To be annoyed at some views on The Holocaust

[M0naLisa]

I've just seen that one of the last surviving Holocaust survivors has died aged 110! It came up on ITV news page on Facebook. Some of the comments are vile and very nasty!!

Why don't people believe what happened in WWII actually did happen?! Makes me so angry

I was educated on this at school in History, and when my children do WWII at school we will speak to them about what happened etc. do these people who don't believe pass their views on to their children?!

[DonnaDishwater]

There are still quite a few holocaust survivors living. The person aged 100 might have been the oldest surviving one.

Don't know what to say about holocaust deniers. Unfortunately anti-semitism lives on for whatever reasons.

[M0naLisa]

Yes sorry. One
Of the oldest living survivors.

[NinjaBunny]

Why don't people believe what happened in WWII actually did happen?!

Because it's so horrific it doesn't seem real.

Most of it is completely unimaginable. I read loads of historical stuff and when you compare some of the goings on with how we live in this country today it just doesn't seem possible.

[Devora]

It must seem almost unimaginable in its horror to many people. Not so much to those of us whose families were caught up in it.

The people who refuse to believe it, though, either just really, really love a conspiracy theory, or hate Jews.

[dreamingbohemian]

Because they're idiots

I know there are all sorts of fancy psychological/sociological reasons to explain deniers but for me that's what it comes down to.

[ConferencePear]

They're not just ordinary idiots either; they are anti-semitic ill-educated idiots.

[JohnFarleysRuskin]

There have been two threads in the last month or so about people with holocaust denier relatives.

Being a thick, anti Semitic twat is quite widespread it seems.

[ProbablyCaroline]

Racist twats claim it didn't happen OP. You have some unfriending to do.

[daisychain01]

Trouble with the deniers they only use their own "made up" facts to back up their argument.

And yes they are pathetic.

But I do like to give them the ability to speak because there is no point silencing idiots, just let them hang themselves with their own vile bigoted words. Jobs a good'un

[sashh]

I think one of the problems (apart from racist thickos) is that so much was kept quiet during WWII that people who lived through it can get in to an, "I know, I was there" attitude and dismiss things that did happen in the war.

And like it or not, the UK government kept concentration camps a secret from the general public.

My parents were both children in WWII and if I say something happened my dad will say something along the lines of he doesn't know but my mum will swear blind it didn't happen or that I am wrong.

And then people go on about 'my grandad says.............. and he was there'.

The holocaust is one she doesn't say this about, I think mainly because one of her neighbours was involved in either the liberation of the camps or shortly afterwards so she knows. 'someone who was there'.

[HelpfulChap]

YANBU

Jews are an easy target and people find the number 6 million hard to get their head around. It doesn't seem possible.

FB - wouldn't touch it with a barge-pole!

[JazzAnnNonMouse]

What do holocaust deniers actually believed happened? They must have an explanation for the amount of Jewish, disabled, gypsy, gay etc people that were tortured and murdered?
I don't really get how people can deny it when there's proof ie photographic evidence!

[wowfudge]

Probably she doesn't have any unfriending to do - the comments on FB will be on the ITV pages and visible to anyone who reads it. You don't have to be friends with the deniers to see their comments.

OP - I agree. Bizarre to deny it ever happened. I think some of these people should meet concentration camp survivors and then consider their position.

[northlight]

The survivors knew that this would happen. That is why so much evidence was collected and preserved at the time. Quite apart from the testimony of witnesses there are the railway timetables, the manufacture of poison gas, the construction of the ovens and so on and so on.

Deniers hope that they can convince due to the passage of time and by repeatedly lying about the evidence. The film Shoa dispassionately presents this evidence. Watch it if you get the opportunity.

[Greenkit]

Can anyone suggest a good history book where I can read up about the above?

[RedHelenB]

People can deny anything but the camps are there & I know they are funding teenagers from all countries to visit so they can spread the understanding. Sometimes it is easier to deny horrors existed tan acknowledge them. All that can be done is to carry on learning about it.

[YouTheCat]

I have a book called 'Never Again' - covers a lot.

Holocaust deniers are idiots. I suppose the Daily Mirror I have from 1945 must have photoshopped the pictures of emaciated bodies in a pit from the liberation of Auschwitz?

[mrstigs]

I don't personally know anyone who disputes it, though I think I've heard of it before. I can't understand why anyone would make it up - what could anyone gain?

[MyCatLovesMeSometimes]

I agree with you RedHelen I visited Bergen-Belsen as a young teenager which made a lasting impression on me (though was already aware of WW2 history from family history). That really brought it home seeing the camp and remembering the people who had suffered and died there.

[M0naLisa]

Thanks if I get the chance I'll try to find it online to watch. I was going to ask if there were any books about it I could read too.
The stories I've read in the past are horrifying. They also say the concentration camps in North Korea at the moment mirror those of WWII

[ProfondoRosso]

Holocaust deniers are absolute racist scum.

[Stinklebell]

My grandfather was at the liberation of Belsen.

What he saw there affected him for the rest of his life, and holocaust deniers used to make him so angry

[Manchesterhistorygirl]

Max Hastings books are very good and for the most intimate account of being a Jew in WW2 then you must read Anne Frank.

Also worth a read are any mass observation books, they are voices from the home front.

Anyone who is a holocaust denier is an absolute arse in my opinion.

[Dawndonnaagain]

It is unfortunate that David Irving and his ilk still exist. Racist twats is far too kind a term.

[Greenkit]

Thank you you the cat

Manchesterhistorygirl which Max Hasting book would you recomend?