I was wondering if there is a factual answer to know how Holocaust deniers think. Do they deny Crystalnacht? How the Nazis bombed the hell out of England? What the Nazis did to the Louvre? To the Palace of Versailles? To the Amber Room in Russia? And, so on?
(Based on this track record, is the Holocaust really that much of a stretch?)
They will admit to some incidents, claiming that the stories are exaggerated, or that the actions were justified. Remember that these are not rational people.
I think they’re very rational. They like Adolf Hitler and the Nazi platform and policies, but they know that public sentiment is very much against the Holocaust and that it it hurts Nazism’s reputation with the general public. So by denying it, minimizing it, and obfuscating it, they hope to remove a stumbling block yowards popular acceptance of Nazism.
They refuse to accept that Himmler wore white after labor day.
That’s why he was known as “The Monster Of Munich”…
BTW, I think the word you want is atrocities, not travesties. There’s a significant difference between the two.
I came here to talk about Cabaret.
Did anyone else read the title as “Nazi Transvestites”?
That would be Ernst Röhm. 
Yes. Just out of bed, pre-coffee, and skimming the thread titles. I was like, ‘What’s that about Holocaust diners and Nazi transvestites?’
carnivorousplant:
Hermann Goering too, IIRC.
What about millitary atrocities such as the Malmedy Massacre?
I don’t think I’ve ever run into a true holocaust denier. But there’s another group that my friends call the Nazi-Fetishists. Whenever we play WWII-era wargames, the NFs always have to play the Germans. At gaming cons, you see them wearing the Tiger Tank or “Michael Wittman” t-shirts. They always talk about how superior the Wehrmacht was and are just huge fanboys to the point of denying any fault in the German war machine. It’s always exaperating hearing them try to mitigate or rationalize the horrors committed by Waffen SS units in combat.
There have been some real old-school deniers here on the SDMB, if you were reading those threads.
Out of curiosity, how do they rationalize that the Germans lost?
The usual response I get is that the US and USSR simply out-produced them and flooded them with endless waves of troops. That’s true to a large extent, but the NFs inherently dismiss that there were any allied troops of equal quality to the Germans.
Down here in Dixie, I often have the same conversation with the very same guys, but with the word “Confederate” in place of “German.”
Holocaust deniers range from those who deny it happened at all to those who say it happened but wasn’t Hitler’s (or the Nazi’s) fault but rather localism run amok.
Japanese have in the past countered the rape of Nanking by saying it was no worse than the Atomic bombs. Germans counter the Blitz of London with the Dresden firebombing. (At the time Dresden was thought to be of no military importance but new light has revealed it did hold military facilities)
War is not supposed to be nice. That is why America keeps losing You can’t fight a war on the enemy’s terms and expect no one to get hurt. This happened to us (basically) in the Gulf War and in the Kosovo Bombing (yes people were hurt on the other side but few were hurt on hour side)
War crimes such as rape happen. It happned in occupied Japan, and in Europe where Americans raped locals. No it didn’t happen on any wide scale and it was less then rape occurs in the USA itself, but things like that serve as excuses for people.
The Japanese have always clung to the idea that getting nuked wiped away all their sins. It’s awfully convienent, but I don’t buy it since their argument seems to excuse their atrocities. Also, our attacks were a millitary mission with the intent of ending the war and saving American lives from the expected invasion. How did beheading contests and “comfort women” further the pursuit of peace?
Sorry to create a tangent, but what did the Nazis do to the Palace of Versailles?
[Channeling Emily Litella]
Why is there a big deal about Nazi Transvestites? who care is there is bunch of Germans dressing up as women
Well, that is important, Nevermind
[/CEL]
I most definitely read the title as Transvestites.
Have any of them run for Congress?: http://www.thirdage.com/news/rich-iott-defends-nazi-uniform-pictures_10-12-2010