Stopping Erasure of the Past – Fighting Holocaust Denial

Background

The IHRA Working Definition of Holocaust Denial

The following courtesy of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

IHRA PAGE HERE

About the IHRA working definition of Holocaust denial and distortion

IHRA’s 31 member countries adopted the working definition of Holocaust denial and distortion at the IHRA’s Plenary meeting in Toronto on 10 October 2013.

This working definition was developed by IHRA experts in the Committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial in cooperation with the IHRA’s governmental representatives for use as a working tool.

To guide the IHRA in its work, IHRA’s Committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial drafted a paper on Holocaust distortion and denial. The paper is a living document which will be regularly updated.

The working definition of Holocaust denial and distortion

The present definition is an expression of the awareness that Holocaust denial and distortion have to be challenged and denounced nationally and internationally and need examination at a global level. IHRA hereby adopts the following legally non-binding working definition as its working tool.

Holocaust denial 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 the Shoah. Holocaust denial refers specifically to any attempt to claim that the Holocaust/Shoah did not take place.

Holocaust denial may include publicly denying or calling into doubt the use of principal mechanisms of destruction (such as gas chambers, mass shooting, starvation and torture) or the intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people.

Holocaust denial in its various forms is an expression of antisemitism. The attempt to deny the genocide of the Jews is an effort to exonerate National Socialism and antisemitism from guilt or responsibility in the genocide of the Jewish people. Forms of Holocaust denial also include blaming the Jews for either exaggerating or creating the Shoah for political or financial gain as if the Shoah itself was the result of a conspiracy plotted by the Jews. In this, the goal is to make the Jews culpable and antisemitism once again legitimate.

The goals of Holocaust denial often are the rehabilitation of an explicit antisemitism and the promotion of political ideologies and conditions suitable for the advent of the very type of event it denies.

Distortion of the Holocaust refers, inter alia, to:

1. Intentional efforts to excuse or minimize the impact of the Holocaust or its principal elements, including collaborators and allies of Nazi Germany;
2. Gross minimization of the number of the victims of the Holocaust in contradiction to reliable sources;
3. Attempts to blame the Jews for causing their own genocide;
4. Statements that cast the Holocaust as a positive historical event. Those statements are not Holocaust denial but are closely connected to it as a radical form of antisemitism.  They may suggest that the Holocaust did not go far enough in accomplishing its goal of “the Final Solution of the Jewish Question”;
5. Attempts to blur the responsibility for the establishment of concentration and death camps devised and operated by Nazi Germany by putting blame on other nations or ethnic groups.

Reflecting the IHRA’s priorities

Safeguarding the record and countering distortion is the IHRA’s priority theme for the next years. With the IHRA’s 2020 Ministerial Declaration, Member Countries accepted their responsibility to “continue working together to counter Holocaust denial and distortion, antisemitism, and all forms of racism and discrimination” and committed to work closely with experts, civil society and international partners to further these goals.

“We accept our responsibility as governments to continue working together to counter Holocaust denial and distortion, antisemitism, and all forms of racism and discrimination that undermine fundamental democratic principles. We will work closely with experts, civil society and our international partners to further these goals.”

– Article 7 of the 2020 Ministerial Declaration

The IHRA’s working definitions of antisemitism (2016) and Holocaust denial and distortion (2013) – drafted by IHRA experts and approved by IHRA Member Countries – provide an essential mutual starting point for addressing these issues at the national level. However, further resources and practical guidance are needed to provide useful tools for use by governments and civil societies.

At the top of the IHRA German Presidency’s priority list is identifying ways to act against dangerous lies, misrepresentation of facts and trivialization of the Holocaust in public, at memorial sites and online.

“Not only is distortion of the Holocaust just as amoral as Holocaust denial, it also prevents societies and individuals from getting to grips with the past. Denial and trivialization of the Holocaust always reflect an antisemitic mindset and prepare the ground for other forms of inhumane ideologies. To take effective action against the rising trend of Holocaust distortion, as well as growing antisemitism, political actors must coordinate their efforts on an international level.”

– German Presidency of the IHRA

The priority of the German Presidency of the IHRA is to contribute to the implementation of these goals by promoting the adoption of the Working Definition of Holocaust Denial and Distortion, by initiating exchange and coalitions among likeminded institutions and by developing adequate recommendations for action by Member Countries.

Read more: What is Holocaust Distortion, and why is it a problem?