Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory

first became aware some years ago that there are people who do not believe the Holocaust happened and ever since I have been meaning to read this book. It is fascinating and frightening reading and will make most people reconsider their stance on free speech. The author has a low key style of writing which makes what she has to say all the more impressive. It would be so easy to rant about people who seem to ignore facts in their attempts to rewrite history.Holocaust denial it seems has been around since the end of World War II and has attracted supporters from many right wing movements who see it as grist to their own mill. Anyone who doesn't conform to the WASP stereotype is not acceptable to these groups. Historians have always disagreed over their interpretations of historical events but mainly they do not disagree over whether these events actually happened. But there are people who claim that the Holocaust is a huge hoax perpetrated by the Jews and aided and abetted by the Allies to keep Germany in a state of guilt.Deniers claim that all eye witness accounts of the concentration camps and the gas chambers are faked and that there were no mass killings of Jews or anyone else. Many people died - because of malnutrition towards the end of the war when the Allies had cut off German supply lines which meant that concentration camps did not receive food - that is their theory. Deniers go further than this by saying that all the documents in archives have been faked and people have been bribed to talk about their imaginary experiences so add verisimilitude to the hoax. I found myself laughing out loud at the idea that thousand and millions of people are involved in forging documents, placing them in archives ready to be found at a later date and writing fake memoirs.Anyone who has told a secret in confidence to one other person knows that the more people you have who know about a secret then the less secret it is. Deniers have no problem ignoring evidence that does not fit their thesis. They even go so far as to say that all the defendants at the Nuremberg trials confessed to crimes they did not commit - because they were told they had to support the hoax. Many deniers start from a position of Anti-Semitism and also a belief in the Illuminati and the huge worldwide plot to have the world run by Jews with everyone else subjected to their cause. They fail to see that this scenario is very similar to their ideas that there should be a right wing dictatorship ruling the world.What disturbed me most about this book was the way Holocaust deniers launch ad hominem attacks on anyone who does not agree with them. If you can't argue your point using facts to back it up instead of saying everyone has been brainwashed who doesn't agree with you then you really don't have any rational way of explaining what you believe to be the truth. If the facts supporting the deniers' contentions were so clear-cut then they would stand on their own merit.I am all for free speech and the right to express your own point of view however distasteful but to dismiss all well documented facts which contradict your own thesis is not in the best traditions of scholarship. The right to free speech does not include the right to say that everyone who doesn't accept what you say is stupid and has been brainwashed.The book contains many references to the sources quoted which will provide further reading for anyone who wants to know more about this fascinating and though provoking subject. There is also an index.

This is an excellent, much needed book, which combats what is described as a moral and intellectual virus being used to attack the extremely well documented, factual record of the Holocaust in which over six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis.The book is extremely well written with both compassion and authority. It illustrates that despite the irrefutable evidence and clinical accuracy in which the Holocaust was meticulously documented and in which the genocide of the European Jews was pursued, there are still sources who would dispute that the Holocaust ever occurred or that it has been greatly exaggerated. An attitude which appears to increase in parallel with the present day's rising anti-Semitism.It is made very clear in this book that very few historical events are as well documented as the Holocaust, yet few if any of these other events are questioned. Indeed, despite other genocides and slaughters having occurred throughout history, (with none having been as well documented as that of the Jews), none receive the denial and hostility afforded the Jewish Holocaust.On page 22 the book cites a seeming "contradiction" where it outlines many instances where even the Nazi perpetrators of the Holocaust actually admitted the crimes that they committed, whilst a growing group who were not even present at the time claim that the perpetrators were innocent.The book citing neo-Nazis who once argued that the Holocaust, however horrible, was justified now content that the entire event was a hoax. The latter being more expedient to furthering their cause, where the book alleges attempts are made to "rehabilitate the persecutors and demonise the victims".The book addresses the issue of how Holocaust deniers are often afforded near celebrity status and their views given unbelievable credibility with a ready platform frequently being provided for the proponents by many elements of the media under the banner of free speech.Many Holocaust deniers are described as often using the guise of scholarship to camouflage their anti-Semitic ideology. With the increase of anti-Semitism the book contends that the average uninformed person will find it increasingly difficult to discern the true objectives of the Holocaust deniers, who use arguments carefully designed to take advantage of the vulnerability & fragility of memory, truthfulness and reason. Indeed a number of public surveys are quoted in the book which reveal an alarming ignorance amongst the public in relation to the Holocaust, despite the wealth of material and information available.The contents of the work show that for the first 40 years after the Holocaust, there was a sort of protective "Teflon" against blatant anti-Semitic expression. Now, due to the process of Holocaust denial, that protective covering has become eroded and society has moved from where anti-Semitism was a crime, past where anti-Semitism was classed as distasteful, to it now simply being another opinion. Something which the book declares will increase as the number of Holocaust survivors become less and less as the years progress.My only criticism of this book is that, amongst the many areas/avenues of Holocaust denial studied, no attention is made to the Holocaust denial amongst the Arab nations in the Middle East. For those interested in the latter subject might I respectfully recommend Arieh Stav's book entitled "Peace: The Arabian Caricature: A Study of Anti-Semitic Imagery". Thanks for your time.

In this book the author gives an excellent, informative and scholarly overview of the disturbing and dangerous phenomenon of Holocaust denial. I was impressed by this book when I first read it, and saw it very much as a " must buy " for my Kindle as soon as I could do so. I found this an invaluable guide to the " nuts and bolts " of Holocaust denial. Lipstadt describes and examines carefully and clearly the roots, ideologies, central figures, motives, goals and methods of Holocaust deniers. She also strongly asserts the importance to the future of preserving, and defending, a clear and accurate knowledge of the past. Particularly, from those who wish to deny or distort actual events, such as the Holocaust, for their own ideological purposes.The only drawback to this book is that this book dates from 1993, and I might very much wish for a follow-up study of Holocaust denial covering the twenty years between then and now. Perhaps Deborah Lipstadt will read this review?

First chapter was a bit heavy going but once I got used to the style of writing the rest of the book was very interesting. Interesting might be understated as I never realised the depth and number of holocaust deniers. Certainly a book to read if you have any interest in the holocaust. I read this after reading and watching the file Denial.

Difficult to say "I love it" for a subject so terribly grim but this is an extremely well written and researched book about these incredible persons. My view is that I believe it would be quite difficult to ask 6,000,000 people to voluntarily starve themselves to skeletal form then pile themselves on each other to await death. I was glad to read in the DT 13.1 that Rachel Weisz is to play Deborah Lipstadt in a new film which hopefully will answer a lot of questions for everyone.