Transcript April Holocaust Denial

Is the Holocaust a Hoax?
We’ve seen the pictures
We’ve read the testimonies
We KNOW the facts
But Some People Still Aren’t Convinced
By: April-Michelle Thomas
Holocaust Revisionism
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Headed by “historians” or
“scholars” who deny the
Holocaust
They say that the Holocaust is
a gross exaggeration and a set
of lies
Strong in the U.S.,Canada,
Western Europe and the middle
east
They think Jews use the
Holocaust as an excuse to gain
money through sympathy, so
they can dominate all industry
The IHR and The CODOH
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The IHR (Institute to Historical Review) is the
main outlet for Holocaust revisionism
Its magazine, the JHR (Journal of Historical
Review) publishes articles that aim to disprove
the facts of the Holocaust and persuade others
to deny the holocaust as well
The CODOH (Committee on Open Debate on
the Holocaust) is the pet project of the IHR.
It was notable in the ‘90s for publishing articles
in college newspapers across the country
Revisionist Theory
The Holocaust Revisionists
try to affirm their beliefs for
the following reasons:
1. There were no gas
chambers used at
Auschwitz
2. Six million WERE NOT
killed in WWII
3. The Nuremberg Trials
were fake and their only
purpose was to pacify the
Jews
No Gas At Auschwitz
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Zyklon B was the
pesticide used to gas
victims
No cyanide
compound found on
floors or walls of gas
chambers
Gassings at
Auschwitz were a
technical impossibility
That’s Too Many
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No net loss of Jewish
lives during WWII
They say that morgue
inventory reports were
forged
The figures stated on
the memorial at
Auschwitz once said
that 4 million died there,
and now it says 1.5
Nuremberg “Sympathy” Trials
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A series of trials held after
WWI where many third
Reich officials were tried
They think that these trials
were a “Farce of Justice”
for the Jews
Testimony of former SS
officer Rudolph Hoss
proved falseNo
Wolzek extermination
camp ever existed
Lied because him and his
family were being
threatened by the German
government
Revisionist Theory
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Is this what an extermination camp
should look like?
Who’s Saying All of This?
Holocaust
Revisionists:
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Are generally affiliated with
the IHR/CODOH
Are strongly anti-Semitic
Use various forms of
propaganda to promote
their ideas
Holocaust Deniers
Ernst Zundel
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Publishes and distributes books,
flyers, and video and audio tapes through
his website
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“Frankly, I don’t think Jews should be so
egotistical and think they are the navel of
the universe. They’re not. Only a people
like them could think themselves so
important that the whole world revolves
around them. I tend to go with Hitler-- the
last thing that he was really worried
about was what the Jews thought. To me
Jews are just like any other person. That
already will hurt them. They will be
shrieking “Oy vey, that Ernst Zuendel
said Jews are just like normal people”.
Well, goddmanit, they are.”
Holocaust Deniers
David Irving
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Arrested in 2006 for speeches in which
he denied the holocaust in Austria
Could have faced up to 10 years, but
was awarded leniency when he
expressed that he had changed his
views
Has paid several thousand pounds
worth of fines for his outspoken
comments
Receives 300 letters a week from other
Neo Nazis who support him
Holocaust Deniers
The President of Iran
 Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad has
been outspoken on on
a number of occasions
"They have created a
myth today that they
call the massacre of
Jews and they
consider it a principle
above God, religions
and the prophets," he
said in December
2005
Holocaust Deniers
David Cole
 Is Jewish, but doubts the
reality of the Holocaust
 Seen as a traitor
 Made videos of
extermination camps made
to make them look like
frauds
 Physically beaten on
several occasions
 Received numerous death
threats from both Jews and
non Jews
Holocaust Deniers
Hutton Gibson
(Mel Gibson’s Dad)
"It's all -- maybe not all fiction
-- but most of it is," he
said, adding that the gas
chambers and crematoria
at camps like Auschwitz
would not have been
capable of exterminating
so many people. "Do you
know what it takes to get
rid of a dead body? To
cremate it?" he said. "It
takes a litre of petrol and
20 minutes. Now, six
million of them? They (the
Germans) did not have the
gas to do it. That's why
they lost the war."
How Do The Survivor’s Feel?
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Outraged by the
revisionists and their
propaganda
Holocaust denial is a
“second death” for
victims
Fear that that one day
it will be just a “myth”
Stop The Madness
Deborah Lipstadt, Ph. D.
 At the forefront of the anti-Revisionists
movement
 Consultant in the construction of the
American Holocaust Museum
 Book Denying the Holocaust: The
Growing Assault on Truth and Memory
scolds revisionists and others who buy
into their propaganda
 Sued by David Irving because she
used some of his writings and
speeches in her book
Stop The Madness
Mel Mermelstein
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Won $50,000 for proving to the IHR that
his relatives were gassed at Auschwitz,
and $40, 000 more for personal suffering
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"This court does take judicial notice of
the fact that Jews were gassed to death
at Auschwitz Concentration Camp in
Poland during the summer of 1944. It is
not reasonably subject to dispute. And it
is capable of immediate and accurate
determination by resort to sources of
reasonably indisputable accuracy. It is
simply a fact."
- Judge Thomas T. Johnson
Holocaust Denial on a Global Scale
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Many countries have passed laws banning Holocaust denial
It is considered a form of hate-speech and Anti-Semitism
In some areas the penalty can be up to ten years in prison
Austria
Belgium
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Czech Republic
France
Germany
Israel
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
The Netherlands
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Spain
Switzerland
Holocaust Denial in the U.S.
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The U.S. is the base ground for many Holocaust Denial movements
because they have freedom of the press here
However, There have been no major instances of prominent
Americans denying the Holocaust
It seems that most Americans are outraged by Holocaust denial and
DO NOT buy into revisionist theory, no mater how publicized it
becomes
“If one group advertises that the Holocaust never happened, another
can buy space to insist that American Blacks were never enslaved.
The stakes are high because college newspapers may soon be
flooded with ads that present discredited assertions as if they were
part of normal historical debate. If the Holocaust is not a fact, then
nothing is a fact…”
- David Oshinsky and Michael Curtis of Rutgers University
Holocaust: Fact or Fiction?
Decide For Yourself