16 No. 73 JUSTICE olocaust denial is any attempt to negate the established facts of the Nazi genocide of European Jews.1 Put differently, it is “discourse and propaganda that deny the historical reality and the extent of the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis and their accomplices during World War II, known as the Holocaust or Shoah.”2 Holocaust distortion is rhetoric, written work, or other media that excuses, minimizes, or misrepresents the known historical record. Not all distortion is done intentionally. Some may make remarks because they are simply uneducated, but such half truths about the Holocaust nevertheless lead to antisemitism.3 Distortion is more subtle than denial. Jan Grabowski, the eminent Polish historian now at the University of Ottawa, has written that “Unlike Holocaust deniers, people and institutions engaging in Holocaust distortion do not deny the factuality of the Jewish catastrophe… They just deny that their nation or their ethnic group had anything to do with it.”4 Some distorters and trivializers claim that the Holocaust was invented or exaggerated by Jews as part of a plot to advance Jewish interests. These views perpetuate long-standing antisemitic stereotypes. Their hateful beliefs helped lay the groundwork for Holocaust denial, distortion, and misuse. They all undermine the truth and our understanding of history, while simultaneously reinforcing prejudice against, or sowing hatred of, Jews. At another level, failure to differentiate between the Holocaust and other genocides leads to comparisons which distort the historical facts and fail to convey the enormity of the Holocaust. In a recent publication, IHRA noted that Holocaust distortion has become a more pernicious threat than outright denial, and that combating it has become a shared international challenge because it crosses cultural and national borders due to the internet.5 And so, IHRA first discussed a definition during the Swedish government-organized International Forum on the Holocaust in 2000. Who Are the Distorters? Initially, it was the Nazis. Attempts to hide or distort evidence of the Holocaust began with the perpetrators of the Holocaust themselves. The Nazis used doublespeak and euphemisms, such as Sonderbehandlung (special treatment) or Endlösung (Final Solution) to hide their murderous policies. Nuremberg and other subsequent War Crimes trials effectively put a stop to the Nazi attempts to cover their crimes. However, denier networks grew throughout the postWar period, particularly in France, Austria and Germany. But several important European Court of Human Rights cases upheld the criminal convictions of the deniers and the trivializers. These include Garaudy v. France, where the Court held that denying the existence of clearly established historical events did not constitute scientific or historical research, and that Garaudy’s purpose was rehabilitation of the Nazis.6 In two other cases, Honsik Distortion and Trivialization of the Shoah* Michael Whine * Presentation at the 13/11 Distorting History Conference, organized by the Fondazione Centro di Documentazione Ebraica (CDEC), Milan, Oct. 15, 2024. 1. “Holocaust Denial and Distortion,” UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM, available at https:// www.ushmm.org/antisemitism/holocaust-denial-anddistortion 2. “The Working definition of Holocaust denial and distortion,” INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE ALLIANCE, available at https://holocaustremembrance. com/resources/working-definition-holocaust-denialdistortion 3. “What is Holocaust Distortion?” Protect the Facts, available at https://www.againstholocaustdistortion.org/ what-is-holocaust-distortion/ 4. Jan Grabowski, “The New Wave of Holocaust Revisionism,” 39 SOUTH CENTRAL REV. 60 (2022), available at https://muse.jhu.edu/article/868324 5. “A Brief History of Holocaust Denial and Distortion,” PROTECT THE FACTS (Dec. 14, 2022), available at https://www.againstholocaustdistortion. org/a-brief-history-of-holocaust-denial-and-distortion/ 6. Garaudy v. France, App. No. 65831/01, Eur. Ct. H.R. (2003), available at https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/engpress#%7B%22itemid%22:%5B%22003-788339805233%22%5D%7D H
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