How did Holocaust denial start?

Answer 1

The Nazi regime itself took steps to hush up the Holocaust. The extermination was supposed to be kept secret ... The extermination camps at Belzec and Treblinka were destroyed in 1943 ... When Soviet forces approached Auschwitz, the gas chambers were blown up and records destroyed - by the Nazis. A few mavericks and cranks denied the Holocaust in the 1960s but gained little attention. Holocaust denial on a large scale started in the 1970s. It went hand in hand with claims that Zionists had exaggerated the Holocaust in order to win sympathy internationally for the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. This made Holocaust denial popular in much of the Middle East.

Answer 2

Former Nazis and Nazi sympathizers

The above answer is wrong.

The first holocaust denier was a Nazi concentration camp Survivor named Paul Rassinier. He was imprisoned for his communist activities. After the war he met with several survivors who were telling stories about the holocaust. Through his own experience he was able to get them to admit the stories they were telling were lies. He wrote a book about it and is credited with being the first holocaust denier.

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Rassinier entered concentration camp as a victim and emerged as a Nazi. It sounds like a case of the Stockholm syndrome.

Answer 3

There are several Holocaust memorials ...