Holocaust Distortions

Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, and in honor of that day I am planning to do a series of posts in the coming days on different subjects relating to genocide and the Holocaust. Primarily the focus will be on the neglected subject of the intersection between genocide and religion.

But today I wanted to just flag a great op-ed in the Jerusalem Post on the subject of Holocaust distortions. Manfred Gerstenfeld identifies eight types of Holocaust distortions: promotion, justification, denial, depreciation, equivalence, inversion, trivialization, and silencing. Here are Gerstenfeld’s illuminating definitions of different types of Holocaust distortions:

Holocaust promotion: Holocaust promotion encourages “the extermination of the Jews, either in Israel or everywhere. Some neo-Nazi groups claim that Hitler’s work must be finished. Mainly in the Muslim world, it is the logical outcome of genocidal policies.”

Holocaust justification: Holocaust justification “consists of “explaining” that the Jews were guilty of their own destruction by Hitler during World War II. Prominent in several non-Nazi circles, it has returned today among those promoting the destruction of the State of Israel.”

Holocaust denial: “Holocaust denial concerns the refutation of the main facts of the extermination of the Jews. This distortion started almost immediately after the war in France, and is much more widespread than among the marginal participants in the Teheran Holocaust conference.”

Holocaust depreciation: Holocaust depreciation “refers to the belittling of the severity of the Holocaust. It sometimes overlaps with Holocaust denial.”

Holocaust equivalence: Holocaust equivalence “alleges that the Germans’ murderous behavior was similar to the actions of the Allies. Nowadays one finds such accusations frequently against the US, often concerning the war in Iraq. Among its many perpetrators are voices from the Western extreme Left.”

Holocaust inversion: “Holocaust inversion targets mainly Israel and Israelis, though the perpetrators sometimes mention Jews as well. It claims that the Israelis have become the Nazis of today.”

Holocaust trivialization: “This manifests itself in applications of language relating the industrialized murder of the Jews to other matters – transgressions of international law, environmental problems, abortion and animal slaughter – which bear no similarity to this genocide.”

Holocaust silencing: Holocaust silencing is the “attempt to silence Holocaust memory by accusing the Jews of mentioning the Holocaust too often. In its extreme form, this category includes attacks on Holocaust memory, and even attempts to destroy or damage Holocaust memorials.”