The book received negative reviews. According to Israeli journalist Yair Sheleg, in August 2000, German historian Hans Mommsen called it "a most trivial book, which appeals to easily aroused anti-Semitic prejudices." Wolfgang Benz stated to "Le Monde": "It is impossible to learn anything from Finkelstein's book. At best, it is interesting for a psychotherapist." The reviewer of this daily added that Norman Finkelstein "hardly cares about nuance" and Rony Brauman wrote in the preface to the French edition ("L'Industrie de l'Holocauste", Paris, La Fabrique, 2001) that some assertions of N. Finkelstein (especially on the impact of the Six-days war) are wrong, others being pieces of "propaganda". Historian Peter Novick, whose work Finkelstein described as providing the "initial stimulus" for "The Holocaust Industry", asserted in the July 28, 2000 issue of "The Jewish Chronicle" (London) that the book is replete with "false accusations", "egregious misrepresentations", "absurd claims" and "repeated mis-statements" ("A charge into darkness that sheds no light"). Finkelstein replied to the allegations by Novick on his homepage. Hasia Diner has accused Peter Novick and Finkelstein of being "harsh critics of American Jewry from the left," and challenges the notion reflected in their books that American Jews did not begin to commemorate the Holocaust until after 1967.