Holocaust denial is the denial, downplaying or trivialisation of the Holocaust (the genocide of approximately 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1945). Holocaust deniers mainly argue that:
- The deaths of millions of Jews from disease, exposure, and malnutrition as a result of conditions imposed on them by the Nazis was unintentional;
- Nazi Germany only intended to deport/enslave the Jewish population of Europe rather than exterminate it;
- Many Nazi crimes and atrocities were actually carried out by the Soviet Red Army and the NKVD;
- Certain figures or organisations which directly participated in the Holocaust (e.g. the Wehrmacht and the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists) bear no responsibility for it;
- The actual death toll is much lower than the agreed-upon figure of 6 million; or
- The Holocaust was an outright fabrication invented by the Allies (and in particular the Soviet Union), who were led by a Jewish conspiracy.
Individuals who deny the Holocaust may not believe all of these arguments at the same time, however, as many of the arguments they make (e.g. claiming that the Holocaust did happen but that the death toll is being exaggerated, and claiming that the Holocaust was an outright fabrication) are contradictory.
In most (though not all) academic circles studying the Holocaust and its aftermath (which includes Jewish scholars), it is considered such a unique event—unparalleled in sheer scale, planning, and cruelty—that comparing it to or equating it with other massacres or genocides is also considered a form of denial.[1]
References
- ↑ “The Holocaust is not referred to simply as the “Nazi genocide,” but has its own names — Yiddish, der Khurbn, Hebrew, ha-Shoah, English, the Holocaust — to signify a unique event. It is more than a linguistic curiosity that postwar attempts by some Jewish groups to subsume the Holocaust as one of the historic massacres endured by the Jews that are mourned on Tíshebov (Tisha b’Av) failed, because of the virtually unanimous feeling among survivors that this one, in 20th-century Europe, was so very different, and intrinsically incomparable with even the primary ancient national catastrophes of destruction and exile.
The Holocaust cannot, must not, be subsumed — but that is precisely what the Double Genocide theory seeks to do.”
Dovid Katz (2017-11-22). "The "double genocide" theory" Jewish Currents.