Denial: The Worst State To Live In

In medieval times, one of the trendy ways of being anti-Semitic was accusing Jewish people of engaging in blood libels, the murders of innocent, pure Christian boys just wanting to spread Christianity in a heartless, medieval society. This tactic worked fairly well, considering the Jews were banished from England until roughly 1829, massacred, and also held at internment camps and then killed. This strategy was simple enough, and it worked nicely even after the medieval times through the “modern” eras although it was presented in more ways than blood libels.

Then Hitler came on the scene which messed everything up for anti-Semitics in the long haul. First, Hitler lost the War, and second, the Holocaust, one of humanity’s greatest tragedies, was essentially discovered. People everywhere mourned with the Jewish people. The argument could be made that people around the world wanted to help the Jews and sympathize and encourage them simply because Hitler was evil, and anything associated with Hitler is wrong, therefore anti-Semitism is bad. So with these circumstances, the old medieval method of scapegoating is tossed out of the window for the time-being. At least for public use. 

But what if the entire event that led the public away from scapegoating could be debunked? What if the event could be forgotten, or even trimmed around the edges so it wasn’t that bad? What if the public could be convinced that the Jews were lying about the Holocaust, and it was all a set-up? As bizarre as these questions sound, it’s kind of happening across the globe. Medieval anti-Semitism wants to be back in style.

Two things that should never be brought back: anti-Semitism and those dreadful hats.

The Anti-Defamation League, a group combating anti-Semitic views and championing peace, released survey findings from 100 countries with thousands of people interviewed for it. A little more than half of the people surveyed claimed to have never heard of the Holocaust. A third of the ones that have heard of it claimed it never happened. People insist that it was a hoax, a myth, or part of a political agenda pushed by the government.

Someone actually drew this and thought it was hilarious and truthful.

The main arguments deniers have are no one could have killed that many people, Israel (the Jewish 

People) is in it for the money and attention, and the Nazis weren’t that terrible. It’s only crazy people on the Internet that believe these things though, right? Maybe not. In 2014, a California school sent out a homework assignment that asked students whether they believed the Holocaust happened or if it was a part of a greater political scheme. The school claimed the assignment met the Common Core requirements of a critical thinking lesson. The denials are edging their way into common society and thought, much like anti-Semitic jokes and stereotypes already have.

More sophisticated than an accusation of a blood libel.

History has a funny way of working in cycles. Currently, we’re in a peculiar state of how the world views the Jewish people— we are splitting up in terms of supporting them, and instead of blaming, we are denying their tragedies. So when will the blame game really start back up again for medieval time’s sake? 

*As a side note, I believe that the Holocaust absolutely happened, but when I was doing research for this post, I found some dark and disturbing places on the Internet. If you are interested in seeing some arguments denying the Holocaust--warning, can contain extremely offensive content--look here, here, here, here, and you can watch this video among others if you check out the recommended videos on the side bar.