Criminal Prosecution of 'Holocaust
Denial'
by Barbara Kulaszka

In recent years, more and more attention has been devoted to the supposed danger of
"Holocaust denial." Politicians, newspapers and television warn about the growing
influence of those who reject the Holocaust story that some six million European Jews
were systematically exterminated during the Second World War, most of them in gas
chambers.
In several countries, including Israel, France, Germany and Austria, "Holocaust
denial" is against the law, and "deniers" have been punished with stiff fines and prison
sentences. Some frantic Jewish community leaders are calling for similar government
measures in North America against so-called "deniers." In Canada, David Matas,
Senior Counsel for the "League for Human Rights" of the Zionist B'nai B'rith
organization, says: (note 1)
The Holocaust was the murder of six million Jews, including two million children.
Holocaust denial is a second murder of those same six million. First their lives were
extinguished; then their deaths. A person who denies the Holocaust becomes part of
the crime of the Holocaust itself.
Often overlooked in this controversy is the crucial question: Just what constitutes
"Holocaust denial"?
Six Million?
Should someone be considered a "Holocaust denier" because he does not believe -- as
Matas and others insist -- that six million Jews were killed during World War II? This
figure was cited by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1945-1946. It
found that "the policy pursued [by the German government] resulted in the killing of
six million Jews, of which four million were killed in the extermination institutions."
(note 2)
Yet if that is so, then several of the most prominent Holocaust historians could be
regarded as "deniers." Professor Raul Hilberg, author of the standard reference work,
The Destruction of the European Jews, does not accept that six million Jews died. He
puts the total of deaths (from all causes) at 5.1 million. Gerald Reitlinger, author of
The Final Solution, likewise did not accept the six million figure. He estimated the
figure of Jewish wartime dead might be as high as 4.6 million, but admitted that this
was conjectural due to a lack of reliable information.