Ecrits révisionnistes (1974-1998) BY ROBERT FAURISSON Chapter 3: HISTORICAL REVISIONISM

Revisionism is a matter of method and not an ideology.

It demands, for all research, a return to the starting point, an examination followed by re-examination, rereading and rewriting, evaluation followed by revaluation, reorientation, revision, recasting; it is, in spirit, the contrary of ideology. It does not deny but aims to affirm with more exactitude. Revisionists are not deniers or negationists (the latter word, being the neologism adopted by revisionisms adversaries in France, has yet to pass into English dictionaries); they endeavour to seek and to find things where, it seemed, there was nothing more to seek or find.

Revisionism can be carried out in a hundred activities of every-day life and in a hundred fields of historical, scientific, or literary research. It does not necessarily call established ideas into question but often leads to qualifying them somewhat. It seeks to untangle the true from the false. History is, in essence, revisionistic; ideology is its enemy. Since ideology is never so strong as in time of war or conflict, and since it then churns out falsehood in abundance for propaganda needs, the historian working in that area will be well advised to redouble his vigilance: probing deep into the truths of which he has been reminded so often, he will doubtless realise that, when a war has led to tens of millions of deaths, the first victim of all will have been the ascertainable truth: a truth which must be sought out and re-established.

The official history of the second world war comprises a bit of truth mixed in with a great deal of falsehood.