What was the holocaust? Why do people argue its authenticity?

Question

Can someone please explain the halocaust to me? We haven't gone over it in school as of yet, so basically, the only thing I've learned about what the halocaust is: Hitler hated jews, hitler killed 6 million of them, some people believe it never happened. So, what is the halocaust? Why do people deny its authenticity? Thanks!!

Answer 1

In 1935 there were already 8 million Jews living in Germany. Between 1939 and 1945 six million Jews were killed in parts of Europe controlled by the Nazis. It wasn't just the Jews that were slaughtered it was gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and mentally handicapped people. They were killed for no reason at all, just for a man called Hitler who was obsessed with the Jews.

This is known as the "Holocaust"!
The Holocaust, what does it mean? Well the Holocaust means 'Sacrifice' The Jews don't like this word because they like to use this word called Churban, which means 'destruction'. I actually prefer the Jews term better. Because how could an attempt to wipe out the whole population of the Jews be a sacrifice.
A sacrifice is where you kill something symbolically not for hatred or self-respect.

There are many necessary factors to explain the Holocaust, but none are sufficient. This can be interpreted from two perspectives, the Intentionalist and the Functionalist. An Intentionalist would interpret this quote by Adolf Hitler as proof that from the time he first tried to gain political power he had a plan to annihilate the Jews via Genocide. On the other hand a Functionalist would say that this is not an actual decision for future action of annihilation. According to Functionalists the annihilation strategy evolved rather than followed a preset blueprint.

Functionalists believe that the policy of dealing with the Jews evolved from driving the Jews out of Germany to annihilation when it became apparent that all the Jews could not leave fast enough. The sequence of events that began with "You may not work among us," led to "You may not live among us," and escalated to "You may not live at all." When Hitler first came to power the policy of dealing with the Jewish Question was to make life for Jews in Germany so miserable as to encourage them to flee the country. The decision to annihilate the Jews did not exist until the opportunity to annihilate the Jews existed and forcing the Jews out of Germany was no longer an option.

In recent years, Holocaust deniers have turned to "scientific" arguments to "prove" that the Nazi regime could not have used gas chambers to carry out an extermination program against Jews and Gypsies. The "Leuchter and Rudolf reports" purported to demonstrate that there was not enough cyanide residue in the Auschwitz gas chambers to be consistent with mass gassing. Friedrich Paul Berg, in his paper "The Diesel Gas Chambers: Myth Within a Myth," claims to show that it would be improbable at best and nearly impossible at worst to use diesel engine exhaust to kill people in the manner and time described by eyewitnesses to the gas chambers at Belzec and Treblinka. Both papers cite experiments, laboratory analyses, chemical compositions, etc. just like any other objective scientific paper - or so the authors would like us to believe.

The danger of this new denier approach is that few people have the technical background to analyze the papers and understand their fundamental flaws. Too many people glance at the arguments, see "science," and immediately their eyes glaze over. They figure that since it's "scientific," there must be something to it. Thus Holocaust denial gains scientific credibility.

Unfortunately, there's a difference between denier "science" and true science. The fundamental principle of true science is this: any theory must take into account any relevant observable facts. That is, the theory must fit the facts; a true scientist never denies facts simply because they don't fit the theory. The way an honest scientist works is to make observations first, and only then come up with a theory which explains what is seen. If at any time the facts contradict the theory, the theory is discarded as false. A new one must be formed.

The Holocaust deniers reverse this process. First they decide what they want the "facts" to be, contrary to all eyewitness testimony and documentary and physical evidence. They come up with theories to "prove" that the "true" facts must be the way they want them to be. Therefore all documents are forgeries or mean something other than what they clearly seem to mean, and eyewitnesses to events which contradict their theory must be lying, mistaken, crazy, or victims of some form of coercion which caused themto give false testimony.

That is enough.....

Answer 2

The Holocaust was a mass genocide that happened during Hitler's reign.
First he forced all Jews to move into the same neighborhoods, creating the orginal Ghettos. He imposed curfews throught the use of S.S. Officers.
Then the S.S. rounded up everyone Hitler believed to be a threat to the Aryan race, which he condsidered the one true race, which included Jews, gypsies, metally & physcially handicapped, and homosexuals, among others.
The Aryan race was an ideal Hitler, himself, created. There is NO such thing as an Aryan. Hitler didn't even fit his own ideal (light-skinned, blond, blue-eyed person). Hitler also was not German, he was Austrian.
These people were transported in cramped train cars, where many died, to concentration camps. Men and women were usually separated once they reached the camps into separate quarters. At first these concentraion camps were labor camps, forcing the victims to work long harsh days. Many died from this as well. Evenually, Hitler decided to impose genocide (ethnic cleansing) on everyone in the camps. This is when they became death camps. Not only were they plagued with disease, but were routinely executed in a variety of horrible ways. After Hitler commited suicide and the Nazi party fell apart, the Allies liberated the remaining survivors from the camps. The years of physical and psychologicl torture haunted the survivors for their remaining years. It is estimated that 6 million people were killed during this time...which is very believable considering how many mass excecutions, along with torturous conditions these victims faced.
People who hate Jews deny the Holocaust happened. Who knows why? It is generally people from the Middle East, such as the Iranian president, who deny the Holocaust.
People in Europe take the Holocaust very seriously, especially in Germany and Austria. Denying the Holocaust gets you sent to prison in many European countries, because they feel guilty, and want to prevent genocide from occuring.
Genocide still exists however, in many places all over the world, such as in Darfur in Africa.

Answer 3

I haven't checked wikipedia for the exact explanation, but it will give you all the information.
In my own words Holocaust was the time when Hitler, the German leader killed not only jews, but also gay people, handicapped people, gipseys and anyone he thought was not a member of the Arian race, which is some kind of German, blond haired, blue eyed person. People were killed or held in "concentration camps" which were basically work camps, out of which noone got out. People were killed in the most horrific ways. It's too horrific to get into details. A few people deny that the Holocaust happened, this is an offence. There is no doubt it occurred, and too ridiculous to entertain the thought that it didn't.
The people who attempt to deny the Holocaust seem to support Hitler's sick ideas, don't even waste time reading up or listening to them.
Thank goodness this time is over.

Answer 4

Hi there,

Good question, by the way. The Holocaust was a horrific and frightening episode in history.

The Jews living in Germany at that time were very assimilated; they married outside of their religion, loved German culture, and were in general very happy there.

Unfortunately, as in many countries, there existed dormant racism. Hitler was able to plug into this and exploit it.

Hitler, and other Nazis such as Eichmann, and Mengele, were responsible for the deaths of six million Jews, and countless non Jews; they also hated gays, and black people, and people with any disability.

What makes the Holocaust 'unique' for want of a better word, is the way that the attempted genocide of one specific religions group, the Jews, was organised so awfully 'efficiently' and again, I use this word but not in a positive sense.

The Jews were transported into the concentration camps in trains; they were told that they were going to holiday camps and in fact, at some of the places, cheerful music was played so that the Jews fell for the lie until it was far too late for them.

I won't go into much detail but Mengele performed some hideous 'experiments' on Jewish people. Children were not spared, either.

If you want to learn more, there are many books on the topic.

A really good one, especially since you are still at school, is 'The Wave'; I read it years ago and it really stayed with me.

As for people who deny the Holocaust; they're irrational. There is so, so much evidence, both in the form of photographs, and also in the firsthand accounts of those Jews who somehow survived the concentration camps.

I hope this answer has helped a bit.

Have a star for a good question.

EDIT JOE C

- I didn't ask this question....

EDIT MISS

Not only are you failing to address the question but you are also talking rubbish.

Answer 5

this is provided that of the final way the Jews have been slaughtered. Holocaust comes style the Greek word holokaustus, meaning that to burn or eat by way of ability of hearth. those others slaughters did no longer hire the perspective of hearth as did the Nazis.

Answer 6

to understand the denial you must know what the Holocaust was, what the impact it has on the israeli-palestinian tragedy and to learn at least a little a few basics(non-biased)about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict!
So, to have a better understanding of what`s happening now and then, you need to have some knowledge.then there are the reparations.The Jewish Lobby asks for money to recompensate for what was happening Hitler`s(of course this is not possible) time.Now, to get money(which mostly goes to the military, weaponry etc)they play "victim" and are making of the memorial day really kind of "a cult"(some Israeli called it like that) so they get more donations, weaponry etc they say "never forget, never again" I`m all for it, just I think it should apply to all mankind.
Of course- Holocaust denyiers of the Western States in particular-namely USA, Europe et al are idiots
Anyway I have a website with lots of different vids

Answer 7

You just said it:
The holocaust was the period of time in which millions of Jews were exterminated.
Hitler didn't like Jews, or homosexuals, or anyone who disagreed with his plan for a master Aryan race. (Know how Neo-Nazis hate everyone, too?)
Hitler thought the German people were the best (because he was one).

People deny the holocaust because they are ignorant or just plain stupid. There's no way it didn't happen. There's too much irrefutable evidence (like eyewitness accounts, Anne Frank's diary, etc).

Answer 8

For those who question that 6 million jews died at the hands of the Nazis, the figure is probably based on Nazi records who were scrupulous recorders. They recorded everything which would include a death count in the extermination camps.

Answer 9

You described it accurately. The Nazis also kept millions more in concentration camps and performed gruesome medical experiments on some of them.

The people who deny that the Holocaust was real are generally white supremacists who share Hitler's views and want to convince people that he wasn't one of history's greatest monsters. They're trying to minimize their inhumanity by trivializing his, but they can't change history. The Holocaust was real, and as the saying goes, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Answer 10

All most no one says he didn't kill them, the big question is how many.
We may never really know.
Because there are no mass graves for civilian or soldiers killed in the war, so what did they do with the bodies?
I think they made the Jews burn most of them as well as the Jews.
But I doubt it was 6 million of just Jewish people.
Ask your teacher" What did they do with the dead civilians and German soldiers".
They won't tell you, because 6 million Jews sounds more horrific, and if you were a Jew, wouldn't you want more sympathy?
So yeah it happened, but what exactly happened is what I and the rest of the world wants to know.

Yeah, yeah you people can give me a thumbs down, but did you ever ask the question I just asked? No, you haven't and some one should have.