Denying History

The problem is how we can stop the bizarre message of holocaust denial from spreading. Do we passively ignore those who speak against the Holocaust, and hope it goes away? Or do we try in some way to limit the speech of those who deny it. I say neither. The best way to prevent the Holocaust denial message is to be active in speaking and teaching facts, not limit the speech of the deniers. In the United States, the first amendment of the United States says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Basically this amendment protects everyone’s right to argue whatever they want, no matter how bizarre the argument. Even if the argument is destructive to a specific group of people, e.g. people who are of Jewish faith. They can argue even if the argument is destructive to the facts of history. Anyone can argue anything even if the argument is something is as ignorant as say, Holocaust denial.

Let me say that I believe in the 1st amendment, and as bizarre as it sounds, I believe very strongly that those who deny the holocaust should be able to say so. They should absolutely have the right to say whatever they feel because after all, certainly no one would want anyone censoring their ideas just because they cause conflict with certain group of people. Imagine if the majority of the people in the world felt the holocaust did not happen. By speaking out against the popular idea, they could arrest and condemn those who were trying to prove it happened. This is the exact same situation except that the majority is correct and the minority is wrong, at least in my slightly biased opinion.

According to Shermer, it is highly illegal in other countries to speak about the holocaust as a myth. (10) This is because these countries do not have the freedoms as we do in this country. A well-known British historian, David Irving, has recently been sentenced to 3 years in jail in Austria for denying the Holocaust. He in fact has been barred from entering Germany, Austria, and Canada because of his insane claims.

Holocaust deniers claim many things. They argue that the Jewish people were responsible for Germany’s economic misfortune before and during World War I. They also claim that once Hitler came to power, the Jewish people claimed war on the Germans, as if the Jewish people were their own country. They claim that the Jewish people “invented” the idea of extermination in order to gain sympathy from the western world, and they claim they turned the western world on the German’s. (Perry 176) Listening to these arguments is frustrating to anyone with half a clue, but there is some truth to their arguments. The idea that Jews influenced the western world to hate the Germans is true except the Germans were the ones that brought it on themselves. They tell the truth in the sense that the western world was turned against them, however, what they fail to admit is the fact that the German’s hostilities against the Jewish people was what really sparked the hatred.

According to Marvin Perry, denying the Holocaust ever happened would be like telling Americans that slavery never happened. (177) the following is an excerpt full of sarcasm from his book “Anti-Semitism: Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the Present.”

I have written this book because I feel that I have a moral duty to expose a great hoax that continues to do great harm to the American people. Contrary to everything we have been told, bondage slavery never existed in the United States. Blacks invented the myth that their ancestors were enslaved in order to wrench welfare payments and affirmative action programs from the government…Unlike European immigrants, Africans, many of whom still retained their savage ways, were unable to fend for themselves…they asked to be placed with caring families who provided them with food, shelter, and work…It is unfortunate that the North, whipped into a frenzy by the lies and distortions of black rabble-rousers and their Abolitionists dupes, launched an unjust war against the South…they have cunningly forged documents and planted misleading information that continue to deceive gullible historians. (Perry 177)

Obviously Perry was being sarcastic, but that is almost how I feel when I read the ideas that the deniers continue to preach as the truth.