Letter From Holocaust Survivors on Holocaust Denial

July 20, 2018

AN OPEN LETTER FROM HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS ON HOLOCAUST DENIAL

For many years and with increasing concern, we survivors of the Holocaust have closely followed the growing phenomenon of Holocaust denial and distortion in the US, Europe and the Middle East. To witness people question the veracity of the horrific tragedy that destroyed our families and obliterated our communities is deeply painful. And beyond the personal offense, Holocaust denial is something more. It is dangerous. To all of us.

As noted historian Deborah Lipstadt, the leading scholar on Holocaust denial, wrote: “Deniers, who today clearly feel more emboldened than ever before, are not the equivalents of flat earth theorists, nor are they just plain loonies….They are white supremacists and anti-Semites. Their agenda is to reinforce and spread the very hatred that produced the Holocaust.”

We are very grateful that there are many institutions, such as the US Holocaust Memorial Museum where we serve as volunteers, that teach the public the truth about the Holocaust. And, we are very grateful that this nation values and protects free speech, which was not true in the lands of our birth. 

But the rise of the internet and the prevalence of social media are challenging our society with new questions about how our democracy can responsibly manage free speech. We call on leaders in government, technology, media, education and civil society to take on this issue as an urgent matter for our nation’s future.

We know from experience that hate begins with words. But left unchecked, that is not where it ends.

Katie Altenberg

David Bayer

Robert Behr

Ralph Berets

Ruth Cohen

Francine A. Drimer

Marcel Drimer

Maria Dworzecka

Arye R. Ephrath

Steven Fenves

Fred Flatow            

Albert Garih               

Peter Gorog        

Fritz Gluckstein

Henry Greenbaum

Anna Grosz

Inge Katzenstein

Julie A. Keefer

Theodora Klayman

Ruth Kohn

Lisa Kraft

Maryla Korn

Estelle Glazer Laughlin

Louise Lawrence-Israels

Frank Liebermann

Manny Mandel

Michel Margosis

Harry Markowicz

Margit Meissner

Alfred Münzer

Joel Nommick

Jill Pauly

Kurt Pauly

Halina Yasharoff Peabody

George Pick

Samuel Ponczak

Morris Rosen

Sylvia Rozines

Rita Rubenstein

Alex Schiffman-Shilo

Esther R. Starobin

Alfred Traum

Josiane Traum

Susan Warsinger

Irene Weiss

Martin Weiss