Hololcaust

What is Holocaust Denial and Why Does it Exhist?

What is Holocaust denial and why does it exhist? This is far from being a

simple question, as it neccessitates a background knowledge of what the holocaust

really was and why there would be efforts to deny that it ever happened. In my paper, I

hope to explain some of the horrific aspects of the holocaust and provide ample facts

for proof that this terrible ordeal happened, then attempt to understand why holocaust

denial came about in the first place.

Attempting to prove that the holocaust never happened seems virtually

impossible given the known exhistance of concentration camps in Auschwitz, Belzec,

Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, and Westerbork, to name a few. In Martin Gilbert’s

“Holocaust Journey”, a professor and a group of students visit many of these former

concentration camps. In order to prove that the holocaust really did happen, first one

must understand why and how the holocaust came about.

It is important to note that the roots of the holocaust began years before the

holocaust actually took place.

One possible theory as to why there was anti-semitism

against the Jews is the scapegoat theory of prejudice. Because of the social and

economical depressions facing Germany at the time, the people of the country were

very susceptible to a powerful leader who promised to make them the superior race and

who provided them with a scapegoat as to why there is situation was so dismal. By

painting the Jews as a penny-pinching, money-taking, elitist class that was causing all

of Germany’s problems of the day, the people were easily led to believe that the Jews

were the reason that they faced hunger, poverty and a poor economy. One web site

that I visited that had a chronological order of events that led to the holocaust was

“Holocaust and Genocide Studies” at

http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/chronology.html. Some of the events that led to the

holocaust that can be related to the scapegoat theory were the collapse of the Germany

economy due to hyper-inflation and Hitler’s drafting of his anti-semetic views in Mein

Keimf while he was imprisoned in 1923 and the collapse of the Great Coalition in

German government in 1929. The collapse of the economy and the government were

linked to the Jews because they were a convenient group to blame. The scapegoat

theory fits perfectly into the scenario of the holocaust and it is because of it that one can

understand why the common people supported the holocaust whether directly or

indirectly. The support of the common people is absolutely essential to cause

destrucution of this magnitude, and in order to obtain their support, a powerful leader,

such as Adolph Hitler must prove to them why the Jews are the cause of all their

Through the use of propoganda and powerful speeches, Hitler was able to prove

his point to the masses. In a time of extreme weakness in Germany, he was able to

grab these helpless individuals and make them believe that the Jews were and inferior

race and that only through their destrcution could the Germans once again become a

Now that we have established a sound theory as to why the holocaust occured,

it is now time to provide evidence that it happened. For instance, there are a wealth of

pictures available that were taken at concentration camps that show the terrible

conditions in which the Jews were forced to live and the horrific images of dead bodies

piled up on top of one another like so many dead animals. There are pictures of the gas

chambers, the mass graves, the human ovens. I was able to view a great many of these

pictures at the web site “The Holocaust Project” at

http://www.holocaust-history.org/hungarian-photos/. Among these photos were

pictures of tight living areas, forced labor upon the prisoners, and multuple pictures of

Jewish victims of the holocaust whether in concentration camps or in there place of

living. Among the more chilling pictures from the holocaust were the victims of

scientific testing done on these poor individuals and the mass graves that the Jews

were dumped into following their deaths at the concentration camps.

Other pieces of evidenc that prove the holocaust’s exhistance and severity are

the first-hand accounts delivered by individuals who survived the holocaust or people

who witnessed it. One website that contains a link to the stories of holocaust survivors

is “About.com” which can be reached at

http://holocaust.about.com/education/holocaust/. Here is a breif exert of one of the

first-hand accounts taken from the site: “In March, or April, 1944, we got the dreaded

notice that we had been selected for re-settlement further East. The train cars they took

us in were actually cattle cars…there was not much room between us and the roof…the

SS troops were on the roofs of the cattle cars shooting past the windows to discourage

people from sticking their heads out….” The story goes on to tell of how they were

stipped of all valuables and property by the Nazis and about the conditions in which

they were forced to live. This survivor also describes daily life at the camps and

portrays the grotesque images of the dead being piled up like “…cordwood, naked, and

without dignity.” He also speaks of the mass gassings and mass graves that holocaust

deniers attempt to prove did not exhist.

As it turns out, maybe because of mounting data and statistics to prove

otherwise, the goal of holocaust denial is not to deny the exhistance of mass camps for

the Jews, on the other hand, to belittle the horrible events that occured and to deny that

such staggering numbers of deaths could not be possible by means of gas chanmbers

and such. From simply reading books such as “Holocaust Journey” written by Martin

Gilbert, about the time he took his class on a tour of concentration camps, one has

ample proof that the holocaust occured and the camps exhisted.

“Holocaust Journey” is more of a journal than a novel and contains a day by

day, often minute by minute account of the trip he took with his students on a tour of

some of the concentration camps. They also visited traditionally Jewish communities

that dated back more than 500 years. “Each of them was uprooted and destroyed in the

course of those two years” (2). Gilbert provides some stories of people who perished

among the 6 million who died in the holocaust, perhaps in an attempt to create a

human face in light of such staggering numbers that can often erase the human face of

this genocide. He also tells the class (and the readers of course) about the number of

people taken from specific places to camps as they pass by or stop in them.

Interestingly enough, we find out, on page 25, that roughly 70,000 Germans were

killed in an effort to weed out the weaklings and to make the Germans a superior race.

“An estimated 10,000 German children under the age of sixteen were murdered by gas

On page 42, they visit a cemetary for Berlin Jews who were murdered in the

holocaust at the Heerstasse Jewish cemetary. This and many other cemetaries can

provide only small images of the vast number of Jews killed in the holocaust. On the

very next page, they visited one of the places where the “final Solution” was discussed.

Later on in the book, they visit the site of the concentration camp at Belzic. On

the gate are inscriptions that contain statistics on the number of Jews from certain areas

that were killed there. The book also contains a picture taken in Belzic of where the

mass graves were before the bodies were dug up, burned and the ashes were spread

out, most likely in an effort to erase evidence of the magnitude of deaths that occured.

I believe that “Holocaust Journey” is a good example of a work containing

evidence that makes it impossible to altogether deny that the holocaust happened, but I

also belive it to be a terrific example of how the Holocaust deniers are able to support

their theories. For example, by calling the genocide of millions of Jews “the final

solution”, they do not directly say that they are killing millions of Jews, so in effect,

their language can mask their exact intentions. Also, the burning of bodies and

spreading of ashes at Belzec is a great example of the Nazis erasing evidence to masks

the horrific magnitude of the holocaust. Because there is not a tremendous wealth of

tangible and direct evidence of the mass genocide as one might suspect, denying the

magnitude of the holocaust is not as trying a task as it might seem.

What is holocaust denial anyway? The Jewish Student Online Research Center

at http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/denial.html describes it as follows: “One

of the most notable anti-semetic propoganda movements to develop over the last two

decades had been the organized effort to deny or minimize the established history of

Nazi genocide against the Jews.” The goal of holocaust deniers is not to deny that

anti-semitism exhisted, but to deny that a mass organized killing program exhisted.

Holocaust denial is also known as holocaust “revisionism” and there are an

abundance of sites on the net that contain “revisionist” beliefs. Revisionism.Com at

www.revisionism.com is a web site that focuses on the belief that genocide did not

happen. It provides the site’s viewer with both audio and visual speeches on

revisionism from people who support this theory such as Ernst Zundel and David

Irving. Here is part of a speech by David Irving taken from the web site: “…eye

witness reports, the only evidence that can be used against us… the dissident historians.

I think they should be called “verbal testimony” or “oral statements” that is all they are,

There is a subtle difference between “verbal statement” on one hand, and “eye witness

report” on the other. That’s how they do it.” In other words, because of the lack of

physical evidence of mass murders, holocaust deniers or “Revisionsists” can claim that

the Jews were in internment camps similar to that of the ones the United States placed

the Japanese in during World War II.

Here is a god example of the goal of holocaust deniers and what they believe in.

This qoute was taken from “The Student Revisionist Resource Site” at

http://www.wsu.edu/~lpauling/”: “Revisionists are, in fact, Holocaust

DIMINISHERS, not deniers. They are questioners about what they believe are

significant exaggerations in the Holocaust tale, and they are critics of the view that

somehow this historical event is beyond discussion on pain of being placed in the

category of child-molester or worse, shunned by society, even fined and imprisoned by

some so-called free countries in the western world.” It goes on to say that Revisionists

do not deny that there were wrongs done to the Jews such as the wrongful stealing of

property, brutality and many deaths due to disease in poor conditions, yet they look to

diminish the terrible things that happened to the Jews by pointing to other horrible

aspects of World War II. They believe that what happened to the Jews was just ONE

of the terrible things that happened in the war, and far from the worst. Here is a

paragraph taken from the page that belittles what the Jews went through: “One needs

merely mention Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the deadly carpet bombing of German and

Japanese working class living areas, the Soviet of Germany in their 1945 advance, the

treatment of German civilians and German POW’s after the war. One could go on

almost ad infinitum in this recitation of atrocities. Fifty million – some say sixty million

– died as a result of the war. Was there more criminal behavior on one side than the

other?” By denying the mass killings of Jews and claiming they were victims of poor

conditions at the concentration camps which came from a lack of materials due to the

war costs, which in turn led to disease, holocaust deniers attempt to belittle the terrible

things that were done to the Jews by Nazi Germany before and after the war. They do

however, take blame for persecuting and robbing the Jews of their possessions, and in

addmitting so much, they may come off as being a group that is speaking the truth.

Now that we have established what holocaust denial, or “revisionism” is, we

may now examine why holocaust denial came about in the first place. Well, one

reason may be that due to the lack of physical evidence, it is easy for them to flat out

deny that it happened. But what are the gains from denying the holocaust? Denying

the holocaust ever happened is a terrible injustice to the not only the millions who

suffered and perished in the concentration camps, but the people close to them who

suffered along with them. It is considered by many to be a new form of anti-semitism

and one can only imagine the pain it causes to the families of holocaust victims and

especially the survivors. Imagine surviving this terrible ordeal and then having

someone belittle what happened to you, the grotesque things you witnessed, the grim

conditions, the hunger, the forced labor, the imminent threat of being killed alongside

many others. This is why the force of holocaust denial is so strong in terms of

anti-semitism, and that is often the goal of hate-orientated groups, to find the best way

There are also other benefits of white supremacists in denying the holocaust.

First and foremost, it is easier to gain support for their cause if they dont come off as

the animals that they are made out to be. Being associated with what happened during

the holocaust can turn away many potential followers who hate, but do not neccessarily

condone violence and killings. Another paragraph taken from the Student Revisionist

Resource Site is yet another example of belittle the Nazi treatment of the Jews. It is as

follows: “Contrary to Holocaust Mythology there was no attempt by Nazis, or anyone

else, to exterminate the Jews. There was an attempt, largely successful in the areas

controlled by the Axis, to expel the Jews from Europe. In the context of the 1990’s it

was a terrible undertaking. In adifferent context, the context of European history over

the last two millennia, the expulsion of the Jews from this region or that region was not

uncommon. Historically there seems to be something about the Jews that brings forth a

plenitude of animosity on the part of people amongst whom they live.”

By painting the Nazis as just another group trying to remove the Jews from

Europe, Revisionists can claim there is something about the Jews that makes them

undesirable and there is a reason that people dont want them around. This has another

along with diminishing the crimes the nazis committed, it feeds into the hatered of

Jews as well and makes it seem that this type of hatred has a just cause. Its as if they

are saying that “if everybody else hates the Jews, what is so wrong with us hating them