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The Museum is Closed

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum is closed on Saturday, October 12, 2024, in observance of Yom Kippur.

Evidence and Documentation of the Holocaust

Holocaust denial, distortion, and misuse are strategies used to undermine or cast doubt upon the historical truth of the Holocaust. Deniers engage in this activity to reduce perceived public sympathy to Jews, to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel, to plant seeds of doubt about Jews and the Holocaust, and to draw attention to particular issues or viewpoints. The internet, because of its ease of access and dissemination, seeming anonymity, and perceived authority, is now the chief conduit of Holocaust denial.

Key denial assertions are that the murder of approximately six million Jews during World War II never occurred, that the Nazis had no official policy or intention to exterminate the Jews, and that the poison gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp never existed. Common distortions include, for example, assertions that the figure of six million Jewish deaths is an exaggeration and that the diary of Anne Frank is a forgery. Learn more about the facts of the Holocaust below.