Holocaust Denial:
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/denial/
From above link:
What is Holocaust denial and distortion?
Holocaust denial is an attempt to negate the established facts of the Nazi genocide of European Jewry. Key denial assertions are: that the murder of approximately six million Jews during World War II never occurred; that the Nazis had no official policy or intention to exterminate the Jews; and that the poison gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp never existed.
A newer trend is the distortion of the facts of the Holocaust. Common distortions include, for example, assertions that: the figure of six million Jewish deaths is an exaggeration; the deaths in the concentration camps were the results of disease or starvation but not policy; and that the diary of Anne Frank is a forgery.
Distinct from denial and distortion is misuse of the Holocaust. Misuse occurs when aspects of the Holocaust are compared to events, situations, or people where there is no genocide or genocidal intent. Examples of Holocaust misuse include: claiming that Israeli-government actions are equivalent to those of the Nazis; equating the treatment of animals with the treatment of Jews and other victims during the Holocaust; labeling political opponents as Nazis; or misusing the terminology of the Holocaust to assert that particular actions are the same as actions undertaken by the Nazis.
Holocaust denial, distortion, and misuse all undermine the understanding of history. Denial and distortion of the Holocaust almost always reflect antisemitism.
How are Holocaust denial and distortion related to antisemitism?
The Holocaust is one of the most well-documented events in history. Holocaust denial and distortion are generally motivated by hatred of Jews, and build on the claim that the Holocaust was invented or exaggerated by Jews as part of a plot to advance Jewish interests. This view perpetuates long-standing antisemitic stereotypes by accusing Jews of conspiracy and world domination, hateful charges that were instrumental in laying the groundwork for the Holocaust.
Why do people deny, distort, or misuse the Holocaust?
Like all forms of propaganda, Holocaust denial, distortion, and misuse are strategies to achieve objectives, including:
•To reduce perceived public sympathy to Jews,
•To undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel, which some believe was created as compensation for Jewish suffering during the Holocaust,
•To plant seeds of doubt about Jews and the Holocaust, and
•To draw attention to particular issues or viewpoints.
How do I recognize Holocaust denial and distortion?
Holocaust denial and distortion are motivated by agendas that are neither about the Holocaust nor about greater understanding of a documented historical event. Some Holocaust deniers, so-called “revisionists,” claim to be authentic scholars, when instead they manipulate facts to support a particular ideological position. Hiding their antisemitic intent under the guise of free speech, they claim to offer an alternate version of Holocaust history. Because legitimate scholars do not doubt that the Holocaust happened, Holocaust denial plays no role in legitimate historical debate. To evaluate if a claim falls within the spectrum of Holocaust denial and distortion, consider the following:
•Is the source reliable? Has the source made other historical claims that were exaggerated or false?
•Does the source present selected facts to support the claim?
•Does the source follow accepted methods of historical inquiry?
•Does the source reveal a particular ideology or belief?
•Does the claim fit within the generally accepted history of the Holocaust?
•What does the source want you to believe after exposure to the information?
Is it illegal to deny the Holocaust?
The United States Constitution ensures freedom of speech. Therefore, in the United States denying the Holocaust or engaging in antisemitic hate speech is not illegal, except when there is an imminent threat of violence. Many other countries, particularly in Europe where the Holocaust occurred, have laws criminalizing Holocaust denial and hate speech. These different legal frameworks impede a comprehensive global approach to combating Holocaust denial.
Where are Holocaust denial and distortion prevalent?
The Internet—because of its ease of access and dissemination, seeming anonymity, and perceived authority—is now the chief conduit of Holocaust denial.
Why is it important for me to care about Holocaust denial and distortion?
The denial or distortion of history is an assault on truth and understanding. Comprehension and memory of the past are crucial to how we understand ourselves, our society, and our goals for the future. Intentionally denying or distorting the historical record threatens communal understanding of how to safeguard democracy and individual rights.
The Nazi persecution of the Jews began with hateful words, escalated to discrimination and dehumanization, and culminated in genocide. The consequences for Jews were horrific, but suffering and death was not limited to them. Millions of others were victimized, displaced, forced into slave labor, and murdered. The Holocaust shows that when one group is targeted, all people are vulnerable. Today, in a world witnessing rising antisemitism, awareness of this fact is critical. A society that tolerates antisemitism is susceptible to other forms of racism, hatred, and oppression.
What can I do to combat Holocaust denial?
•Find out more about the Holocaust.
•How do we know what we know about the Holocaust?
•Share the truth when someone says the Holocaust did not happen.
•Reach out to a survivor, liberator, or eyewitness in your community.
•Hold a memorial service on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
•Discover more about propaganda.
•Learn how to evaluate sources of information.
•Stand up and speak out when you hear an inappropriate, hateful remark.
LEARN MORE ABOUT HOLOCAUST DENIAL
•Misuse of Holocaust Imagery Today: When Is It Antisemitism?
•Holocaust Deniers and Public Misinformation
•Origins of Holocaust Denial
•Evidence from the Holocaust
•Combating Holocaust Denial: Evidence of the Holocaust Presented at Nuremberg
•Holocaust Denial Timeline
RESOURCES AND EXTERNAL LINKS
•Holocaust Denial on Trial provides tools to refute Holocaust denial.
•Anti-Defamation League’s online guide to exposing and combating Holocaust denial.
•The Middle East Media Research Institute’s (MEMRI) Tom Lantos Archives on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial provides timely translation and analysis of Middle East media related to antisemitism and Holocaust denial.
•The Nizkor Project counters Holocaust denial and antisemitic discourse.
•Holocaust History Project describes and refutes claims of Holocaust deniers.
•Southern Poverty Law Center identifies active Holocaust deniers and denial organizations.
•Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism’s bibliography for students and educators about Holocaust denial.
•President Obama’s rebuke of Holocaust denial.
•United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning Holocaust denial.
•American Historical Association’s condemnation of Holocaust denial.
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Great link: Holocaust Denial on Trail:
http://www.hdot.org/
Wiki source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_denial
From above link:
In 1945, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, anticipated that someday an attempt would be made to recharacterize the Nazi crimes as propaganda and took steps against it:
The same day I saw my first horror camp. It was near the town of Gotha. I have never been able to describe my emotional reactions when I first came face to face with indisputable evidence of Nazi brutality and ruthless disregard of every shred of decency. Up to that time I had known about it only generally or through secondary sources. I am certain however, that I have never at any time experienced an equal sense of shock.
I visited every nook and cranny of the camp because I felt it my duty to be in a position from then on to testify at first hand about these things in case there ever grew up at home the belief or assumption that "the stories of Nazi brutality were just propaganda". Some members of the visiting party were unable to go through with the ordeal. I not only did so but as soon as I returned to Patton's headquarters that evening I sent communications to both Washington and London, urging the two governments to send instantly to Germany a random group of newspaper editors and representative groups from the national legislatures. I felt that the evidence should be immediately placed before the American and the British publics in a fashion that would leave no room for cynical doubt.
Eisenhower, upon finding the victims of the death camps, ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead. He wrote the following to General Marshall after visiting a German internment camp near Gotha, Germany:
The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick. In one room, where they [there] were piled up twenty or thirty naked men, killed by starvation, George Patton would not even enter. He said that he would get sick if he did so. I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to "propaganda."
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General Eisenhower and others at Ohrdruf: