How would you convince someone the Holocaust existed?

[Bento Box]

How do you convince someone that their belief in one God or another is wrong?

You can't. If someone is that dedicated to their belief, it's impossible to sway their opinion. It's best just to ignore them.

/Prepares flameshield

Oh, now this is just silly.

Of -course- you can convince someone that their god concepts are false; I'm living proof, and so are hundreds of millions of other ex-theists. This defeatist garbage is a waste of everyone's time.


As to the topic at hand: people believe different things for different reasons. People believe the holocaust is a hoax for different reasons. Before you try to convince them, get their perspective, and do your damnedest to determine both the root of their belief and, more importantly, any investment they might have in the belief. If they have some interest in trying to get people to deny the holocaust (say, Aryan Brothers trying to make Jews look like liars with a persecution complex in order to defame their character across the board and push them into the dregs), then the problem probably goes deeper than you can deal with.

 

[teebeeohh]

Hit you in the face real hard.
If you have but one argument(It's all a lie) no matter what arguments I have (witnesses, the Nazis actually documenting everything) you are just a fundamentalist who can't be argued with. Same goes for religious nutjobs, "god wants it" is not the universal answer to everything.

 

[alandavidson]

The Nazis cataloged the killings of both the Einsatzgruppen and the concentration camps with both photographic documentation and paper documentation. Babi Yar was extensively documented, and that creates more than enough evidence in itself.

But if someone is set in their ways, there is very little that will actually let the truth in.

 

[ultrachicken]

Gonna go with the mass consensus and say that people are very stubborn in their beliefs. Very rare to sway someone's belief of something. If only we could send all these people to a camp where they could learn to concentrate and listen to reason.

So... a concentration camp? How ironic.

OT: I wouldn't bother. If neither evidence or reason won't sway someone, I see no other way.

 

[kouriichi]

I wouldnt even bother. People that stupid arnt worth the effort.

 

[BaronOfStuff]

Show them photos of the piles of corpses discovered in Auschwitz/Dachau/Buchenwald/Bergen-Belsen.
Take them to see survivors.
Take them to see former guards.

Then I'd Srsface.

 

[bl4ckh4wk64]

Slap them in the face and throttle them with the power of reason.

Yeah, this, pretty much. The only thing it would achieve is some nice jail time.

How would anyone deny the Holocaust? What possible evidence could there be against it? And how do you argue when the very buildings that they used to torture Jews still stand today? It isn't like arguing about God, where his existence can't be argued for or against, at least not scientifically. It's something that actually exists, that actually happened, that is recorded in history, and was reported by many thousands of people.

I can understand why - some people can't fathom that humanity could do something that cruel - but even then the facts that it did happen are there.

Actually certain people like to say the Holocaust was made up to stir support for the creation of Israel as a country. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the "president" of Iran, currently claims that the Holocaust was made up and he's in a holy conflict to bring out the truth.

OT: There really is no point in trying to argue with people that stupid. I mean, if they won't listen to real witnesses, pictures, documentation, and people downright saying, "Yea, we did this" then there really is nothing else to show them without stooping down to their level of intelligence, or lack of it.

 

[Ruwrak]

HIstory books, 6 million lives missing.
If they don't see that, their a bit dense or very blind =/

 

[Manji187]

Keep in mind that I wouldn't be swayed by witnesses or historical accounts because that's all "part of the lie", and I wouldn't be affected by an appeal to logic or reason because I'm clearly insane.

You'd need near-irrefutable proof to convince me that history isn't one giant Jewish-controlled conspiracy.

Do you see what you did there? You've painted yourself into a corner. There is no convincing a madman since no evidence will register as evidence; no such thing as (near) irrefutable proof for someone who cannot reason. Therefore arguing is pointless.

 

[Sk1ver]

It's pretty well documented with an astounding amount of eyewitness accounts from US and Russian servicemen, and a pretty extensive photo record. E.g. http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/10/world-war-ii-the-holocaust/100170/
Also, the Nazi's themselves kept extremely meticulous records of what they were doing through one of the first computerised databases - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust
Goebels actually kept a diary which has been published - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search?tag=thenizkorproject&keyword=goebbels&mode=books
That's only scratching the surface of the proof that's out there including interviews given by ex-SS officers and camp guards.

If anyone is ignorant enough to think this is all a hoax other commenters are correct and they are best ignored, or at least encouraged not to breed to protect the gene pool.

If you want to argue with a holocaust denier on their own terms try punching them hard in the nose. When they complain about it, deny it ever happened and make them prove that it did. Remember that their eyewitness acounts, or those of any others that happened to "witness" the event or aftermath are obviously part of a conspiracy to impugn your good name. There is no evidence they can give that cannot have an alternate expanation, no matter how unlikely.

 

[Kathinka]

I wouldn't. Someone with this level of utter brain malfunction and retardation wouldn't even be worth talking to.

If you want to argue with a holocaust denier on their own terms try punching them hard in the nose. When they complain about it, deny it ever happened and make them prove that it did. Remember that their eyewitness acounts, or those of any others that happened to "witness" the event or aftermath are obviously part of a conspiracy to impugn your good name. There is no evidence they can give that cannot have an alternate expanation, no matter how unlikely.

Brilliant! THIS is how science works to make a batter world for mankind!

 

[DracoSuave]

At this point in history all you really have is the story. The story told by the survivors, the one told by the guards and murders who still live and the one told by the places where human misery was distilled into a currency bartered freely in a bid for power. There is plenty of evidence to be had I suppose but proof? There is no proof of a thing once it happens - simply stories to be believed or discounted. History doesn't seem to care which story people believe.

Stories... and millions of dead bodies science can study in detail forever.

Oh yeah. That.


However, most Holocaust deniers have the exact same spiel.

'The holocaust never happened.'
'So what do you suggest be done then?'
'Kill all the Jews.'

.....yeah. Okay.

 

[Nouw]

Make them watch sad WW2 films, documentaries and T.V. shows which feature the Holocaust. Seriously though, I wouldn't bother. It's simply stupid to think that it was a conspiracy. Why bother?

 

[Twilight_guy]

I wouldn't do anything. There's clearly no point and I have better things to attend to.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Fists. To the face. Call me old fashioned, but Holocaust denial is one thing that I will not fucking stand for.

 

[similar.squirrel]

Fists. To the face. Call me old fashioned, but Holocaust denial is one thing that I will not fucking stand for.

Violence would just make him think your "in on it" and strengthen his position. Demolishing his arguments and showing the absolute absurdity would at least weaken his position. Pretty much ever time someone gets up and says "the Holocaust never happened" they make an ass of themselves and the movement

Yeah..but. No, my idea of a good time is still running amok with a water-cannon at a Neo-Nazi rally. I'll leave the reasoning to men smarter than myself.

 

[DracoSuave]

I wouldn't do anything. There's clearly no point and I have better things to attend to.

Actually there IS a point.

Those who propagate these rediculous claims MUST be challenged publicly. The idea is not to convince one person, but expose the idea to others as rediculous and poisonous.

Look, eventually, we won't have living proof of the Holocaust, as what few survivors remain will die. This is going to happen in our lifetimes, which means we're going to live in a world where there ARE no witnesses to such an atrocity.

Look at anti-muslim rhetoric after 9/11. Now imagine that same rhetoric without the living idea that massive systematic racism is HORRIFYING. Imagine the people thinking 'Hey, we should just round them up!' without being able to see Mr. Rosenthal over there with a tattoo on his hand that says 'Yes, it really IS bad to gather humans as cattle to the abbatoir.'

We actually DO need an independant scientific study of holocaust remains. We need it studied scientifically, and made so it cannot be refuted this happened, because it won't be long before someone else will get the idea that concentration camps are a good way to improve the nation's economy, and it won't be long before no one will be left alive to say 'Never again.'