Knowra Holocaust denial Holocaust denial Holocaust denial is the false claim that Nazi Germany did not carry out the genocide of European Jews during World War II, or that its scale was greatly exaggerated.
Historical negationism : The rejection or distortion of established historical facts, often for ideological or political purposes. Holocaust denial is a prominent form of this broader practice.
The Holocaust : The systematic persecution and murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The event whose occurrence and scale Holocaust denial falsely disputes.
Maurice Bardèche : A French fascist writer whose 1948 book challenged accounts of Nazi crimes and helped shape postwar denial. His writing was an early postwar source for arguments later used by denialists.
Antisemitism : Hostility, prejudice, or discrimination directed against Jews as Jews. Holocaust denial often recycles antisemitic stereotypes and blames Jews for inventing the genocide.
Conspiracy theory : An explanation that attributes events to a secret, powerful group acting behind the scenes. Denial often claims that governments, historians, and survivors coordinated a fabrication.
Nazi concentration camps : A system of camps used by Nazi Germany for imprisonment, forced labor, persecution, and murder. Camp records, sites, and surviving evidence document Nazi persecution and killing.
Paul Rassinier : A French political writer and former concentration-camp prisoner whose postwar books minimized Nazi crimes. His claims became influential in the formation of Holocaust denial literature.
Holocaust distortion : The minimization, misrepresentation, or selective appropriation of Holocaust history without necessarily denying the genocide outright. It describes related forms of misinformation that can blur into outright denial.
Cherry picking : The selective use of evidence that supports a claim while ignoring relevant contrary evidence. Denialists isolate disputed details and omit the extensive evidence that establishes the genocide.
Einsatzgruppen : Mobile German SS and police units that carried out mass shootings, especially in occupied eastern Europe. Their reports and victims' mass graves document mass murder beyond the killing centers.
Show all 21