Nadene Goldfoot
The Holocaust was the killing of some 6 million Jews by the German National Socialist (Nazi) regime led by Adolf Hitler. Extermination of the Jews was an essential part of the gospel of Nazism and inherent in the core of its creed. The only Jews safe during this period were in the USA who were the last to enter the world war. Following the Declaration of War on Japan on December 8, 1941, the other Axis nations of Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. Congress responded, formally declaring a state of war with Germany in this Joint Resolution on December 11, 1941. The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak Republic, and the Soviet Union; which marked the beginning of World War II. Poland had a large population of Jews. In September 1939 Germany invaded Poland. By early October the country was partitioned once again. Under Nazi rule, most Jews were forced into ghettos and the community was largely annihilated through mass killings by shooting squads and killing centers.
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest ghetto in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of 3.4 square kilometres (1.3 sq mi), or 7.2 persons per room. The Łódź Ghetto was the second largest, holding about 160,000 inmates.
The Aryan decree issued on April 11, 1933 defined as non-Aryan any person having a non-Aryan, particularly Jewish parent or grandparent.
On September 15, 1935, the NURENBERG LAWS were adopted by the Reichstag. These racial laws coordinated and regularized Nazi anti-Jewish action. They were reinforced by persecutory decrees, economic and social discrimination, and incarceration in CONCENTRATION CAMPS without legal proceedings or protection.
The anti-Nazi boycott was an international boycott of German products in response to violence and harassment by members of Hitler's Nazi Party against Jews following his appointment as Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. Examples of Nazi violence and harassment included placing and throwing stink bombs, picketing, shopper intimidation, humiliation and assaults. The boycott was spearheaded by some Jewish organizations but opposed by others.
Beginning with the boycott on April 1, 1933, Jewish persecution was stepped up to intolerable proportions. The Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses in Germany began on April 1, 1933, and was claimed to be a defensive reaction to the anti-Nazi boycott, which had been initiated in March 1933. Actions of violence became common after the occupation of Austria on March 13, 1938, with the avowed intention of compelling Jews to emigrate while making it almost impossible at the same time. The pogrom (Kristollnacht) of November 9-10, 1938 followed the killing of Vom Rath in Paris; the brutal assault on Jews throughout the Reich, the demolition of their houses and businesses, the burning of synagogues and the wholesale arrests, violence, and murder roused world-wide protests.
The Nazis murdered their victims at a wide variety of sites, including vehicles, houses, hospitals, fields, concentration camps and purpose-built extermination camps. There were six major extermination camps and eight major euthanasia extermination centers . the Jews of Lithuania were massacred in 1941 with a swiftness and thoroughness that was unusual even for that time. Hundreds of Lithuanian towns have their pit in the forest, not far from the market square, where Jews were assembled, shot, and buried in a mass grave. In most cases it was the German Nazi invaders who issued the orders, but in most cases it was Lithuanians who pulled the triggers. In fact, the killing of Jews began even before the Germans took over.
During the war, in the three major Lithuanian cities, tens of thousands of Jews were confined in ghettos.
To Remember: International Holocaust Remembrance Day-
Sat, Jan 27, 2024
Now, there is the movement to hide all this from the public; to distort history. Even Wikipedia is guilty of doing this. This essay uncovers the systematic, intentional distortion of Holocaust history on the English-language Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia. In the last decade, a group of committed Wikipedia editors have been promoting a skewed version of history on Wikipedia, one touted by right-wing Polish nationalists, which whitewashes the role of Polish society in the Holocaust and bolsters stereotypes about Jews. Due to this group’s zealous handiwork, Wikipedia’s articles on the Holocaust in Poland minimize Polish antisemitism, exaggerate the Poles’ role in saving Jews, insinuate that most Jews supported Communism and conspired with Communists to betray Poles (Żydokomuna or Judeo–Bolshevism), blame Jews for their own persecution, and inflate Jewish collaboration with the Nazis.
Holocaust distortion is an urgent and growing issue. “Distortion of the Holocaust is found in all kinds of places. From facts twisted on the internet, to opportunistic statements by politicians, misleading exhibitions at museums, and claims, like that of the founder of Extinction Rebellion,
Roger Hallam, who referred to the Holocaust as 'just another f***ery in human history.' Each of these forms must be challenged, and strategies for countering them must be developed, for societies and individuals to fulfill their responsibility to commemorate the victims,” says former IHRA Chair Ambassador Michaela Küchler.
With antisemitism on the rise internationally, we see Holocaust denial and distortion becoming more and more prevalent in contemporary culture, from media to politics across the ideological spectrum. But what is Holocaust distortion, and why is it so damaging?
Although distortion often shares the same antisemitic goals as denial, it can be harder to identify the motives behind it, as there are some forms of distortion that stem from ignorance rather than antisemitism. Regardless of the motivation, however, distortion always reinforces antisemitism and related biases. It opens the door to outright Holocaust denial or other forms of pernicious, dangerous, and violent antisemitism.
"A half-truth is worse than a full lie."
– IHRA Honorary Chairman Yehuda Bauer, Yehuda Bauer is a Czech-born Israeli historian and scholar of the Holocaust. He is a professor of Holocaust Studies at the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Brigitte Bailer, who co-chaired an IHRA Project with Juliane Wetzel that produced an explanatory publication on Holocaust distortion, agrees. Brigitte Bailer-Galanda is an Austrian social scientist and historian. She was the director of the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance and deputy chairwoman of the Historical Commission of the Republic of Austria. Bailer-Galanda is an honorary professor of contemporary history at the University of Vienna.
“Holocaust denial is always rooted in antisemitism and is part of antisemitic propaganda. Holocaust distortion is often connected to antisemitism, but not necessarily so,” Bailer says, adding that “denial and distortion both damage the memory of the Holocaust and are an insult to its victims and survivors.”
Malice, Murder, and Manipulation: One man's quest for truth
Resource:
Book: The Holocaust-a history of the Jews of Europe during the second world war by Martin Gilbert
Movie: The Pianist is a 2002 biographical war drama film produced and directed by Roman Polanski, with a script by Ronald Harwood, and starring Adrien Brody. It is based on the autobiographical book The Pianist (1946), a Holocaust memoir by the Polish-Jewish pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman, a Holocaust survivor. The film was a co-production by France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nazi_concentration_camps
https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/news-archive/what-holocaust-distortion-and-why-it-problem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_ghettos_in_German-occupied_Poland#:~:text=The%20Warsaw%20Ghetto%20was%20the,largest%2C%20holding%20about%20160%2C000%20inmates.
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Poland#:~:text=The%20invasion%20of%20Poland%20(1,beginning%20of%20World%20War%20II.
https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=1211#:~:text=12%2F11%2F1941&text=Following%20the%20Declaration%20of%20War,Resolution%20on%20December%2011%2C%201941.
https://jewishcurrents.org/lithuanias-difficult-history
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