Holocaust Denial in France Analysis of a Unique Phenomenon

Examines the development of the revisionist movement in France in the postwar period. Dwells on the personalities and the ideas of Maurice Bardèche, Paul Rassinier, and Robert Faurisson; mentions numerous other, more contemporary, Holocaust deniers and trivializers, such as Henri Roques and Pierre Guillaume. In the last decade, denial and trivialization of the Holocaust has gradually become an accepted idea, deeply rooted in the national culture. Although the radical right adopted Holocaust denial as part of its ideology, this phenomenon is in no way limited to the right-wing: many revisionists belong now to the radical left, Catholic integrist, and some other camps. Most of the exponents of Holocaust denial in France are apolitical intellectuals, and the phenomenon is much more cultural than political, albeit no less dangerous. Pp. 1-15 contain a translation of the lecture "Who Are the Assassins of Memory?", delivered by Pierre Vidal-Naquet in Jerusalem in 1992.