Current Forms of Manifestation of Holocaust Distortion: Group 4

Group 4

• State-sponsored manipulation of Holocaust history:

State-sponsored pronouncements against other countries’ actions during the Holocaust, in order to sow political discord. (This was common during Cold War propaganda and continues through to the present day. It instills defensive responses and threaten honest engagement with this history).

Attempts to limit academic and public discourse on Holocaust history by means of legislation and penalties.

Promoting narratives of national suffering or the reputations of national heroes, some of whom might have been participant in the persecution of Jews.

Efforts to rehabilitate the reputation of persons, organizations or ideologies associated with Holocaust-era crimes. (Such actions can also glorify collaboration with the Nazis or legitimize Nazi ideology).

Obscuring the roles played by religious institutions, political parties, educational institutions or prominent figures in the arts and sciences in Holocaust-era crimes. (This may result from comparing atrocity crimes without careful contextualization).

• De-Judaization of the Holocaust:

Deliberately omitting the fact that it was a genocide perpetrated against Jews.

Ignoring or trying to diminish the role of antisemitism in the Holocaust, such as antisemitic propaganda and legislation against Jews passed by the Nazi regime, its allies and collaborators.