It wasn't just the goblins — is J.K. Rowling doing Holocaust denial now?

Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 444 points –
It wasn't just the goblins — is J.K. Rowling doing Holocaust denial now?
forward.com

The most famous forms of Holocaust denial and revisionism tend to focus on Jews, casting doubt, for example, on how many were exterminated in the camps. But denying the impact the Nazis had on the other groups they targeted, including queer and trans people, disabled people and Romani people, is still Holocaust denial. Maybe someone should tell J.K. Rowling.

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I am pretty sure that’s not the right definition. Holocaust denial isn’t about denying the impact of the holocaust had on the victims and the survivors. It’s about denying the scale and planned nature of the genocide.

JK Rowling doesn’t deny the holocaust. She’s not even denying that trans people were targeted, she is denying that they were among the first victims of the nazis. And while denying that they were targeted is wrong, it’s not denying the holocaust happened.

No, she moved the goalpost to "they were not the first", her original statement was completely different.

What was it? I’ve only seen the screenshots shared by the other person, it was them who put the focus on it imho. Either way I haven’t seen any other statement, care to share that?

https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1767912990366388735
I don't have a Twitter account anymore, so I can't look for the whole thread. The "not the first" tweet is an answer to someone replying to this tweet here.
Edit: found it:

Yeah it’s because the Alejandra person actually claimed those things.

As critical as I’m of JK Rowlings trans denial, this appears to be blown way out of proportion by people who want to pin another label on her that will make their fight more righteous.

This is nothing but culture war

Where?
Some person: Nazis burned books on transgenders
Rowling: That's a lie. Alejandra: Here sources proving, that nazis did indeed burn books, including a German court ruling that explicitly stated, that nazis moved against transgenders too and the denial of that is Holocaust denial.
Rowling: But they were not the first victims and they didn't burn all books.

Like, her whole argument is completely off. She is the only one, that ever mentioned "all books" and "first victims".

She isn’t the one that first spoke of “all”, she’s referring to this message.

Anyway, I don’t think this entire argument is done in good faith nor by Alejandra nor JK Rowling.

That's a different thread though. Alejandra might not have been aware of it, like I was.

Good point. I didn’t realise that it was a different thread under the same post.

But regardless this doesn’t make Alejandra look like she’s acting in good faith. Her accusation of holocaust denial is a reaction to this post

I don’t read that as “JKR demands a source for persecution of transgender by the nazis” and more as a “JKR demands a source for her upholding gender ideology of the nazis”.

At the very least Alejandra could have asked for clarification before throwing “holocaust denier” in the ring.

But I also admit that I don’t actually follow this very closely, so it’s possible I’m wrong and JKR meant to state there was no persecution of transgender.

Again, a follow up question would have clarified that. But both sides, her, her supporters and the people who attack her are so deep down that cycle of outrage that they are not really interested in understanding where the other person is coming from. They just want to be right.

In my opinion it’s a pointless discussion.

There are multiple faces to Holocaust denial, and this one, is denying the scale of it by excluding a group that has knowingly been targeted by Nazis. They had to wear the pink triangle too.

It’s about denying the scale and planned nature of the genocide.

That's just an angle that anti-semites use to discredit the Holocaust historians. Does it matter that it was 6 million? Could have been 1 million for all I care, but people who already don't like Jews will get pedantic about the EXACT number before explaining that number is wrong because (((they))) control the media and none of it happened. It's a dog whistle.

Not according to Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_denial

Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory[1][2] that asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a fabrication or exaggeration.[3][4][5] Holocaust denial involves making one or more of the following false claims:[6][7][8]

Nazi Germany's "Final Solution" was aimed only at deporting Jews from the territory of the Third Reich and did not include their extermination. Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas chambers for the mass murder of Jews. The actual number of Jews murdered is significantly lower than the accepted figure of approximately six million. The Holocaust is a hoax perpetrated by the Allies, Jews, or the Soviet Union.[4][9]

It's Wiki. It's not terribly useful for controversial topics. Why don't you call the Holocaust Museum tomorrow and ask them.

I had a look at the homepage of the holocaust museum. They differentiate between soft and hard holocaust denial, i.e. the genocide of the Jews wasn’t planned and didn’t happen at this scale, and the the genocide of the Jews didn’t happen, respectively.

That is, by the way, in line with Wikipedia states. I don’t expect you to actually walk away and learn something of course, but on the off chance that you’ll reflect on this I’d say: start opening your mind to the possibility that you are wrong.