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As denial of the holocaust is nonfactual, another common strategy of history revisionism is to relativate the holocaust by comparing it to other genocides, the death toll of Germans in WWII, persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany, or the number of abortions.
As denial of the holocaust is nonfactual, another common strategy of history revisionism is to relativate the holocaust by comparing it to other genocides, the death toll of Germans in WWII, persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany, or the number of abortions.
One of its main purposes is to discredit the establishment of the nation of [[Israel]] in 1948. Questioning the historicity of the Holocaust is considered gravely offensive to Jews <ref>http://skepdic.com/holocaustdenial.html</ref>, and anti-Semitic in nature. Denying the Holocaust is illegal in a number of European countries. Recently, [[historical revisionist]] Ernst Zündel was sentenced in Germany to five years in prison for Holocaust denial. <ref>http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,466785,00.html</ref>
One of its main purposes is to discredit the establishment of the nation of [[Israel]] in 1948. Questioning the historicity of the Holocaust is considered gravely offensive to Jews <ref>http://skepdic.com/holocaustdenial.html</ref>, and anti-Semitic in nature. Denying the Holocaust is illegal in a number of European countries. In 2007, a German court sentenced notorious [[historical revisionist]] and denier Ernst Zündel to five years in prison for "incitement of racial hatred." <ref>http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/03/01/zundel-release.html</ref>
Recently, Iranian president [[Mahmoud Ahmadinejad]], who has made many public statements condemning Israel and Jews in general, has questioned the existence of the Holocaust and hosted a conference designed to cast doubt on the idea of its historicity. <ref>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,236014,00.html</ref>
Recently, Iranian president [[Mahmoud Ahmadinejad]], who has made many public statements condemning Israel and Jews in general, has questioned the existence of the Holocaust and hosted a conference designed to cast doubt on the idea of its historicity. <ref>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,236014,00.html</ref>
== Tenets of Holocaust Denial ==
"Holocaust denial" is a simplistic term for a movement with several different schools of thought. Some
radical conspiracy theorists and neo-Nazi groups dispute whether the Holocaust occurred, but the the
superabundance of evidence undermines their argument. Most holocaust deniers do not deny that the event
happened at all, but they question the methods, historiography and truth behind the holocaust. That
viewpoint has manifested itself into the following arguments used by most contemporary holocaust deniers
=== Nazi policy and lack of written orders ===
Some holocaust deniers admit that many Jews died during the war, but dispute that there was any official
Nazi policy towards extermination of the Jews. To support this argument, the point out that there exists
no unequivocal written order from Adolf Hitler that orders the mass murder of Jews. This argument maintains that the Jewish deaths during the war were no more than collateral damage and/or the civilian
deaths that are unavoidable, especially in a war of that size.
==== Rebuttal ====
Despite the lack of a written order, Hitler's intentions were well-known.In a 1939 speech in the Reichstag, Hitler voiced a goal of "annihilation of the Jewish race in
Europe."<ref>http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/denialbrief.html</ref> Aside from
that, an abundance of eyewitness testimony, diaries and orders from other Nazi officials make it clear
that there was a planned extermination campaign in
place.<ref>http://www.auschwitz.dk/hitler.htm</ref><ref>http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/orgs/american/skeptic
-magazine/skeptic-9.html</ref> It is higly unlikely that a project of this size would occur without the
knowledge or consent of the notoriously autocratic Hitler.
As well, there is abundant evidence that Nazi officials ordered widespread destruction of such written
orders towards the end of the war. As it appeared increasingly likely that Germany would lose the war,
Himmler ordered such documentation destroyed, so as to avoid incriminating the regime. There also exists
a signed order dated April, 1945, in which Himmler orders that no prisoner "fall into the hands of the enemies alive," since their testimony would condemn the Nazi leaders<ref>http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/denialbrief.html</ref>
While awaiting trial in 1960, Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann said that Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Reich Main Security Office had told him in August 1941 that "the Führer has ordered the physical extermination of the
Jews."<ref>http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/denial.html</ref>
=== "The Six Million Lie" ===
Many deniers question the death toll of the Holocaust, arguing that the numbers are highly inflated. Many contemporary Holocaust deniers put the Jewish death toll between 300,000 and 1.1 million, <ref>http://www.ihr.org/leaflets/denial.shtml</ref> which is at odds with most widely accepted statistics, which put the Jewish death toll at approximately six million.<ref>http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143</ref>
==== Rebuttal ====
Simple demographic evidence effectively rebuts this argument. Deniers claim that many Jews simply
emigrated elsewhere, but there are no corresponding population increases in other countries that would
support this argument. While it is possible that hundreds, or even thousands of people could "fall through the cracks," that still leaves several million Jews unaccounted for.<ref>http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/denial.html</ref>
=== Use of gas chambers ===
This axis of Holocaust denial consists of several different arguments:
* The "Gas chambers" were not gas chambers at all. They were used as morgues or air raid shelters. In support of this, many deniers point to the infamous Leuchter Report, a pseudoscientific and widely discredited forensic report which found no evidence of use of hydrocyanic gas in the chambers at Auschwitz.<ref>http://www.scribd.com/doc/2582074/Leuchter-Report</ref>
* The gas chambers and crematoria found at many Nazi prisoner camps were not used to kill Jews. They were used strictly for delousing clothes, mattresses and other materials to prevent the spread of lice and typhus.<ref>http://www.nizkor.org/faqs/auschwitz/auschwitz-faq-06.html</ref>
* The chambers were not adequate for gassing. They were improperly sealed, lacked exhaust systems and had no opening for which to introduce gas.
==== Rebuttal ====
These arguments collapse under the weight of overwhelming evidence. Photographs, written orders and eyewitness testimony from guards and prisoners alike support the position that gas chambers were employed for mass murder. <ref>http://judaism.about.com/library/2_holocaust/testimonies/bl_1nirgalim.htm</ref><ref>http://www.shamash.org/holocaust/photos/</ref><ref>http://www.shamash.org/holocaust/denial/testimony.txt</ref>
Arguments based on the physical structure of the chambers (ventilation, construction and other concerns) spring from the postwar examination of the camps. However, there is ample evidence that Nazis fully or partially destroyed many execution facilities to conceal evidence of their crimes.<ref>http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005189</ref><ref>http://remember.org/History.root.rev.html</ref>
== Holocaust Denial in Japan ==
== Holocaust Denial in Japan ==