Historical negationism

Historical negationism is the denial or distortion of well-established historical facts, often to conceal responsibility for atrocities or advance political or ideological claims.

Historical method: The critical practices historians use to evaluate sources and construct accounts of the past. Negationism exploits or rejects the methods used to establish historical claims.
Holocaust denial: The denial or minimization of Nazi Germany’s genocide of six million Jews and other targeted groups. It is a prominent form of negationism contradicted by extensive documentary, testimonial, and physical evidence.
David Irving: A British writer whose Holocaust denial and distortion of historical evidence were established in a 2000 libel judgment. His case illustrates how documentary evidence can expose deliberate historical distortion.
Collective memory: The shared representations of the past through which groups understand their histories and identities. Negationism contests which events a community acknowledges as part of its past.
Historical revisionism: The reexamination of historical interpretations in light of new evidence or analysis. Legitimate revisionism revises explanations through evidence rather than dismissing established facts.
Source criticism: The evaluation of a source’s origin, purpose, reliability, and relationship to other evidence. Testing sources exposes selective quotation and misleading claims about historical records.
Armenian genocide denial: The denial or minimization of the Ottoman Empire’s destruction of its Armenian population during World War I. State-backed denial disputes a genocide established through extensive historical scholarship and evidence.
Robert Faurisson: A French academic known for denying the existence of Nazi gas chambers and promoting Holocaust denial. His activism helped spread denialist claims through publication and networks.
Transitional justice: Legal and social measures addressing human rights abuses during transitions from conflict or authoritarian rule. Denial can obstruct truth-seeking, reparations, and accountability after mass violence.
Historical skepticism: The critical questioning of historical claims, sources, and interpretations. Skepticism tests claims against evidence; negationism uses doubt selectively to sustain a predetermined conclusion.

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