Stop sharing 'illusion of knowledge' meme misattributed to Hawking

Please stop sharing this "Hawking" quote, people; it's misattributed to Hawking. The actual author is Daniel J. Boorstin.

I created the meme below as an alternative 2.5 years ago because I grew tired of all these misattributions (mostly to Einstein, Hawking and Sagan). It's very ironic when this quote, warning against the 'illusion of knowledge', is shared without checking the source, especially when skeptics do it. (remember what Lincoln said about Internet quotes ;) ).

Czech skeptics overdose on homeopathy

Did Hitler talk about gassing Jews in Mein Kampf?

I'm currently improving the Dutch Wikipedia page about the Holocaust, together with Hanno Lans. Such an atrocious event in the history of mankind should be documented accurately, and it certainly wasn't well-written when I bumped into it at the beginning of September 2016.

One of the main issues I'd like to solve is the question of whether the term 'Holocaust' should also be applied to non-Jewish victims of the genocide(s) committed by the Nazis during World War II. This started when someone reverted my categorisation of a rather famous freethinker, Anton Constandse, who was imprisoned in Buchenwald and Herzogenbusch concentration camp, as a 'Holocaust survivor', because he was not a Jew. Apparently some people, especially Jews, argue the term 'Holocaust' should be reserved only for Jewish victims for several reasons, whilst other victim groups are claiming the right to be included under that label. Although I personally favour a broader definition, I need to be neutral as a Wikipedian, and can only write about the debate between experts on the matter. So I did and am doing that. So far, there are no edit wars or people calling me antisemitic or neonazi or whatever, so I guess I'm doing it right. 

The talk page is full with people discussing this issue over and over again, but they seem to come up with personal views instead of reliable sources, and so nothing is ever done about it. This is a place where I as a historian come in.

One remarkable thing that I'd like to point out is that there are still a lot of unsourced claims. One stands out in particular as a reason why the Holocaust happened: a quote from Hitler blaming the Jews for the German defeat in World War I was rendered as:

"Long before Hitler got into power, he claimed in Mein Kampf that World War I wouldn't have been lost if the Germans had "ten or twelve thousand of these people's traitors has been put under poison gas."

I was skeptical, because this implies that Hitler already envisioned building gas chambers to kill (the) Jews in 1924. Although the idea of exterminating the Jews was not completely new, this wouldn't become the primary policy of the Nazi regime until 1941. Other, less violent plans to solve the "Jewish problem" dominated before then such as 'voluntary' emigration, deportation or assimilation (e.g. Christianisation and Germanisation). It is agreed that these other plans were not carried out, because Germany was surrounded during World War II, making the Madagascar Plan impossible. Moreover, I didn't think gassing was already a preferred killing method by then (I checked, and indeed the first Zyklon B experiment on humans wasn't conducted until August 1941).

So, the quote implies a complete conspiracy that actually didn't exist until 17 years later. Hitler probably neither had the intent nor the method in 1924. The Holocaust was a plan that evolved gradually, and, the evidence indicates it was mostly concocted in 1941 and 1942; earlier schemes weren't nearly as detailed. (Hanno uploaded a lecture by Dutch historian Bart van der Boom who explains what a shaky, non-linear process the decision (or actually, 5 decisions) to execute the Holocaust was).

Luckily I could find a digital Dutch translation of Mein Kampf (unfortunately I don't know who wrote it, when or why, there are no translator's notes). Such publications of Hitler's notorious autobiography and centrepiece of his ideology are no longer illegal since the copyright expired last year; a real test for free speech, as many would claim the contents are too dangerous to be publicly accessible.
Turns out the actual quote is different, and should be seen in historical context. Hitler was propagating the "stab-in-the-back myth", a conspiracy theory that Marxist revolutionaries betrayed the 'invincible' German army at the end of WWI by suing for peace with the Allies (actually, the army was all but defeated, but the generals decided to blame the new social democratic government). Because Marx was a Jew, Hitler regarded Marxism as a Jewish conspiracy, and so the Jews were responsible for betraying the German army. It's important to note here that Hitler himself had been a volunteer soldier, fighting the Allies in the trenches on the Western front in Belgium.

He says that some soldiers and labourers revolted in November 1918 and overthrew the German government because their minds had been contaminated with Marxism. Hitler wished they had been fighting in the trenches instead of him:

"If at the beginning of the War and during the War twelve or fifteen thousand of these Hebrew corrupters of the people had been held under poison gas, as happened to hundreds of thousands of our very best German workers in the field, the sacrifice of millions at the front would not have been in vain."

So, he's clearly not referring to gas chambers for civilian prisoners, but to chemical weapons (such as mustard gas) used in combat situations. He is angry that he and his comrades in the army suffered and died in the trenches because of gas attacks (amongst other things), but 'those lazy, cowardly politicians, those Jewish Marxist conspirators, they signed peace and thus made us die for nothing; if only they knew what it was like in the trenches.' So, is this quote proof that Hitler already intended to gas all the Jews back in 1924? In all likelihood it isn't. He was certainly angry at them, and in his rage he perhaps wanted to kill some of them, but we're not reading an entire genocide plan here.If anyone uses this to argue Hitler already planned the Holocaust in 1924, it's quote mining.

My podcast appearances so far...

The European Skeptics Podcast
On 10 February 2016, I featured on The European Skeptics Podcast (50:20–1:06:20). My friends András Pintér, Jelena Levin and Pontus Böckman interviewed me about how I got involved with the skeptical / freethought movement, the three major organisations in the Netherlands battling pseudoscience and superstition and promoting critical thinking (De Vrije Gedachte [The Free Thought], Stichting Skepsis and the Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij [Association Against Quackery]), and my part in this movement, e.g. as board member of De Vrije Gedachte and the Dutch team leader of Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW).

Skepticule

On 4 May 2015, I featured on Skepticule (a.k.a. The Three Pauls Podcast, as both the host and two co-hosts are named 'Paul'), which was recorded at QED: Question, Explore Discover (28:45–46:25).


< Here we are, left to right: Paul Orton, Paul S Jenkins, me and Paul Thompson at QED in The Palace Hotel in Manchester.

They asked me about my experience of the conference and the previous one when we first met, my current projects on Wikipedia (of which I mentioned Skeptical organisations in Europe), my involvement in the Dutch freethinkers association De Vrije Gedachte (The Free Thought), my article in Skepter about GSoW, our skeptical Wikipedia project, with a special focus on the Rob Nanninga biography, and the state of secularism, atheism and free speech in the Netherlands.

Skepticality III: QED 2015

On 12 May 2015, Skepticality published a conversation that András Pintér, Jelena Levin, Pontus Böckman (the future team of the ESP), James Williams and I recorded at QED 2015 about our experiences editing Wikipedia and attending and meeting each other at that wonderful conference (25:00–37:00).

Skepticality II: The Vaccination Project
On 16 February 2015, Susan Gerbic interviewed me for Skepticality. Our conversation centred on how I was never vaccinated as a child, but when I learnt about the evidence, decided to do so in 2014, and started lecturing and writing on Wikipedia about the dangers of the antivaxx movement. The broadcast version is here (11:10–17:20), the full interview is available below.

Kritisch Denken

On 16 November 2014, my first (and so far only) solo podcast recording was published for the Dutch-speaking Belgian (Flemish) skeptical podcast Kritisch Denken ("Critical Thinking"), a Russells Theepot production. I explain why Wikipedia is a crucial battleground between science and pseudoscience, and skeptics should be there to correct misinformation and present the facts in the place where many ordinary people are looking for answers to their questions. The Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia project (GSoW) seeks to coordinate the efforts of skeptical Wikipedians to accomplish this.

Skepticality I: QED 2014
This was my first multi-day skeptical conference, where I also met some people I had acquainted on the Internet in real life, some of whom have grown out to become great friends. It's obvious that I'm nervous, my English speaking vocabulary and accent were pretty bad at that time. I'm not sure if I didn't know we were videotaped instead of just audiotaped, or that I just didn't dare look into the camera.
The first recording is about Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia project (GSoW), that brought all of us together. My part is from 4:55 to 6:20. This first recording also featured on Skepticality of 13 May 2014 (2:55–13:10), but the sound quality there is quite poor, unfortunately.

The second recording was about how cool going to skeptical conferences is. My part is from 4:45 to 6:16.