Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It?

354 Pages·2009·13.43 MB·English

by  Michæl Shermer

WHO SAYS THE HOLOCAUST
NEVER HAPPENED
AND WHY DO THEY SAY IT?
Michael Shermer & Alex Grobman
Foreword by Arthur Hertzberg
UPDATED AND EXPANDED
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley | Los Angeles | London
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The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous contributions
to this book provided by the S. Mark Taper Foundation and by the
Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2000 by Michael Shermer, Alex Grobman, and the
Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
Chapter 10, “The New Revisionism,” and the epilogue, “Enigma,”
© 2009 by Michael Shermer
isbn 978-0-520-26098-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
The Library of Congress has cataloged an earlier edition of
this book as follows:
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shermer, Michael.
Denying history : who says the Holocaust never happened and
why do they say it? / Michael Shermer, Alex Grobman ; foreword
by Arthur Hertzberg.
p. cm.—(The S. Mark Taper Foundation imprint in Jewish
Studies)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
isbn 978-0-520-23469-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Holocaust denial. I. Grobman, Alex. II. Title.
D804.355.S54 2000
940-53'18—dc21 00-028690
Manufactured in the United States of America
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of ansi/niso Z39.48-1992 (r 1997)
{Permanence of Paper).
We dedicate this book to the six million who cannot
respond themselves, and to the survivors who can.
Michael Shermer dedicates this book to Earl
Livingood for making history come alive in the best
narrative storytelling imaginable; to Richard Olson for
helping him find that delicate balance between his
torical objectivity and relativism; and to Richard
Hardison for showing that there is theory in history
and that history is subject to myriad revisions and
distortions.
Alex Grobman dedicates this book to his wife,
Marlene; his children, Elon, Ranan, and Ari, along
with their wives, Aviva, Karen, and Rochel Sara; his
granddaughters, Tova and Tamar; and his grandsons,
Efraim Elimelech and Binyamin Mayer. Their love and
support have sustained him. Their devotion and com
mitment to Hashem and the Jewish people have in
spired him.

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Foreword by Arthur Hertzberg xi
A Note on Terminology: Why Holocaust “Revisionists”
Are Really Deniers xv
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction: Who Speaks for the Past?
History and Pseudohistory 1
PART I · FREE SPEECH AND HISTORY
1. Giving the Devil His Due:
The Free Speech Issue 9
2. The Noble Dream: How We Know
Anything Happened in History 19
PART II · INSIDE THE DENIAL MOVEMENT
3. Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened?
An Inside Look at the Personalities and Organizations 39
4. Why They Say the Holocaust Never
Happened: The Ideological Agenda 75
viii Contents
5. How Deniers Distort History: Flaws, Fallacies,
and Failings in the Deniers’ Arguments 99
PART III · ARGUMENTS AND REFUTATIONS
6. The Crooked Timber of Auschwitz: How
Concentration Camps Became Extermination Camps 123
7. “For God’s Sake—Terrible”:
The Scope and Scale of the Holocaust 173
8. The Evil of Banality:
The Protocols of National Socialism 199
PART IV · TRUTH AND HISTORY
9. The Rape of History: Denial, Revision,
and the Search for a True and Meaningful Past 231
10. The New Revisionism: Race, Politics,
and the Unnecessary Good War 257
Epilogue: Enigma: The Faustian Bargain of David Irving 271
Notes 283
Bibliography 309
Index 327
Illustrations
1. Cover of Journal of Historical Review featuring 1994
conference speakers 42
2. David Irving 55
3. Robert Faurisson 59
4. Ernst Zündel at 1985 free speech demonstration 65
5. Stickers from Ernst Zundel 66
6. Ernst Zündel’s 1985 Canadian trial as a media event 68
7. Content analysis of Journal of Historical Review 79
8. Antisemitic cartoon 87
9. Skinhead gang poster 95
10. Adolf Eichmann in 1961 104
11. Canister label for poisonous Zyklon-B 133
12. Prisoners arriving at Auschwitz-Birkenau and being
sorted out by gender 134
13. Women on their way to Crematorium V and the burning
of bodies after gassing 135
14. Reconstruction of where the photographer stood to take
the pictures in figure 13 136
15. Aerial photograph of Auschwitz from June 26, 1944 144
16. Aerial photograph of Auschwitz from August 25, 1944 145
17. Gas chamber structure, directly below chimney
of Crematorium II 145
18. Prisoners disembarking from a train at Auschwitz-
Birkenau 146
19. Aerial photographs of Auschwitz from August 25, 1944 147
ix
x Illustrations
20. Additional aerial photographs of Auschwitz from
August 25, 1944 148
21. Aerial photographs of Auschwitz from May 31, 1944 149
22. Crematorium V 150
23. Entrance to Auschwitz-Birkenau with railway spur 157
24. Original ground plan of Crematorium II 158
25. Crematorium II undressing room and gas chamber 159
26. Remains of Crematorium II 160
27. Diagram of the Desinfektion I—II structures at Majdanek 164
28. Majdanek’s Bad und Desinfektion I and a delousing
chamber 166
29. Gas chambers and delousing chamber at Majdanek 167
30. Mauthausen shower room and small delousing chamber 169
31. Mauthausen crematorium, dissection room, and morgue 170
32. Mauthausen gas chamber 171
33. Mass execution of Jews in the Ukraine in 1942 183
34. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels 188
35. Heinrich Himmler’s Poznan speech 192
36. Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler 195
37. Heinrich Himmler’s telephone notes of
November 30, 1941 202
38. Memo from SS Sturmbannfürher Rudolf Brandt to Reich
physician Ernst Robert Grawitz 207
39. Adolf Hitler 211
40. Wannsee Protocol 220
41. Mark Weber 273
42. IHR book table 275
43. David Irving 276