Event: Defeating Distortion Holocaust Denial and Distortion in an Era of Antisemitic Tidal Change

Conference on 14 May 2025, 12:00–18:00

German Resistance Memorial Center (Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand)
Stauffenbergstraße 13, 10785 Berlin

In recent years and throughout Europe, actors across the political spectrum, including elected politicians, exploited the memory of the Holocaust—the genocide committed by the Nazis against the European and North-African Jews—for political gain. While Holocaust denial is a criminal offence in most EU states, distortion often appears in ways that evade prosecution. Manifestations of Holocaust denial and distortion vary according to societal and political contexts: Some imagery appears online and offline across Europe—such as yellow stars labelled ‚unvaccinated‘ during the COVID-19 pandemic or equations of the actions of the Israeli government to those of the Nazis. Other forms are unique to specific countries.

Holocaust denial and distortion are always deeply intertwined in the national political landscape and remembrance culture. To fully grasp how the Holocaust is remembered, studied, understood and weaponized, it is essential to consider the broader societal context. This includes historical narratives on various forms of perpetratorship as well as the legacy of state socialism and how these are discussed in European migration societies. Controversial debates on Holocaust commemoration are frequently projected onto Holocaust memorial sites and museums, creating tension with their objective to foster critical historical consciousness. The erosion of Holocaust commemoration increasingly leads to antisemitic incidents and public defamation of those sites, incited by actors from across the political spectrum.

For Jews and their communities, the denial and trivialisation of the Holocaust scorns the memory of the most traumatic event in Jewish history. For practitioners in the field of research, monitoring, education and policy-making on antisemitism, Holocaust denial and distortion are a constantly evolving challenge in identifying new narratives and developing strategies to counter these.

This conference will bring together experts from different fields to analyse current trends, discuss their impact, and explore strategies for countering misinformation and historical falsification. Key questions include:

• How do Holocaust denial and distortion vary across European countries in terms of imagery and function? How are those influenced by various forms of perpetratorship and the legacy of state socialism?
• What drives Holocaust denial and distortion, and how does it affect Jewish communities, Holocaust survivors and their descendants?
• How do Holocaust denial and distortion spread online transnationally, how is it linked to offline forms and what strategies can counter it?
• What role do institutions of remembrance, such as memorials, play as a contested field of historical politics 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz?

The conference “Defeating Distortion“ is public and aimed at civic educators, researchers, public service workers, politicians, diplomats and the media.

Conference Details

This conference is the closing event of the project Standardised Recording of Holocaust Distortion in Five European Countries according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) non-legally binding working definition of Holocaust denial and distortion. Since June 2024 the project has been raising awareness for Holocaust denial and distortion on social media as a part of the campaign #FACTSMATTER Defend Truth, Defeat Distortion.

Admission is free of charge and is subject to registration at https://gstoo.de/defeatingdistortion until 13th May 2025

The event will be held in English. A live stream is also available after registration.

Organisers

The conference is organised by the Bundesverband RIAS e. V., part of the European Network on Monitoring Antisemitism (ENMA). ENMA aims to provide internationally comparable data on antisemitic incidents.

Funding & Campaign

The conference is funded as part of the project Standardised Recording of Holocaust Distortion in Five European Countries. Since June 2024 the project has been raising awareness for Holocaust denial and distortion on social media as part of the campaign #FACTSMATTER Defend Truth, Defeat Distortion.