# UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM

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## Holocaust deniers and public misinformation

Legitimate historians ignore denial of the Holocaust because the belief that the Holocaust never happened is not in accordance with generally known and well-documented historical facts. Holocaust denial is at its core an irrational hatred akin to antisemitism.

Holocaust deniers ignore the overwhelming evidence of the event and insist that the Holocaust is a myth, invented by the Allies, the Soviet communists, and the Jews for their own ends. According to the deniers' “logic” the Allies needed the “Holocaust myth” to justify their occupation of Germany in 1945 and the “harsh” persecution of Nazi defendants. Holocaust deniers also insist that Jews needed the “Holocaust myth” to extract huge payments in restitution from Germany and to justify the establishment of the State of Israel. Holocaust deniers insist therefore that there is a vast conspiracy involving the victorious powers of World War II, Jews, and Israel to propagate the Holocaust for their own ends.

To this end, Holocaust deniers naively assert that if they can discredit one fact about the Holocaust, the whole history of the event can be discredited as well. They ignore most of the evidence of the historical event and focus on three specific arguments that they say negate the reality of the Holocaust in its entirety.

First, Holocaust deniers argue that, since there is neither a single document that outlines the Holocaust nor a signed document from Hitler ordering the Holocaust, the Holocaust itself is a hoax. To make this argument, Holocaust deniers reject all the evidence submitted at Nuremberg. They denounce as fabrications the genocidal intention of the Nazi state and the thousands of orders, memos, notes, and other records that document the process of destruction. When they cannot sustain arguments that documents are forged, they argue that the language in the documents has been deliberately misinterpreted. Furthermore, Holocaust deniers insist that the Allies tortured the perpetrators into testifying about their role in the killing process and that the survivors who testified about Nazi crimes against Jews were all lying out of self-interest.

Second, Holocaust deniers insist that those “few” Jews who perished died from natural causes or were legitimately executed by the Nazi state for actual criminal offenses. Holocaust deniers assert that Jews and the Allied powers deliberately inflated the numbers of Jews killed during the war. Virtually all historians agree that between 5.1 and 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Whenever legitimate scholars seek to narrow this range to a more exact number by using legitimate historical sources and demographic methods, Holocaust deniers cite uncertainty about the exact number of deaths within this unanimously accepted range as proof that the whole history of the Holocaust has been fabricated and that the number of Jewish deaths during World War II has been grossly exaggerated.

Finally, Holocaust deniers assert that the Nazis did not use gas chambers to kill Jews. They deny the reality of the killing centers. Deniers have focused their attention on Auschwitz and believe if they could just disprove that the Nazis used gas chambers in Auschwitz to kill Jews, the whole history of the Holocaust would also be discredited.

Holocaust deniers want the historical event of the Holocaust itself debated. They want above all to be seen as legitimate scholars arguing a substantial historical point. They crave a public platform to air what they refer to as “the other side of the issue.” Holocaust deniers in the United States often mimic the forms and practices of scholars in order to deceive the public about the nature of their views.

Holocaust deniers often claim expertise about the Holocaust, but closer scrutiny of their credentials show expertise, if any, in other unrelated fields. Arthur Butz, an American Holocaust denier, was a professor of engineering at Northwestern University. Fred Leuchter, another American Holocaust denier, claimed expertise in the construction of gas chambers for executions but a British court ruled he had no basis for this claim. Holocaust deniers generally footnote their writings by citing the publications of other Holocaust deniers. They hold pseudo-scholarly conventions. The Institute for Historical Review in California, a center of the Holocaust denial movement in the United States, has until recently published a pseudo-scholarly journal that included articles written by major figures in the international Holocaust denial movement: Arthur Butz (USA), Bradley Smith (USA), Fred Leuchter (USA), Ernst Zundel (Germany, Canada), David Irving (Great Britain), Robert Faurisson (France), Ahmed Rami (Sweden), Carlo Mattogno (Italy).

Although the Institute for Historical Review has virtually ceased active textual and Internet publication since the early 2000s, past publications still have an extensive presence on the Internet. Holocaust denial on the Internet is especially a problem in the United States, where the First Amendment to the Constitution ensures freedom of speech. It is not against the law in the United States to deny the Holocaust or to propagate Nazi and antisemitic hate speech. European countries such as Germany and France have criminalized the denial of the Holocaust and have banned Nazi and neo-Nazi publications. To get around these laws in Europe, some Holocaust deniers have turned to the Internet, for a Web site based in the United States can be accessed by users abroad. The Internet is now the chief source of Holocaust denial literature and the chief means of recruiting for Holocaust denial organizations.

Legitimate scholars do not doubt that the Holocaust happened. The assertions of Holocaust deniers play no role in genuine historical debates. Holocaust denial is really about antisemitism and irrational politics, not history or justice.

Further Reading

Evans, Richard J. Lying About Hitler: History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial. New York: Basic Books, 2001.

Gottfried, Ted. Deniers of the Holocaust: Who They Are, What They Do, Why They Do It. Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century Books, 2001.

Lipstadt, Deborah. Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. New York: Free Press, 1993.

Shermer, Michael, and Alex Grobman. Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.

Zimmerman, John C. Holocaust Denial: Demographics, Testimonies, and Ideologies. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2000.

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