The denial of the Holocaust has no more credibility than the assertion that the earth is flat. Yet there are those who insist that the death of six million Jews in Nazi concentration camps is nothing but a hoax perpetrated by a powerful Zionist conspiracy. Sixty years ago, such notions were the province of pseudohistorians who argued that Hitler never meant to kill the Jews, and that only a few hundred thousand died in the camps from disease; they also argued that the Allied bombings of Dresden and other cities were worse than any Nazi offense, and that the Germans were the “true victims” of World War II. For years, those who made such claims were dismissed as harmless cranks operating on the lunatic fringe. But as time goes on, they have begun to gain a hearing in respectable arenas, and now, in the first full-scale history of Holocaust denial, Deborah Lipstadt shows how—despite tens of thousands of living witnesses and vast amounts of documentary evidence—this irrational idea not only has continued to gain adherents but has become an international movement, with organized chapters, “independent” research centers, and official publications that promote a “revisionist” view of recent history. Lipstadt shows how Holocaust denial thrives in the current atmosphere of value-relativism, and argues that this chilling attack on the factual record not only threatens Jews but undermines the very tenets of objective scholarship that support our faith in historical knowledge. Thus the movement has an unsuspected power to dramatically alter the way that truth and meaning are transmitted from one generation to another.

Denying History takes a bold and in-depth look at those who say the Holocaust never happened and explores the motivations behind such claims. While most commentators have dismissed the Holocaust deniers as antisemitic neo-Nazi thugs who do not deserve a response, historians Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman have immersed themselves in the minds and culture of these Holocaust "revisionists." In the process, they show how we can be certain that the Holocaust happened and, for that matter, how we can confirm any historical event. This edition is expanded with a new chapter and epilogue examining current, shockingly mainstream revisionism.

In her acclaimed 1993 book Denying the Holocaust, Deborah Lipstadt called putative WWII historian David Irving "one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial." A prolific author of books on Nazi Germany who has claimed that more people died in Ted Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than in the gas chambers at Auschwitz, Irving responded by filing a libel lawsuit in the United Kingdom -- where the burden of proof lies on the defendant, not on the plaintiff. At stake were not only the reputations of two historians but the record of history itself.

Holocaust Denial. The Politics of Perfidy provides a graphic and compelling global panorama of past and present variations on this toxic phenomenon. The volume examines right and left wing French negationism, post-Communist Holocaust deniers in Eastern-Europe, the spread of denial to Australia, Canada, South-Africa and even to Japan. Leading scholarly experts also explore the close connection between Holocaust denial, global conspiracy theories, antisemitism and radical anti-Zionism– especially in Iran and the Arab world.

The end of World War II saw an emergence of Holocaust dissention that began in Europe and has since developed into an international movement with adherents in almost every country in the world. At first, this denial was fueled by the desire to rehabilitate Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime in an effort to reestablish a neo-Nazi state. In the following years, coupled with the renewal of anti-Semitism, this dissent has been used as a means of denying the legitimacy of the state of Israel. Despite these motivations, the ultimate cause for concern is in the way this denial attracts its members by both challenging the existence of the Holocaust and the testimony of its witnesses. By tracing the history, causes, and spread of Holocaust denial, Atkins reveals the dangers this mindset poses to rational thinkers who become vulnerable to fringe ideas. This book traces the state of the international Holocaust denial movement in the early 21st century, grounding contemporary thought in the history of the movement. Since Holocaust deniers have distorted the facts about this mass genocide, Atkins discusses just what is known about the Holocaust from historical research conducted since World War II. The role of negative racial genetics is explored in both Hitler's intellectual makeup and among the leaders of the German right wing, including historians' assessments of Hitler's anti-Semitism, motivations, and decision-making. Also provided is a roll call of Holocaust dissenters in countries such as the United States, Germany, France, Great Britain, Russia, and Italy, among many others. By analyzing the arguments of leaders within this expanding dissention movement, this book demonstrates how extremists build informational links that have wide-ranging effects.