Rating: 
Summary: This book is terrible.
Review: This is an excellent, much needed book, which combats what is described as a moral and intellectual virus being used to attack the extremely well documented, factual record of the Holocaust in which over six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis.The book is extremely well written with both compassion and authority. The book illustrates that despite the irrefutable evidence and clinical accuracy in which the Holocaust was meticulously documented and in which the genocide of the European Jews was pursued, there are still sources who would dispute that the Holocaust ever occurred or that it has been greatly exaggerated. An attitude which appears to increase in parallel with the present day's rising anti-Semitism. It is made very clear in this book that very few historical events are as well documented as the Holocaust, yet few if any of these other events are questioned. Indeed, despite other genocides and slaughters having occurred throughout history, (with none having been as well documented as that of the Jews), none receive the denial and hostility afforded the Jewish Holocaust. Casualty figures surrounding the other issues being openly accepted. The contents of the book confirm that the purpose of the Holocaust was to remove the Jewish presence from Europe and show that it nearly succeeded. It is further exposed that the purpose of the Holocaust denier is to remove the memory of this attempt at genocide. Something which if allowed to succeed, will prepare the path for history to repeat itself. On page 22 the book cites a seeming "contradiction" where it outlines many instances where even the Nazi perpetrators of the Holocaust actually admitted the crimes that they committed, whilst a growing group who were not even present at the time claim that the perpetrators were innocent. The book citing neo-Nazis who once argued that the Holocaust, however horrible, was justified now content that the entire event was a hoax. The latter being more expedient to furthering their cause, where the book alleges attempts are made to "rehabilitate the persecutors and demonise the victims". The book addresses the issue of how Holocaust deniers are often afforded near celebrity status and their views given unbelievable credibility with a ready platform frequently being provided for the proponents by many elements of the media under the banner of free speech. Many Holocaust deniers are described as often using the guise of scholarship to camouflage their anti-Semitic ideology. With the increase of anti-Semitism the book contends that the average uninformed person will find it increasingly difficult to discern the true objectives of the Holocaust deniers, who use arguments carefully designed to take advantage of the vulnerability & fragility of memory, truthfulness and reason. Indeed a number of public surveys are quoted in the book which reveal an alarming ignorance amongst the public in relation to the Holocaust, despite the wealth of material and information available. The contents of the work show that for the first 40 years after the Holocaust, there was a sort of protective "Teflon" against blatant anti-Semitic expression. Now, due to the process of Holocaust denial, that protective covering has become eroded and society has moved from where anti-Semitism was a crime, past where anti-Semitism was classed as distasteful, to it now simply being another opinion. Something which the book declares will increase as the number of Holocaust survivors become less and less as the years progress. My only criticism of this book is that, amongst the many areas/avenues of Holocaust denial studied, no attention is made to the Holocaust denial amongst the Arab nations in the Middle East. For those interested in the latter subject might I respectfully recommend Arieh Stav's book entitled "Peace: The Arabian Caricature: A Study of Anti-Semitic Imagery"
Thanks for your time.
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