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'''Holocaust denial''' is denial that the [[Holocaust]], perpetrated by [[Nazi Germany]], the other Axis powers and their collaborators in occupied Europe during the [[Second World War]] ever happened or - in true [[conspiracy theory]] fashion - the denial that it happened according to the "official" story. Like most conspiracy theories, it takes many forms, from the fairly light claims of "exaggeration" to the extreme views of outright fraud, fakery and [[Zionism|Zionist]] Conspiracy. Generally, the claims include:
+
'''Holocaust denial''' is, obviously, denial that the [[Holocaust]], perpetrated by [[Nazi Germany]], the other Axis powers and their collaborators in occupied Europe during the [[Second World War]] ever happened or - in true [[conspiracy theory]] fashion - the denial that it happened according to the "official" story. Like most conspiracy theories, it takes many forms, from the fairly light claims of "exaggeration" to the extreme views of outright fraud, fakery and [[Zionism|Zionist]] Conspiracy. Generally, the claims include:
  
 
* That the [[Holocaust|Final Solution]] was in fact ''not'' the [[genocide]] of the Jewish people, but rather the expulsion of [[Jew]]s from [[Germany]]
 
* That the [[Holocaust|Final Solution]] was in fact ''not'' the [[genocide]] of the Jewish people, but rather the expulsion of [[Jew]]s from [[Germany]]

Revision as of 02:38, 30 September 2010

Not just a river in Egypt
Denialism
Icon denialism.svg
Alternative facts
♫ We're not listening ♫
Some dare call it
Conspiracy
Icon conspiracy.svg
What THEY don't want
you to know!
Sheeple wakers

Holocaust denial is, obviously, denial that the Holocaust, perpetrated by Nazi Germany, the other Axis powers and their collaborators in occupied Europe during the Second World War ever happened or - in true conspiracy theory fashion - the denial that it happened according to the "official" story. Like most conspiracy theories, it takes many forms, from the fairly light claims of "exaggeration" to the extreme views of outright fraud, fakery and Zionist Conspiracy. Generally, the claims include:

  • That the Final Solution was in fact not the genocide of the Jewish people, but rather the expulsion of Jews from Germany
  • That 6,000,000 is a gross exaggeration of the Jewish death count
  • That the Nuremberg testimonies from Germans were extracted by torture
  • That the Jews just made everything up to gain the world's sympathy
  • That the gas chambers used by the Nazis were actually breathing medication applicators hair care facilities.

Particularly when it focuses on "how the Jews faked it all", Holocaust denial is a form of anti-Semitism often embraced by bigots who are too cowardly to admit that they wished that Hitler finished the job.

Aim, recruiting base and techniques of Holocaust deniers

Nearly all Holocaust deniers seem to belong, or be affiliated to, any of these three groups:

  • White supremacists and neo-Nazis.
  • Authoritarian pro-Palestine activists, including but not limited to militant Islamists, who oppose the very existence of Israel. (More on Israel in the section below.)
  • General conspiracy theorists, iconoclasts, or curmudgeons without necessary political sympathies.[1]

This is manifested in some of the aims of Holocaust denial (stupidity and hatred not mentioned).

Holocaust deniers almost never base their agenda on an alternate hypothesis. Finding "their story" can be very difficult. The bulk of their arguments contains of miscellaneous loose statements that question the credibility of the Holocaust. This article aims to provide universal proof, but mainly deals with replying to deniers' objections.

Laws against Holocaust denial

Denial of crimes against humanity is outlawed in twelve European countries and Israel. In the Netherlands, courts have ruled that genocide denial is hate speech, and therefore implicitly illegal. Deniers usually complain that their freedom of speech is limited, and might even claim that these laws are part of the conspiracy. They ignore that:

  • These laws are much younger than the Holocaust itself (and Holocaust denial). Most of them were made in the late 1980s or 1990s, as a counter-measure against the rise of white supremacism in a European generation which had no experience of the war. During most of post-war history - more than 40 years - Holocaust denial has been legal in all countries of the world.
  • Most of these laws outlaw denial of all crimes against humanity, not limited to the ones committed by the Axis of World War II, but also explicitly (as in Poland or the Czech Republic) or implicitly including crimes by Communist regimes, and other crimes often emphasized by Holocaust deniers (see above). Only in Romania, the law is limited to Holocaust denial. The Israeli law is the only of these laws actually mentioning Jews.
  • Currently, there are 179 countries, and several autonomous territories, without any law or judicial precedent against Holocaust denial. This list includes all of North and South America, Africa, Oceania, Asia (except Israel, if any Holocaust denier would want to go there) and 37 of the 50 countries in Europe. The laws against Holocaust denial do not even cover the area affected by the Holocaust; genocide denial is legal in Slovakia, the former Yugoslav states, Greece and several other countries where the Nazis abducted Jews during the war. See the extensive list of countries where Holocaust denial is legal.
  • This legislation does not expand, though deniers may claim so. Spain repealed their law against genocide denial in 2007. Parliaments in United Kingdom and Sweden have rejected proposals for such laws. The European Parliament has also rejected a directive to criminalize genocide denial. Canada's Supreme Court sentenced James Keegstra in R. v. Keegstra in 1990 for hate speech not limited to Holocaust denial, but in R. v. Zundel in 1992 they acquitted Zündel, and declared Holocaust denial to be protected by constitution.
  • Deniers may claim that these laws are a product of Jewish influence. In that case, how come that Holocaust denial is legal in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Russia, which have significant Jewish populations, but is illegal in Poland, Romania and Lithuania, where hardly any Jews live today?

"Holocaust revisionism" vs Holocaust denial

Many Holocaust deniers describe themselves as "revisionists". Does that mean they are not deniers?

How do we define Holocaust denial?

Modern scholarship defines "The Holocaust" as:

  • The planned murder - the plan
  • of five to seven million Jews - the number
  • mainly carried out with gas chambers - the method

The Free Dictionary defines "denial" as

1. A statement that something is not true
2. (...)

From this follows:

  • The claim that the attempt to exterminate the Jews of Europe was not planned is Holocaust denial, even while agreeing with modern scholarship upon the number and the method.
  • The claim that significantly fewer than five to seven million Jews died is Holocaust denial, even while agreeing with modern scholarship upon the plan and the method.
  • The claim that gas chambers were not used for mass executions is Holocaust denial, even while agreeing with modern scholarship upon the plan and the number.

Most self-proclaimed "Holocaust revisionists" disagree with established scholarship upon the plan, the number and the method. Therefore, they are clearly Holocaust deniers. The term "Holocaust revisionism" does not carry any meaning separate from Holocaust denial.

While most Holocaust deniers are racists and anti-Semites, a few may be people who have been misled by racists.

Quotes evidencing the planned extermination

This is just a sample of the wealth of documentary evidence.

(Caveat: Holocaust deniers reason that, since the Holocaust did not happen, any evidence to the contrary is a forgery created by the Jews as part of their International Jewish Conspiracy.™)

Adolf Hitler

Hitler quote.gif

In 1922, Hitler told a journalist that:

Once I really am in power, my first and foremost task will be the annihilation of the Jews. As soon as I have the power to do so, I will have gallows built in rows - at the Marienplatz in Munich, for example - as many as traffic allows. Then the Jews will be hanged indiscriminately, and they will remain hanging until they stink; they will hang there as long as the principles of hygiene permit. As soon as they have been untied, the next batch will be strung up, and so on down the line, until the last Jew in Munich has been exterminated. Other cities will follow suit, precisely in this fashion, until all Germany has been completely cleansed of Jews.
— Adolf Hitler, 1922. (Josef Hell, "Aufzeichnung," 1922, ZS 640, p. 5, Institut fuer Zeitgeschichte. Translation at Nizkor)

Heinrich Himmler

In 1943 Himmler spoke openly about the extermination of the Jewish people, as well as the equivocation used to cover it up, during a speech to SS Officers. See Himmler on the execution of Jews for more information.

Wannsee Conference

"Under proper guidance, in the course of the final solution

the Jews are to be allocated for appropriate labor in the East. Able-bodied Jews, separated according to sex, will be taken in large work columns to these areas for work on roads, in the course of which action doubtless a large portion will be eliminated by natural causes.

The possible final remnant will, since it will undoubtedly consist of the most resistant portion, have to be treated accordingly, because it is the product of natural selection and would, if released, act as a the seed of a new Jewish revival

(see the experience of history.)"[3]

1942 report

On 29 December 1942, Himmler presented Hitler with the "Report to the Führer on fighting against gangs", No. 51.1 This report, which covered the period from August to November, 1942, and which referred only to a part of the occupied Soviet area (southern Russia, Ukraine and the district of Bialystok); included the following numbers concerning persons imprisoned or executed:

1. Bandits

a) Established number of deaths after combat 1,337
b) Prisoners executed immediately 737
c) Prisoners executed after lengthy thorough interrogation 7,828

2. Gang helpers and suspects

a) Arrested 16,553
b) Executed 14,257
c) Jews executed 363,211[4]

Goebbels' diaries

German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels' extensive diary notes contains several references to the ongoing mass murder of the Jews. Even David Irving regards these notes to be true.

Other Wartime Documents

There are a plethora of documents from the concentration camps by guards and leaders describing the details of the death camps and even "death vans."[5] There are also documents describing the technical requirements of the gas chambers in the death camps which leave no doubt as to the intended uses. Some show that Auschwitz II, for instance, needed a crematorium that could handle over 4,000 corpses per day'.[6]

It may be granted that some of this is new documentary evidence, found in the Moscow archives that only opened with the fall of the Soviet Union. Other documents, however, have been well known since the end of World War II, even in Western Europe, despite all of the camps being in future Warsaw Pact territory.[7]

Testimonies

The truth of the Holocaust has been supported by many thousands of testimonies by several groups, including but not limited to:

  • Concentration camp prisoners (including but not limited to Jews, Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals and political opponents)
  • Sonderkommandos (prisoners recruited for corpse disposal)
  • Kapos (prisoners recruited as camp officers)
  • Guards from Germany and other countries
  • Railroad crews, civil servants, commanders and other off-site soldiers and civilian workers
  • Allied soldiers from various countries

Holocaust deniers usually claim that all Jewish prisoners and Allied soldiers lie, and that guards and officers testified under torture.

Guards, officers etc

Many thousands of officers and guards were stationed at the camps in Poland, and were suspected for carrying out or ordering the Holocaust. Many were tried and imprisoned, many were released. Many lived west of the Iron curtain, many east of it, many in exile outside Europe. Most of them lived in freedom for many years. Very few are still alive. Why has not one of them testified in favour of the "revisionist" view? Not during the trials (deniers claim that they were tortured to confess at trial, but only a few of all thousands of the guards were tried), not anonymously in an interview with any of these "revisionist scholars", not for any of the "revisionist" books, websites, or radio broadcasts, not on their deathbeds, not in their posthumously released wills - not at all. Those who were tried at court had the opportunity to cry out anything during trial, and those who were executed had the opportunity to say some last words. How come every one of these thousands of "innocent" guards has remained silent, or falsely confessed themselves guilty, for decades? And how come that deniers cannot produce one single testimony, supporting their idea?

Claims to dissenting testimonies

Holocaust deniers have made some really lame efforts to find a "second opinion".

Paul Rassinier (1906-67) was a French journalist, called "the father of Holocaust revisionism". Participated in the French Resistance, and was therefore imprisoned at Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora. Claimed that the Nazi government had no plan for extermination of Jews, and that the death toll was not more than roughly a million.

Other Holocaust deniers may claim that a concentration camp prisoner denying the Holocaust would have special credibility. However, Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora were labor camps in Germany proper, and not used for mass extermination as the Polish camps were (or claimed to were, according to deniers) - so Rassinier was not a witness of the exterminations (or whatever occured instead). This said, Rassinier would have less first-hand information about what happened to the Jews, than anyone who lived in freedom in German-controlled territory.

Richard Baer (1911-63) was commander of Auschwitz I. After the war, he lived under-cover in Hamburg, until he was seized in 1960 following the arrest of Adolf Eichmann. He refused to testify, and died in detention in 1963. Deniers might claim that the government killed Baer behind locked doors because his refusal to testify against Eichmann. This is of course a hypothesis without support, and does not in any way qualify Baer as a dissenting witness. If Baer had something to tell the world, why didn't he take use of his 15 years as a fugitive?

Death toll and census data

As mentioned before, Holocaust deniers claim that the Jewish death toll in the Holocaust is significantly less than the 5.7 million claimed by current scholarship. The exact number claimed varies - the IHR claims 300.000, while David Irving has raised his claim to 4 million.

According to censuses, there were about six million more Jews in Europe before the war than after the war. The Wannsee Protocol from 1942 said that there were 11 million Jews in Europe, of which roughly 6 million in German-controlled territories (as the Third Reich was at its peak by 1942).[8] Where did they go?

World Almanac gambit

Deniers may refer to World Almanac statistics which claim that there was no decline in the global number of Jews during the war. However, the Almanac data for Jews until 1948 were old estimates. The fresh estimate for 1948 shows a decline of 4.4 million. Updated estimates for 1939 show a total decline of 5.3 million. [9]

Where did the Jews go?

Holocaust deniers might agree that millions of Jews disappeared during the war, and suggest many different explanations, except gas chambers. Here are some:

  • Death by Allied bombings

Let us hypothetize that the Allies would have bombed several concentration camps, trying to kill as many Jewish prisoners as possible. How many bombers would it take? Compare the death tolls of the most fatal Allied raids - 50,000 in Hamburg and 25-40,000 in Dresden. (See "Allied atrocities" for more information on the Dresden death toll.) Each of these raids took several days, and required about 1,000 bombers. How many planes, and how many runs, would have been needed to cause a demographic effect on the Jewish prisoners? Are there any accounts for the USAF or the RAF targeting more Polish prison camps than German infrastructure?

  • Extermination by Soviets

Holocaust deniers might claim that Jews in Soviet-occupied territories were killed by Soviets before the German invasion in 1941. Even if that was true, it would not acquit the Nazis from murdering Jews in Germany itself, or German-occupied territories in Western and Southern Europe (France, Benelux, Balkans etc). This possibility also seems to exclude the outlandish idea of Jewish migration into the Soviet Union during the war (see below).

  • Epidemics, starvation and other "accidents"

Scholars and Holocaust deniers agree that many Jews and other prisoners did die from epidemics (such as typhoid) and starvation. Some also died from suicide, failed escape attempts, correctional executions, exhaustion and other unintended causes except mass execution. Holocaust deniers might claim that these were the only - or nearly the only - causes of death in the Polish camps. Letting prisoners get infected and starve to death - is that not mass murder? Is that much better than gassing the same number?

  • Emigration - escape or further deportation

Holocaust deniers might claim that millions of Jews in the Polish camps either were deported further east, or left captivity. In the end, they would have moved to foreign countries, with Palestine (including the areas that would form Israel), the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union mentioned. Some of them might have disguised as non-Jews.

However, the population of the Palestinian territories that became Israel (including Arabs and other minorities, Jews having arrived before 1939, as well as Jewish immigrants from non-Axis territories) was no more than 590 000 in 1947. The Jewish immigration to the United States around World War II was in a lesser order of magnitude. [10] Soviet censuses are more uncertain, but could hardly hide millions of immigrants. Also, deniers need to suggest a Jewish migration path from the Polish camps, across the Eastern Front (one of the deadliest fronts in history) into the Soviet Union. Scholars are aware that hundreds of thousands of Jews (together with several civilian non-Jews) from Ukraine and other part of the Western Soviet Union did escape eastwards before the German troops seized the land and started rounding up Jews and opponents. However, this does not help revisionist explain what happened to Jews in Polish camps.

Not quite six million Jews

According to current scholarship, around 5 700 000 Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Revisionists may point out that this number is less than six million - either claiming a revisionist success, or criticizing the well-known number of six million killed Jews. However:

  • Six million is a correct approximation of 5.7 million, fully according to mathematical and statistical conventions. An exact number is of course impossible - the approximation must be at some level.
  • When gypsies, non-Jewish Poles and other victims of mass murder are included, still not counting civilian deaths outside the Holocaust scheme, the death toll is well above six million.

Discrepancies in academic death toll estimates

Western historians have different estimates for the exact death toll for each camp. Deniers might claim that this makes established history self-contradicting.

However, revisionist/denier estimates are even rougher, and more disparate from each other. Many of them don't even estimate the total death toll.

"The Auschwitz gambit"

Similarly, some Holocaust deniers have claimed that "revisionist" research has lowered the official death toll of Auschwitz from 4 million to 1.1 million. The number of 4 million originated with the first Soviet publications about the Holocaust, and though used by the Auschwitz museum (until the 1980s, in then-communist Poland), it has never been accepted by Western scholars.[11] Compare this with the controversy on the bombing of Dresden above.

Famous deniers

Some famous Holocaust deniers described in brief. See each entry for a case study.

  • David Irving is a "historian and a neutral observer". A "historian and a neutral observer" who believes that the Jews asked for it.
  • Willis Carto: founder of the Institute for Historical Review in 1979, the main Holocaust Denial group in the United States. Founder of the Barnes Review, a "historical revisionist" magazine that mostly runs articles questioning the Holocaust but covers it up with other articles on serious historical topics. Previously founded Liberty Lobby in 1955.
  • Bradley Smith: the crank who has spent the last 20 years trying to place advertisements in newspapers calling for an "open debate" on whether the Holocaust happened. He seems to crave the controversy that results, and chants the mantra of "free speech" a lot. He is especially fond of trying to place these ads in student newspapers on college campuses, which usually results in free publicity for him and his pet cause whether or not the ads are accepted for publication.
  • Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran. Hosted a 2006 conference, the "International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust", at which the panel of speakers included among others David Duke and Robert Faurisson.
  • Robert Faurisson: French writer, prosecuted for defamation in 1979 after writing letters to Le Monde claiming there were no gas chambers. Author of a 1991 booklet claiming the Diary of Anne Frank is a forgery.
  • Ernst Zündel: German-born Canadian writer and neo-Nazi, prolific promoter of Holocaust denial through his website and publishing business, recently prosecuted in Germany and sentenced to five years for violating Germany's law against inciting hatred.
  • Arthur Butz: professor of electrical engineering at Northwestern University; author of the 1976 book The Hoax of the Twentieth Century: The Case Against the Presumed Extermination of European Jewry.
  • Fred Leuchter: consultant to the lucrative capital punishment industry in the U.S. and manufacturer of electric chairs. In 1988 he was hired by Ernst Zündel to investigate whether the gas chambers in Nazi concentration camps could have been used for mass extermination. Leuchter claims be concluded they could not have been and published The Leuchter Report: An Engineering Report on the Alleged Execution Chambers at Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Majdanek Poland. Fred Leuchter has no scientific background to have made such a claim.
  • Francis Parker Yockey: an American Hitler admirer who wrote an unreadable post-WWII tome called Imperium under the pen-name "Ulick Varange", a book which you can't make heads of tails of but vaguely has something to do with advocating European unification around a program of "total politics" (read: fascism).
  • Harry Elmer Barnes: originally, a mainstream writer and historian. After World War II, a marginal crank who brought his marginalization on himself because he insisted that all accusations against Germany and Japan were fabricated wartime propaganda. Revered and frequently name-dropped by today's Holocaust denial movement but their politics are likely far from Barnes' which were more along the lines of "I didn't leave liberalism, liberalism left me".
  • Eustace Mullins: anti-Semitic writer and until his recent demise contributing editor to the Holocaust denying Barnes Review magazine.
  • Ahmed Rami: Moroccan-Swedish writer, and founder of Radio Islam. Sentenced by a Swedish court in 1990 to six month in prison for hate speech. Has co-written a Holocaust denial book with Swedish Neo-Nazi leader Björn Björkqvist.

Details about the Holocaust

Leftover Zyklon B with cans (note skull and crossbones)

Experienced Holocaust deniers enjoy talking about technical details, such as the chemical properties of Zyklon B, the size of cremation ovens, or soap recipes.

A novice skeptic might be deceived that all these details are true, and that they support the denier's arguments. However, they don't.

Among the public, there is some confusion about what happened, and what did not happen, during the Holocaust. Even academics argue about some details. Holocaust deniers try to use these spots of uncertainty to disapprove the whole event.

The lack of extermination camps in Germany proper

Germany proper, within the borders of the Weimar Republic, contained several detention camps (Dachau, Sachsenhausen etc) which were set up before the war, and not used for mass executions. Some gassings and other executions took place there, for correctional and experimental purposes. The extermination camps were located in the territory that used to be Poland; either in the Western provinces (which had been transferred from Germany to Poland in 1918, and re-annexed into Germany in 1939) or the eastern General Government, which was run by a German military junta. From the annexation, the Nazis abolished the name Poland. Some camps were also set up in conquered parts of the Soviet Union. In this article, the camps in present-day Poland are described as "Polish camps" to emphasize this difference, and avoid the presupposition that many of these were extermination camps.

It should be noted that none of the best known camps (except the Auschwitz complex) were extermination camps. This is because the well-known camps are the ones that people survived. Also, many parts of the Warsaw Pact (due to their own problems with collaboration and anti-Semitism) tried to erase the history of these extermination camps. However, this does not in any way negate the existence of real extermination camps, such as Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibor.

A few things once believed about the Holocaust are now known not to be true

The Holocaust gave birth to many rumors about atrocities. Some of these turned out to be true, while others were false. Examples include allegations that the Nazis manufactured soap and lampshades out of their victims' remains on an industrial scale. The fact that these allegations have been disproved is supposed to imply that revisionists have been successful changing the minds of historians, and that the main facts of the Holocaust are also in question. However, it has no relevance to the big picture of the Holocaust.

Soap manufacturing

According to the Nizkor Project (an Internet project documenting and refuting Holocaust denial),[12] serious historians of the Holocaust never believed the Nazis mass-produced soap from the corpses of Jews, so it was never a case of historians changing their minds to begin with.[13]

Gassings

Deniers may have many objections against the existence of gas chambers, including but not limited to:

  • Lack of documents for gas chambers or gas vans
  • Zyklon B being useless for extermination
  • Zyklon B being dangerously explosive
  • The lack of Prussian Blue on gas chamber walls
  • Gas chambers being difficult to ventilate

Ash disposal

Deniers ask what happens to the ashes of the cremated corpses. The officers at Auschwitz and other camps had many opportunities to dump it - in rivers, on farm fields (as a good fertilizer) and in marshes, so ash disposal was not a problem.

Red herrings from Holocaust deniers

A red herring is essentially an argument without relevance. Holocaust deniers or revisionists frequently use these kinds of arguments to divert attention from evidence for the Holocaust. These are so diverse that they are difficult to sort out.

Holocaust claimed to get more attention than other atrocities

The Holocaust is not the largest mass murder in history, or even of the twentieth century. It was not the only crime against humanity during World War II. But this fact is not, in any way, relevant to the reality of the Holocaust.

Dresden, Hiroshima and other atrocities by the Allies

The United States and Britain killed many civilians in World War II. Holocaust deniers like to mention examples of Allied atrocities, because:

  • Allied war crimes would make the Holocaust less extraordinary.
    • However, the millions of Holocaust victims are still an order of magnitude greater than the number of civilians killed by the Western allies (while the Soviets were more destructive, see below). The total number of German civilian casualties is very uncertain, and ranges up to 2.8 million. However, most of these came after the D-Day in June 1944, when the outcome of the war was apparent, and several Nazi commanders wanted to surrender. Yet Hitler fought on, applying a self-destructive strategy. Therefore, many German deaths should be attributed to Hitler.
  • the bombing of Dresden is considered by many to be an atrocious war crime.
    • However, as Dresden was bombed by the Western Allies but became part of East Germany, the communist regime exaggerated the death toll to numbers around 250,000, a claim still used by Holocaust deniers. However, current scholarship (including an investigation by the City of Dresden) estimates 20,000-40,000 deaths. Still a human tragedy, it has no relevance to the Holocaust.
  • it implies that the Allied atrocities were denied or censored after the Second World War, and that somehow this would make Holocaust denial more legitimate.
    • However, the Allies never denied or censored the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the firebombing of Dresden in the first place. These are well known in the Western world, and frequently used as case studies.
  • Holocaust deniers may point out that Allied commanders, officials or combatants were never tried or sentenced for their war crimes, as German leaders were in the Nuremberg trials, thereby implying that the Nuremberg trials were unfair.
    • However, most of the 24 defendants of the main Nuremberg trial were tried for four different crimes (conspiracy for crime against peace, crime against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity). The 12 defendants who were sentenced to death had all been found guilty of crimes against humanity. None was tried or sentenced only for war crimes, as Western Allied commanders would have been if they had faced a similar trial.

Japanese-American detention camps

The Allies imprisoned many civilians in their own countries - most notably 110,000 Japanese living in the United States. Though shameful, this is a completely different case from the Holocaust, because:

  • Japanese American prisoners did not suffer from mass starvation, epidemics or slave labor. Even Holocaust deniers admit that this was the case for European Jews, as well as Chinese and other Allied prisoners in Japanese-occupied territories. Also, Japanese Americans were not executed.
  • Japan waged aggressive war across the Pacific Ocean and attacked American territory. Japan was therefore a direct threat to American homeland security. The Jews were in no way a threat to Germany.

Atrocities by the Soviet Union before, during and after the War

Just as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union invaded neutral countries, used forced labor and murdered civilians. Neither Stalin nor any other Soviet leaders who ordered crimes against peace or against humanity were ever brought to justice. "Stalin murdered more people than Hitler" is a common red herring, which doubly serves their purpose as the USSR under Stalin was one of the Allied nations - but again, how does this disprove the Holocaust?

Israeli atrocities

Another red herring used by Holocaust deniers and Holocaust relativists is the policies and violent acts by the modern state of Israel, especially against Palestinians. Indeed these should be subject to debate, but Israel's acts since its establishment in 1948 does not make the Holocaust (which, obviously, ended numerous years earlier) more legitimate or less true.

Israel's armed forces have killed some tens of thousands of people - including combatants and civilians in all wars and confrontations involving Israel from 1948 to present day. Although still large, this number is dwarfed by the Holocaust's death toll. It is even an order of magnitude fewer than the 300,000 Holocaust victims claimed by hard-line Holocaust deniers such as the IHR.

The IHR also compares the Nuremberg Laws to present-day laws of Israel. First - most of these claims are lies. Second - this is irrelevant.

Segregation laws in the southern United States

The IHR says that the Nuremberg Laws made in 1935 were not worse than the "Jim Crow laws" or other segregation laws that were enforced in some southern states of the USA at the same time. First, this has no relevance; the American segregation of the first half of the 20th century is well-known and universally condemned. Second, the Nazis were much worse. Jews were bereaved of their citizenship, and those who violated the Nuremberg laws were in practice sentenced to death.

Does the Holocaust get too much attention?

Based on the aftermath of these and other atrocities (Armenian genocide, Rwandan genocide etc) Holocaust deniers might claim that the Holocaust gets more attention than it deserves, with media coverage, school curricula, etc.

Commemoration of other atrocities is not forbidden. If Holocaust deniers are to be taken seriously, they are welcome to bring attention to all these other atrocities, too. And, in the same time, be attentive to those who deny them.

Nuremberg trials

As mentioned above, Holocaust deniers might claim that the Nuremberg Trials (including subsequent trials going on into 1948) were unfair. These claims do not disprove the Holocaust. The purpose of a trial is to evaluate the defendants' guilt in a crime - not to decide whether the crime has happened.

A main complaint is that the judges were recruited from Allied countries, enemies of Nazi Germany - and that the defendants could not expect a fair trial from their erstwhile enemies and should be tried by peers from their own countries. This request is absurd - if a defendant could refuse a judge belonging to an enemy country, no one who committed espionage or terrorism against a government could ever be brought to justice. There is another good reason why the judges were not German - the German Reich had ceased to exist at the surrender on May 7, 1945, and could therefore not provide any certified judges. West and East Germany were not founded until 1949.

Media, government and academic bias against Holocaust denial

Holocaust deniers might claim that national governments all over the world and (Jewish) mass media use the Holocaust as propaganda, and oppress "revisionist" views. First, this is irrelevant to the reality of the Holocaust.

Second, the Holocaust deniers also have their endorsements. Several governments in the Middle East support Holocaust denials, and Iran even held an international conference dedicated to Holocaust denial. Holocaust deniers have managed to spread their word in many countries through books, radio and the Internet.


Semantics

Holocaust deniers believe they can get away with word play.

The term "The Holocaust" didn't become popular until the 1970s

How does this call the facts of the Nazis' deliberate murder of 11 million people, including 6 million Jews, into question? What happened happened, no matter what the most popular term for it has been over the years.

The claim that the Jews were not literally "exterminated"

Fortunately, the Nazis lost the war before they killed all the Jews in Europe. Some Holocaust deniers use this fact in the reasoning "the Jews were not exterminated, therefore it was not a real genocide". This is of course overlooks the legal definition of genocide, which does not require the successful implementation of a plan.

A claimed agenda

Holocaust deniers might claim that the Holocaust was set up as a global Jewish plan to gain money, land and financial and political support from the Western nations.

Martin Glynn's "Holocaust" article from 1919

Martin H. Glynn, former Governor of New York State, wrote an article in October 1919, to encourage American Jews to send humanitarian aid to starving European Jews[14] in the wake of World War I and the Spanish flu.

By coincidence, Mr. Glynn counted six million European Jews, and used the word holocaust to describe the threatening famine.

Holocaust deniers might use this single article to prove that the idea of staging the murder of six million Jews, calling it the Holocaust origins from at least 1919. However:

  • Besides the phrases six million and holocaust, the article has nothing in common with the Holocaust which we know from World War II - although deniers might falsely claim it to mention murder, Germany or the war.
  • This early use of the phrase holocaust complicates the deniers' argument that the term Holocaust was not widely used for the Nazi mass murders until the 1970s.
  • Deniers claim that the article originated as a speech. This statement is not backed by evidence.
  • Deniers still have to explain exactly what this article proves. Was the claimed plan to stage a genocide already worked out in 1919? Was the "staged" holocaust just an a posteriori carbon copy of Mr. Glynn's article?

Jewish "war" against Germany

Revisionists might claim that the global Jewish community "declared war" on Germany in 1933. Their main support to this argument is a headline in the London Daily Express on March 24, 1933, saying "Judea Declares War on Germany". This was a sensationalistic headline for an article that described a proposed Jewish boycott of German goods in response to Adolf Hitler's election. That is not a war. A war is, by definition, an armed, mutual conflict. How many army divisions did the Jews put up against Germany?

Israel and Holocaust victims making profit from the Holocaust

Holocaust deniers might claim that the Holocaust was made up to "blackmail" Western governments and German corporations for economic aid.

This is not only irrelevant to the reality of the Holocaust. It can also be proved wrong:

First, Israel does not receive extraordinary economic aid from other countries. The United States have handed more money to other countries (notably Egypt - one of Israel's enemies) than Israel.

Second, no reparations have ever been paid by anyone to anyone for people killed in the Holocaust. Reparations have been paid to survivors. Exaggerating the death toll would not give any Jew more money.

Deniers also have to explain what side the United States government takes. They are claimed to be part of the conspiracy, and still among the losers who give money to Israel.

Deniers might also complain about survivors' profiteering on books and lectures, which in some cases are sponsored by public schools or other government institutions. This is irrelevant as well, and their earnings are unnoticeable on a government financial scale. One should also remember that many Nazis, including war criminals such as Dönitz and Speer, also earnt royalties from books after the war.

General conspiracy theory/pseudo-history components

False confessions in witchcraft trials etc

Holocaust deniers might point out that many other people in history have falsely confessed crimes after torture or other pressure, for instance those accused for witchcraft.

However, the Holocaust is backed by technical evidence. Also, not a single one of the thousands of guards and officers has withdrawn their confessions. (See below)

"Victors write history"

Holocaust deniers frequently repeat the cliché that victors write history. On a literal plane, this is completely false. Karl Dönitz, Albert Speer, and several other high-ranked Nazis, wrote and published their memoirs. Re-telling the events of the war is a strong tradition in Germany. The only relevant Nazi work that has been out of print ever since the war is Hitler's Mein Kampf. The book is not banned anywhere, though. It is a copyright issue, since the German state of Bavaria holds the copyright until 2015, and refuses reproduction of the book.

"It is not in my history book"

The history of the world is an enormous topic. World War II was extremely eventful, and a world history textbook, an encyclopedia or any other general reference book must omit many important facts. Some of these books might only tell that Jews were deported to concentration camps, without mentioning the gas chambers or the death toll. Some do not use the term "Holocaust".

However, a book is nothing more than the words of its author. So, if a textbook omits the Holocaust, we should go ask the author, who is probably a graduate historian, and ask them why they did not mention the Holocaust. The most probably answer would be "lack of space". If any of them answers "I don't believe it happened", the deniers would have gained a powerful ally. Apparently this has never been the case.

A parable: Some history books might describe the space race, but not the details of each moon landing. Does that prove that they did not happen?

Questions to ask a Holocaust denier

  • Did the Nazis exterminate gypsies, homosexuals and political opponents too?
    • If they did, the gas chambers and crematories were functional, despite Holocaust deniers' "proof" that they were useless.
    • If they did not, these groups of people were also part of the conspiracy. How large can a conspiracy become?
  • Very few Holocaust deniers/revisionists possess academic degrees in history. (Several of them are academics in other fields, but not in history.) Not one of them has conducted graduate studies or academic research in history. Why not first pursue an academic career in 20th century history at any university in the Western world (without mentioning "revisionist" views), and then write a paper on the Holocaust? "Revisionists" would claim that such a paper would effectively end the scholar's promotion. But being the first Ph.D. in history to take this position would surely allow for a career as a "revisionist" writer and lecturer, wouldn't it?
  • Jews and other prisoners were rounded up in Poland - which had ceased to exist - even by name - after German invasion in 1939. Western Poland was annexed by Germany, and eastern Poland was renamed as General Government and prepared for later annexation and German Lebensraum colonization. In other words, Auschwitz, Sobibor and other international concentration camps were located in Greater Germany. So - if the Nazis intend to expel the Jews out of Greater Germany, why did they take the effort to ship Jews into Greater Germany from distant occupied countries such as Norway, France and Greece (which were ruled by puppet governments, with no intention of being annexed)?

Reasonable arguments against the facts of the Holocaust

Two tumbleweeds rolling across the screen, from left to right.

A critical view of the article on Holocaust denial

A RationalWiki contributor has posted an essay critical of this article's approach. Essay:A critical view of the article on Holocaust Denial.

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. In the "iconoclasts and curmudgeons" category can be found some astonishing examples from either left-wing or libertarian politics: James J. Martin, Paul Rassinier, Harry Elmer Barnes, L.A. Rollins, Samuel Konkin III, Laird Wilcox. Except for Rassinier and Barnes they are better known for other things and only incidentally linked to Holocaust denial, but neo-Nazis and anti-Semites like to use them as cover by promoting their names and work to show that denial spans the political spectrum. It doesn't; these are freak occurrences. This category could also include those like Norman Finkelstein who don't deny the Holocaust but rail against the "Holocaust industry", and Noam Chomsky, who has made a point of defending deniers on free speech grounds.
  2. http://www.nizkor.org/
  3. http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/wansee-transcript.html
  4. http://www.hdot.org/trial/defense/pl1/19
  5. http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/gasvan1.htm
  6. http://www.hdot.org/en/trial/judgement/07.15
  7. This is despite a policy of destroying such information as it became obvious that the Germans were losing WWII.
  8. http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/places/germany/wannsee/wannsee-english.html
  9. http://www.nizkor.org/features/denial-of-science/worldalmanac.html
  10. http://www.nizkor.org/features/qar/qar16.html
  11. http://www.nizkor.org/features/denial-of-science/four-million-01.html
  12. http://www.nizkor.org/
  13. http://www.nizkor.org/features/techniques-of-denial/soap-01.html
  14. http://www.nizkor.org/features/techniques-of-denial/appendix-4-01.html