Holocaust Denial: A New Religion?

[Boojatta]

For Hitler so loved conspiracy theorists that he refrained from killing millions of Jews so that whoever would say "Hitler did not kill millions of Jews" would have eternal life and would not perish.

[Behind the Aegis]

1. A religion? Naw...

...but it sure does seem to be catching on with more people; if not out-right denial, then minimization. My fear is once the survivors are gone, the denial will ramp up. People deny it now, just 60 years after the fact. What will it be like in a 100 years? 200?

[rockymountaindem]

3. I know, it's disturbing

And sadly, if we try to publicize this fact, a bunch of people would say that we're just dredging up the past to take the Europeans on a guilt trip.

It's lose-lose for us, sadly. Still, I think talking about it (although the usual suspects will take offense) is better than letting people forget. We should make it clear, however, that we don't hold contemporary generations of Europeans responsible, just that we need to honor the memories of those who died and make sure nobody will let it happen again.

[htuttle]

4. I would imagine that in a few 100 years, you'll be seeing things like this

Inquisition was a mistake but legally justified, claims Vatican official


The Rev Joseph Di Noia, the Under-secretary of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, admits in a television series starting tonight that the use of torture and public burnings were "mistakes".

But the American-born cleric argues that these methods of suppressing heresy were explicable in the context of the times, when people believed passionately in heaven and hell.

(more at link)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/30/ninq30.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/30/ixhome.html
Related DU thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=214&topic_id=47898&mesg_id=47898

Something like, "well, the Holocaust was a mistake, but explicable in the context of the times, when Germans fervantly believed that Jews were the root of all evil."

:shrug:

[agingdem]

2. As a child of two Holocaust survivors...

who grew up with the fallout...it happened!

[YOY]

5. If ignorance is bliss

then followers of such a religion may have found the ultimate opiate of the masses.

[lastknowngood]

6. I'm sure everyone realizes the it happened however it's just some

people want to inflame feelings/fears and what better way to do that than deny someone their righteous indignation.

[Behind the Aegis]

10. What do you mean by "deny someone their righteous indignation."?

[Lerkfish]

7. not a religion, just extreme denial.

and a front for racists...but I have to admit I never understood the whole "holocaust didn't happen" thing.
Not sure what it advantages, even a racist, to think it didn't happen.

[Behind the Aegis]

11. advantages

The reason they want to deny the Holocaust is because it mocks Jews (I have yet to see ONE Holocaust denier mention that any other group was NOT murdered en masse, just the Jews). The denial also allows for them to paint Jews as "milking" something that didn't happen. Furthermore, it allows for them to 'demonize' Israel and back up the Iranian president's suggestion that "they" (the people of Israel) move back to Europe (also seen here at DU). Finally, it also allows for them to continue with the meme that Jews 'run the world' and do so out of 'collective guilt' of those who allowed the massacre.

[Lerkfish]

12. ok, I hadn't thought of those reasons...but I still think its like

building a house on sand, OBVIOUSLY it happened and there's tons of evidence, even newsreels and personal accounts.

I think hatred is an amazing thing that happens to a human psyche. It bends their conceptions in pretzels.
They could just believe those things you said, but they have to pretend something didn't happen in order to prove it?

bizarre.

[Behind the Aegis]

13. See if you can wrap your mind around this?

Far-right author David Irving's repudiation of his views on the Holocaust and Hitler's role in it has not lasted very long. In a prison interview just days after he told an Austrian court he had been wrong to deny the Holocaust, he reverted to insisting that the slaughter in Nazi death camps was exaggerated, and that Jews "bear blame for what happened".

His latest statements, made just two days after he was convicted of Holocaust denial, could see him end up back in court. Prosecutors are demanding an increase in his jail sentence, and the Austrian supreme court must now decide whether he goes down for the full 10 years.

<snip>

The author was jailed on Monday for three years for denying the Holocaust during two lectures and in a newspaper interview in Austria nearly 17 years ago. But despite the conviction, the 67-year-old did not shy away from the subject. Irving complained that the Jews held far too much power and predicted their disproportionate control in the US would see a second Holocaust "in 20 to 30 years".

Just days after he told the Viennese court "I've changed my views", he said it was part of the human condition to dislike Jews and that they were at least in part to blame for the 3,000 years of hatred they had had to endure.

<snip>

more...

How fucking odious is this?

[Lerkfish]

14. wow. must clean my mind out with soap, now.

Well, its probably a GOOD thing that I CAN"T wrap my mind around that.

[Odin2005]

8. The Holocaust denialists are incredible.

I know WW2 vets who saw the concentration camps. Holocaust deniers must either be mentally ill, brainwashed, or out to get a quick buck from Neo-Nazis and Islamists.

[Dogmudgeon]

9. It's attractive to contrarians

Everybody loves to be the one with the inside track, who bucks the crowd and who is later proved to be right. Nearly every contrarian philosophy depends on this conceit. It's a fast, easy way of being cool.

Unfortunately for the Holo-Hoaxers, they're not right. They're also not cool. They're also not in their right minds.

--p!

[trotsky]

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