The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

Shofar FTP Archive File: people/m/matas.david/holocaust-denial-as-hate-speech

Newsgroups: alt.revisionism
Subject: Holocaust Denial = Hate Speech
From: Ken McVay 

Archive/File: people/m/matas.david/holocaust-denial-as-hate-speech
Last-Modified: 2007/04/17

"The issue of the Holocaust, in the form of Holocaust denial, has
become central to the promotion of hatred in North America and Europe.

"Holocaust denial is not just a current form of incitement of hatred
against Jews. It has become the leading form of incitement of hatred
against Jews. By examining Holocaust denial, we see who the hate
promoters are. We see their techniques. We can understand their
psychology and profile.

"Hatred of Jews was the rallying cry of the Nazis. They incited this
hatred to generate support and seize power in Germany. It became their
justification for destroying democracy in Germany and invading the
rest of Europe. The Nazi phenomenon was the individual hate-monger
writ large, and like the individual hate-moneger, the Nazi
organizations did not incite hatred against Jews as an incidental,
detachable part of their ideology. It was central to the Nazi core. It
was the reason for the existence of the Nazi party, and the motivating
force behind virtually all that it did. Without the incitement of
hatred against Jews, the Nazi party would not have existed, would not
have come to power, would not have started World War II, would not
have invaded and occupied continental Europe and Northern Africa,
would not have destroyed democracy wherever they went, would not have
killed eleven million innocent civilians, including six million Jews.

"Contemporary right-wing extremist organizations ... have this one
belief in common. They have learned well from the initial success of
the Nazis. The incitement of hatred against Jews is a political tool
for right-wing extremists which goes far beyond attacking Jews. That
the road to power for these groups is whipping up hatred against Jews
is illustrated by the phenomenon of virulent antisemitism in countries
with no or virtually no Jewish populations. The incitement to hatred
against Jews was and is, not just a threat to Jews, but a threat to
peace, a threat to democracy, and a threat to all humanity.

"The Holocaust, however, discredits right-wing extremists everywhere.
Endorsement of the Holocaust, the belief that the Holocaust rightly
happened, truly belongs to the lunatic fringe. Neo-Nazis well realize
that they have no hope of building a mass movement or even significant
support based on a defence of the Holocaust.

"For contemporary right-wing expremists, Holocaust denial becomes a
political necessity. Holocaust denial, for these extremists, serves a
dual agenda. Denial co-opts the gullible into the extremists' ideology
of Jewish fraud, Jewish world control, Jewish greed. As well, it
legitimizes the very ideology which the Holocaust has delegitimized.

"Holocaust denial is a particularly insidious form of hate speech
because of its disguise as contested history. In an era of human
rights discourse, upfront assertions of Jewish fraud, Jewish world
control, Jewish greed find little or no audience, even amongst those
who may be disposed to prejudicial views. Holocaust denial, at least
superficially, appeals to ignorance rather than prejudice. By putting
a thin veil of factual bafflegab over its appeals to racial prejudice,
Holocaust denial caters to the desire for respectability of those who
preach hatred and those who succumb to hatred. 

"While incitement to hatred against Jews has historically taken many
bizarre forms, Holocaust denial is one contemporary expression that
encapsulates the whole phenomenon. Like most hate speech, the appeal
of Holocaust denial is not apparent to those not inclined to hate.
Like other antisemitic slurs, Holocaust denial seems absurd to those
who are tolerant and grounded in reality. The denial may seem to
reflect poorly on the deniers and no-one else. How Holocaust denial
may lead to the hatred of Jews needs explanation.

"The Holocaust, the World War II, Nazi-organized murder of six million
Jews and the attempt to exterminate the whole Jewish people, is one of
the best documented events in all history. ...

"One has to ask what Holocaust denial means, given this historical
record. When a person says that the Holocaust did not exist, given all
these court cases, all the monuments and museums, all the memories and
films, that person is alleging a fraud on a massive scale. Obviously,
if the Holocaust did not happen, the survivors, the museum curators,
the historians, the librarians, the prosecutors, the judges and
juries, the movie and TV producers, the reporters are not just
confused or forgetful. They are lying.

"Holocaust denial, by its very nature, is an allegation of massive
fraud. The allegation of massive fraud is not separate from the
allegation that the Holocaust never happened but, by its very nature,
implicit in it. Some forms of Holocaust denial actively assert this
fraud. Others do not. However, it is not necessary to say the word
'fraud'; the allegation of fraud is there even where it is unspoken.

"...It is impossible to extricate Holocaust denial from this
allegation of fraud, even where it is not explicit.

"...Holocaust denial is a mutant of the standard, historical
antisemitic smear that Jews control the world for their own evil

"On the descent to hatred, the largest movement a person has to make
is the leap from the historical record to Holocaust denial. Once that
leap has been made, the belief in Jewish fraud is just a small and
inevitable step." (Matas, 58-61)

                          Work Cited

Matas, David. Bloody Words. Bain & Cox, Winnipeg & Niagara Falls: 2000

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