Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

HISTORICAL REVISIONISM VS. “HISTORICAL REVISIONISM”
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his belief in occult forces enabled Himmler to become the principal instigator of the
extermination cum annihilation of the Jews, with overall responsibility and implementation
for the concentration and death camp system and the so-called medical experiments
conducted therein. As World War II was drawing to a close, Himmler foresaw Germany’s
eventual defeat and attempted to negotiate with the Allies. Captured by the Allies,
Himmler committed suicide on May 23, 1945, before he could be put on trial at the
International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, Germany.
Historical Revisionism vs. “Historical Revisionism.” It is the legitimate work of
historical scholars to amass data, examine evidence, and construct theories to explain what
they have uncovered. Furthermore, as additional material is uncovered and presented, and
as other scholars participate in the conversation, the original theories may, of necessity, be
modified or revised. The process is ongoing, and, thus, the term historical revisionism may best
be used to describe such intellectual work whereby earlier explanations are revised in the
light of new evidence or reworked theoretical approaches. This approach/process is to be
distinguished, however, from the self-designated and totally inaccurate use of the term (thus
the placement of quote marks around it) by those who, in effect, deny the overwhelming
evidence of the Holocaust because of their hatred of Jews and/or Judaism, the State of Israel
and Zionism, or their need to “rehabilitate” Hitler and national socialism, and even
present-day Germany. Instead of “revisionists,” the term Holocaust deniers may be a
more appropriate description for those advocating such an approach. The various “revisionist”
claims include the following: the Holocaust, as such, never happened; if the Holocaust
did happen, the numbers of Jewish deaths resulting from it are highly exaggerated (not
even close to the 5.8 million historians cite as having been murdered) and that most of the
deaths were due to the war, not an extermination process; Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler
(1889–1945) knew nothing of the fact of the Holocaust; the wartime concentration camps,
where disease was, at times, rampant, had been established for the Jews’ own protection
against the wrath of the German people; the documentation of the Holocaust is both faulty
(e.g., memoirs and diaries) and fraudulent or doctored. All of the latter arguments are false,
and legitimate historians have accumulated the evidence that proves the falsity of such.
Today, those who choose to ally themselves with this so-called revisionist movement
(which is, as noted above, a denialist movement, as its adherents seek to deny the veracity
of the Holocaust rather than legitimately examine new findings and evidence) hold their
own conferences, present lectures, publish books and articles, establish Web sites, and
attempt to legitimize their views on both college campuses (e.g., using newspapers to “call
for free and open debates/discussions on the Holocaust”) and in the public arena. In 1978,
a group calling itself The Institute for Historical Review was established in California; its
pseudo-scholarly publication is entitled The Journal of Historical Review, following up on the
work of Willis Carto (b. 1926) and his Liberty Lobby and its publishing house, The Noontide
Press. The so-called father of historical revisionism is the late Frenchman Paul
Rassinier (1906–1967), who was himself a prisoner in Buchenwald concentration camp,
but who, after the war, argued that the overall number of Jews murdered was far less than
the number usually cited. Among the names associated with this movement are Arthur
Butz (b. 1933) and Bradley Smith (b. 1930) (United States); Robert Faurisson (b. 1929)
(France); David Irving (b. 1938) (Great Britain); and Ernst Zündel (b. 1939) (Canada).
The use of the Internet has greatly exacerbated the problems posed by such fraudulent
scholarship—the slick and sophisticated sites themselves as well as their easy