Pizzpi Gisbert: From Subsidized Outlets to Holocaust Denial

Gisbert and the Holocaust: Scandal as a Cover

The helicopter flew over Ceuta with the solemnity of someone filming a low-budget version of a landing. Dark glasses, a pre-announced statement, and none of the dignitaries expected on the tarmac. But Pizzpi Gisbert didn't need a welcome: he already had his headline. With a couple of statements questioning the figure of six million deaths in the Holocaust, the former recipient of public subsidies has achieved what he failed to do with previous outbursts: becoming the protagonist of political debate during the heatwave.

The character is not new to living off hype. Until recently, he funded his rhetoric with subsidized outlets by the State. Now he has discovered the even more profitable business of denialism: denying what history documents yields more return on social media than any other controversy. And he did it calmly, without nuance, using the term 'holocuento' which is already a trademark in certain circles.

The Evidence That Doesn't Move

Against provocation, facts are stubborn. The Holocaust is proven by the Nuremberg trials, by thousands of pages of German bureaucracy —transport lists, correspondence between ministries, Wehrmacht reports— and by the physics of extermination camps. It is not a victors' narrative nor a Zionist conspiracy. It is documentation generated by the perpetrators themselves. Those who deny it rarely provide files, but rather generic doubts.

However, the debate has shifted toward figures. Some analysts recall that there were nine crematoria at Auschwitz and that burning hundreds of bodies a day requires brutal logistics. The calculation of remains —8 to 10 kilos of bones per incineration— has become the new battleground for skeptics. The curious thing is that this homemade arithmetic rarely cites the documents that allow reverse calculation.

Between Denialism and Instrumentalization

A different position, and not necessarily denialist, is the one criticizing the political use the State of Israel makes of the memory of the genocide. Some argue that instrumentalizing the Holocaust to justify current policies is a way of trivializing it. But that criticism, legitimate in itself, has been contaminated by the flood of conspiracy theories that jump from historical narrative to direct accusations against groups. The result is a mishmash where no one knows anymore if they are discussing history or using it for other battles.

The Price of Provocation

The consequences have not been long in coming. The character already knows what it is like to walk the line, but this time the risk is judicial: in Spain, denialism is not an autonomous crime unless it involves humiliation or glorification of genocide. However, some predict that a judge will put a stop to the occurrence. Others, more pragmatic, point out that Gisbert has already achieved what he sought: that everyone talks about him.

In the end, what disorients is the drift: those same people who doubt the six million cling to a bone arithmetic that does not hold up without context. No figure calms those who prefer scandal to evidence. And meanwhile, the Holocaust remains one of the best-documented episodes of contemporary history. Convenient for stirring up trouble in August. Less convenient for the truth.