It's always baffled me that almost every Holocaust denier of whom I'm aware and with whom I've briefly spoken is also open about his or her desire to see a Holocaust happen.
If anybody is aware of some resources on this subject that you could recommend, I'd love to hear it.
The mindset of somebody who just denies the Holocaust isn't that hard to grasp. Some people may simply not want to believe that people could do such a thing to an extent that they're willing to lie to themselves. That doesn't seem to be common.
David Irving is probably the biggest name in the Western world in Holocaust denialism. Up until his lawsuit against Deborah Lipstadt he kept his attitudes toward Jews pretty quiet. Then Lipstadt's team gained access to his personal diaries to use as evidence and revealed that he really does hate Jews. Moreover, if you go with the British court's decision in the case, Irving likely actually does believe that the Holocaust happened and lied.
Holocaust denial is rampant among Middle Eastern nations. Heads of state in Iran and Egypt have publicly denied the Holocaust. The Palestinian territory is awash with Holocaust denial while Hamas's charter calls for a genocide of the Jews.
So, if you think that a Holocaust should happen, why deny that it did?
What comes to mind is Thomas Sowell's response to the question of how Jews could reduce hatred directed toward them. Sowell just said, "Fail."
The reality is that the oppression Olympics isn't a new thing.
Sowell wrote an essay about "middle man minorities" which explored why surrounding locals develop hateful attitudes toward minorities like Jews and Armenians. It's worth delving in deeper; but, to put it concisely, people get jealous of the success of the minority.
So, I think that most Holocaust denial starts from hatred toward the Jews; but, the problem is, if the people who hate Jews and want a new Holocaust to happen acknowledge that Hitler already put one in place and successfully murdered six million Jews, they'd be giving Jews points in the oppression Olympics.
In order to believe that their hatred is justified, they have to believe that the Jews have always secretly been ruling everything. They have to believe that the Jews have never been the victims, at least not in modern times. So they have to believe either that the Holocaust never happened; or, that it was somehow less brutal and somewhat justified - that the Jews were the actual oppressive force.
This is one problem among many with the oppression Olympics.