increased just from 0.50% to 0.65% per century. Now, imagine yourself during the genocide perpetrated at a murder rate 200 times higher!

A list of the mass killings perpetrated in the 20th century are given below. All of them were recognized as genocides according to the international Convention.

(The lethality rates of these genocides are given for reference purpose. They were calculated using available data and published sources. Some data have a wide scatter. Therefore, the minimal values of the lethality rates were estimated to avoid exaggeration).

Here is the list. It includes the ethnic groups or nationalities (the victims of these genocides); the countries in which these genocides were perpetrated; their durations and lethality rates.

1) Armenians (Turkey, 1915-1922)—243% per century.

2) Ukrainians (USSR-Holodomor, 1932-1933)—600%/C.

3) Jews (World-Holocaust, 1940-1945)—700%/C.

4) Cambodians (Cambodia, 1975-1979)—500%/C.

5) Tutsi (Rwanda, 1990-1994)—350%/C.

6) Bosniaks (Bosnia, 1992-1995)—106%/C.

Take a note that all these genocides, including the Holocaust, have their lethality rates greater than 100% per century.

Therefore, it is suggested that the lethality rate greater than 100% per century to be considered as the lethal threshold or a quantitative indicator of genocide or Holocaust. 

Now, we can turn to the main subject of the essay—unknown Holocausts. Their description and substantiation of their existence in Jewish history are presented below in Part 2 of this essay.

The 1st (Assyrian) Holocaust

In 1000 BCE, Jewish population of the United Israelite Kingdom was about 1.8M. But it was gradually declining after the Kingdom fell apart in 930 BCE splitting into two rival kingdoms—Israel (in the north) and Judea (in the south). Still, in 733 BCE, there were 1.35M Jews living there.

Let’s get back to the events that happened in 734 –701 BCE—one of the most tragic periods in Jewish history. At the end of it, the Assyrian Empire brought the Jewish people to the brink of extinction. According to the official view, this period consisted of three events that were distinct and unconnected.

Such view is disputed in the book Law of Conservation of Jews. These distinct events were, in fact, connected; they happened one after another; they followed a similar scenario and had a lot in common. Therefore, two assumptions were made.

1) These three events were, in fact, a single event and period named the Assyrian invasion.

2) This invasion resulted in an unknown (Assyrian) Holocaust since the atrocities perpetrated by the Assyrians against Jews were consistent with all indicators of genocide and Holocaust.

Here are the justifications of these assumptions.

The first period started in about 734 BCE during the rule of Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III. But about 6 years earlier (in 740 BCE), after the victory over Syria, Tiglath-Pileser III demanded and received enormous tribute in gold and silver from Israel. This event, in fact, turned the Northern Jewish state Israel into a vassal state of the mighty Assyrian Empire.

But not for long. In 734 BCE, Israel rebelled and refused to pay any longer. In response, the Assyrian king immediately invaded Israel and, in 732 BCE, annexed its northern part Galilee. (Take a note that Assyria invaded Israel on a traitorous invitation of Ahaz, the king of the rival brotherly Jewish state of Judea)!

Assyrians committed mass killings of Jews during the invasion and later on the captured lands of Israel.

They were expelling Jews and taking women and children into captivity on a mass scale. It is believed that Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III was the first to originate large-scale deportations of conquered Jews to break their unity and strip off their national identity.

Assyrians devastated the captured Israeli cities and villages creating unbearable conditions for remaining Jewish population.

Their actions were deliberate and their intent was to destroy Israel and expel all Jewish population from their lands.

These atrocities continued until they caused another Jewish rebellion.

The second period started in about 721 BCE and followed the scenario similar to that of the previous period. At this time, a new Assyrian king Shelmaneser V, son of Tiglath-Pileser III, ruled Assyria (727 – 722 BCE).

Again, there was another Jewish revolt against Assyria—the king of Israel Hoshea refused to take orders from the Assyrian king. And again, Assyrians king at the head of his army went to pacify the rebels.

In 722 BCE, Shelmaneser V defeated the rebels and besieged Samaria, the capital of Israel, but Jews fought desperately. Meantime, a plot was brewing in Assyria against Shelmaneser. So, the Assyrian king left his army at the walls of Samaria and returned temporarily home. Here, in 722 BCE, he was dethrone and killed by the plotters.

Sargon II, the sibling of Shelmaneser V, became a new ruler of Assyria. In 721 BCE, Sargon II broke the resistance of Samaria and destroyed the city.

Every Jew should know about and remember this name—Sargon II! This name was burnt into the tablets of Jewish history as the name of one of the most mortal enemies of the Jewish people.

It was Sargon II who committed mass killings of Jews with brutality typical for savages and barbarians. On his orders, prisoners and captives were tortured and killed with cruelty unheard even among blood-thirsty Assyrians.

It was Sargon II who took into captivity 10 (of 12) Israeli tribes on the pretext of “resettlement.” (Under the same pretext, the Nazis carried out the Holocaust 2,660 years later). Jews were exiled to the outskirts of the Assyrian Empire with the intention assimilate them with other people. Thus, these “10 tribes of Israel” have disappeared forever!

And it was Sargon II who devastated Israel burning Jewish cities and villages to the ground and creating the living conditions for the rest of Jews too harsh to survive. On his orders, Assyrians were plundering the occupied territories and stealing livestock. They were destroying trees and wells in order to leave the remaining Jewish population without food and water and, thus, without means of existence.

By doing all these atrocities, the Assyrian king’s intent was to solve the problem of always rebellious Jewish population—to destroy Israel, kill or exile all Jews in Israel. As it turned out later, he had the same plan for the Judea too. This was a plan of the “final solution of Jewish question” (the Assyrian style) that is to bring the Jewish people to extinction.

And Sargon II was deliberately and systematically destroying the kingdom of Israel to the end of his short life. He was killed in a battle in 705 BCE under mysterious circumstances.

And, finally, the third period of the Assyrian invasion started in 705 BCE in Judea after the death of Sargon II.

After the fall of Israel, the king of Judea Ahaz made himself a vassal of Sargon II. To avoid the fate of Israel, he was paying tribute that put a heavy burden on the shoulder of all Jews in Judea.

Therefore, the tension between Jews and Assyrians was gradually growing. And when Hezekiah, the son and successor of Ahaz, came to power, he started secretly to reverse the course of his father.

The death of the mighty king Sargon II and the accession to the Assyrian throne of Sennasherib was viewed everywhere in the Assyrian Empire as a long awaited opportunity to free themselves from Assyrian oppression. It sparked another widespread Jewish uprising in Judea also. This revolt was led by the king of Judea Hezekiah. He dared to challenge the Assyrian king by withholding the heavy tribute.

In response, Sennasherib turned his army against his former vassal. On his way to Jerusalem, he killed and exiled Jewish population to Assyria on a mass scale; he took over, plundered and deliberately devastated 46 Jewish cities and villages.

But in 701 BCE, after an unsuccessful siege of Jerusalem, the Assyrian army had to withdraw.

Biblical scholars give a number of reasons why the Assyrians had to withdraw. It could be the God’s direct intervention; hordes of mice that appeared suddenly from nowhere; bubonic plague among the Assyrian soldiers; or a dangerous offensive of Egyptian army. The reasons vary, but the fact remains the same—Jerusalem was miraculously spared from destruction.

The lifting of the siege and the return of Sennasherib to Assyria in 701 BCE was a sign that the Assyrian invasion and systematic slaughter of Jews have come to an end.

Let’s summarize the timeline of the periods of the Assyrian invasion, durations of the periods and the breaks between them.

Assyrians waged three military campaigns (wars) against rebellious Jews during three periods in the 8th century BCE. The longest war lasted 5 years, and the longest break—16 years. Here are those periods:

1st period: 734 – 732 (duration—3 years, break – 8 years).

2nd period: 724 – 721 (duration—4 years, break – 16 years).

3rd period: 705 – 701 (duration—5 years).

In summary, the Assyrian invasion (732–701 BCE) have met all the qualitative criteria of genocide (or Holocaust) adopted by the international Genocide Convention.

Assyrians perpetrated mass and systematic killing of Jewish population.

They expelled Jews from their lands taking into captivity 10 (out of 12) Jewish tribes, including women and children.

Assyrians deliberately destroyed and devastated many cities and villages of Israel and Judea living their inhabitants without means of existence.

And finally, Assyrians brought Jews to the brink of extinction! This is a clear indication of the intent to eradicate the entire Jewish people.

Moreover, the Assyrian invasion in 732–701 BCE meet the quantitative characteristics of genocide also.

For example, after the invasion just…150 000 Jews (of 1.35M) remained alive on Jewish lands! No wonder Jewish population could not recover for the next 115 years.

Assyrians killed 2.5 times more Jews (percentagewise) than the Nazis did during the Holocaust (89% vs. 35%)! This was the “the final solution of the Jewish question”—the Assyrian style!

The lethality rate of the Assyrian mass killings was 287% per century! This is higher than the lethality of some recognized genocides committed in the 20th century. (See the list of the genocides given earlier for comparison).

Therefore, by the definition, in 734–701 BCE, the Jewish people suffered the 1st Holocaust in their history—the Assyrian Holocaust that continued for 33 years!

The 2nd (Roman) Holocaust

Let’s return to the historic events of the Jewish–Roman wars in the 1st century CE.

Surprisingly, but the so-called Jewish–Roman Wars in 66–136 CE were, in a way, a repetition of the Assyrian scenario. These wars were, in fact, three consecutive periods of large-scale Jewish revolts against Roman oppression in which Romans massacred more civilian population than the rebels.

Among many Roman actors playing in this bloody historic drama of murder, one stood out above all. He played a leading role. He taught others how to play, and he set the tone for the Romans for the next decades to come.

Titus Caesar Vespasianus! Jews must know and remember this man to whom they owe their 2000-year-long exile (Diaspora or Galut)!

Similar to ancient Assyrians, Romans waged three consecutive military campaigns against rebellious Jews during three periods. (Who says that history does not repeat itself)?

The first period started as the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome in 66 CE and ended in 73 CE. Titus became a military commander of the Roman Army in Judea in 69 CE after his father, the Roman general Vespasian, was declared Roman Emperor.

And here comes a fateful day for ancient Jews. In 70 CE, Titus besieged Jerusalem and destroyed the city along with the 2nd Temple, the sacred place of worship for the Jewish people.

Titus put down the rebellion killing Jews systematically and on a mass scale. By his order, Romans killed about 1.1M Jews during the siege of Jerusalem, including women and children.

It was Titus who ordered to expel Jews from their lands and take them into captivity. More than 100,000 Jews were brought to Rome in chains and turned into slavery.

Since Jews didn’t give up after the rebellion, Romans were mercilessly “pacifying” Judea for the next four decades creating unbearable living conditions for the remaining Jewish population.

The Roman savagery sowed the seeds of violence in Judea causing hatred toward Rome among the Jews of the next generations. Young Jews were growing with one thought in mind—revenge! Revenge for mass killings of women and children and for suffering of the Jewish people! This hatred was simmering for years until it boiled over into another rebellion.

The second period began with the 2nd revolt against Rome called the Kitos War (115–117 CE). The rebels were attacking Roman garrisons, first in Egypt and Cyprus, the centers of large Jewish communities abroad. Then the rebellion spread to Judea.

It was crushed ruthlessly by the Roman legions. As a result, 200,000 Jews were slaughtered, and hundreds of Jewish communities everywhere were destroyed and devastated. Jews were exiled to prevent Jewish population from recovering.

After the revolt, the situation was still tense in Judea for 15 long years. Romans were increasing cruel persecution of Jewish population, while Jews continued to resist.

The tension culminated in 130 CE when the Roman Emperor Hadrian decided to turn Jerusalem, the Jewish holy city, into Roman city of Aelia Capitolina. In response, another rebellion has erupted in Judea.

The third period began with the 3rd rebellion called the Bar Kochba revolt (132–136 CE). It was the most bloody mass killings of Jews—580,000 Jews were killed and almost 1,000 Jewish communities were destroyed by Romans.

A scorched-earth strategy laid waste to Judea leading to tragic demographic consequences—the vast majority of Jewish population was killed or enslaved, while Jewish religious practices were banned.

But the forced expulsion was even more terrifying. It was supposed to lead to a complete extinction of the Jewish people. And this was a part of the Roman’s plan to carry out “the final solution”—to expel Jews from and to cut their ties with their homeland.

The plan has worked, and the goal was achieved! Almost all Jews found themselves in exile (Diaspora, Galut) and could not return to their homeland for…2000 years! This is a clear indication of the intent and commitment to make the Jewish people vanish forever.

Let’s summarize. The Romans waged three military campaigns (wars) against rebellious Jews during three periods in the 1st century CE. The longest war lasted 8 years, and the longest break—42 years. Here are those periods:

1st period: 66 – 73 (duration—8 years, break – 42 years).

2nd period: 115 – 117 (duration—3 years, break – 15 years).

3rd period: 132 – 136 (duration—5 years).

Thus, the atrocities perpetrated by Romans in Judea in 66–136 CE (mass killings, exile, devastation and the intent to exterminate the entire Jewish people) meet all qualitative criteria of genocide (Holocaust) adopted by the Genocide Convention.

They meet the quantitative criteria also. For example, because of the mass killings committed by Romans, there were just 1M (of 4.5M) Jews remained in Judea. It means that Romans killed and exiled relatively more Jews than the Nazis did during the Holocaust (78% vs. 35%)!

The lethality rate of the mass killings committed by Romans was 110% per century, which is higher than the lethality of the Bosnian genocide (106% per century).

Therefore, by the definition, in 66–136 CE, Jews suffered the 2nd Holocaust in their history—the Roman Holocaust that continued for 70 years!

Unknown Holocausts—Fantasy or Reality?

After all the arguments offered above, you may still have questions and challenge the validity of the main premises of this essay.

Really, how valid is the suggestion that the mass killings of Jews committed by ancient Assyrians or Romans are the real Holocausts? Or this is a well-articulated fantasy!

Here are some inconvenient questions followed by the answers that explain the line of reasoning behind this suggestion.

1) How valid is to present three separate and independent Jewish revolts against ancient Rome in the 1st century CE interrupted by fairly long breaks as a single event in Jewish history—the Roman Holocaust?

As was shown earlier, these three consecutive Jewish revolts against Romans only seem to be separate and independent events. In fact, they are three outbursts of the same long rebellion waged with varying degree of intensity.

As for the long breaks, they were filled with tension and turmoil. During the breaks, extermination of Jewish population continued even without punitive operations of the Roman legions. Other means were used for this purpose—laying Jewish lands to waste, famine and diseases, persecution and expulsion, executions and sporadic murders.

In other words, the massacres of Jews by Roman erupted three times, while an explosive situation in Judea was simmering in between all the time.

Thus, the episode of Jewish history known as three Jewish-Roman wars, was, in fact, one extremely long Holocaust broken into three periods, each period being similar. The events within a period were similar (revolt-massacre-break). The victims were the same—Jews. The perpetrators (Romans) and their intent (to eradicate the Jewish people) were the same either.

The same line of reasoning can be applied to three Jewish revolts against Assyrians during their invasion of Israel in the 8th century BCE.

2) Were there precedents in the world history when separate wars considered a single war; lasted as long (70 years) and had such long breaks (42 years) as the Jewish-Roman wars?

Yes, there were such precedents! The Hundred Years’ War between England and France (1337 – 1453), which lasted 116 years, is considered a single event although it consisted of 4 wars and 4 long breaks between them. The longest period lasted 23 years, and the longest break—35 years. Here are those periods:

1st period: 1337 – 1360 (duration—23 years, break—9 years).

2nd period: 1369 – 1380 (duration—11 years, break—35 years).

3rd period: 1415 – 1420 (duration—5 years, break—4 years).

4th period: 1424 – 1453 (duration—31 years).

But what about revolts? Similar to the Jewish-Roman wars, during the Hundred Years’ War, there were revolts in every 4 periods also. The most famous were the revolt in Paris under the leadership of Etienne Marcel (1st period) and the revolt under the leadership of Joan of Arc (4th period).

3) Victims of the Holocausts or wars? According to the official Jewish history, what happened in ancient Israel during the Assyrian invasion and in ancient Judea during Jewish revolts against Romans were, in fact, wars waged against Jews. Therefore, Jews are the victims of war rather than the Holocaust!

But during the Nazi Holocaust, a war was going on too. About 1.3M Jews were fighting Nazis in armed forces of Allies, hundreds of thousands—in the gorilla groups and in the underground cells of Resistance.

Holocausts and genocides are not isolated historic events. They are fueled by the flames of invasions, rebellions, wars of conquest or civil wars. This happened during the Assyrian invasion of ancient Israel; Jewish rebellions against Romans; the Nazi wars of conquest (WW2) and the civil wars in Bosnia and Rwanda.

4) Can the Assyrian and the Roman Holocausts be considered genuine Holocausts if they (in comparison with the Nazi Holocaust) lasted too long (33 and 70 years, respectively) and claimed much less victims (1.2M and 3.5M, respectively)?

There is a long-standing notion that a genuine genocide (or the Holocaust) is an event that lasts a very short (on historic scales) period of time, but has catastrophic consequences. The Nazi Holocaust was such a catastrophe—in just 5 years, it claimed 6M lives!

But duration is not an indicator of genocide or Holocaust according to the Genocide Convention. A genocide that lasts longer may have even greater destructive consequences if its lethality rate (the magnitude and the speed of mass killings) is higher than 100% per century. Just imagine that the Nazi Holocaust with lethality of 700% per century lasts 31 or 70 years (instead of 5 years), but claims 6M lives every 5 years!

Thus, the previous discussions, arguments and facts lead to a shocking conclusion:

There were two unknown Holocausts lost in the maze of history—the Assyrian and the Roman Holocausts!

Therefore, the villains such as Sargon II (the Assyrian who took into captivity 10 of 12 Israeli tribes); Titus Caesar Vespasianus (the Roman who dispersed Jews all over the world); and Adolf Hitler (the German who annihilated almost all European Jews) must stand next to each other in the Hall of Eternal Infamy as the perpetrators of the most heinous crimes against humanity—HOLOCAUSTS!

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