by Arthur Gibson

Created on: July 05, 2007

How anyone can possibly deny that the Holocaust occurred is almost beyond comprehension. To do so one has to deny mountains of evidence that exists from the mid 1930s to the end of World War II. And the Nazis themselves provide the most compelling documentation of their atrocities.

Almost from the moment when they gained power, Hitler and his cohorts kept immaculate records detailing their activities. These include numerous movies shot by troops and SS men as events took place, photos of the victims and mass graves, and detailed records of who was sent to concentration camps, for what reason, and what happened to the individual. So much evidence accumulated that it was impossible for the surviving Nazi Leaders to deny during the Nuremberg Trials. The most common defense was that the atrocities occurred without an individual's knowledge; or that they were just following orders. Few if any of the Nazis brought to trial when confronted with the evidence wanted to admit that they had a part in establishing the policies or the extermination camps.

General Eisenhower and other Allied leaders were appalled at what they found when the camps were liberated. And is more than one instance, the population of a nearby village, town, or city were forced to march through a camp to witness the crimes that had been perpetrated in their name. This was one method of countering the "we didn't know" syndrome that seemed prevalent among the local population. Again, film and pictorial evidence demonstrates the truth of what was uncovered. Mass graves, mounds of unburied bodies, human skeletons just barely able to move and warehouses full of clothing, jewelry, and other personal possessions taken from the inmates.

How can one deny the thousands of survivors who carried the tattoos inflicted upon them at arrival to one of the camps? How can one deny the documented evidence of the evil experiments carried out on live subjects by Dr. Menegele and others like him? To deny the Holocaust happened is to deny all the eyewitness accounts of allied soldiers who liberated the camps. Or the personal stories of hardship, deprivation, and agony from those who survived to tell their tale. To deny that the Holocaust occurred is to make liars of thousands of people who documented the existence of the camps and crematoriums, or told of losing their entire family to the sickness of an evil regime.

No one will ever know the exact number of innocent victims of the Holocaust. Yet, we can remember that the victims came from many races and ethnic backgrounds. Jews, gypsies, Slavs, the mentally and physically handicapped, citizens of Germany, France, Denmark, Poland, the Ukraine, and other countries were equally shared a common fate and frequently a common grave.

Today as the last survivors of the Holocaust begin dying from old age and disease some would like to forget this horror ever happened. Others like Saddam Hussein celebrated Hitler and hoped to extend the Nazi policies to their own countries. Revisionists would prefer to shut their eyes and say these stories were blown all out of proportion. But, the evidence still exists and needs to be reviewed by each of us today and for each generation to follow on a regular basis.

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