French revisionists and the myth of Holocaust

From the perspective of the late 1980s, we are offered a consideration of the then relatively new phenomena of Holocaust denial and historical revisionism as they occurred in France. The chief revisionist was Paul Rassinier (1906-1967), himself a survivor of Dora and Buchenwald. The revisionists deployed selectivity, scepticism about survivors' testimonies and a meretricious concern for free speech in pursuing their aims. They averred that Hitler neither planned nor ordered the Final Solution; that the figure of six million victims is greatly exaggerated; and that there were no gas chambers used for killing. Young people proved particularly receptive to their views. The conclusion is that, by attempting to conceal the crime, revisionists defend it.