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The attempt to distort and manipulate the Shoah is an assault on Holocaust memory, on the legitimacy of the state of Israel, and an attempt to deny the history of the Jewish people. In a very significant work, "The Abuse of Holocaust Memory: Distortions and Responses" (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs/Anti-Defamation League) Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, chairman of the steering committee of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), exposes the nature of the abuses, the motivation behind the manipulation, and the response to them in the West.

Understanding the reaction of Western society tells us much about the nature and temperament of the countries in which we live, and allows us to fashion an approach to counter these pernicious lies. For this reason, we need to determine the types of distortions and document the abuses. One recent example that is especially relevant is how the United Nations, Columbia University, the Mennonite Central Committee, and others responded to Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's threat to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.

Gerstenfeld notes that the assault on Holocaust denial is so pervasive that it is found in the Arab and Muslim world, on the extreme right and left, and among leading politicians, academics, and journalists.

There are a number of ways in which the Holocaust is distorted: Holocaust justification and promotion is one. According to this approach, Jews are responsible for anti-Semitism and thus to blame for their own demise. Holocaust promotion occurs when genocide is encouraged against Jews or Israel.

The campaign for mass murder often happens without even referring to the Holocaust. At other times, the failure to complete the extermination of the Jews is lamented and the perpetrators suggest that the task must be finished.

Holocaust denial is another example of this distortion. Holocaust deniers do not refute that Jews were killed during World War II, but they deny that there was a genocidal plan to murder all the Jews of Europe and that 6 million Jews were killed. They contend that most of the deaths were the result of illness, disease, and hard labor. Gas chambers were used to delouse clothes, not to murder Jews.

Holocaust deflection and whitewashing is used to deny complicity and responsibility by individuals and countries that collaborated with the Germans in plundering, deporting, and murdering Jews and then to portray themselves as victims. One glaring example is Austria, which for many years described themselves as the first victims of the Nazis. Another is Romania, which denied or minimized their involvement in the Final Solution.

In West Germany, the Wehrmacht, the German army, claimed it did not take part in the atrocities against the Jews. In East Germany, it was official government policy to remove the Jews from the Holocaust. Holocaust de-Judaization involves negating or lessening the Jewish character of the victims, assigning little credence to the uniqueness of the Shoah, and failing to place the event in historical perspective.

The East Germans whitewashed their own participation in the destruction process, while castigating West Germany for inadequately responding to their Nazi legacy.

The Soviet Union and Poland de-Judaized the Holocaust when they counted all the murdered citizens in their country as one group. No mention is made of the fact that all of their Jewish citizens were singled out for systematic and total annihilation simply because they were Jews, not because they were Soviet or Polish citizens. To be sure, certain other groups were also targeted by the Nazis to be killed, but not for complete destruction.

Accusing Israel of behaving just like the Nazis is another form of Holocaust abuse. A familiar anti-Semitic refrain is "The victims have become the perpetrators" or "The Jews and/or the Israelis have become the Nazis of today." Perverting the Holocaust to delegitimize Israel in this way is a favorite strategy used by Arabs and Muslims.

Trivializing the Holocaust is another technique that has become quite popular. Equating the Holocaust with environmental issues, abortion, human rights abuses, and slaughtering animals and using them in medical experiments are some of the most conspicuous examples of this manipulation.

Invoking the Holocaust for an ideological agenda overstates the immoral phenomenon they denounce. Others trivialize to provoke, gain attention, or for commercial or artistic gains. Still another form of trivialization involves using Holocaust commemorations to include other genocidal events.

At a time when historical truth is under siege, this book reminds us how critical it is for us to be actively engaged in this war to preserve our history. This is not an esoteric problem, but one that affects everyone concerned with historical truth. If our history is distorted, manipulated and abused then the history if other groups is also in danger. We are indebted to Dr. Gerstenfeld for exposing the problem and providing a means to combat it. This is essential reading.

Dr. Alex Grobman is a Hebrew University trained historian. He is the author of a number of books, including "Nations United: How The U.N. Undermines Israel and The West," "Denying History: Who Says The Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It?" and a forthcoming book on Israel's moral and legal right to exist as a Jewish state.