Holocaust Memorial Day

Google and Did the Holocaust really happen?

Tomorrow (27th January) is Holocaust Memorial Day and Google have been in the news recently for returning high ranking results on its search engine which promote the view that the Holocaust didn’t happen when searching for whether the Holocaust really happened.

This should be a concern, not only to the majority who accept that the Holocaust did exist (and that genocides still continue today), but also to everyone who relies heavily on using Google to search for information (and yes, librarians use Google too!).

If you think that there is an office of people at Google sitting behind their search engine, trawling the internet to find the best information they can on what you are searching for, I am going to shatter that illusion for you now. Google returns results for you using algorithms – numerous mathematical instructions that tell computers how to go and find the best information for you based largely on what keywords you’ve used before.

Google also relies on advertising income to exist and so will prioritise websites which have paid to be ranked higher. For those of you studying marketing, you will know that there is a whole art behind designing and labeling your website so it gets mentioned higher up in the Google rankings.

Google has responded to the criticism (and the results to this query now seem to have been changed), and you may argue that it isn’t Google’s job to censor information. As a student if you have to argue the case for whether the Holocaust happened or not you will need to be able to read both arguments whatever your view and make a case. However what this highlights is that internet search engines are not infallible. You need to use your critical thinking skills to assess which results are best for you and which you can trust (more on this in a future blogpost). Of course, you could always ask a librarian!

Auschwitz concentration camp. Public domain photo from www.pixabay.com

Holocaust information on the Internet

For some useful resources on the Holocaust, try some of these below!

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust has all sorts of information on their website including a list of resources if you want to find out more about the Holocaust and other genocides (Rwanda, Cambodia), some of which are happening today (e.g Dafur). This year the theme is “How can life go on?” which has its own microsite. If you like poetry, you might like to read their featured poem Birdsong.

You can read real life stories from survivors as well as an “easy read” story from Berge Kanikanian who has learning disabilities and how he wanted to find out more about what the Nazis did to people with disabilities. Read this here.

For some images of the Holocaust, visit the Wiener Library website

http://www.het.org.uk/ is the website of the Holocaust Educational Trust.

The BBC has a number of useful resources too (e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11108059 )