Published in The Abuse of Holocaust Memory by Manfred Gerstenfeld, 2009

In this important addition to the body of knowledge and understanding of the denial and distortions of the Holocaust, Manfred Gerstenfeld challenges us to examine why it is that as the world’s knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust continues to increase and become evermore accessible, the traditional well-known form of Holocaust denial — “it simply did not happen” — has morphed and metastasized into the various categories of abuse of historical fact he presents and analyzes in this unique volume.

Having spent my entire professional life working at the Anti-Defamation League to combat the lies, myths, distortions, and half-truths used by those who are filled with hate to demonize the ones they hate, I continue to be deeply troubled by the ease with which the truth about the greatest crime in history perpetrated against the Jews is ignored, overlooked, and twisted. Painful as this is for the remaining survivors and their children, if we do not confront it with all the tools available to us, the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust will perish a second time. It is our duty to prevent this from happening, not just for the Jewish people, but for all of humankind for generations to come who will be deprived of the crucial lessons of the Holocaust.

At a time when the president of Iran is the leading purveyor of Holocaust denial, using it as a weapon in his arsenal of state-sponsored anti-Semitism aimed at demonizing Israel and the Jewish people, there is an ever greater need to better and more fully grasp every aspect of this pernicious weapon. In an age where the Internet magnifies and propels around the globe expressions of hate of all kinds, Holocaust denial and other forms of anti-Semitism arrive in our homes uninvited and unexplained at a breathtaking volume and speed. This is the most difficult challenge in our effort to reverse the proliferation of hate-filled anti-Jewish sentiment. If the president of a country can spew Holocaust denial and is not confronted and condemned quickly and clearly, the lie can take hold and the germ of anti-Semitism can spread. The deeper our understanding of the latest variety of this centuries-old disease, the better equipped we are to meet the challenge. This book arrives at a time when it is sorely needed.

As Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel has said, “not all victims of the Nazis were Jews, but all Jews were victims.” A simple and very sad corollary to Prof. Wiesel’s profound observation is that only Jews are the target of the deniers of the Holocaust. And here is where we find the basic anti-Semitic roots of Holocaust denial.

I have written about some of the aspects of Holocaust abuse and distortion covered in this book — historical revisionism, trivialization, universalization — and, in our ongoing battle against the scourge of anti-Semitism, the ADL deals daily with each of the types presented by Manfred Gerstenfeld. Just in the year 2009 alone, from the Netherlands to Argentina, from France to Ukraine, from Russia to Venezuela, from Germany, Lithuania, Switzerland, Belarus, Thailand, and my own country, the United States, we saw an explosion of comparisons of Israel’s actions to the behavior of the Nazis during the Holocaust and the use of Nazi imagery to describe Zionism.

Manifestations of anti-Semitism have grown, fueled by intense anti-Israeli sentiment. Nazi comparisons and anti-Semitic beliefs combine in a volatile mix, and this outpouring of anti-Jewish hate is generally met with little or no public condemnation. Chants of “Jews to the gas chambers” are heard routinely at anti- Israeli demonstrations in Europe and similar calls for death to Jews have been heard across the Arab and Muslim world. Newspapers in the Arab world and Latin America have published pieces making blatant comparisons between Israel and the Nazis’ perpetration of the Holocaust. Caricatures that depict Israelis as Nazis are appearing daily in the Arab press, in Latin American, and even in some mainstream European newspapers. These comparisons and the imagery are reminiscent of the Nazis’ use of Der Stürmer to feed the age-old myths of Jews as a satanic and conniving force whose goal is world domination.

Here are just a few examples of the manifestations of Holocaust abuse that the ADL noted in the first nine months of 2009:

Voskresensk, Ukraine — Vandals defiled a Holocaust memorial. Swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti, including “Death to Jews” in German and Russian, were painted on the monument.

Bern, Switzerland — Anti-Israeli protesters carried signs equating Israel with Nazi Germany.

Petrozavodsk, Russia — A Holocaust memorial in a Jewish cemetery was vandalized.

Amsterdam, the Netherlands — At an anti-Israeli rally that included the participation of two Dutch legislators, part of the crowd chanted, “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas.”

Vezaiciai, Lithuania — A swastika and the Nazi slogan “Juden raus” were painted on a sign commemorating a site where Nazis murdered Jews.

Berlin, Germany — Berlin’s Holocaust memorial was vandalized with anti- Semitic slogans and swastikas.

Drancy, France — A five-foot black swastika and several anti-Semitic slogans were painted on a railway wagon that was used to deport French Jews. Two other large swastikas were daubed on a commemorative monument and on the wall of a nearby shop.

Brest, Belarus — A Holocaust memorial was set on fire on the day commemorated as Victory Day over the Nazis.

 

In my lifetime of work combating anti-Semitism, hatred, and bigotry of all kinds, I have been committed to overcoming these stubborn ingrained ills of society first by forthrightly identifying them and presenting the truth and then by activating and enlisting the support of good people who respect the truth to join me in the struggle against prejudice. In 2003, I wrote:

Within living memory, we’ve seen what can happen when a nation or a continent experiences an unrestrained outbreak of anti-Semitism. The Jews of the world – and all people of goodwill who share their desire for a just and free society – learned a series of critical lessons from the tragic history of the twentieth century. Today we understand how important it is to recognize the emergence of new forms of anti-Semitism so that we can warn the world and stave off the worst effects.

If we are to succeed in overcoming the atmosphere of permissiveness that has made it so much easier to diminish the meaning and lessons of the Holocaust, we must be able to clearly describe the phenomena of Holocaust denial, distortion, and abuse we face daily. As leaders in the fight against anti-Semitism, the ADL recognizes the need to have the best means possible to achieve that success. We are grateful to Manfred Gerstenfeld for providing a significant new tool to help us reach our goal.