Anatomy of a Hoax: Holocaust Denial

Raluca Moldovan Anatomy of a Hoax: Holocaust Denial The phenomenon of Holocaust denial, once consid- ered a fringe manifestation with very little impact, “The alleged Hitlerian gas chambers and the alleged genocide of the Jews form one and the same historical has, more or less, entered the mainstream of histo- lie, which permitted a gigantic financial swindle whose riographical and academic debate in recent years. The chief beneficiaries have been the State of Israel and inter- main danger associated with the deniers’ discourse is national Zionism, and whose main victims have been the that of forcing into the public conscience the aware- German people and the Palestinian people as a whole”1. One might think that this kind of statement is the ness of the fact that there might be “more sides” to work of a completely twisted mind and that any man with the Holocaust history than previously known based a shred of common sense would dismiss it from the very on written documents, testimonies of survivors and start. But, unfortunately and ironically enough, this is other types of proofs. The following paper is a review just one example among many such statements that form the bases of what is now commonly known as the of the emergence, development and extent of Raluca Moldovan phenomenon of Holocaust denial. The worst part of all Teaching assistant Holocaust denial, especially in the United States, as is that this phenomenon, far from being just a fringe Faculty of European well as an attempt to summarise the deniers’ Studies, Babes-Bolyai school of thought, has gained significant ground, espe- University Cluj, Romania arguments, claims and motivations, following the line cially in the last two decades, and has entered common conscience, finding for itself quite a number of followers. opened by Deborah Lipstadt and other historians. JSRI • No. 11 / Summer 2005 17 Holocaust denial has become an accepted, if not quite David Irving sued Professor Deborah Lipstadt for libel, Key words: respected, historical assertion and it has generated claiming that the assertions she made in her book, Deny- Holocaust denial, anti- realms of “well-founded historical literature”. ing the Holocaust, were extremely offensive to him. The Semitism, manipula- Holocaust denial emerged immediately after World trial gripped the attention of both the British and the tion, mass murder, gas War II, especially in the United States, as an isolated phe- American media for many months, and the testimony chambers, genocide nomenon with little or no credibility, but it has come a given by David Irving horrified both the judges and the long way since then. Nowadays, traces of Holocaust de- audience. The mere fact that such persons are taken seri- nial and overt anti-Semitism can be found in the United ously by so many people worldwide is extremely alarm- Sates as well as throughout Europe and the Middle East ing, because it only shows us how vulnerable public and even as far away as Australia. opinion is when the instruments of manipulation are The explanations for the spreading and influence of carefully orchestrated.3 this “growing assault on truth and memory”2 are many Ignorance is the deniers’ first ally in their mission to and diverse. In the following paragraphs, I will try to out- distort history, and the higher the level of ignorance, the line the essence of this phenomenon, to present its more dangerous the effects of the denials are. In this re- perpetrators and to review some of the most important spect, one example is very relevant.4 In April 1993, in reactions against it. conjunction with the opening of the U.S. Holocaust Mu- The Holocaust is one of those historical facts with a seum, the Roper Organization conducted a survey meant very enduring life: nowadays, almost half a century later, to determine the extent of Americans’ knowledge of the it has lost little of its striking impact upon the memory of phenomenon. The results expected by the organization mankind. Newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, and the American Jewish Committee were not at all star- and research institutes regularly print articles, books, tling. However, the answer to one of the question they and studies centered upon different aspects directly re- initially wanted to eliminate from the questionnaire was ferring to or merely related to the Holocaust. On the more than shocking: when asked “do you think it pos- other hand, there are almost just as many newspapers, sible or impossible that the Holocaust did not happen: magazines, publishing houses and institutes that regu- 22% of American adults and 20% of American high school larly publish materials on Holocaust denial, which points students replied that it was possible. This answer shows out that there certainly is an audience ready to read and that Holocaust denial is not just an eerie phenomenon to accept the claims made by the authors of these materi- with no more credibility to it than the assertion that the als, the self-proclaimed “historical revisionists”. The Earth is flat. ground on which the seeds of this denial are planted Under such circumstances, one should not be seems very fertile, and the more public the debate about amazed at the growing force of Holocaust denial and at it, the more people are likely to be caught up in the de- the fact that its very existence is now being questioned in nial movement. talk shows5 on national television. One of the most well-known and controversial public Deborah Lipstadt’s book, Denying the Holocaust – the debates about Holocaust denial was generated by the re- Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, is the best to- cent suit brought by the freelance historian David Irving, date account of Holocaust denial. It presents chronologi- probably the most prominent figure of Holocaust denial. cally and clearly the roots of the phenomenon, the insti- JSRI • No. 11 / Summer 2005 18 tutions and people involved in the practice of denial, and response to anxious enquiries, the Simon Wiesenthal their main works and arguments.6 The author tries to Center in Los Angeles issued an advisory warning Jews summarize the deniers’ most frequent claims (she “to exercise extreme caution while traveling to France identifies five major themes for research in the field of and Belgium.”9 However, this does not mean that there is denial: the absence of a single master plan for the anni- no anti-Semitism in Germany or in other parts of Europe. hilation of the Jewish people; the absence of gas cham- Actually, the region that has shown itself most prone to bers used for mass murder at Auschwitz and other fall prey to deniers’ ideas in the past ten years is post- camps; the fact that the testimonies of the survivors are Communist East Central Europe, where the political and given so much credibility because there is no objective social atmosphere have been favorable to the documentation to prove the Nazi genocide; the absence development of such ideas that I will present later on.10 of a total loss of Jewish lives between 1941 and 1945; the The most prominent European “canaries in the coal “mock trial” character of the Nuremberg trials, staged for mine”11 are David Irving, who achieved international the benefit of the Jews). She also tries to find explana- fame during and after the aforementioned trial, Ingrid tions for the proliferation of denial literature, especially Rimland, Ernst Zündel, Fred Leuchter, Willis Carto, in the last two decades. The main argument that she David Duke, Masami Uno, Richard Harwood, and Robert brings is that the denial stirrings are closely connected Faurisson, whom I have already quoted and whose argu- with the neo-Nazi ideology and the rise of the radical right ments and statements would be extremely funny if there in politics. The evolution of West European politics, weren’t so many people who take them seriously. His especially in the last ten years, has pointed out elements area of study is rather unique: “criticism of texts and that show a return to the anti-Semitic language and documents, investigation of meaning and counter-mean- attitudes common more than half a century ago. How- ing, of the true and the false”12. The irony here is that ever, the anti-Semitism of the 1990s encompasses new Faurisson regularly creates facts where there are none elements and new ideas that feed the anti-Jewish feeling and dismisses and falsifies pieces of factual information that has always existed in Europe. Neo-Nazism and the that disprove his scenarios. One of his assertions refers to new radical right rely on Holocaust denial in order to the “Draconian orders” given to the German army “not to obtain legitimacy and recognition in the political arena. participate in excesses against civilians, including the Jean Marie le Pen7, Jorg Haider, and Pim Fortuyn, are Jews; consequently, the massive killings of the Jews could some of the western politicians who have played the card not have happened”13. Faurisson also asserts that the of anti-Semitism and have enjoyed considerable success. wearing of the yellow star was imposed on the Jews in The fact that these people come from countries other order to ensure the safety of the German soldiers. than Germany (where the appearance of such ideas Following the same logic, one can easily reach the could seem more natural) shows that European anti- conclusion that six-year old children, who were also Semitism is far from extinct. Actually, the issue of an anti- forced to wear the yellow star, constituted fierce threats Semitic Europe has received extensive coverage from to the well being of the German soldiers14.

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