Definition of Historical Revisionism

Historians investigate past events in order to learn the truth about them. However, in the search for the truth there may be hidden interests and all kinds of interpretations. Historical revisionism is a historiographic current in which a perspective alternative to the view traditionally accepted by the majority of analysts.

Historical revisionism and the Jewish holocaust

The Jewish holocaust during World War II had an official version defended by the allied countries that defeated the Nazi regime. Starting in 1950, some historians questioned the official version of the Holocaust, especially the figures regarding the executions of Jews in the camps of concentration.

One of the main promoters in this regard is the British David Irving. According to this position, the extermination of the Jewish people is actually a historical lie based on the manipulation of information and on the propaganda.

In some European countries there are laws that prohibit the denial of the holocaust because they consider it

immoral and totally opposite to the historical truth. In this sense, Holocaust deniers assert that the images of the concentration camps are actually photographic montages or that the famous gas chambers were used to disinfect the prisoners and not to murder them.

A branch of study that generates intense controversy

Past events are analyzed or revised with new data or new methodological approaches. However, a distinction must be made between legitimate fact-checking and historical revisionism.

In the first case, historical science is in a permanent process of revision, since no truth is definitive and it is always possible to find evidence that questions the official version of an episode or a moment historical. However, historical revisionism is, in general lines, the current that denies the basic principles relative to a historical truth and for this reason reason revisionism is synonymous with denialism.

On many occasions, revisionist authors are accused of manipulation and misrepresentation

Sometimes the revisionist positions are due to journalistic disputes or national interests, as happens with the great genocides of the 20th century that are systematically denied by the representatives of the nations that carried out the massacres or crimes

History, like other scientific disciplines, can be approached with rigorous criteria and veracity, but revisionist or denialist approaches are characterized by the political use of history and by the contamination informative.

This current is present in most countries and with it it is intended to question certain tragic episodes that have marked the history of a nation.

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