Wikipedia

Holocaust denial

denial of the genocide of Jews in World War II
(Redirected from Holocaust denier)

Holocaust denial is the claim that the Holocaust did not happen or was not as bad as people think it was. Historians agree that during World War II, the Nazis killed at least 6,000,000 Jews in the Holocaust,[1] mostly in Nazi concentration camps within occupied territories across Europe back then.[1] They agree that there is more proof in writing, pictures, and places about the Holocaust than any other genocide.[clarification needed]

Countries with laws against Holocaust denial
The Auschwitz concentration camps would always stand as a testament that antisemitism caused the worst genocide in human history.
A Holocaust memorial outside Auschwitz concentration camp I.

Overview

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Holocaust deniers

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Holocaust deniers usually call themselves Holocaust revisionists to make themselves look good.[2] Their usual claim is that the Holocaust is "a hoax made up by Jewish people working together."[3][4]

It is a crime to deny the Holocaust in Israel and in many European countries, especially in Germany.[5] Some Holocaust deniers, like Ernst Zündel, have been charged with crimes.

Prominent Holocaust deniers

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Name Birth Death Origin Affiliations
Ali Khamenei[6] April 19, 1939 Mashhad, Iran Supreme Leader of Iran[6]
David Irving[7] March 24, 1938 Hutton, Essex, England A "historian" who is an alumnus of the ICL and UCL[7]
Hutton Gibson[8][9] August 26, 1918 May 11, 2020 Peekskill, New York, United States Founder of the Opus Dei[8][9]
Paul Rassinier[10] March 18, 1906 July 28, 1967 Bermont, France A French Resistance fighter who survived Nazi concentration camp[10]
Pierre Guillaume[11] December 22, 1940 July 11, 2023 France An anarcho-Marxist[11]
Richard Williamson[12] March 8, 1940 Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom Society of Saint Pius X[12]
Robert Faurisson[13] January 25, 1929 October 21, 2018 Shepperton, England University of Lyon professor of literature

Holocaust denial claims

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Common arguments

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  • They say the Nazi government was only trying to deport Jews, not to kill all of them. They say there was no official Nazi policy to kill Jews, and that no Nazi leader ever gave an order to kill all of the Jews.[4][14]
  • They say the Nazis did not use death camps or gas chambers to kill Jews.[3][4]
  • History experts agree that the Nazis killed about 5 million to 6 million Jews during the Holocaust.[3][4] Holocaust deniers say that far fewer Jews actually died. They also claim that many of these victims died of diseases, like typhus, instead of being murdered by the Nazis.[3][4]

Other arguments

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  • They say that during World War II, the Allies made up fake stories about the Holocaust to make Germans look evil. Then, Jews, working together, spread these fake stories as part of a bigger plan to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Now, Jews continue to spread these stories to get sympathy and to get support for the state of Israel.[3][4]
  • They say that evidence about the Holocaust is fake.[3][4]
  • They say there are errors and differences in stories told by Holocaust survivors and so the stories cannot be believed.[3][4]
  • They say that after being taken prisoner, many Nazis gave confessions about having committed war crimes. Holocaust deniers say these people said things that were not true because they were tortured.[3][4]
  • They say the allies treated enemy prisoners of war just as badly as the Nazis treated the Jews.[3][4]

Rebuttal to Holocaust denial

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Evidence includes the word of Sonderkommandos like these.

Historians agree that the Holocaust happened and that Holocaust deniers use bad research, get things wrong, and sometimes make facts up to support their claims.[3][4]

Many things together prove that the Holocaust did happen:

  • Written documents, like laws, newspaper articles, speeches made by Nazi leaders, and confessions from Nazi prisoners of war. The Nazis kept careful records, and many of them still exist. Even during World War II, many Germans knew about the Holocaust, and some tried to help save Holocaust victims
  • Eyewitness testimony from people who saw what the Nazis did. That includes Holocaust survivors, like people who survived the Nazi concentration camps, and the word of Jewish Sonderkommandos (concentration camp inmates who helped load bodies from the gas chambers to the crematoria because this gave them a chance to survive). It also includes the word of Nazi leaders, Nazi concentration camp guards, and Allied soldiers who discovered the camps
  • The camps. Pieces of Nazi concentration camps, death camps, and work camps still exist
  • Other evidence, like population statistics
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Other websites

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1
    • Shapiro, P.A. (2007). "Faith, murder, resurrection: The Iron Guard and the Romanian Orthodox Church". Antisemitism, Christian Ambivalence, and the Holocaust. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253116741. OCLC 191071016. Retrieved November 4, 2024.
    • Laqueur, Walter (July 30, 2009). "Towards the Holocaust". The Changing Face of Antisemitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 9780195341218. Retrieved November 3, 2024.
    • "Deportation of Hungarian Jews". Timeline of Events. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 25 November 2017. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
    • Brosnan, Matt (12 June 2018). "What Was The Holocaust?". Imperial War Museum. Archived from the original on 2 March 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
    • "36 Questions About the Holocaust". Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
  2. ↑ Lipstadt, Deborah, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, Penguin, 1993, ISBN 0-452-27274-2, p. 25
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 Mathis, Andrew E. Holocaust Denial, a definition Archived 2011-06-09 at the Wayback Machine, The Holocaust History Project, July 2, 2004, Retrieved 6 March 2013
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 Michael Shermer & Alex Grobman. Denying History: : who says the Holocaust never happened and why do they say it?, University of California Press, 2000, ISBN 0-520-23469-3, p. 106
  5. ↑ Bazyler, Michael J. (December 25, 2006). "Holocaust Denial Laws and Other Legislation Criminalizing Promotion of Nazism" (PDF). Yad Vashem. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "What is Opus Dei, and why is it so controversial — both in and out of the Catholic Church?". Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). January 30, 2023. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 McDermott, Jim (January 13, 2023). "Mel Gibson and the dangers of Catholic antisemitism". American Magazine. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Reid, Donald (March 29, 2022). "Holocaust denial, Le Vicaire, and the absent presence of Nadine Fresco and Paul Rassinier in Jorge Semprún's La Montagne blanche". French Cultural Studies. 33 (3). doi:10.1177/09571558221078450. Retrieved December 26, 2024. Open access
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1
  13. ↑
  14. ↑ Mathis, Andrew E. Holocaust Denial, a Definition, The Holocaust History Project, July 2, 2004, Retrieved 6 March 2013
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