Of course, the motivations of left-wing Holocaust denial and diminishment are often different to those of the extreme right, driven not by a desire to resurrect fascism but often the result of a fundamentally left-wing reading of history, rooted in theories about class, materialism and imperialism.
While outright denial of the Holocaust remains extremely rare on the left (as a belief in egalitarianism and a history of opposition to racism and fascism do not easily fit with the denial of the Nazis’ planned extermination of the Jews), there is a worrying prevalence of Holocaust diminishment and a relativising or excusing of denial, deniers and antisemitism, all expressed with a view to furthering a set of political objectives.
However, perhaps the most striking changes over the past few years relate to far-right and fascist Holocaust denial.
In the past decade or so, the far-right form of the narrative has undergone a generational shift, as the big names that dominated the scene for decades have begun to die out or no longer have the ability to fill rooms as they once did.
As we approach a time when there will be no more eye witnesses of the Holocaust we face new challenges in defending historical truth. For the new younger deniers of the alt-right, the Holocaust has become historicised and lacks the central place in societal consciousness that it, alongside the Second World War, previously held. As such, the battleground for historical truth is now occupied by new generations on both sides.
The traditional denial scene, which largely focused on a pseudo-academic approach and was dominated by big names like David Irving, Ernst Zündel and Fred Leuchter, is headed by an ever-shrinking group of activists. It is a movement in decline, and since the decisive debunking of many of its ideas in the Irving vs Lipstadt trial in 2000, has struggled to attract new followers.
The arrival of the internet, however, and the ease with which it can be used to disseminate falsehoods, allowed a younger far-right movements such as the “alt-right” to reanimate their predecessors’ ideas.
This online world has proven a double-edged sword for the traditional Holocaust denial community, however. Though it has catalysed the spread of denial and antisemitic material, it has also resulted in the pseudo-intellectual pretensions of traditional Holocaust deniers being overtaken by the methods of tech-savvy antisemites, such as ‘trolling’ and the use of antisemitic memes.
Worryingly, the evidence suggests that their message is not just one of denial, but also often of acceptance and even celebration of the Holocaust.
However, one area where the traditional denial scene still dominates the younger alt-right crowd is in the Middle East and North Africa, with members of the old guard still popping up on Iranian television channels.
Many will remember the now infamous 2006 Holocaust denial conference in Tehran attended by notorious Western deniers such as Michèle Renouf, David Duke and the now-deceased Robert Faurisson. Since the that conference, Renouf appeared on a range of Iranian-owned satellite television stations, such as Sahar 1 and Press TV.
Peter Rushton, formerly of the British National Party and other even more extreme racist groups, has also appeared on Press TV and media organs such as The Times of Iran and the Iran Daily.
Whilst state-sponsored Iranian Holocaust denial has propped up elements of the European denial community during periods of financial hardship and ostracisation in the West, much has changed in North Africa and the Middle East in the last decade in the wake of the Arab Spring. Whether this new generation of Western far-right Holocaust deniers will be able to forge similar relationships as their forebears with regimes in the region remains to be seen.
Of course, it is impossible to separate Holocaust denial in the Middle East and North Africa from the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent tensions and conflicts in the region. Denial in that region was born independently of its European counterparts, developing not as a means to resurrect fascism but rather as a means to undermine the creation and development of a Jewish state in the region.
There is also the complex issue of Holocaust denial and diminishment by some Muslims living in the West which, while not fundamentally distinct from other forms of denial, is driven by a complex and diverse set of factors.
For example, Muslims in the West engaging in diminishment draw at times on both traditional European deniers’ ideas that Germany is made to feel “guilt” about the Holocaust, as well as “us vs them” narratives prevalent in the Middle East and North Africa, which argue that “the Jews” are intrinsically opposed to “the Muslims”.
Research carried out by the Anti-Defamation League in 2015, found that Muslim respondents in six Western European countries were “much more likely to describe the Holocaust as a myth or exaggerated than the population at large in those same countries”.
The best way to fight back against Holocaust denial wherever it rears its head is education.
It is for this reason that the anti-racism advocacy group HOPE not Hate has published Rewriting History: Lying, Denying and Revising the Holocaust, designed as an accessible overview of all types of contemporary Holocaust denial, ranging from traditional far-right denial, left-wing denial, denial in the Middle East, North Africa and Iran, as well as among some Muslims in the West.
Since launching on Monday, hundreds of copies of Rewriting History — an updated version of a book on the same subject published in 2012 — have been sponsored by members of the public and donated to schools across the country.
This is evidence that many still recognise the vital importance of keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive, especially among younger generations who may be more vulnerable to extremists peddling their lies online.
Joe Mulhall is senior researcher for HOPE not Hate. ‘Rewriting History’ is available on Kindle and paperback
