The Holocaust Industry is a controversial indictment of those who exploit the tragedy of the Holocaust for their own gain. Norman G. Finkelstein presents an iconoclastic and controversial study, moving from an interrogation of the place the Holocaust has come to occupy in American culture to a disturbing examination of recent Holocaust compensation agreements.

It was not until the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, when Israel's evident strength aligned with US foreign policy, that the memory of the Holocaust began to acquire the exceptional prominence it enjoys today. Leaders of America's Jewish community were delighted that Israel was now deemed a major strategic asset and, Finkelstein contends, exploited the Holocaust to enhance this newfound status. Their interpretations of the tragedy often vary from actual historical events and are employed to deflect criticism of Israel and its supporters.

Recalling Holocaust fraudsters such as Jerzy Kosinski and Binjamin Wilkomirski, as well as the demagogic constructions of writers like Daniel Goldhagen, Finkelstein argues that the main danger to the memory of Nazism's victims comes not from Holocaust deniers but from prominent, self-proclaimed guardians of Holocaust memory. Drawing on a wealth of untapped sources, he exposes the double shakedown of European countries as well as legitimate Jewish claimants, concluding that the Holocaust industry has become an outright extortion racket.

Thoroughly researched and closely argued, this book is all the more disturbing and powerful because the issues it addresses are so rarely discussed.