The terminology “Holocaust denial” refers to the denial of (or the inability to believe that) the genocide of 6 million Jews occurred during the Second World War. The three primary claims of denial are:

The survivors of the Holocaust have provided some of the most important aspects of our living memory of the Holocaust. They went on to write, to speak, and to inspire generations of people who did not witness the transformation of Germany into a Nazi state or see the realities of the death camps firsthand.

There were many events leading up to the Holocaust, and it is perhaps unfair to claim that the Holocaust “mainly” happened in 1944, after the death camps were activated and placed into full operations throughout Germany. Although the “Final Solution” came into being officially in 1944, the death camps had already been operating at a lower level in secret and had led to many deaths.

Today, Germany has some of the strictest laws in the world about propagating the Nazi ideology. It is illegal to incite race hatred on the Nazi basis. Many different Nazi symbols, such as the swastika, cannot be produced, sold, or worn in public. Anyone who is found guilty of engaging in “Neo-Nazi” behavior can be charged with a crime and punished within the legal system.

It was extremely difficult for anyone who entered into a Holocaust death camp to survive. Of the many millions who were forced into this horrible situation by the Nazis, only about 1% are known to have survived the experience. Being placed into a Holocaust death camp was a terrifying ordeal that taxed the mind, body, and spirit to the absolute limits.