Editing Holocaust denial (section)

==False equivalence and effect==
===Denialist focus on Allied war crimes===
In countries where outright denial of the Holocaust is illegal, Holocaust denial authors, focus "on so-called [[Allied war crimes during World War II#Western Allies|Allied atrocities]] against the Germans during and after the war."<ref>Stephen E. Atkins, ''Holocaust denial as an international movement'', ABC-CLIO, 2009, pg. 105</ref> According to historian [[Deborah Lipstadt]], the concept of "comparable Allied wrongs", such as the [[expulsion of Germans after World War II]] and the [[bombing of Dresden]],<ref>{{cite web|last=Evans|first=Richard|author-link=Richard J. Evans|title=Dresden and Holocaust Denial|work=David Irving, Hitler and Holocaust Denial: Electronic Edition|year=1996|url=http://hdot.org/en/trial/defense/evans/520e.html|access-date=December 23, 2013|archive-date=December 20, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220011057/http://hdot.org/en/trial/defense/evans/520e.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> is at the center of, and a continuously repeated theme of, contemporary [[Historical revisionism (negationism)#Politically motivated historical revisionism|Holocaust denial]]; she calls the phenomenon "immoral equivalencies".<ref>Lipstadt, Deborah. ''Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory'', Bt Bound, 1999, pg. 41</ref> In 1977, historian [[Martin Broszat]], in a review of [[David Irving]]'s book ''[[Hitler's War]]'', maintained that the picture of World War II drawn by Irving was done in a such way to imply moral equivalence between the actions of the Axis and Allied states with both sides equally guilty of terrible crimes, leading to Hitler's "fanatical, destructive will to annihilate" being downgraded to being "no longer an exceptional phenomenon".<ref>Broszat, Martin. "Hitler and the Genesis of the 'Final Solution': An Assessment of David Irving's Theses" pages 390–429 from ''Aspects of the Third Reich'' edited by H.W. Koch page 395.</ref>

===Propaganda===
According to James Najarian,{{who|date=December 2021}} Holocaust deniers working for the [[Institute for Historical Review]] are not trained in history and "put out sham scholarly articles in the mock-academic publication, the ''[[Journal of Historical Review]]''".{{sfn|Najarian|1997|p=74}} They appeal to "our objectivity, our sense of fair play, and our distrust of figurative language".{{sfn|Najarian|1997|p=76}} Thus, they rely on facts to grab the readers' attention. These facts, however, are strung by what Najarian calls "fabricated decorum" and are re-interpreted for their use. For example, they pay particular attention to inconsistencies in numbers.{{sfn|Najarian|1997|p=80}}{{clarify|date=December 2015|reason=Which "inconsistencies in numbers" are being referred to here?}}

Holocaust denial propaganda in all forms has been shown to influence the audiences that it reaches. In fact, even the well-educated—that is, college graduates and current university students alike—are susceptible to such propaganda when it is presented before them. This stems from the growing disbelief that audiences feel after being exposed to such information, especially since Holocaust witnesses themselves are decreasing in number.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lasson|first=Kenneth|year=2007|title=Defending Truth: Legal and Psychological Aspects of Holocaust Denial|journal=Current Psychology|volume=26|issue=3–4|page=256|url=http://www.schaler.net/Lasson.pdf|access-date=February 7, 2011|doi=10.1007/s12144-007-9013-7|s2cid=143382566|archive-date=November 5, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171105193336/http://www.schaler.net/Lasson.pdf|url-status=live| issn=0737-8262 }}</ref> Studies centered on the psychological effects of Holocaust denial propaganda confirm this assertion. Linda M. Yelland and William F. Stone, in particular, show that Denial essays decrease readers' belief in the Holocaust, regardless of their prior Holocaust awareness.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Yelland|first1=Linda M.|last2=Stone|first2=William F.|year=1996|title=Belief in the Holocaust: Effects of Personality and Propaganda|journal=Political Psychology|volume=17|issue=3|page=559|jstor=3791968|doi=10.2307/3791968}}</ref>