Holocaust Deniers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Holocaust Deniers - Essay Example Deniers like to call themselves 'Revisionists,' an ambiguous term that needs to be substituted by Holocaust deniers, which more adequate[ly] reflects their ideology."2 Holocaust deniers usually make claims about actual facts that precipitated and included the happenings of events that took place in Nazi concentration camps from 1939-1945 during World War II in Hitler's Germany. Claims range from the fact that Hitler never ordered a plan for a "Final Solution" to the 'Jewish Problem,' to the idea that an order was never carried out for the Jews' methodical extermination. However, there are plenty of pieces of evidence which document the actual occurrence of the Holocaust and its atrocities. In fact, the Holocaust is one of the most widely- and well-documented massacres in history. "The father of Holocaust denial was Paul Rassinier (1906-1967), adeportee to the Dora concentration camp[who] returned from Dora with[a vision that]the victims of the war were the Germans; the ones to blame were the Jews who were responsible for the world conflict."3 This leads us to the question that naturally follows, which is, What is Holocaust denial and the arguments that it proposes Holocaust denial, by definition, is "a propaganda movement active in the United States, Canada and Western Europe which seeks to deny the reality of the Nazi regime's systematic mass murder of 6 million Jews in Europe during World War II."4 The Institute for Historical Review is the main organization which supports revisionism, which denies the Holocaust ever happened. The IHR, founded by William Carto, holds annual conferences which are forums for revisionist 'historians' to foment and spread their propaganda. These people are not historians at all. In fact, they usually seek to undermine legitimate historical research and writing through propagating their own writings. The IHR is "a pseudo-academic enterprise[for people with] no [history credentials, including Ph.D.'s]Revilo P. Oliver and Robert Faurisson[,] writersDavid Irvingand Bradley Smith, and career anti-SemitesMark Weber and Ernst Zndel-convene to develop new outlets for their anti-Jewish, anti-Israel and, for some, pro[-]Nazi beliefs."5 Most notably, recently, those who deny the Holocaust have decided to use empirical evidence in order to prove their point that the Holocaust could not have happened. The "Leuchter and Rudolf Reports purported to demonstrate that there was not enough cyanide residue in the Auschwitz gas chambers to be consistent with mass gassing. Friedrich Paul Berg, inThe Diesel Gas Chambers: Myth Within a Myth, claims to show that it would be improbableto use diesel engine exhaust to kill people"6 Each paper cites "experiments, laboratory analyses,

Explain how blood diamonds have helped prolong conflict in Africa Essay

Explain how blood diamonds have helped prolong conflict in Africa - Essay Example mer Zaire (now conveniently known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC-Kinshasa) and from Sierra Leone to Liberia, diamonds have fuelled civil wars by armed insurgents seeking both revolutionary social change and vast riches through the illicit diamond trade. According to the United Nations, conflict diamonds are used to fund military action on behalf of insurgents and the trade of said diamonds is illegal. Seeking to explore the linkages between diamonds in Africa and modern insurgency, this essay will provide a holistic analysis of the conflict diamond phenomenon and will begin by defining conflict diamonds as well as explore historical antecedents to this trend. This will be followed by a brief discussion of the role of conflict diamonds in modern instances of civil war, including in Liberia, Angola, the DRC and Sierra Leone. Our case analysis will focus primarily on Sierra Leone and the role of diamonds in perpetuating civil war in one of the poorest countries on the plan et. We then turn to an exploration of the international response to conflict diamonds, including the Kimberly Process, and in the case of Sierra Leone, the establishment of international criminal tribunals to bring the perpetrators of armed conflict and extreme violence, often funded through the illicit diamond trade, to justice. By exploring efforts to curb the illicit trade of conflict diamonds, we hope to shed light on the international efforts and will conclude with questions regarding the future of armed conflict in Africa and the role that diamonds and other precious resources may play in fuelling future conflict (Goldsmith, 1987) The exploitation of Africa is a historical fact with its roots in the colonial enterprise and Western encroachment onto the continent. Colonialism has had a lasting impact on many countries of the developing world. Few countries of the world were immune to colonial penetration and the enduring influence of the colonial legacy can be found in