What is Revisionism?

Willis Carto

People who believe that the Holocaust occurred but that it was not designed to exterminate the Jewish population, prefer the label “revisionists” instead of “deniers." Revisionism was given its name by active antisemitic Willis Carto and his Institute for Historical Review, or IHR, which claimed denial as another “credible historical theory." However, the first known case of revisionism began after World War I in 1920. Smith College professor Sidney B. Fay claimed he was told a bunch of “silly propaganda” about the war. The IHR defined “revisionism” as an “acceptable historical approach which seeks new ways to understand historical events.” It defines the term “denier” as a person who “ignores or twists evidence in order to pervert history." They may have a different name, but many of the beliefs of  revisionists and deniers are strikingly similar. Many revisionists and deniers support their theories by saying that the evidence presented in the Nuremberg Trials, or war crime cases, and the people who presented it are fake. Both groups choose to ignore any uncovered written records such as notes and orders. They say that the information present on these is either “forged” or that the translator translated them the wrong way.