Deny

"My task and all I ask is that you never forget
Cause those who forget: history will repeat it
The Nazis were defeated yet the lies live on and spawn
In the ignorance of those whose motives reap it
And claim death counts were made up as if we needed to exaggerate
But I saw how hate could make right-thinking people deviate
When they create excuses for the nooses and reasons for the bleeding
But nothing made as much sense as "Seeing is believing"
I can't stop crying
This isn't human
Only illusion, but I'm trying
What I saw will defy
Too many dead to identify
Cities disappear and whole families die
So when you deny, spreading lies my mind burns with the pictures left behind
Please look inside my eye and tell six million Earth citizens why
All I want to know is how the hell can you deny?
How the hell can you deny? How the hell can you deny?
How the hell can you deny..."

Excerpt from lyrics of "Deny" - Josh Martinez

NEVER AGAIN.....i wonder......

Freedom of speech, power of rational debate; Holocaust deniers have long used these core values of some societies to defend their hatred-filled speech. In light of the Danish cartoons row, this was a favorite line in those weeks: “If one is allowed to mock a religion, why shouldn’t one be allowed to deny Holocaust??? Isn’t it freedom of speech for all??”

I’m not going to go through the entire list of arguments for which an equal sign cannot be put between the two…Just think what the consequences of Holocaust denial are. History has proved, in too many occasions, that no matter how absurd an idea, it is sufficient to repeat it loud enough and long enough, for people to gradually start believing that ‘there might be some truth in it’.

It doesn’t matter that the idea can be clearly ripped apart by historical evidence and rational argument. The average person of the world won’t go chasing the source of alternate opinion, on the contrary, will likely want to listen again to the ‘weird, absurd’ theory....and again and again, till it has been around for so long, that he/she gets used with it and accepts it…It’s how political propaganda worked for centuries and how it works even better today with intense media coverage we’re all exposed to..

That’s what’s hideous about Holocaust deniers: they don’t need to prove anything! The don’t need to have any evidence of their statements! For their purpose, it is enough to keep talking, to keep screaming their ‘scientific speech’, till a critical mass of followers and created. And once there, restarting another ‘historical argument’ - “Jews are to blame for all evil of the world and that needs to be eliminated’ is the natural step to follow”…

The idea sounds so absurd in today’s society. Indeed, it would probably take much longer than the same cycle took in previous massacres/pogroms…but, give it a generation change or two, get holocaust deniers platforms like international history conferences for their message, and you’ll see the world showing its dark face once again…

I signed this petition of the Simon Wiesenthal Center against the Iran's Holocaust Denial Conference and sent it across to my friends as well. Not sure if it can change anything, but beside writing this blog and signing that letter, I don’t know what else I can do…