Holocaust Denial
Greek neo-Nazi leader Nikos Mihaloliakos welcomes delegates to the Youth Party Congress "Golden Dawn".
The Golden Dawn party and its leader Nikos Michaloliakos are known not only for their anti-Semitism, and longing for the Third Reich, but also denial of the Holocaust, which they express quite openly. In mid-May 2012 Mihaloliakos was interviewed by MEGA-TV, where he put the Holocaust in a row with crimes that could be considered normal for military operations. "Americans would have done the same if it had been them instead of Germany," - he said. He cited the example of German neo-Nazis from Dresden, which can definitely find arguments to lessen the extent of the Holocaust. The neo-Nazi term "Bombenholocaust", meaning “the Holocaust by bombs", is discussed here; it is used to describe the Nazi German attack of former allies of Dresden in February 1945.
During the interview Mihaloliakos also said: "What is Auschwitz? I've never been there! And what happened there? And have You been there?.. I have read many books that questioned the death of 6 million Jews. They say that the events of the Holocaust are greatly exaggerated. This is, indeed, a deliberate exaggeration, and many authors investigating the problem of fascism confirm this fact... There were no ovens. It's all lies. There were no gas chambers, either.”
On February 18, deputy of the Greek parliament from “Golden Dawn” party Giannis Lagos filed a request to the Minister of Education and Minister of the Interior, where he criticised the implementation of activities in Greece dedicated to the International Day of Holocaust Remembrance. In his request, he noted, that Jews are being excessively praised, whereas Greek students have no knowledge of Greek history “and the real Holocausts”.
On March 17, “Golden Dawn’s” website published a statement in connection with the participation of the Prime Minister A. Samaras in the commemorative ceremony of Thessalonian Jews. “Little Antonis put on a kippah and went to a synagogue… to worship the Zionist capital,” statement said. The ceremony itself was called a “part of the international Zionist plan designed to bring about the destruction of Greece and rebuild Jerusalem of the Balkans".
On June 7, a prominent Greek MP from the far-right party “Golden Dawn” Ilias Kasidiaris stated at a Parliamentary committee session, that he is a Holocaust denier.
Nor do the official authorities have much enthusiasm in preserving the memory of the Holocaust. The authorities are trying to silence the Holocaust. Thus, in Thessaloniki the authorities are trying to hide the fact of the destruction of the Jewish cemetery in 1942. Greece does not her own monument at Auschwitz either.
In 2014-2016, cases of denial of the Holocaust were not recorded in Greece.
