Apologies in advance if this has been asked before but I know a guy who considers himself to be a "revisionist" and I was hoping to find some really good knock out point to persuade him out of it.
He's significantly more knowledgeable in WWII than I am and his main claims are that the numbers are vastly overstated and there was no actual policy of the the final solution. He also denies the existence of gas chambers.
I suspect he's primarily motivated by antisemitism but claims to be approaching it from an open minded and objective point of view. Am I just wasting my time on him? Any advice, answers, or a good resource would be a greatly appreciated.
Sadly, there is a rather large section of the FAQ on Holocaust denial. Some of the answers that seem a bit more relevant to your question are this ELI5 by /u/Elm11 and this Monday Methods post by /u/commiespaceinvader.
I recommend reading some of those posts, and more info would be helpful here, but here's a section of /u/commiespaceinvader's linked post that seems relevant:
Given how Holocaust denial is part of a political agenda pandering bigotry, racism, and anti-Semitism, combating it needs to take into account this context and any effective fight against Holocaust Denial needs to be a general fight against bigotry, racism, and anti-Semitism.
At the same time, it is important to know that the most effective way of fighting them and their agenda is by engaging their arguments rather than them. This is important because any debate with a Holocaust Denier is a debate not taking place on the same level. As Deborah Lipstadt once wrote: "[T]hey are contemptuous of the very tools that shape any honest debate: truth and reason. Debating them would be like trying to nail a glob of jelly to the wall. (...) We must educate the broader public and academe about this threat and its historical and ideological roots. We must expose these people for what they are."
In essence, someone who for ideological reasons rejects the validity of established facts is someone with whom direct debates will never bear any constructive fruits. Because when you do not even share a premise – that facts are facts – arguing indeed becomes like nailing a pudding to the wall.
So, what can we do?
Educate ourselves, educate others, and expose Holocaust Deniers as the racist, bigots and anti-Semites they are. There is a good reason Nazism is not socially acceptable as an ideology – and there is good reason it should stay that way. Because it is wrong in its very essence. The same way Holocaust Denial is wrong at its very core. Morally as well as simply factually.
Well because I am a machoist I occasionally argue with people like this and am currently in a debate with a holocaust denier right now.
The best point I've found because it's so based in numbers and fact is where are the Polish Jews? Poland pre-war had a Jewish population of 3.1 million Jews, Poland now has around 1,000. Directly after the war in 1946 the Polish government counted 240,000 Jews, 200,000 of which were deportees being returned from the Soviet Union. So where are the Polish Jews? Now most deniers will say they went to Israel! So lets look at that Israel at the time of independence has 800,000 people in 1948, in 1946 the Polish government counted 240,000 Jews so where are the missing three million? True almost all of the 240,000 emigrated to Israel but Israel right now has a population of 6 million Jews so are half of all Israelis descended from Poles no, and for more fun 1 million of those 6 emigrated from the USSR and former USSR, so prior to 1991 that would be 5 million Jews in Israel, so were 60% of Israelis descended from Yiddish speaking Poles in 1991? Are 50% now decedents of Yiddish speaking Poles, no they aren't we can look at the current Jewish populations of Israel and Poland and determine that neither can possibly hold the demographics claimed, those 3 million are missing because they were murdered by Nazi Germany.
Citations: Witold Gadomski, Spłata długu po II RP. Liberte.pl
"Jews in Poland Since 1939" (PDF) Archived November 7, 2006, at the Wayback Machine., YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, Yale University Press, 2005
Główny Urząd Statystyczny Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, drugi powszechny spis ludności z dn. 9.XII 1931 r. - Mieszkania i gospodarstwa domowe ludność" [Central Statistical Office the Polish Republic, the second census dated 9.XII 1931 - Abodes and household populace] (PDF) (in Polish). Central Statistical office of the Polish Republic. 1938. p. 15. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-03-17.
Survivo s of the Holocaust in Poland: A Portrait Based on Jewish Community Records, 1944-1947 (Armonk, N.Y., 1994)
http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2014/israel-demography.aspx
If you're interested in a good resource on confronting Holocaust denialism I'd recommend Lying About Hitler by Richard Evans. It revolves around a libel suit which ultimately resulted in Evans having to prove now noted Holocaust denier David Irving was a holocaust denier in court, and really does a great job in showing how disingenuous those pushing the Holocaust denier narratives are in regards to the evidence they use to support their arguments.