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Holocaust denial / distortion

theme \ hō-lə-,kost di-'nī(-ə)l \

: an attempt to negate the facts of the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people; a belief that the Holocaust did not happen or was greatly exaggerated

WHY IT’S ANTISEMITIC:

Despite endless historical facts, Holocaust denial and distortion spread the false idea that Jews invented or exaggerated the Holocaust, including the diary of Anne Frank, Nazism’s intent to massacre Jews, the use of gas chambers in concentration camps, and the murder of millions of Jews. Denying the Holocaust, including denying the scope or methods used by the Nazis and their allies during the Holocaust, is antisemitic.

The term “Holohoax” is a common term for Holocaust deniers across the political spectrum, who claim the Jewish people exaggerated or made up the Holocaust. The term appears on dozens of Facebook groups of every political disposition, including extreme-right, anti-Zionist, conspiracy theory communities, pro-Palestinian groups, and more.

And even when antisemites don’t deny the Holocaust, they have used it to attack Jews by accusing them of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust or by comparing its horrors by the Nazi regime to defensive actions taken by the State of Israel. Claiming that the State of Israel, home to the largest number of living Holocaust survivors, behaves like the Nazis in its treatment of Palestinians is a personal attack on survivors and distorts the meaning of the Holocaust. Likening the Gaza Strip, governed by the terrorist organization Hamas, to the Warsaw Ghetto, where Jews were confined by the Nazis before being transported to death camps as part of the systematic massacre of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust, or comparing the Israeli Defense Forces to the Nazi army (Wehrmacht), is a form of Holocaust denial. There is no legitimate comparison between defending the State of Israel and ensuring the safety of its citizens to the systematic destruction and liquidation of an entire people.

 

 

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