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view · edit Frequently asked questions Important: In order to save editors from repeatedly answering questions which have already been asked, as well saving you the time from asking them, it is strongly recommended that you view the following FAQ section, which contains responses that represent editorial consensus on the following issues which have frequently arisen on the Holocaust denial talk page. In addition, the links given to related archived discussions are not necessarily exhaustive, and it is recommended that you use the search tool as well. To view an item, click the link to the right of the question. 1: Holocaust denial is not necessarily antisemitic. Response: One item that has been raised here several times is the contention that Holocaust denial is not inherently antisemitic, and/or that Misplaced Pages should not conclude that everyone who is a Holocaust denier harbors antisemitic feelings. Misplaced Pages is not here to conclude that, and its editors' opinion on the matter - whatever those opinions are and regardless of who they belong to - are irrelevant. Misplaced Pages is here to present what reliable sources say. In this case, there is a preponderance of reliable material stating that Holocaust denial is antisemitic, and therefore the article notes that Holocaust denial is considered to be antisemitic, and why the antisemitism template is legitimately included. Related archived discussion: , . 2: The antisemitism template should be removed. Response: Please see the response to Item 1 as to why the antisemitism template is legitimately placed. 3: Holocaust denial should be renamed Holocaust revisionism Response: No. Per numerous reliable sources, the correct terminology is Holocaust denial/denier. Related archived discussion: , , , , , . 4: Not all historians reject Holocaust denial. Response: Yes, they do. As is already stated in the article, according to the oldest and largest American association of historians and history teachers, "no serious historian questions that the Holocaust took place", and that Holocaust denial is a form of "academic fraud". Misplaced Pages must avoid using vague or unspecific terms, and words which do not accuractely reflect what reliable sources say. Related archived discussion: , . 5: The 4 million Auschwitz plaque Response: One issue relates to the death toll plaque at Auschwitz, which was amended following the collapse of the Soviet Union to read 1.5 million Jewish deaths, instead of 4 million victims of no specified ethnicity or background. The Soviet authorities estimated the death toll not via historical methodology, but by working out how many people could have been cremated during the entire existence of the camp, taking 20% off to account for crematoria down-time, and using that number: around 4 million. They did not, for example, examine how many people were sent to the camp versus how many did not return, but used the 4 million variant to purposely overstate non-Jewish deaths, and diminish the fact that 90% of those that disappeared following their deportation to Auschwitz were Jewish. Once the Iron Curtain fell, communist pressure to keep the original Soviet estimate ceased and the more accurate estimate replaced it. In any event, reputable historians did not use the 4 million figure in their calculations of the overall number of Jews killed in the Holocaust. Rather, they used numbers of 1 to 1.5 million, figures which are still used today. Related archived discussion/items: , , and the appropriate section in the Auschwitz article.

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Add information

I suggest this to be added to the article:

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) has defined Holocaust denial as: “any attempt to claim that the Holocaust/Shoah did not take place … may include publicly denying or calling into doubt the use of principal mechanisms of destruction (such as gas chambers, mass shooting, starvation and torture) or the intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people”. A resolution on Holocaust denial was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in January 2022, condemning Holocaust denial of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part, and urging Member States and online platform companies to take active measures to combat antisemitism and Holocaust denial or distortion. Holocaust distortion refers to claims that do not outright deny the reality of the Holocaust, but seek to distort or subvert key facts about it. Holocaust distortion is both far more widespread than Holocaust denial and “often shares the same antisemitic goals”.

I suggest to add a section on Holocaust distortion:

Holocaust Distortion

Holocaust distortion significantly and deliberately misrepresents its historical facts. For example, the numbers of victims might be underestimated; the numbers of helpers and rescuers inflated; difficult parts of a country’s own national history might be overlooked or omitted (for example, holding only Hitler and the leading Nazis responsible, downplaying the role of collaborators and the widespread complicity of many ordinary people in the genocide, including in occupied and allied countries). Several countries have introduced “memory laws” that attempt to advance specific narratives of the Holocaust, that deflect guilt and responsibility for the crime of genocide from the nation to Nazi Germans, “marginal fringe” groups, or onto the Jewish people. The laws advance Holocaust distortion when they deny national or communal complicity in atrocity crimes, and protect those narratives from criticism or refutation. In several instances, such laws have been used to prosecute or have significantly restricted legitimate historical inquiry by researchers, scholars and on the victims of atrocity crimes, which infringe upon international standards of freedom of expression. National memory debates have also included efforts to rehabilitate the perpetrators of the genocide, by portraying their ignorance of Nazi crimes, conjecturing about their “secret opposition” to genocidal acts, or representing the perpetrators as victims. Current expressions of Holocaust distortion are numerous and varied.

I suggest adding a section on "actions against Holocaust denial".

A global commitment to counter Holocaust denial and distortion

The United Nations resolution from January 2022 defines Holocaust denial and distortion as referring to:

• Discourse and propaganda that deny the historical reality and the extent of the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis and their accomplices during the Second World War, known as the Holocaust or Shoah;

• Any attempt to claim that the Holocaust did not take place, and may include publicly denying or calling into doubt the use of principal mechanisms of destruction (such as gas chambers, mass shooting, starvation and torture) or the intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people;

• Intentional efforts to excuse or minimize the impact of the Holocaust or its principal elements, including collaborators and allies of Nazi Germany;

• Gross minimization of the number of the victims of the Holocaust in contradiction of reliable sources;

• Attempts to blame the Jews for causing their own genocide;

• Statements that cast the Holocaust as a positive historical event;

• Attempts to blur the responsibility for the establishment of concentration and death camps devised and operated by Nazi Germany by putting blame on other nations or ethnic group:

In the United Nations General Assembly Resolution on Holocaust denial, adopted on 20 January 2022, Member States expressed specific concern about “the growing prevalence of Holocaust denial or distortion through the use of information and communications technologies”. The resolution urges all Member States to ‘reject without any reservation any denial or distortion of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part, or any activities to this end’. It further asks Member States to develop programmes to educate future generations, and urges online platform companies to take active measures to combat antisemitism and Holocaust denial or distortion. This report and recommendations are intended as a contribution to this vital work.

COVID-19

Procedural equivalence is a type of equivalence, it focuses on comparing current government behaviour, especially policies related to COVID-19, to the tools and techniques of the Nazi regime. A rhetorical use of the Holocaust is evident – the “Nazi card” being played to delegitimize government policies. These references focused on the language and practices of Nazi government, equating them with policies said to threaten contemporary society in similar ways. Procedural equivalence also makes use of the moral force of the Holocaust but is largely oriented towards dire fantasies and predictions rather than comparison to actual events. One such reference was to the “Yellow Star”, a badge that Nazi Germany and its collaborators throughout Europe forced Jews to wear to identify themselves (although in other forms it has featured in many other societies since medieval times). Comparisons of the Yellow Star to “health passes”, which were part of many societal responses to COVID-19, were a recurring motif on online platforms (and have also been used in demonstrations throughout the world), with many arguing that the health pass is used to exclude and marginalize the unvaccinated in the same way that the Yellow Star was used to push Jews out of society. Vaccination requirements bear no resemblance to the experience and reality of persecuted Jews in Nazi Germany or during the Holocaust and reveal a deep lack of empathy towards victims of the Holocaust, or the incapacity to conceive of Jews as victims.

Lisa Rechelle (talk) 14:35, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

"oriented towards dire fantasies and predictions rather than comparison to actual events." What is the difference with old-fashioned fearmongering? It has been used to manipulate large populations for quite some time. Dimadick (talk) 14:44, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

References

1. IHRA, What are Holocaust Denial and Distortion? https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working definitionholocaust-denial-and-distortion, accessed 24 January 2022.
2. United Nations General Assembly Resolution on Holocaust Denial A/RES/76/250, adopted 20 January 2022.
3. IHRA, Why is Distortion of the History of the Holocaust Such a Problem https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/news-archive/what-holocaustdistortion-and-why-it-problem, accessed 24 January 2022.
4. UNESCO (2022): History under attack. Holocaust denial and distortion on social media, Paris.
5. Shafir, M. “Denying the Shoah in Post-Communist Eastern Europe”. In Robert S. Wystrich (ed.), Holocaust Denial. The Politics of Perfidy, Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2012: 27-65.
6. UNESCO (2022): History under attack. Holocaust denial and distortion on social media, Paris.
7. UNESCO (2022): History under attack. Holocaust denial and distortion on social media, Paris.
8. UNESCO (2022): History under attack. Holocaust denial and distortion on social media, Paris.
9. UNESCO (2022): History under attack. Holocaust denial and distortion on social media, Paris.
10. ADL (2019). Anti-Vaccine Protesters Misappropriate Holocaust-Era Symbol to Promote Their Cause, accessed 2 May 2022. See also, Porat, D. et al (2020), Antisemitism Worldwide, European Jewish Congress.
11. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), Jewish badge: during the Nazi era. Holocaust Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/ content/en/article/jewish-badge-during-the-nazi-era.

Outdated text

"In 2006 the Netherlands rejected a draft law proposing a maximum sentence of one year on denial of genocidal acts in general, although specifically denying the Holocaust remains a criminal offense there." is now outdated as this sentence of one year was passed. 31.20.106.40 (talk) 18:02, 14 July 2023 (UTC)

Can you provide a reference? Zero 06:37, 15 July 2023 (UTC)

Why is modern Polish Holocaust denial not mentioned?

It has become fashionable in Poland to paint the Polish nation as having been largely uninvolved or unwilling participants in the Holocaust, which is a form of soft Holocaust denial or "Holocaust distortion" as Jan Grabowski calls it. Why is this not mentioned in the text? It has gone so far as the PiS-controlled senate passing a law making pointing out Polish participation in the Holocaust punishable by up to three years in prison (BBC article, NYT article). KetchupSalt (talk) 11:45, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

What text do you suggest adding to what section cited to what sources? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 12:25, 16 July 2023 (UTC)

Let me get back to you on that, I need to dive into the relevant research. KetchupSalt (talk) 09:21, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

I have not tried looking at sources at all, but it may not be that easy to find good ones referring to this "thing" as Holocaust denial. Which is a must per WP:OR. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 09:48, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

"The Holohoax" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect The Holohoax has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Misplaced Pages:Redirects for discussion/Log/2024 February 8 § The Holohoax until a consensus is reached. Liz 07:45, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

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