Lipstadt said it is idiotic to claim the holocaust never happened, and those who make the claim are doing so for clear political reasons that have to do with making their Nazi views socially acceptable. She warned, though, that the propaganda will be harder to combat in the future, after the last remaining survivors of the holocaust have died and there is nobody with first-hand experience of what happened. She pointed out that in addition to the stories of holocaust survivors, there are also first-hand accounts from admitted perpetrators and from witnesses such as villagers who lived near some of the death camps. She warned against treating the issue as a discussion between two credible points of view, arguing that holocaust denial is not credible, and that being treated as if it were is a key goal of holocaust deniers.
Ignorance is their best weapon.
The three-day conference, which concludes in Toronto today, is meant to study the question of hate propaganda on the Internet and consider possible remedies. 1997 Newsbytes News Network.