Is Holocaust Denial Real?

The Holocaust was the killing and persecution of over six million Jews and other groups such as the disabled, Gypsies, Slavics, homosexuals, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Holocaust was performed and executed by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s. Although there is overwhelming evidence of the existence of the Holocaust, people still deny that the Holocaust was real and wrong. In fact, only one-third of the world believes the entirety of the Holocaust (Stuart, 1). There are 3 main reasons why people deny the truth of it: the lack of a single document signed by Hitler, Jews were legitimately killed for a reason, and Jews needed the money to justify establishing Israel so they created the Holocaust (Introduction To The Holocaust).

However, there are ways to discredit these false ideas, proving that the Holocaust was a real event. While some people are deceptively in denial on the existence of the Holocaust, many people find it extremely insensitive to believe such a thing. Countries have even created laws against Holocaust denial, proving it exists by the present world leaders (Holocaust Denial Timeline). Using facts, it is extremely obvious that Holocaust deniers are real and each country should take preventative measures on how to handle these deniers.

The largest argument for those who do not believe in the Holocaust is the lack of documentation involving Adolf Hitler (Holocaust Deniers and Public Misinformation). There is no single document that directly states and proves the reality of the Holocaust. These nonbelievers take this information and blow it out of proportion because there is a severe lack of evidence otherwise. In truth, there is no one document that proves the Holocaust is real. There are, instead, medical files and post case documents signed by Nazi doctors and officials who admit to their crimes (Nazi Persecution Claim Case Files Released). For example, Reinhold Hanning, one of the Nazi officers in the SS, made a public statement about his involvement and his injustice involving the Holocaust. He apologized publicly, in court, to the victims and was charged with being an accessory to the murder of over 170,000 people. In an Interview with Hanning, he admitted to being part of the Nazi criminal organization and regrets how much suffering he has caused (Ahlswede, 1). While people still argue that cases like these could be staged and fake, many more people have publicly apologized and confessed to being part of the Nazi regime and harming or witnessing the harming of the victims. Normally, people would not agree to committing such a horrific and significant crime to prove a point and be thrown in prison, as seen in most of the Nuremburg Trial court cases. The Nuremburg Trials were a series of 13 trials where important Nazi officers were sentenced to a punishment which fit their crime (Nuremburg Trials). There is documentation and proof of each of these court cases, proving the court was involved with the Holocaust, so it is less likely to be staged (Trials of War Criminals Before The Nuernberg Military Tribunals Volume III). Another example proving the documentation and reality of the Holocaust is the diary of Heinrich Himmler, one of the men in Hitler’s inner circle. His diary has an entry where he admits to shooting 10 Polish detainees after having a massage. This diary has multiple entries on the slaughtering done by Himmler himself and on the slaughtering that he witnessed (Parry, 1). There are even documents of Jews being harassed and targeted out of the concentration camps, which implies the existence of the holocaust. For example, Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl who was terrorized by the Nazis wrote a journal which is still used as proof to this day. She wrote her entries up until her departure to one of the Nazi death camps (Anne Frank). One of her entries from July of 1944 goes into descriptive detail on how her life has been built on chaos and suffering. She continues to talk about how she believes life for her will change for the better. She states the cruelty must soon end and it did, but in a different aspect than she expected (Diary of Anne Frank). Frank passed away in March of 1945, at the age of 15 (Anne Frank). Also, the argument that Hitler, who led the Holocaust, never signed a paper is invalid due to his death. The Allied troops discovered the concentration camps while invading Germany after the second World War. Hitler killed himself shortly after the liberation of the Nazi extermination camps (This Day In History: April 30, 1945: Adolf Hitler Commits Suicide In His Underground Bunker). This did not leave enough time for the Allied forces to make Hitler to admit to his wrongdoings (Oh No, It Can’t Be). Although the argument of the forgery of these documents is possible, it is improbable (Lipstadt, 1).

The second argument is the Holocaust happened because the Jews were in the wrong. Many Holocaust deniers believe that the Jews were at fault. They say the Jews were committing crimes and they deserved their deaths. The argument here is invalid because statistically, 6 million people are not likely to create crimes that deserve death in such a short span of time, especially if it is 6 million people of one religion. Hitler was known to hate Jews so it comes as no surprise that he wanted to exterminate them. He even voiced it publicly, stating that the destruction of Jews is his first and largest job he needed to do as the new leader of Germany. He even went as far as to state that they will be hanged and exterminated as soon as he came to power (Stein, 1). When Hitler did come to power, he passed the Enabling Act, which allowed him to make and enforce laws without the consultation of parliament. This made the government of Germany a complete dictatorship. The Nazi regime made many laws hurting the liberties of the Jewish population in some way. Hitler did many things in his reign of power that shows that it was in fact him who hated the Jews and he was at fault for their deaths (The Holocaust).

The third and final reason Holocaust deniers think what they do is because they are under the impression that the Jews just wanted the funds from the pity given to them to justify establishing Israel. The deniers are implying that the Jews were lying to gain this money. Germany has paid 89 billion dollars for their crimes, much of which goes to the families of those harmed during the Holocaust (Rising, 1). While this though process could be logical, it is very easily disproven due to the beliefs of the Jews and the numbers involved. It is a strongly enforced Jewish belief that the truth is one of the most important parts of humanity. It would be almost impossible, statistically, to have a whole religion lie about their past, especially if their religion is extremely based on truth itself (Jacobs, 1). There were over 6 million Jews involved in the Holocaust, it would be practically impossible to have that many people create such an enormous lie and maintain it for years to come.

The facts clearly point to Holocaust deniers being real but how should we deal with those who disagree? Each country has a different law on whether public Holocaust denial should be tolerated. For example, America’s Constitution states that freedom of speech is allowed (Constitution of the United States of America). This means that denying the Holocaust is not illegal, because there is no threat. Many other countries that disagree have created laws that criminalize Holocaust denial and hate speech. England, which is where much of the Holocaust took place, is one of the countries that does not tolerate Holocaust Denial. (Holocaust Denial Timeline). Facts and Evidence show that each country, most likely depending on where it stood during the second World War, has their own laws on how to handle Holocaust deniers. This has been working so far, with very little problems occurring with it, so the indications show that leaving Holocaust Deniers alone would be the best policy.

Holocaust Denial is a serious topic and is real, according to the facts presented. The reasons of denial being the lack of documentation, disbelief on the victim’s side of the argument, or the victim being the perpetrator. The lack of documentation is false and can be disproven by looking at the diaries and court cases happening during and after the second World War. A denier saying the Jews lied can be disproven by looking at and listening to the other victims of the Holocaust, such as the disabled and the Gypsies. Also, there is a lack of evidence showing the Jews were lying and a mass of evidence showing the Holocaust was true. This proves that Holocaust deniers are real and so is the Holocaust itself. As for how the Holocaust denying should be handled, evidence and recent events show that each country should have its own laws on how to properly assess and respond to the denial.

Works Cited

Ahlswede, Elke. Former Nazi Guard Apologizes To Victims: Auschwitz Was A Nightmare. Google.com. Huffpost. Web. 10 April 2018.

Anonymous. Anne Frank. Ushmm.org. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 10 April 2018.

Anonymous. Holocaust Denial Timeline. Ushmm.org. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 10 April 2018.

Anonymous. Holocaust Deniers and Public Misinformation. Ushmm.org. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 10 April 2018.

Anonymous. Introduction to the Holocaust. Ushmm.org. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 10 April 2018.

Anonymous. Nazi Persecution Case Files Released. Nationalarchives.gov.uk. The National Archives. Web. 10 April 2018.

Anonymous. Nuremburg Trials. History.com. History. Web. 10 April 2018.

Anonymous. Oh, No, It Can’t Be. Holocaust-trc.org. Holocaust Teacher Resource Center. Web. 10 April 2018.

Anonymous. The Holocaust. Endgenocide.org. United To End Genocide. Web. 10 April 2018.

Anonymous. This Day In History: April 30, 1945: Adolf Hitler Commits Suicide In His Underground Bunker. History.com. History. Web. 10 April 2018.

Constitution of the United States. 1st Amendment. 1791.

Diary Of Anne Frank. July 15th Entry. 1944.

Jacobs, Rabbi Louis. Truth and Lies in the Jewish Tradition. Myjewishlearning.com. My Jewish Learning. Web. 10 April 2018.

Lipstadt, Deborah. Denying The Holocaust. bbc.co.uk. BBC History. 2011. Web. 10 April 2018.

Parry, Tom. Diaries of a Nazi Monster: Himmler’s Sick Journals Describe Marriage, Massage, and Genocide. Google.com. Mirror. 2016. Web. 10 April 2018.

Rising, David. Germany Increases Reparations For Holocaust Survivors. Google.com. The Times of Israel. 2012. Web. 10 April 2018.

Stein, SD. Statements by Hitler and Senior Nazis Concerning Jews And Judaism. Phdn.org. Web Genocide Documentation Centre. 2000. Web. 10 April 2018.

Stuart, Hunter. People Still Think the Holocaust Was A Hoax. Dose.com. Web. 10 April 2018.

Trials Of War Criminals Before The Nuernberg Military Tribunals Volume III. Pre-Face. 1946.

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