Denying The Holocaust - The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory (1994)

[color=#a00000]Denying The Holocaust
[color=#ffffff]The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory
by Deborah Lipstadt, 1994

From the backcover

The denial of the Holocaust has no more credibility than the assertion that the earth is flat. Yet there are those who insist that the death of six million Jews and other persecuted people in Nazi concentration camps is nothing but a hoax perpetuated by a powerful Zionist conspiracy. In this first full-scale history of Holocaust denial, Deborah Lipstadt shows how – despite tens of thousands of living witnesses and vast amounts of documentary evidence – this irrational idea has not only continued to gain adherents but has become an internationally organized movement. Lipstadt argues that this chilling attack on the factual record not only threatens Jews but could dramatically alter the way that truth and meaning are transmitted from one generation to another.

From Kirkus Reviews

A forceful analysis of attempts to deny the Nazi Holocaust. Lipstadt (Religion/Emory University; Beyond Belief, 1985) traces the history of Holocaust revisionism and contends that it can no longer be ignored, showing how Holocaust-deniers, once dismissed as a lunatic fringe, have been growing in numbers and influence during the past 20 years. Citing groups like the Institute for Historical Review, publications like The Spotlight, politicians like David Duke, and academicians like Leonard Jeffries, Lipstadt presents numerous examples of attempts to prove that the extermination of six million Jews is a hoax; that only a few thousand Jews died in the camps from disease; that the Allied bombings of German cities were worse than any Nazi offense; and that the "true victims" of WW II were the German people. These distortions of recorded history, argues the author, threaten to undermine our Western rationalist tradition and to legitimize the politicization of history. To Lipstadt, the common thread among Holocaust deniers is a "purely anti-Semitic diatribe" portraying Jews as victimizers. Self-declared scholars like Arthur R. Butz claim that Jews used the world's sympathy after the war to "displace" another people, establish the nation of Israel, and "steal" billions in reparations from their German and Western "cash cows." Lipstadt argues vehemently against giving revisionists a forum in the name of free speech or freedom of the press, and she details the efforts of California revisionist Bradley Smith, who pushed a "Holocaust was a hoax" campaign in college newspapers throughout the US. Lipstadt contends that "the responses to Holocaust denial by both students and faculty graphically demonstrate the susceptibility of an educated and privileged segment to the kind of reasoning that creates a hospitable climate for the rewriting of history." An important, well-documented study that deserves attention.

„Strong medicine… an antidote to the moral and intellectual virus that has spread from the crackpot fringe to the very heart of public discourse in the media, the courts, and the world's universities” – Los Angeles Times

„Not only an exposé of the deniers' claims, but a terrifying study of how hate can wear away what happened within living memory.” – Atlanta Journal-Constitution

„Important and impassioned… it illuminates, with skill and clarity, not only the peculiarly disturbing world of the Holocaust deniers, but also the methods they have used to distort history, the motives that have driven them to do so, and the vulnerabilities of our educational systems, our culture, and ourselves that have made so many in our society ready to listen to them. ” – The New York Times Book Review

„Well-sourced and carefully argued… demolishes whatever intellectual respectability the movement may have acquired… It should be kept close at hand when the next assault-by-denial is made.” – Boston Globe

„A shocking, important, disturbing report… this exposé performs a valuable public service.” – Publishers Weekly

„Brilliant, brave, consistent, careful… restores the good name of history.” – Michael Berenbaum, Director, U.S. Holocaust Research Institute

„A warning that people should not ignore.” – Washington Times

„This is a book of stunning relevance.” – The New Leader

„An important step forward… henceforth, any opinion-former who tries to deal in this particular anti-Semitic coin can easily be shown to be using false currency.” – Paul Johnson, Washington Post Book World

„For all who have been disturbed by the bewildering and sordid phenomenon of Holocaust denial, Deborah Lipstadt has written the essential book. Her answer is not to debate or refute point by point the never-ending lies and distortions of the deniers, but to expose the common political agenda, infamous methods, malicious motivation, and pervasive contempt for truth that lie behind the various guises and tactics of this insidious movement.” – Christopher R. Browning, author of The Final Solution In Poland

„Concise, elegant, thorough, scholarly, well constructed and a meticulous survey of the denial movement.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

„An absolutely vital, chilling book… and an exhaustive and unflinching documentation of the Nazi genocide against six million European Jews.” – Chicago Sun-Times

233 pages

Related torrents on ConCen:

Denying History – Who says the Holocaust never happened and why do they say it?
http://concen.org/tracker/torrents-details.php?id=25819

Lying about Hitler – History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial
http://concen.org/tracker/torrents-details.php?id=25603

Related links – confronting Holocaust denial:

Holocaust Educational Resource
http://www.nizkor.org/qar-complete.cgi
http://www.nizkor.org/

The Holocaust History Project Homepage
http://www.holocaust-history.org/questions/
http://www.holocaust-history.org/denial/revisionism-qa.shtml
http://www.holocaust-history.org/

Holocaust Denial on Trial: Using History to Confront Distortions
http://holocaust-denial-on-trial.com/en/learning/myth-fact
http://holocaust-denial-on-trial.com/
http://www.hdot.org/

Holocaust Controversies – What Part Of The Word Genocide Do You Not Understand?
http://holocaustcontroversies.blogspot.de

Rational Wiki: Holocaust denial
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Holocaust_denial
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Red_herrings_in_Holocaust_denial

Answers to the 66 Questions of Holocaust Deniers
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/denial1.html

Holocaust Denial & The Big Lie
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/biglie.html

How to Understand And Confront Holocaust Denial
http://www.unitedagainstracism.org/pages/thema02.htm

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/denial/

Responses to common Holocaust-denial claims
http://www.adl.org/holocaust/response.asp