Holocaust Denial
From SkepticWiki
Contents |
[edit] Definition
The holocaust refers to the systematic extermination of millions of Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals, orchestrated by the German Nazi party during World War II. However, for the purpose of its denial the term is usually limited to refer only to that part of the crime that concerned jews.
Holocaust denial is the act of denying that the holocaust actually took place, or that the extent of the holocaust was not nearly as egregious as the historical record dictates.
This usually takes four forms:
1. Claiming that there were no death camps and no concentration camps, or at least that there was no policy of transporting jews, specifically, into such camps; the typical claim is that the jews were to be re-settled in Eastern Europe, particularly in the conquered territory of the Soviet Union, or that they were held there in preparation for being expelled out of Nazi Germany´s territory (for example, to Madagascar).
2. Claiming that, while there were concentration camps, these were basically just regular prisons to hold the jews - ostensibly, so they could not sabotage the war effort as they allegedly had during World War I (the so-called "Dolchstoß-Legende", the "Backstab Legend"); jewish deaths in the concentration camps, it is claimed, were far lower than claimed by mainstream historians, and were caused by disease, malnutrition and "regular" executions, not by organized genocide; disease and malnutrition are often blamed on the Allies, whose strategic bombing campaign is said to have prevented the transportation of adequate supplies to the camps.
3. Claiming that the jews had not been killed by the Nazis, but had been deported to the Soviet Union (or fallen into Soviet hands in the later stages of the war) and been murdered on order of Stalin; Stalin´s very real record of ruthlessness and mass murder is cited as evidence for this claim.
4. Claiming that, whatever the Nazis may have done, the Allies have done the same if not worse; here, the Allied carpet bombing of German cities and the Soviet´s mistreatment and killing of German civilian refugees during their advance on Germany are cited as war crimes alleged on par with or exceeding any Nazi crime a Holocaust denier is prepared to admit.
Many Holocaust deniers use a combination of these four forms of denial.
Holocaust deniers usually do not use the term "denial", but rather call themselves "revisionists" or "skeptics" and refer to mainstream historians of the Holocaust as "exterminationists" or "believers". Many also frequently employ the term "HoloHoax" when referring to the Holocaust.
[edit] Motives of Holocaust Denial
There is no one standard mindset that all Holocaust Deniers share. Holocaust Deniers typically fall into one or more of a number of categories, some of which are mutually contradictory. (Note: the labels assigned to these categories are NOT the Deniers´ own; also note that Deniers do not tend to be honest about their motivation, so assumptions about who belongs to which categories are often tentative)
1. The Nazi Apologist: One possible cause of Holocaust Denial is the wish to change the view history takes of the National Socialist regime in general, and Hitler in particular. Often this is linked with political activity within a modern neo-Nazi party or organization, such as the American Nazi Party in the USA or the National-Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) in Germany, with the goal of shedding the historical ballast inherent in their association with Hitler without shedding the association with Hitler. The leadership of the parties mentioned, as well as that of many others, are prime examples for this.
2. The Anti-Semite: Another widespread motivation to deny the Holocaust is anti-semitism; it is perhaps only logical for those who fanatically hate the jews to seek to destroy their credibility, by labelling the single most defining event of their history as a historical hoax. As such, this group includes, but is by no means limited to, pretty much all those motivated by a desire to whitewash the Nazi regime. Other prime examples for this motivation include Iranian president Mahmoud Achmadinejad.
3. The Conspiracy Theorist: Perhaps the most diverse - and heterogenous - groups of Holocaust Deniers is those who, for a variety of reasons (or perhaps no real reason at all?) consider the Holocaust one great conspiracy, perpetuated by a variety of groups (the identity of the group(s) varying, as usual, from theorist to theorist) for a variety of reasons (ditto). Conspiracy theorists "taking on" the Holocaust do not differ, in principle, from other brands of conspiracy theorists, but next to Deniers of the two previous groups, they appear as relatively harmless. As followings of major conspiracy theory movements tend to overlap heavily, significant parts of the 9/11 "Truth" movement as well as those espousing various Knights Templar, Illuminati or Freemason conspiracies can be found in this category; David Cole might be another example.
4. The Purveyor of Questionable Theories: This category is made up mostly of single historians (or "historians"), who have come up with "alternative theories" about the events of the Holocaust, and then proceeded to cling to them with the tenacity (some might say: fanaticism) with which most such pseudohistorians defend their brainchildren.
5. The Blind Disciple: The people in this - to some, pitiable - category are those who have decided, for some reason or another, to believe the teachings of a Holocaust Denier "scholar" of some kind or another, to the exclusion of everything else (including reality). They can be recognized in discussions through their tendency to parrot, quote from, or link to the works of their teachers, without ever contributing a single original thought to the debate. Blind Disciples tend to proliferate wildly among internet fora, especially those run by people who disagree with them.
6. The Genuinely Ignorant: A type of Holocaust Denier which is rare in debates, but probably very common among those who do not participate in any debates (especially in countries with less advanced educational systems and/or low internet access rates) are those who really did not yet have any access to the various source of evidence in favor of the Holocaust, and thus have simply assumed that what Deniers say is all that there is to know about the Holocaust. Once engaged in discussion, the Genuinely Ignorant is very likely to either give up Holocaust Denial, or turn into a Blind Disciple.
[edit] Real Holocaust Exaggerations
Clouding the issue of Holocaust Denial is the fact that certain popular rumors about the holocaust really are exaggerations or falsehoods. For example:
- There really is no evidence that the bodies of holocaust victims were used for making soap or lampshades. The source of such rumors may have been such coincidences as concentration camp prisoners noticing that some of their friends have disappeared, followed a short time later by the unrelated arrival of a shipment of soap bars.
- A great number of holocaust victims -- perhaps even the majority of them -- died not from machine guns or poison gas, but from starvation. The Nazi government of Germany was a country under siege during the last year of World War II, and elected to withhold vital resources from its concentration camps. When the Allies rolled into Germany and began liberating the camps they ran across, Allied prisoners of war were often found to be in states of starvation just as bad as those experienced by holocaust victims.
[edit] Notable Holocaust Deniers
This section is limited to those Holocaust Deniers who have contributed "research" to the subject, not those who hold Denier views.
