Do Not Follow What You Have No Knowledge Of: An Islamic Examination of the “Holocaust”

Allah ta’ala commands us to verify any news that is brought to us by an evil person. 

Allah ta’ala says:

“O you who believe! If a Fâsiq (liar – evil person) comes to you with any news, verify it, lest you should harm people in ignorance, and afterwards you become regretful for what you have done.” (Hujurat 49/6)

We have to do this with every piece of news that reaches us, even if it is considered a fact by the majority of people and the mainstream media. This is especially important when we know that those behind the mainstream media have a history of spreading false and misleading information. One example of such a claim is the holocaust and the assertion that six million jews were gassed in concentration camps. 

The official claim

One of history’s darkest chapters, the Holocaust was the systematic killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children. (Encyclopedia Britannica)

The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered around six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, approximately two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population. The murders were committed primarily through mass shootings across Eastern Europe and poison gas chambers in extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, Chełmno, and Majdanek death camps in occupied Poland. (Wikipedia)

The Holocaust was the state-sponsored persecution and mass murder of millions of European Jews … by the German Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945. The word “holocaust,” from the Greek words “holos” (whole) and “kaustos” (burned), was historically used to describe a sacrificial offering burned on an altar. (history.com)

The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million European Jews by the Nazi German regime and its allies and collaborators. The Holocaust was an evolving process that took place throughout Europe between 1933 and 1945. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Clarification of these Claims 

No claim should be accepted simply because it has been repeated often enough or presented as unquestionable truth. Instead, we should stop, question what we are being told, and determine whether the claim actually stands up to scrutiny. The simplest way to do this is to ask the right questions, examine the evidence, and refuse to accept assertions without scrutiny. 

Here are some relevant questions:

Is there any hard factual evidence that the Nazis killed six million jews? 

No, there is literally zero evidence for this claim. All we have is postwar testimony, mostly of individual “survivors.” This testimony is contradictory, and very few claim to have actually witnessed any “gassing.” There are no contemporaneous documents or hard evidence: no mounds of ashes, no crematories capable of disposing of millions of corpses, no “human soap,” no lamp shades made of human skin, and no credible demographic statistics.  Even when the Institute for Historical Review offered $50,000 to anyone who could prove that jews were gassed at Auschwitz, no proof was submitted as a claim on the reward.

Did six million jews even live in the areas that came under German control during the war?

According to the statistics of the Baseler Nachrichten, there were 5 million Jews living in Europe, excluding those in Russia. However, the Jews living in neutral countries among these 5 million should not be taken into account, because the Nazis never went to these places. According to the statistical figures of the 1942 World Almanac, the total number of Jews living in Gibraltar, the British Isles, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland, and Turkey was 4.2 million. Consequently, the number of Jews whom Nazis could have reached was never more than 4.5 million.

The same neutral news source, Baseler Nachrichten, reports, based on Jewish statistical information compiled between 1933 and 1945, that 1.5 million Jews emigrated to Britain, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Australia, China, India, and Palestine. In addition to these, the statistical report of Baseler Nachrichten informs us that 500,000 Jews fled to Siberia before Hitler launched his campaign against Russia.

When all the statistical figures mentioned above are analyzed, the final picture that emerges is that the number of Jews who could be claimed to have been eliminated by the Nazis could not exceed 2.5 million. But were all of these 2,500,000 Jews killed by the Nazis? The answer to this question is definitely no. Because in censuses conducted in 1948—that is, three years after Hitler and the end of the Second World War—it was determined that 1,559,600 Jews were living in Europe, excluding Russia. The magazine Nokta also wrote in its issue dated May 19, 1985, that 1.5 million Jews were still alive in Europe in 1945.

On the other hand, some American officials conducted an investigation after the war in order to determine exactly how many people had disappeared in the concentration camps. According to the reports of this investigation, published in 1951, 1.2 million people had died in these camps. However, this figure did not include only Jews; it also included Roma, Ukrainians, homosexuals, and some other groups. When all these statistical figures are taken into consideration, the number of Jews who disappeared (died) during the Second World War was around 500,000.

It is of course tragic that died in the concentration camps. However, considering that a total of 50 million people lost their lives during the Second World War, it becomes apparent that Jewish deaths were not higher than those of other populations and that there was no “Jewish genocide.” 

According to the official history what was used to kill the jews?

Hydrocyanic gas from “Zyklon B,” a commercial pesticide that was widely used throughout Europe. It was a pesticide used to fumigate clothing and quarters to kill typhus-bearing lice and other pests. 

Is it even possible to kill people with Zyklon B? 

It is possible, but if the Nazis had intended to use poison gas to exterminate people, far more efficient products were available. Zyklon is a slow-acting fumigation agent. It takes about 20 hours to ventilate an area after fumigation with Zyklon B. The whole procedure is very complicated and dangerous. Gas masks must be used, and only trained technicians can do it.

How long does is take to cremate a human body?

It takes about an hour and a half, although the larger bones require further processing afterwards. 

Given a 100 percent duty cycle of all the crematories in all the camps in German-controlled territory, what is the maximum number of corpses it would have been possible to incinerate during the entire period such crematories were in operation? 

About 430,600.

Can a crematory oven be operated 100 percent of the time? 

No. Fifty percent of the time is a generous estimate (12 hours per day). Crematory ovens have to be cleaned thoroughly and regularly when in heavy operation. 

Examination of the answers

Taken together, these answers raise serious questions about the claim that 6 million jews were ever killed. There is no evidence that such a vast number of jews were killed, and the method supposedly used to kill them -the gasing with Zyklon B- would have been highly inefficient for such a task. Given these points, the claim that 6 million jews were killed has no basis.

Based on these points, we can conclude that the alleged Holocaust never happened and that the whole story is a fabrication.

Why is it important?

This is very important, both from an Islamic standpoint and from a worldly perspective. We have a responsibility to seek the truth and to understand the consequences of the claims we choose to repeat.

From an Islamic standpoint

From an Islamic standpoint, it is not permissible to make a claim about something without having reliable knowledge or evidence for it. Allah ta’ala warns believers to avoid suspicion and conjecture, because some forms of assumption are sinful. 

Allah ta’ala says:

“O you who have believed, avoid much assumption. Indeed, some assumption is sin.” (Al-Hujurat 49:12)

And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“Beware of suspicion, for suspicion is the falsest of speech.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 6064)

Allah also says, “And do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge” (al Isra 17:36), reminding us that we will be accountable for what we claim and repeat. 

Likewise, the Allah ta’ala says, “Why do you argue about that of which you have no knowledge?” (Al-i Imran 3:66) 

Therefore, claiming as an established fact that six million jews died, when there is no reliable evidence establishing this number, is contrary to this Islamic principle. Repeating such a claim does not turn it into knowledge; rather, it means continuing to repeat something that has not been established. 

This is especially serious because the Messenger of Allah ﷺ warned about the danger of speaking falsely and attributing things without knowledge. From Abu Huraira radhiAllahu anhu: “It is enough of a lie for a person to narrate everything he hears.” (Sahih Muslim, Introduction, Hadith 5)

If a person repeats an unsupported claim again and again, the repetition itself does not make the claim true. A Muslim has to verify such claims, distinguish established facts from assumptions, and refrain from asserting as certain what he has no sound knowledge of. Otherwise he commits the sin of lying and spreading lies. 

According to Bayhaqi ʿAli radhiAllahu anhu said: “The chess player is the greatest of liars; one of them says, ‘I killed [it],’ when he did not kill it.” (al-Bayhaqī in al-Sunan al-Kubrā, no. 20720)

If the Sahabah considered even a metaphorical statement made during a game to be a lie—and not merely an ordinary lie, but something described as among the greatest forms of lying—then how much more seriously should we regard making false claims about matters of far greater consequence? 

If an unverified historical claim is then used to justify hostility, discrimination, persecution, or harm against other people, the matter becomes even more serious. Repeating such a claim without establishing its truth can contribute to the harm caused to those people and help give falsehood the appearance of fact. The greater the potential consequences of a claim, the greater the responsibility to verify it before repeating it. 

Islam does not teach us to repeat a claim merely because it is widely accepted or frequently repeated. Rather, we are required to distinguish between what we know and what we merely assume. A Muslim should therefore be especially careful when repeating historical claims that may be used to justify harming others. 

Another very important point to bear in mind is the nature of those who are spreading this lie, and many more. They are the brothers of monkeys and pigs.

Allah says: Say, ‘Shall I inform you of [what is] worse than that as penalty from Allah? [It is that of] those whom Allah has cursed and with whom He became angry and made of them apes and pigs and slaves of Taghut. Those are worse in position and further astray from the sound way.’ (al Maidah 5:60)

They are the same group of despicable creatures who call Allah poor.

Allah ta’ala says: “Allah has heard the statement of those who said, ‘Indeed, Allah is poor, while we are rich.” (Al-i Imran 3:181)

They are notorious liars.

Allah ta’ala says: “O Messenger, let them not grieve you who hasten into disbelief of those who say, ‘We believe’ with their mouths, but their hearts believe not, and from among the Jews are avid listeners to falsehood, listening to another people who have not come to you. They distort words beyond their [proper] places, saying, ‘If you are given this, take it; but if you are not given it, then beware.’” (al Mai’dah 5:41)

And they have killed many prophets of Allah.

Allah ta’ala says: “We will record what they said and their killing of the prophets without right, and We will say, ‘Taste the punishment of the Burning Fire.’” (Al-i Imran 3:181)

So the matter isn’t only about verifying the news or information that comes to us. It’s also about scrutinizing those who bring it. And since we know the nature of this particular worthless group, it’s natural for us to not only question everything they say but to know that like shaytaan, their default setting is lying and deceiving.

From a worldy standpoint

If they can make you believe one great lie, they can make you believe almost anything. When people accept a claim without examining the evidence, they become more vulnerable to accepting the claims that follow from it—especially when those claims are used to justify harm against others. Once an unverified claim is accepted as an unquestionable fact, it can become the foundation for further claims, arguments, and actions. What begins as the acceptance of one unsupported assertion can therefore have consequences far beyond the original claim.

This is particularly dangerous when historical claims are used to portray an entire group of people as responsible for crimes, or to present suffering and injustice as justified or necessary. At that point, the question is no longer merely whether a particular number or historical detail is correct. The truthfulness of the claim can have real consequences for how people view, treat, and justify actions against others.

A French philosopher once said: “Certainly anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.” This is why claims with serious consequences must be examined carefully rather than accepted simply because they have been repeated for generations or presented as established fact.

Who benefits from the holocaust story? 

The fairy tale of the holocaust benefits zionism, the so-called state of “Israel”, and the jews in general. It helps protect Jews as a group from criticism. It provides an emotional bond between Jews and their leaders. It is a powerful tool in Jewish money-raising campaigns, and is used to justify US aid to Israel. 

It also justifies the billions of dollars in “reparations” Germany has paid to Israel and many individual “survivors.” It is used by the Zionist/Israeli lobby to dictate a pro-Israel American foreign policy in the so-called Middle East.

In her famous interview Shulamit Aloni, a member of the knesset and minister, argued that the suffering of the jewish people and the memory of the holocaust are sometimes invoked as a rhetorical tool to deflect political dissent and justify actions taken against Palestinians.

When host Amy Goodman asked her how she responds when people criticizing Israeli government policies are labeled anti-Semitic, Aloni replied:
“Well, it’s a trick, we always use it. When from Europe somebody is criticizing Israel, then we bring up the Holocaust. When in this country [the U.S.] people are criticizing Israel, then they are antisemitic.”

Criminalization of Rejecting Lies

We have established, with evidence, that there was never a “Holocaust” and that 6 million jews were never killed. We have also seen who profits from the spread of this lie. But there is yet another side to it: What happens if you reject this lie and believe in the clear evidence?

Currently, almost all European countries have laws that explicitly or implicitly criminalize Holocaust denial. The punishments vary considerably, with some countries imposing sentences of up to 20 years.

Meaning, rejecting to believe in a lie, rejecting to believe in a claim without evidences will get you a longer sentence than child abuse and murder.

This is especially interesting, as exactly the same contries that imprison you for not believing in a lie are those countrires who cry loudest when it comes to freedom of speech.

Freedom of Speech: A Fairy Tale

There is another striking contradiction that deserves attention. The very countries that claim to place freedom of speech among their most fundamental principles are also among those that have enacted criminal laws restricting what people may say about this historical event. Interestingly, it is not a crime to deny that the French Revolution ever happened, that George Washington was the first president of the United States, or that German soldiers died during World War II. In other words, freedom of speech appears to have limits when the subject matter involves monkeys and pigs.

Consider the argument from another angle. Even if we assume, for the sake of argument, that the officially accepted historical account is entirely true, why should merely rejecting that account constitute a criminal offence? If the evidence is overwhelming and the historical record is beyond serious dispute, why not allow people to examine the evidence, reach their own conclusions, and express them?

The contrast becomes even more striking when religious speech is considered. In many Western legal systems, insulting or ridiculing Islam is generally defended under the principle of freedom of expression, subject to the particular country’s laws on threats, incitement, or other forms of unlawful speech. Yet certain statements about historical events can result in criminal prosecution simply because some monkeys and pigs have decided that such statements are unacceptable.

So where exactly is the principle? If a person is permitted to reject God, mock religion, insult Islam, ridicule Muslims, or express other deeply offensive opinions in the name of freedom of speech, why should the same principle suddenly disappear when that person challenges a particular historical narrative?

At the very least, this raises a serious question about the consistency with which freedom of expression is applied. Freedom of speech means very little if it protects only opinions that are considered acceptable by those who determine the boundaries of acceptable speech.

The issue is therefore not merely whether a particular historical claim is true or false. It is whether governments should have the authority to criminalize the expression of a particular historical interpretation—and whether such restrictions are genuinely compatible with the principle of freedom of thought and expression that these same governments publicly defend.

This clearly proves: When criminals make the laws, the laws are in their favour.