Holocaust Denial As An International Movement

This book traces the history, causes, and spread of holocaust denial, illustrating how rational thinkers can come under the sway of fringe ideas.

The end of World War II saw an emergence of Holocaust dissention that began in Europe and has since developed into an international movement with adherents in almost every country in the world. At first, this denial was fueled by the desire to rehabilitate Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime in an effort to reestablish a neo-Nazi state. In the following years, coupled with the renewal of anti-Semitism, this dissent has been used as a means of denying the legitimacy of the state of Israel. Despite these motivations, the ultimate cause for concern is in the way this denial attracts its members by both challenging the existence of the Holocaust and the testimony of its witnesses. By tracing the history, causes, and spread of Holocaust denial, Atkins reveals the dangers this mindset poses to rational thinkers who become vulnerable to fringe ideas. This book traces the state of the international Holocaust denial movement in the early 21st century, grounding contemporary thought in the history of the movement. Since Holocaust deniers have distorted the facts about this mass genocide, Atkins discusses just what is known about the Holocaust from historical research conducted since World War II. The role of negative racial genetics is explored in both Hitler's intellectual makeup and among the leaders of the German right wing, including historians' assessments of Hitler's anti-Semitism, motivations, and decision-making. Also provided is a roll call of Holocaust dissenters in countries such as the United States, Germany, France, Great Britain, Russia, and Italy, among many others. By analyzing the arguments of leaders within this expanding dissention movement, this book demonstrates how extremists build informational links that have wide-ranging effects.

The denial of the Holocaust has no more credibility than the assertion that the earth is flat. Yet there are those who insist that the death of six million Jews in Nazi concentration camps is nothing but a hoax perpetrated by a powerful Zionist conspiracy. Sixty years ago, such notions were the province of pseudohistorians who argued that Hitler never meant to kill the Jews, and that only a few hundred thousand died in the camps from disease; they also argued that the Allied bombings of Dresden and other cities were worse than any Nazi offense, and that the Germans were the “true victims” of World War II. For years, those who made such claims were dismissed as harmless cranks operating on the lunatic fringe. But as time goes on, they have begun to gain a hearing in respectable arenas, and now, in the first full-scale history of Holocaust denial, Deborah Lipstadt shows how—despite tens of thousands of living witnesses and vast amounts of documentary evidence—this irrational idea not only has continued to gain adherents but has become an international movement, with organized chapters, “independent” research centers, and official publications that promote a “revisionist” view of recent history. Lipstadt shows how Holocaust denial thrives in the current atmosphere of value-relativism, and argues that this chilling attack on the factual record not only threatens Jews but undermines the very tenets of objective scholarship that support our faith in historical knowledge. Thus the movement has an unsuspected power to dramatically alter the way that truth and meaning are transmitted from one generation to another.

The author shows how, despite witnesses and evidence to the contrary, this irrational idea has not only continued to gain adherents but has become an internationally organized movement. She argues vehemently against giving Holocaust deniers a forum in the name of free speech or freedom of the press and she details the efforts of California revisionist Bradley Smith, who pushed a "Holocaust was a hoax" campaign in college newspapers throughout the United States.

A timely analysis of the antisemitism and prejudice that fuels Holocaust deniers, written by the inspirational author behind the major motion picture Denial, starring Rachel Weisz. The denial of the Holocaust has no more credibility than the assertion that the earth is flat. Yet there are those who insist that the death of six million Jews in Nazi concentration camps is nothing but a hoax perpetrated by a powerful Zionist conspiracy. Such notions used to be the province of pseudohistorians who argued that Hitler never meant to kill the Jews, and that only a few hundred thousand died in the camps from disease; they also argued that the Allied bombings of Dresden and other cities were worse than any Nazi offense, and that the Germans were the "true victims" of World War II. For years, those who made such claims were dismissed as harmless cranks operating on the lunatic fringe. But now, in the first full-scale history of Holocaust denial, Deborah Lipstadt shows how—despite living witnesses and vast amounts of documentary evidence—this irrational idea not only has continued to gain adherents but has become an international movement, with organized chapters, “independent” research centers, and official publications that promote a “revisionist” view of recent history. Lipstadt shows how Holocaust denial thrives in the current atmosphere of value relativism, and argues that this chilling attack on the factual record not only threatens Jews but undermines the very tenets of objective scholarship that support our faith in historical knowledge.

This book provides a detailed analysis of one of the most prominent and widespread international phenomena to which criminal justice systems has been applied: the expression of revisionist views relating to mass atrocities and the outright denial of their existence. Denial poses challenges to more than one academic discipline: to historians, the gradual disappearance of the generation of eyewitnesses raises the question of how to keep alive the memory of the events, and the fact that negationism is often offered in the guise of historical 'revisionist scholarship' also means that there is need for the identification of parameters which can be applied to the office of the 'genuine' historian. Legal academics and practitioners as well as political scientists are faced with the difficulty of evaluating methods to deal with denial and must in this regard identify the limits of freedom of speech, but also the need to preserve the rights of victims. Beyond that, the question arises whether the law can ever be an effective option for dealing with revisionist statements and the revisionist movement. In this regard, Holocaust and Genocide Denial: A Contextual Perspective breaks new ground: exploring the background of revisionism, the specific methods devised by individual States to counter this phenomenon, and the rationale for their strategies. Bringing together authors whose expertise relates to the history of the Holocaust, genocide studies, international criminal law and social anthropology, the book offers insights into the history of revisionism and its varying contexts, but also provides a thought-provoking engagement with the challenging questions attached to its treatment in law and politics.

In this first full-scale history of Holocaust denial, Lipstadt shows how, despite tens of thousands of living witnesses and vast amounts of documentary evidence, this irrational idea has not only continued to gain adherents but has become an internationally organized movement.