Sunni Man
Diamond Member
- Aug 14, 2008
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Holocaust deniers prefer to be called Holocaust revisionists. However, many people contend that the latter term is misleading. Historical revisionism is the reexamination of accepted history, with an eye towards updating it with newly discovered, more accurate, and/or less biased information. Broadly, it is the approach that history as it has been traditionally told may not be entirely accurate and should be revised accordingly. Historical revisionism in this sense is a well-accepted and mainstream part of history studies. It may be applied to the Holocaust as well, as new facts emerge and change our understanding of its events.
Holocaust deniers maintain that they apply proper revisionist principles to Holocaust history, and therefore the term Holocaust revisionism is appropriate for their point of view. However, their critics disagree and prefer the term Holocaust denial. Gordon McFee writes in his essay "Why Revisionism isn't" that:
"Revisionists" depart from the conclusion that the Holocaust did not occur and work backwards through the facts to adapt them to that preordained conclusion. Put another way, they reverse the proper methodology, thus turning the proper historical method of investigation and analysis on its head."
In general, the term Holocaust denial fits the description at the beginning of this article, while Holocaust revisionism ranges from holocaust denial through the belief that only minor corrections are required to Holocaust history. However, because the latter term has become associated with Holocaust deniers, mainstream historians today generally avoid using it to describe themselves.
[Top]Beliefs of Holocaust deniersHolocaust deniers make some of the following claims:
1. There was no specific order by Adolf Hitler or other top Nazi officials to exterminate the Jews, although their incarceration in concentration camps and use as slave labor in factories had that effect.
2. Nazis did not use gas chambers to mass murder Jews.
3. The figure of six million Jewish deaths is an irresponsible exaggeration, and that many Jews escaped to Russia, Britain and the United States.
4. Film footage shown after World War II was all specially manufactured as propaganda against the Nazis by the Allied forces.
5. Claims of what the Nazis supposedly did to the Jews were all intended to facilitate the
Allies in their intention to enable the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
6. Although crimes were committed, they were not centrally orchestrated and thus the Nazi leadership bore no responsibility for the implementation of such a policy.
7. Historical proof for the Holocaust is falsified or deliberately misinterpreted.
8. There is an American, British or Jewish conspiracy to make Jews look like victims and to demonize Germans.
9. The overwhelming number of biased academics and historians are too afraid to actually admit that the Holocaust was a fiction; they know they will lose their jobs if they speak up.
Most Holocaust deniers also stress that, contrary to popular belief:
1. they do not deny that Jews were persecuted under the Third Reich;
2. they do not deny that Jews were deprived of civil rights;
3. they do not deny that Jews were deported;
4. they do not deny the existence of Jewish ghettos;
5. they do not deny the existence of concentration camps;
6. they do not deny the existence of crematoriums in concentration camps;
7. they do not deny that Jews died for a great number of reasons, although they claim there were no mass murders;
8. they do not deny that other minorities were also persecuted such as gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and political dissenters;
9. and finally, they do not deny that all the above mentioned things were unjust.
Bambooweb: Holocaust denial....
Holocaust deniers maintain that they apply proper revisionist principles to Holocaust history, and therefore the term Holocaust revisionism is appropriate for their point of view. However, their critics disagree and prefer the term Holocaust denial. Gordon McFee writes in his essay "Why Revisionism isn't" that:
"Revisionists" depart from the conclusion that the Holocaust did not occur and work backwards through the facts to adapt them to that preordained conclusion. Put another way, they reverse the proper methodology, thus turning the proper historical method of investigation and analysis on its head."
In general, the term Holocaust denial fits the description at the beginning of this article, while Holocaust revisionism ranges from holocaust denial through the belief that only minor corrections are required to Holocaust history. However, because the latter term has become associated with Holocaust deniers, mainstream historians today generally avoid using it to describe themselves.
[Top]Beliefs of Holocaust deniersHolocaust deniers make some of the following claims:
1. There was no specific order by Adolf Hitler or other top Nazi officials to exterminate the Jews, although their incarceration in concentration camps and use as slave labor in factories had that effect.
2. Nazis did not use gas chambers to mass murder Jews.
3. The figure of six million Jewish deaths is an irresponsible exaggeration, and that many Jews escaped to Russia, Britain and the United States.
4. Film footage shown after World War II was all specially manufactured as propaganda against the Nazis by the Allied forces.
5. Claims of what the Nazis supposedly did to the Jews were all intended to facilitate the
Allies in their intention to enable the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
6. Although crimes were committed, they were not centrally orchestrated and thus the Nazi leadership bore no responsibility for the implementation of such a policy.
7. Historical proof for the Holocaust is falsified or deliberately misinterpreted.
8. There is an American, British or Jewish conspiracy to make Jews look like victims and to demonize Germans.
9. The overwhelming number of biased academics and historians are too afraid to actually admit that the Holocaust was a fiction; they know they will lose their jobs if they speak up.
Most Holocaust deniers also stress that, contrary to popular belief:
1. they do not deny that Jews were persecuted under the Third Reich;
2. they do not deny that Jews were deprived of civil rights;
3. they do not deny that Jews were deported;
4. they do not deny the existence of Jewish ghettos;
5. they do not deny the existence of concentration camps;
6. they do not deny the existence of crematoriums in concentration camps;
7. they do not deny that Jews died for a great number of reasons, although they claim there were no mass murders;
8. they do not deny that other minorities were also persecuted such as gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and political dissenters;
9. and finally, they do not deny that all the above mentioned things were unjust.
Bambooweb: Holocaust denial....
