The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, composed of experts and historians from around the world, came out with an article addressing Holocaust distortion. It says, “Distortion of the Holocaust is rhetoric, written work, or other media that excuse, minimize, or misrepresent the known historical record”. Not all Holocaust distortion is done intentionally. Some may make uneducated remarks leading to further distortion. However, the half truths that Holocaust distortion creates can lead to Antisemitism.
Terminology
Holocaust distortion is similar to Holocaust denial. However, instead of denial of historical facts, distortion is more subtle. A professor of history at the University of Ottawa, Jan Grabowski says, “Unlike Holocaust deniers, people and institutions engaging in Holocaust distortion do not deny the factuality of the Jewish catastrophe. They just deny that their nation, or their ethnic group had anything to do with the fact”.
When it began
According to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), Holocaust distortion began with the Holocaust itself. The Nazis and their collaborators were destroying evidence of their atrocities, along with the manipulation of images and the spread of false information to conceal their crimes and deceive the international community. An instance of this manipulation is the Nazi propaganda that deceived the Danish and International Red Cross during their visit to the Theresienstadt ghetto in 1944. The Nazis carefully masked the distressing living conditions within the ghetto, presenting a facade of normalcy that misled the visiting representatives, who unfortunately overlooked the few distress signals they encountered.
Another definition that Ben Cohen, a writer for Jewish affairs and Middle Eastern politics, gives another definition for Holocaust distortion is “The practice of rewriting Holocaust history to suit contemporary political imperatives.” With the rise of social media, and other forms of digital media, Holocaust distortion, and the false information that comes with it, has become much more common. It is able to spread much more rapidly than in years past.
Different forms of Holocaust distortion
Holocaust distortion comes in a variety of different forms. And can be found just about anywhere from all ends of the political spectrum and all sorts of ethnicities and religions.
The Holocaust Alliance shares the different forms of Holocaust distortion.
Minimizing in any affect the Holocaust (number of victims, efforts, and roles of collaborators and allies of Nazi Germany) Any attempt to obscure responsibilities for crimes of the Holocaust Showing the Holocaust as a positive event Blaming Jews for the Holocaust Casting the Holocaust as a positive historical event Accusing Jews of “using” the Holocaust for some manner of gain. Use of the term “Holocaust” to refer to events or concepts that are not related to the genocide of European and North African Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. State-sponsored manipulation of Holocaust history to sow political discord within or outside a country's borders. Trivializing or honoring the historical legacies of people or organizations complicit in the crimes of the Holocaust. Using imagery and language associated with the Holocaust for political, ideological, or commercial purposes unrelated to this history in online and offline forums.
Juliane Wetzel, Chair of the IHRA's Committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial, says, “Holocaust distortion focuses, for example, on exaggerating the number of rescuers and whitewashing or glorifying collaborators. Sometimes it is even used to raise awareness of different issues without having intended to minimize the Holocaust, but rather to bring attention to the respective issue.”