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Holocaust Denial and Distortion


Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred
Holocaust Denial and Distortion Holocaust Denial and Antisemitism in Iran

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Voices on Antisemitism Podcast
Teaching about Antisemitism






Holocaust denial is an attempt to negate the established facts of the Nazi genocide of European Jewry. Holocaust denial and distortion are forms of antisemitism. They are generally motivated by hatred of Jews and build on the claim that the Holocaust was invented or exaggerated by Jews as part of a plot to advance Jewish interests.

These views perpetuate long-standing antisemitic stereotypes, hateful charges that were instrumental in laying the groundwork for the Holocaust. Holocaust denial, distortion, and misuse all undermine the understanding of history.

Why It's Important to Confront Denial

The Nazi persecution of the Jews began with hateful words, escalated to discrimination and dehumanization, and culminated in genocide. The consequences for Jews were horrific, but suffering and death was not limited to them. Millions of others were victimized, displaced, forced into slave labor, and murdered. The Holocaust shows that when one group is targeted, all people are vulnerable.

Today, in a world witnessing rising antisemitism, awareness of this fact is critical. A society that tolerates antisemitism is susceptible to other forms of racism, hatred, and oppression.

The denial or distortion of history is an assault on truth and understanding. Comprehension and memory of the past are crucial to how we understand ourselves, our society, and our goals for the future. Intentionally denying or distorting the historical record threatens communal understanding of how to safeguard democracy and individual rights.

Why Do People Deny the Holocaust?

Holocaust denial, distortion, and misuse are strategies to reduce perceived public sympathy to Jews, to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel—which some believe was created as compensation for Jewish suffering during the Holocaust—to plant seeds of doubt about Jews and the Holocaust, and to draw attention to particular issues or viewpoints. The Internet, because of its ease of access and dissemination, seeming anonymity, and perceived authority, is now the chief conduit of Holocaust denial.

Key denial assertions are that the murder of approximately six million Jews during World War II never occurred, that the Nazis had no official policy or intention to exterminate the Jews, and that the poison gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp never existed. Common distortions include, for example, assertions that the figure of six million Jewish deaths is an exaggeration and that the diary of Anne Frank is a forgery.

What You Can Do
Find out more about the Holocaust
Share the truth when someone says the Holocaust did not happen
Reach out to a survivor, liberator, or eyewitness in your community
Stand up and speak out when you hear an inappropriate, hateful remark



Related Articles and Information




Learn More About Holocaust Denial and Antisemitism
Misuse of Holocaust Imagery Today: When Is It Antisemitism?
Holocaust Deniers and Public Misinformation
Origins of Holocaust Denial
Evidence from the Holocaust
Combating Holocaust Denial: Evidence of the Holocaust Presented at Nuremberg
Holocaust Denial: Iranian Cartoon Contest


External Resources
Holocaust Denial on Trial - provides tools to refute Holocaust denial (external link)
The Middle East Media Research Institute’s (MEMRI) Tom Lantos Archives on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial - translation and analysis of Middle East media (external link)
The Nizkor Project - counters Holocaust denial and antisemitic discourse (external link)
Holocaust History Project (describes and refutes claims of Holocaust deniers(external link)
Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - bibliography for students and educators about Holocaust denial (external link)
President Obama’s rebuke of Holocaust denial (external link)
United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning Holocaust denial (external link)
American Historical Association’s condemnation of Holocaust denial (external link)

rhb - you are SO IGNORANT!!!

#1) Jews are NOT SEMITES!!!

#2) Even Jews admit that they use this term as a TRICK to take the focus off of the TRUTH - see the 2 examples below:

#2a)
[youtu.be]
9:52 MM
Amy Goodman: Often when there is dissent expressed in the United States against policies of the Israel government, people here are called, “Anti-Semitic,” what is your response as an Israeli Jew?

Shulamit Aloni: Well, it’s a Trick, we always use it. When from Europe somebody is criticizing Israel, then we bring out the Holocaust. 10:15 MM

#2b
“Anti-Semitism serves only one purpose today. It is used as a smear word. When so-called Jews feel that anyone opposes their real objectives, they discredit their victims by applying the word “anti-Semite” or “anti-Semitic” through all the channels they have at their command and under their control.” -Benjamin Freedman

Mr. Freedman, born in 1890, was a successful Jewish businessman of New York City who was at one time the principal owner of the Woodbury Soap Company. He broke with organized Jewry after the Judeo-Communist victory of 1945, and spent the remainder of his life and the great preponderance of his considerable fortune, at least 2.5 million dollars, exposing the Jewish tyranny which has enveloped the United States.