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Holocaust Deniers | Pierre Vidal-Naquet They call themselves “ revisionists , ” a term which they do not deserve . We call them “ deniers , ” and this word says it all : they are not “ revising ” the history of the Holocaust , but - in contrast to their professing to be historians - insisting on denying it . In the beginning , silence and disbelief enabled Nazi Germany’s acts of destruction , at least until 1943 . Meager information reached the West , information that was difficult to verify . It also aroused vigorous opposition . The facts that were received were so troubling that at first it seemed that they could not be true . Furthermore , they were overshadowed by the memory of the anti-German propaganda in the First World War . This skepticism was overcome following the liberation from the Nazi occupation , when it became clear that millions of Jews had been murdered - victims of the sophisticated methods of elimination employed by the Nazi police and , even more so , by the mobile killing units , the Einsatzgruppen , in Poland , Romania , and the occupied Soviet territories . Many were worked to death in the ghettos and concentration camps , and others were subjected to an “ industrial” killing technique : the gas chambers in Auschwitz , Bergen , Chelmno , Sobibor , Maidanek , and Treblinka . Even when there was no longer any doubt regarding the facts , they could hardly be conceptualized or interpreted using existing analytical tools . Marxism , for example , could have taken a position regarding also because of the shortage of jobs . Before the entry of the United States into the Second World War , with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 , discrimination against Jews in America was felt to be acceptable . Only a few Jews were permitted to study in the prestigious universities , and limited numbers of teaching positions were open to them in all universities , prestigious or not ; in addition , few Jews were accepted to teach in medical schools . Jews were rarely employed by the major business corporations in the country . This situation only began to change significantly during the war , and thereafter , when America called upon all its sons and daughters to stand together against the Nazi threat . Before then , the world of business in America was almost completely closed to Jews , with the exception of new fields such as the motion picture industry ( Hollywood ) , radio , and - about twenty years later - television . The American establishment now allowed Jews to find work and achieve promotion , but only in newer or high-risk businesses . While Jews succeeded in overcoming the discrimination they had faced , on the other hand they did not achieve key positions in American society until the new era that began in the 1950 s . America was founded on the principle of equality . Its founding fathers enunciated it in their call for rebellion against British rule on July 4 , 1776 , and in the United States Constitution that was promulgated in 1789 . For some generations it was clear that not all American citizens enjoyed equality , but it was universally accepted that equality was a key value whose realization was just a matter of time . The Jews acquired this equality when they first came to America , when they were a small minority , but it was attained by the vast majority of American Jewry only in the new era that followed the Second World War .
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