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For two millennia scurrilous myths about Jews abounded
in Christian lands. We have seen how the medieval Christian myth
of the Jew as Satan’s agent conspiring to destroy Christendom
helped spawn the modern nationalist myth of a Jewish cabal plotting
to rule the planet. This myth and others about Jews, including
their racial inferiority, were widely believed by many people
and unashamedly propagated by members of the cultural elite—
all this in a scientific age that had experienced the critical
spirit of the Enlightenment. The Nazis employed these myths to
justify their war against the Jews:
They were cleansing Europe of parasitical subhumans
who threatened the fatherland. The zeal and brutality displayed
by both the SS and ordinary Germans involved in the extermination
process attest to the immense impact these myths had on people’s
thinking.
The systematic slaughter of two-thirds of the Jewish
population of Europe shamed many people and awakened them to the
evilness and danger of anti-Jewish myths. It also spurred a growing
Christian-Jewish dialogue that has fostered greater understanding
and tolerance. As a result, the propagation of old myths about
Jews has greatly abated in Western lands, at least in respectable
circles. Nevertheless, anti-semitism still has the capacity to
ignite people’s meanest feelings and distort thinking, as
in the disturbing phenomenon of Holocaust denial.
A number of writers, some of whom are or have been
affiliated with academic institutions, have deliberately and cruelly
manufactured a new myth— that of Holocaust denial. These
people argue that during World War II the Germans had no policy
of extermination; the Jews invented the Holocaust to gain world
sympathy for Zionism and to wrest enormous indemnity payments
from innocent Germans. Using their putative capacity for conspiracy,
financial power, political influence, and control over the media,
say the deniers, Jews have managed to dupe the world.
In the tradition of earlier anti-semites, Holocaust
deniers intend to inflict maximum pain on Jews, for they know
that the Holocaust touches the Jewish soul like few other issues.
Anti-semitic and neo-Nazi movements throughout the world have
gleefully adopted the cause of Holocaust denial—anything
to hurt the Jew. Through their own productions—books, pamphlets,
video cassettes, comic books—the Internet, advertisements
in college newspapers, and radio and television programs that
give them an audience in the interest of “fairness and free
speech,” they disseminate this new anti-semitic myth. For
many of these Jew-baiters it is also a way to profiteer.
Holocaust denial, which flies in the face of all
documentary evidence, including the testimony of eyewitness survivors,
perpetrators, and bystanders, demonstrates anew the fragility
of human reason and the seemingly limitless capacity of the mind
to embrace the most grotesque beliefs. It is still another illustration
of the power of anti-semitism to drag the mind into the murky
waters of the irrational.
Let us suppose that some white racist produced a
book denying that blacks were once slaves in this country. In
the preface he summed up his position:
“I have written this book because I feel that
I have a moral duty to expose a great hoax that continues to do
great harm to the American people. Contrary to everything we have
been told, bondage slavery never existed in the United States.
Blacks invented the myth that their ancestors were enslaved in
order to wrench welfare payments and affirmative action programs
from the government. The Africans that Europeans and Americans
brought to the New World came voluntarily seeking a better life,
and were fortunate to be given this opportunity. The accommodations
of Africans on the ships crossing the Atlantic were no worse than
those of the crew, and they were encouraged to sing and dance.
“But unlike European immigrants, Africans,
many of whom still retained their savage ways, were unable to
fend for themselves in the American colonies; in order to survive,
they asked to be placed with caring families who provided them
with food, and shelter, and work. Most blacks were satisfied with
this arrangement, but occasionally the authorities were compelled
to use force against criminal blacks. It is unfortunate that the
North, whipped into a frenzy by the lies and distortions of black
rabble-rousers and their Abolitionist dupes, launched an unjust
war against the South. Since the Civil War, blacks have engaged
in a vile conspiracy to misrepresent the antebellum labor system
by calling it slavery.
“Everywhere they have cunningly forged documents
and planted misleading information that continue to deceive gullible
historians. So great is their power that they were able to pressure
white plantation owners and their descendants to confirm this
myth, even though they knew in their hearts it was untrue. I have
only one reason for writing this book—to present the truth
to the world. Those who fear the truth, or are victims of a well-orchestrated
black propaganda campaign, will call me a racist. But I will persist
in my struggle, which I regard as a sacred duty.”
The arguments advanced by Holocaust deniers are
just as grotesque and their motivation just as fraudulent and
mean-spirited. But one of the painful lessons of recent history
is that the most absurd and hateful ideas, cleverly packaged and
tirelessly repeated, do have an effect on people, particularly
when Jews are the target.
- Perry, M., & Schweitzer, F. M. (2002). Denying the Hocolaust A Neo-Nazi Mythology. In Antisemitism myth and hate from antiquity to the present (pp. 175-177). New York, NY: Palgrave.
The article above contains foundational information. Articles below contain optional updates.
Personal
Reflection Exercise #3
The preceding section contained information about holocaust
denial. Write three case study examples regarding how you might
use the content of this section in your practice.
Online Continuing Education QUESTION
17
What did the Holocaust
spur between the Christians and the Jews? Record the letter of
the correct answer the .
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