(New York, N.Y.) — Today, Israelis and Jewish communities will begin their observance of Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah, a remembrance of the six million lives lost in the Holocaust as well as Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In recent years, Holocaust denial and revisionism have become central components of antisemitic conspiracies regarding Jewish power and influence, leading the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) to specifically classify Holocaust denial and revisionism as an example of contemporary antisemitism.

In January 2022, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution expressing concern about “the growing prevalence of Holocaust denial or distortion through the use of information and communications technologies,” and called on all U.N. members to develop educational programs on the Holocaust and “reject without any reservation any denial or distortion of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part, or any activities to this end.” Antisemitism monitors recorded more antisemitic incidents in the United States in 2021 than in any other year in decades.

Holocaust denial and revisionism can be broken down into two primary intersecting ideas: The record of the Holocaust is false or has been exaggerated and Jews abuse the memory of the Holocaust to garner sympathy and maintain influence. At the core of each is the accusation that Jews have distorted history, drawing from the idea of a powerful Jewish conspiracy manipulating global attitudes, historical records, and international affairs.

To read Counter Extremism Project (CEP)’s resource Antisemitism: A History, please click here.

To read CEP’s resource Antisemitism Resurgent: Manifestation Of Antisemitism In The 21st Century, please click here.  

To read CEP’s resource Holocaust Denial, please click here.