Despite the fact that ample evidence exists, this abhorrent era in history continues to be strongly denied and minimised by a considerable amount of Holocaust 'revisionists', as they prefer to be known. Deniers flat out right say the Holocaust didn't happen, revisionists are more academic and tend to postulate theories about the atrocities being on a much smaller scale than widely assumed etc. Vastly paranoid about a 'global Jewish conspiracy' of some sorts, deniers and revisionists are often motivated by antisemitism. Harry Elmer Barnes is recognised as one of the first Holocaust deniers. He flat out denied the Holocaust and was bitterly critical of British and American conduct through out the war. Many scholars who shared his view proliferated in the decades after the war. Conventional academia was largely appalled by this denial and the 'revisionists' set up an organisation in 1978, called the Institute for Historical Review where they could continue their rewriting of history away from mainstream academia. The IHR claim they are not deniers but its critics would refute their stance. David Irving is probably the most famous of the deniers, in 2006 he was prosecuted in Austria for Holocaust denial for a speech he gave denying the existence of gas chambers in the Concentration Camps. He served 13 months of a 3 year sentence and arrived back in Britain, staunchly declaring that he would continue travelling down his revisionist path.. In the Middle East, many governments have sponsored and promoted the work of Holocaust deniers. Unfortunately, studies have shown that anti-Holocaust propaganda from the revisionists is very impressionable and contagious. Holocaust denial is now against the law in 17 countries. Illegal or not, the Holocaust revisionists are not going to go away any time soon and will continue to spread their bile against Jews and denial of the heinous activities that constituted the Holocaust. Which other major historical atrocities have been wiped out of history? Share your own finds below in the comments thread.
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!
