Holocaust Denial and Racism
Holocaust denial is a key component of Australia's small White Supremacy movement. Just as Jewish history is denied by these groups, so too is Aboriginal history. One Australian denier explains the nexus between Holocaust denial and his group's anti-Aboriginal position by saying, "the mind-set that attempts to stop us from exploring the factual historical truth-content of the Jewish-Nazi Holocaust is similar to the mind-set that claims to have the Aborigines' interests at heart." He makes the ridiculous assertion that "Australia's Aborigines originally came from southern India - thereby short-circuiting the silly story that their origin lies in some 40 000-year dreamtime mythology".

It must therefore be noted that Holocaust denial is not an exclusively Jewish concern. Denial is simply part of a world view of profound animosity to all. While the deniers' groups are not large in numbers, their activities are an outlet for anti-social behaviour and worse, give public exposure to views which are blatantly unacceptable and dangerous to Australian society.

Neo-Nazis in the U.S., 1999 (Photo: Marie Claire magazine)

Countering Denial
One would like to think that Holocaust denial could never progress from the fringe to the mainstream, but the history of antisemitism provides ample proof that absurdity is no barrier to acceptability. If Holocaust denial is recognised for what it is: antisemitism as the thin end of the wedge for broader racism, fascism and Nazism, then it should be subject to all the limitations placed on racist activity, including being subject to racial vilification legislation.

The Holocaust deniers contend that to oppose their Holocaust denial is to oppose freedom of speech, academic inquiry and the pursuit of the historical truth. Yet this is just another myth, because genuine scholars of the Holocaust are engaged in an ongoing and lively debate about the nature of the Holocaust.

For a number of years deniers have targeted universities as the front line of their campaign. Desperately wanting their denial to be construed as genuine academic inquiry, they wish to win academic respectability, as well as the ear and sympathy of people whom they think will be in positions of power and influence in the years to come. It must be made categorically clear that academic inquiry into all and very aspect of history is to be encouraged. Only by knowing the truth can the past be confronted, but rather than analyse history and pursue the truth, Holocaust deniers distort it. They propagate lies, turning myths to facts and facts to fiction, using the language of scholarship to pervert its goals.

There are parameters to academic and public debate. Some facts are beyond debate. The earth is round, the sky is blue and the sun rises and sets. If someone with no scientific background established an organisation and gave it a scientific title and asserted that the earth was flat, the sky was green and the sun did not rise or set, such arguments would not be entered into by academics or considered by the media. Their views would be given no credibility whatsoever. The same should apply to Holocaust deniers.

Taken from an article by the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission of Australia and New Zealand, June 1999