Background 

The Holocaust is one of the most infamous genocides in world history. The death of six million a the hands of Nazis has caused an abundance of memorials, art, museums, and witness accounts and literature. However, there is another side of responses to the Holocaust. These accounts reveal the “dark side” of witnessing with the advent of an area of scholarship euphemistically known as “historical revisionism” – also known as Holocaust denial. Deniers range from Neo-Nazi extremists who claim the Holocaust is a propaganda myth to concentration camp survivors, such as Paul Rassinier, whose accounts deny any broad extermination plans.

Regardless of the levels or nuances of these supposed “scholars,” according to Israel Charny, “Deliberate denial of a known genocide is a harmful act that deserves to be included in the same moral domain as actual contributions to a genocide – indirect and direct. Indeed, denial may be appropriately regarded as the last stage of genocide, one that can continue long after the actual killing has ended” (Charny 159). Many view the works of deniers as not worth the time or effort to understand, but the risk surrounding this field of study merits attention and an attempt to understand the not so perfect side of witnessing.