In 21st century, Holocaust denial is easy
Op-ed: Technology allows haters to deny the Shoah's occurrence with a simple editing program and some viral push in social networks. We can still fight them online, forcing them back into the darkness.
What would you say to a Holocaust survivor’s testimony that confirms that information? Where she explains that the reason the Nazis cut their hair was lice epidemic, and that they were lucky to sleep in cramped bunk beds that the Nazis managed to arrange for them, because the alternative was sleeping outside in the cold.
They are also being sold on mainstream websites, such as Amazon, which provides them with another approval of authenticity of sort.
The technology of the 21st century allows haters to deny the occurrence of the Holocaust with a simple editing program and some viral push in social networks. By doing so, and adding some dramatic music in the background, creators of those films fool thousands of unaware people every day. Lies that are easy for us to detect can seem as reliable facts to the many people who are not surrounded by the memory of the Holocaust.
Up until recently, those Holocaust deniers, seeking to spread hate, had very little impact when facing Holocaust survivors and European citizens from back then. Unfortunately, with time, the number of witnesses is decreasing rapidly, and thus the lies can seem more reliable when carefully disguised.
Soon it will be entirely up to us, the second and third generation, to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive so that history could never repeat itself. Once the witnesses all rest in peace, all we will have left are stories, pictures and items that can be easily be claimed as fake. It will be us against them, and we must continue being the majority. Denying the Holocaust is now as easy as proving it occurred, and social networks are still unable to detect lies.
In recent years, anti-Semites and neo-Nazis are carefully stepping out of the shadows and managing to slowly sweep groups of fans after them. Making people believe they are not the ones to blame for their own troubles is easy, especially in times of financial struggle. Placing the blame on someone else is easier.
Now, we can still fight them virtually, forcing them back into the darkness. We can still write to Amazon and ask them to stop working with contributors poisoning people’s minds with lies. We can still counter those lies online. We can no longer sit aside with confidence that “it will never happen again.” The time to act is now.
