Historical negationism, also called denialism, is falsification or distortion of the historical record. It should not be conflated with historical revisionism, a broader term that extends to newly evidenced, fairly reasoned academic reinterpretations of history. In attempting to revise the past, illegitimate historical revisionism may use techniques inadmissible in proper historical discourse, such as presenting known forged documents as genuine, inventing ingenious but implausible reasons for distrusting genuine documents, attributing conclusions to books and sources that report the opposite, manipulating statistical series to support the given point of view, and deliberately mistranslating texts.
Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust denial involves making one or more of the following false statements:
The Institute for Historical Review (IHR) is a United States-based nonprofit organization which promotes Holocaust denial. It is considered by many scholars to be central to the international Holocaust denial movement. Self-described as a "historical revisionist" organization, the IHR promotes antisemitic viewpoints and has links to several neo-Nazi and neo-Fascist organizations.
Willis Allison Carto was an American far-right political activist. He described himself as a Jeffersonian and a populist, but was primarily known for his promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial.
The Barnes Review(TBR) is a bi-monthly magazine founded in 1994 by Willis Carto's Liberty Lobby and headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes The Barnes Review as "one of the most virulent anti-Semitic organizations around"; the journal and website are "dedicated to historical revisionism and Holocaust denial."
The Journal of Historical Review was a non-peer reviewed, pseudoacademic periodical focused on advancing Holocaust denial. It was published by the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), based in Torrance, California. It ran quarterly from 1980 until 1992, and then bimonthly from 1993 until publication ceased in 2002. A supplement, IHR Newsletter, was published alongside the journal.
The Adelaide Institute was a Holocaust denial group in Australia and is considered to be antisemitic by the Australian Human Rights Commission and others. The Adelaide Institute was formed in 1995 from the former Truth Mission that was established in 1994 by Fredrick Töben, later a convicted Holocaust denier. Töben directed the Institute until his incarceration in 2009 in South Australia for contempt of court. Peter Hartung assumed the role of director of the Adelaide Institute. On assuming the role from Töben, Hartung defied the Federal Court by publishing the revisionist material that led to Töben's three months jail time. In June 2009, the Adelaide Institute was linked with an American white supremacist, James von Brunn, charged with killing a security guard in Washington's Holocaust Museum.
Germar Rudolf, also known as Germar Scheerer, is a German chemist and a convicted Holocaust denier.
William David McCalden was active in the British political far-right. After moving to the United States, he was co-founder of the Institute for Historical Review in 1978 and advocated Holocaust denial.
Michael Anthony Hoffman II is an American author. He has been described by critics as a conspiracy theorist and by the Anti-Defamation League, as a Holocaust denier and antisemite.
Jürgen Graf is a Swiss author, former teacher and Holocaust denier. Since August 2000 he has been living in exile, and is currently living in Russia, working as a translator, with his wife.
Noontide Press is an American publishing entity which describes itself as a publisher of "hard-to-find books and recordings from a dissident, 'politically incorrect' perspective." It publishes numerous antisemitic pseudohistorical titles, including The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and The International Jew. The Anti-Defamation League describes its founding and early years:
The Institute for Historical Review and its publishing arm, Noontide Press, were founded in 1978 by the leading organizer of modern American anti-Semitism, Willis Carto, and his wife Elisabeth. Based near Los Angeles in Torrance, California, the group pioneered organizing efforts among Holocaust deniers, who had heretofore labored mostly in isolation and obscurity. The group's first "Revisionist Convention" in September 1979 featured speakers from the U.S., France, Germany, England and Sweden, many of whom subsequently contributed articles to the inaugural issue of IHR's Journal of Historical Review the following spring. With the Noontide Press offering a means for the sale and distribution of their writings, professional deniers had found something of a rainmaker in Carto.
Wilhelm Stäglich was a World War II army officer, later a financial judge in Hamburg, and a prominent Holocaust denier.
Udo Walendy was a German author, soldier, and Holocaust denier. Like Gerd Schultze-Rhonhof, he disputed Germany's guilt for the Second World War.
The Holocaust had a deep effect on society both in Europe and the rest of the world, and today its consequences are still being felt, both by children and adults whose ancestors were victims of this genocide.
Dariusz Ratajczak was a Polish historian, publicist and right-wing activist. In 1999 he was convicted of Holocaust denial in Poland.
Oleg Anatolyevich Platonov is a Russian ultranationalist writer and Holocaust denier. He is the Director General of the Institute for the History of Russian Civilization, a Moscow-based think tank. He is known for promoting the antisemitic conspiracy theory Judeo-Bolshevism, which claims that Jews were responsible for the Russian Revolution.
Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? is a 2002 book about Holocaust denial by Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman with collaboration of Arthur Hertzberg.
Mark Edward Weber is an American Holocaust denier who is the director of the Institute for Historical Review, a United States, California-based Holocaust denial organization. Weber has been associated with the IHR since the 1980s. In 1992 he became editor-in-chief of the IHR's pseudoscientific Journal of Historical Review. Weber was subsequently named the institute's Director in 1995.
Ursula Hedwig Meta Haverbeck-Wetzel is a German activist from Vlotho. Since 2004, she has also been the subject of lawsuits and convicted due to her Holocaust denial, which in Germany is a criminal offense.
