The JEWISH CHRONICLE ISSN 0111-8641• VOLUME 56 No 6 ADAR /NISSAN 5760 • APRIL 2000 $3.80 Thesis supporting Editors: This PDF contains all the stories published by the New Zealand Jewish Chronicle, April 2000, relating to a thesis supporting the accepted at claims of Holocaust deniers and accepted at one of New Zealand’s major universities - Canterbury. Canterbury University Whatever you glean from this file and publish BY MIKE REGAN says “The University does not endorse in your own newspapers should be credited N a letter published on page 6 in this issue of any of the findings in theses that are to the New Zealand Jewish Chronicle. the New Zealand Jewish Chronicle Dr Joel passed for degrees. Our examining Hayward, senior lecturer in history at Massey procedures are designed to grade the There is no charge for republishing however University, Palmerston North, withdraws the quality of the analysis and writing, the major conclusions of his University of maturity of judgment, and the ability we would appreciate a copy of your Canterbury 1993 Masters thesis. to absorb, transmute and present newspaper should you do so. material”. IThe thesis, which he embargoed for five years, came into the public domain late last year. The statement also noted the University’s support for Dr Hayward’s Professor Dov Bing of Waikato University’s depart- recent decision: “We encouraged Dr Many thanks ment of Political Science and Public Policy said his Hayward to take this step and to make research showed that while embargoed, the thesis his current views more widely known found wide circulation among well-known Holocaust in the light of the deniers such as Dr Frederick Toben fact that his thesis Mike Regan of the Adelaide Institute in Australia was being misused. and of Great Britain. More It is pleasing to see Editor The major conclusions of the Dr. Hayward’s letter page 6 this is being done.” Hayward thesis include such Prof. Bings examination of the In 1997 Dr allegations as: Hayward thesis page 7 Toben tried to use – there were no gas chambers, but Editorial page 8 the Hayward thesis rather they were propaganda devised in a case taken by the Allies Comment from Canterbury against him by the – more than one million, but far less University page 8 Executive Council than six million were murdered Techniques of Holocaust of Australian Jewry - the , which claimed deniers page 9 to the Human Rights and Equal there were no gas chambers at Opportunity commission, under the discuss its content.” Auschwitz, had validity Racial Hatred Act regarding a complaint about his An interview was arranged and secretly filmed. – there was no means to carry out such a plan of mass Internet website. In the event, the case had already The transcript of the interview, said Mr EtzHasadeh, murder, as there was insufficient capacity in the gas begun and Dr Toben was refused permission to present chambers to achieve it. was revealing, damning and needed to be made public. new testimony. They transcribed the significant parts of the video and In accepting and approving the thesis and its There has also been a suggestion that Mr Irving then tried corresponding with the University of conclusions Prof Bing said Canterbury University has sought to use the Hayward thesis in his suit against Dr Canterbury Registrar, Mr A.W. Hayward (no relation), “provided academic justification for what these Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books for defamation to show him what Joel Hayward was working on and the people [Holocaust deniers] had been claiming outside (see article page 10). conclusions he was arriving at. Mr EtzHasadeh said that the confines of academia for years.” In 1991 Joel Hayward, together with Yossie the OAS wrote to the University, saying that Joel Prof Bing, in his article on page 7 of this issue, EtzHasadeh (previously Philip Woodfield, of Hayward had stated to their organisation that his thesis points out how the Adelaide Institute and the Insti- and now living in Israel) and Denis Green, would make claims in support of the main revisionist tute for Historical Review both welcomed the thesis. established the organisation, Opposition To Anti- threads. To the best of Prof Bing’s knowledge the Hayward Semitism Inc (OAS). Their goal was to watch the The University Registrar forwarded OAS’s concerns thesis is the only one activities of the few anti-Semitic groups in New to the head of the History department, Dr W.D. to be approved by a Zealand at the time and to inform people about MacIntyre (now retired), who, says Mr EtzHasadeh, CONTACT THE senior academic Holocaust revisionism. apparently chose to ignore their plea. CHRONICLE examiner and a Joel Hayward resigned from OAS about the same “Essentially they were very uncooperative,” Mr chairperson of a time as he started working on the thesis. EtzHasadeh said. “And in effect told us to mind our own Ph: 04-934-6077 department of When Mr EtzHasadeh and colleagues heard of the business.” fax: 04-934-6079 History in the West- work Joel Hayward was doing for his thesis they Canterbury University chose not to comment. The Editor [email protected] ern world. became alarmed, “Especially when reports of Hayward’s transcript of the video contained such statements as: Professor Sid De Lew public comments were so divergent from his private - “In my thesis I argue that Hitler didn’t order the Graeme Wake, Dean 04-388-8092 conversations,” he told the NZJC recently. genocide of the Jews. That Hitler didn’t know about the B USINESS HOURS MON-FRI of Postgraduate “His conclusions at that point were that there were Advertising genocide of the Jews. That there was no plan for the Studies at revisionist historians who were, as he put it, genocide of the Jews.” Deadline for the MAY University of Canter- ‘presenting balanced research that you had to deal with’. - “I am also showing that there is not one shred of issue is bury, in a statement He contacted us, because he knew we weren’t happy April 13 made to the NZJC, with his thesis, and wanted to meet a group of us to CONTINUED, PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 New Zealand Jewish Chronicle - April 2000 Page 1 REVISIONISM Dr. Hayward apologises for “mistakes I made as an inexperienced student”

Dear Sir, racism. six million Jews perished during World to the Jewish community, and In January 1993 I submitted to the When I wrote the thesis in 1991/ War II. They were murdered by Nazis and especially to Holocaust survivors. I a Masters 1992, I was inexperienced at the their allies. The perpetrators used a range asked the University to withdraw the thesis on the historiography of Holocaust historian’s craft and of methods, thesis from its library. The University revisionism. I gained my M.A., with First knew relatively little including gas declined, but responded with under- Class Honours in History, and about the Holocaust chambers, shoot- standing and sensitivity, and has kindly subsequently completed my Ph.D. (in and its complex LETTER TO THE ing, physical permitted me to attach a formal military history), also at Canterbury. I am historiography. Look- exhaustion, and addendum which clarifies my position. now a Senior Lecturer in Defence and ing back through the starvation, to carry Consequently, anti-Semites will not be Strategic Studies at Massey University in thesis now, I can see EDITOR out this mon- able to use my old thesis in support of Palmerston North, where I teach and that it contains several strous crime. their vile crusade. write on military history, strategy and significant errors of My thesis rep- May this letter serve as reassurance operational art. fact and interpretation. In other words, resents a sincere attempt on my part to to the New Zealand Jewish community Unfortunately, my M.A. thesis has I stuffed up. The conclusions are wrong. make sense of events I wanted to under- that I profoundly apologise for the been copied and is now being used – Given this, and the fact that the thesis stand better. Yet I now regret being so mistakes I made as an inexperienced actually misused – by certain racist and deals with a controversial and highly uncritical of people’s motives and student, and that I have learned much anti-Semitic groups and individuals to sensitive topic, and has already caused working on such a complex topic with- since then. add credibility to their nasty beliefs. These pain to the Jewish community through out sufficient knowledge and preparation. Yours sincerely, its misuse by anti-Semites, I would like people have also exploited me in other I have advised the University of Dr J.S.A. Hayward ways in an effort to present me as some- briefly to make one point very clear. Canterbury of my deep regret that some how sympathetic. I am not. I abhor all I believe that, without doubt, around of my inadequate research is distressing Jewish Council president calls for Hayward degree to be revoked CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE last year, Dr Hayward tried to have thesis withdrawn but can’t understand “some sort of response” from documentary evidence showing that there Canterbury University withdraw the how Canterbury University allowed it to Canterbury University. was a plan to kill Jews.” thesis. They refused but agreed to an be accepted in the first place. How can a “Any response would be better than - “I also argue that at Auschwitz there addendum being attached. reputable university accept a thesis based what they’ve done up to now. Up to now were no homicidal gas chambers designed In his one and a half page addendum on flawed research?” they’ve done nothing,” said Mr as gas chambers and that with the poss- Dr Hayward states: Mr EtzHasadeh believes New Zealand EtzHasadeh. “I think they should face up to facts. They’re the only university ible exception of Kremas 2 and 3, none “...with the benefit of hindsight and is now a prime place to validate the in the world which has authorised a were used as homicidal gas chambers.” eight years of subsequent research, I can Holocaust denial message: “It has a very thesis which supports the basic premises - “My estimate is .....probably more now see that it (the thesis) contains small Jewish community, people don’t of Holocaust revisionists which say the than one million [Jews killed] probably several errors of fact and interpretation.” know too much about the Holocaust in general and [the universities have] small whole thing as we know it is a lie. It less than two million...... I personally He goes on to list those facts departments where you could slip some- might not say it in exactly those words don’t think the Nazis ever got their hands including thing like this through”. but those are its basic conclusions. I on six million Jews - I’m sorry, they - not giving sufficient weight to the Now that the thesis has been made don’t think that’s something you can didn’t.” motives driving numerous anti-Jewish public Mr EtzHasadeh would like to see just walk away from.” - “One point - the majority of authors on the Holocaust reputable historians on the Holocaust are - reversing the weight he placed on the Jewish....95 per cent at least....and they’re Leuchter Report all pro-Zionist and they all have ties and One small disk - he is now convinced the scale of the One small disk connections with learning institutions in murders was far greater than he stated Israel.” - he now considers the criticism of Eight Years of History OAS then decided to wait until the some oral testimonies too harsh and thesis was published before doing any more: “The problem was that when he - he now believes without doubt that completed the thesis he immediately “millions of Jews perished during World embargoed it. This was unusual and War II.” meant no one could see it without his Future readers of the thesis will be permission. That meant it got into the handed the addendum with the thesis but Individuals hands of the revisionists long before we Prof Bing says it is misleading and if put US$ 199 Universities ever got to see it. We only got to see it late alongside his letter to this newspaper & libraries last year,” said Mr EtzHasadeh. (above) the differences are ‘considerable’. US$ 600 In a letter to the NZJC in 1998 in re- “Dr Hayward refers to ‘several errors sponse to an article reffering to Dr of fact and interpretation’ but in his Toben’s wish to use the thesis, Dr letter he clearly states the errors were Hayward said: ‘significant’, that he ‘stuffed up’ and he “I state emphatically to your readers was ‘wrong’,” said Prof Bing. “I believe the Through the Archives of my rock-solid belief, based on extensive addendum should be removed and archival research and a thorough reading replaced with a clear and precise statement The Jerusalem Post, on CD-Rom of published sources, that European Jewry from Dr Hayward.” Designed for organisations and individuals alike, first- did experience a ghastly holocaust. David Zwartz, president of the New rate news and analysis from the pages of “To be more specific, I believe Euro- Zealand Jewish Council, said he would be The Jerusalem Post, updated four times a year. pean Jews suffered dreadfully during the asking Canterbury University to cancel the 1930s and especially during World War degree awarded to Dr Hayward on the The new Jerusalem Post CD-Rom puts the past eight years at your finger- II, when Germans and others maltreated, basis of his thesis. tips. It is compatible with Windows 3.x, Windows 95 and Macintosh and enslaved and murdered great numbers.” “The University’s reputation for includes a powerful search engine. It should be noted that the Holocaust scholarship is in question as long as it Over 150,000 articles with eight years of information, 1990-1998. Hayward refers to (in his thesis) is one stands by this thesis which has been without gas chambers and where only a repudiated even by its own author,” he million or so Jews were murdered. said. “I commend the actions being taken The Jerusalem Post, PO Box 81, Jerusalem 91000, ISRAEL by Dr Hayward in trying to have his When the embargo of the thesis ended Fax: 972-2-531-5622. email: [email protected] Page 2 New Zealand Jewish Chronicle - April 2000 REVISIONISM

N February 1993 Joel Hayward submitted a ‘A careful and impartial investigation of the Masters thesis entitled: ‘The Fate of Jews in available evidence pertaining to Nazi gas German Hands: An Historical Enquiry into The Hayward thesis chambers reveals that even these apparently the Development and Significance of I fall into the category of atrocity propaganda. Holocaust Revisionism’ (360pp). The thesis was Because of the seriousness of this statement, accepted for examination by the Chief Supervisor, examined it is necessary to make the following defence’. Associate Professor Vincent Orange. He examined Then Joel Hayward cites 12 points to under- the thesis and sent it for external examination to Dr Joel Hayward’s letter score his absurd assertion. This is the central Professor John Jensen of the History Department (page 6) is put into argument in the Hayward thesis. at the University of Waikato. Mr Hayward received First Class Honours for his Master’s degree. context by Professor Dov In his letter to the NZJC in this issue Dr Bing, Department of Hayward reverses his conclusion about the The Hayward thesis was written in 1991/92 in non-existence of the gas chambers. the History Department of the University of Political Science and Canterbury. It was submitted in February 1993. The The central document on which Dr reason why the thesis has just come to the Public Policy, University Hayward previously based his claim that ‘the attention of the public is because it was embargoed gas chambers were atrocity propaganda’ is the of Waikato, who thoroughly discredited Leuchter Report. In a for more than five years at the request of its writer Prof Bing and with the support of his supervisor. The thesis examines the thesis and lengthy chapter on The Leuchter Affair, Joel became accessible to the public late last year. Hayward argued that the ‘Leuchter Report is the conclusions Hayward probably the most damaging volley ever fired Even though the thesis was embargoed, it is has subsequently at accepted opinion on the Holocaust’ (p.219) known that Dr Hayward distributed a number of and elsewhere, ‘Leuchter’s unorthodox copies of it. Dr Toben of the Adelaide Institute; Dr withdrawn conclusions, which at first seem incredible, Countess of the IHR; David Irving of London; Dr do appear to be supported by ample evidence’ Robert Faurisson of France; all received copies. In (p.208). December 1998 Dr Hayward was listed as one of the was a Jewish swindle, was recently imprisoned for nine speakers at the Adelaide Institute’s First Revisionist months in Germany for Holocaust denial. Dr Colin Leuchter contradictions Conference in Australia. Though he first agreed to Rubinstein, the executive director of the Jewish Affairs The most astonishing revelation in my research on participate he changed his mind and did not travel to Council in Australia says of Toben: “He is propagating the Hayward thesis came, when I discovered, that in Adelaide. When Dr Toben tried to use the Hayward outright lies with the ultimate aim of rehabilitating the December 1991, Joel Hayward published an article thesis in a recent court case in Australia, Dr Hayward record of the Nazi regime”. In a report on its First entitled: Holocaust Revisionism in New Zealand: the took steps to stop him. And when David Irving Revisionist Conference, Dr Hayward is being described Thinking Man’s Anti-Semitism? The article appeared approached Dr Hayward to have him testify in his trial as “the first historian to have written a Master’s thesis in a journal on race relations called Without Prejudice against Professor Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books on revisionism and the Holocaust”. In a reference to published by the Australian Institute of Jewish Affairs. in London, Dr Hayward, to his credit, declined. the Hayward thesis it is claimed that it “supports what In this journal, which is widely read in the Jewish In the seven years of its existence, the Hayward revisionists have been saying for decades”. [3] community, Joel Hayward referred to Leuchter as ‘a self- thesis has acquired considerable notoriety. The styled specialist engineer’. In the thesis the reference to concluding chapter of the thesis can be found at The Hayward claimed as one of their own ‘self-styled’ has disappeared. It also needs to be noted Nizkor Project Shofar Archive [1]. This file The Holocaust deniers claim Dr Hayward as one of that the editor added a detailed note to the (above) contains the writings of about 400 of the most their foremost supporters. After all, the Hayward article, agreed to by Joel Hayward. Since the note is notorious Holocaust deniers worldwide. In New thesis appears to be the only academic study, to this completely the opposite to what Joel Hayward argued Zealand, Hayward’s concluding chapter has been posted writer’s knowledge, in existence endorsing most of the in his thesis, it is worth quoting: on the newsgroup ‘soc.culture.new-zealand (88313). The central arguments of Holocaust deniers. In fact the ‘Leuchter’s credentials as an engineer have been most notorious anti-Semitic Los Angeles-based Institute thesis and its acceptance has given academic sanction challenged by legal authorities in the United States, with for Historical Review (IHR) have also paid attention to to claims laid by Holocaust deniers who had operated the Judge in the Zundel case ruling conclusively that he the Hayward thesis. The Institute is very active in until 1993 outside academia. had neither the formal training nor the practical Holocaust denial and its goals seem remarkably similar experience to conduct the kind of ‘scientific study’ which to those articulated by Nazism. In a report published The only other academic thesis which denied the he purports to have made of the gas chambers at the in the Institute’s Journal of Historical Review about existence of the gas chambers was that of Henry Roques Nazi death camps. [4] Moreover, his ‘report’ – which the Adelaide Institute’s Conference of August 7-9, 1998, who submitted a doctoral thesis at the University of the judge refused to accept as evidence in the Zundel Dr Robert Countess, a close associate of the IHR, cited Nantes, France in 1985. Roques was a protege of the trial (loc.cit.) –has been totally discredited by the the Hayward thesis ‘as a noteworthy and courageous well-known Holocaust denier Faurisson. The award of author of an exhaustive study of the gas chambers at study that shows the seriousness of revisionist a doctoral degree for this thesis caused an enormous Auschwitz, Jean- Claude Pressac: ‘Based on fake scholarship, and affirms the validity of numerous public scandal and in 1986 French Minister of Higher knowledge, inducing fake reasoning and leading to false specific revisionist arguments’. [2] Education revoked the doctoral degree. interpretations, the Leuchter Report is inadmissible Another website which has paid attention to the Dr Hayward’s letter (Page 6) is a courageous and timely statement. The statement, though, has to be put because it was produced in illegal conditions; because it Hayward thesis is that of the infamous Adelaide overlooks the most basic historical data; because it is Institute in Australia. The Director of this Institute, Dr into context. Dr Hayward appears to be withdrawing Frederick Toben, who argues that the Nazi Holocaust the major conclusions of his thesis. On page 331 of the thesis, he wrote: CONTINUED, PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 8

New Zealand Jewish Chronicle - April 2000 Page 3 REVISIONISM

Editorial comment Canterbury University statement

The New Zealand Comments on procedures: JEWISH CHRONICLE MA Thesis of Joel Hayward The University of Canterbury was invited to comment on Dr. Joel Hayward’s letter, the thesis and their position. University’s unwitting The University gave Dr Joel Hayward the being done. The University has a policy of opportunity of writing an Addendum to his maintaining open access to scholarship original MA thesis: The Fate of Jews in produced, and accepted for, a research degree. support to Holocaust German Hands: An Historical Enquiry into To do otherwise would be counter to the the Development and Significance of traditions of scholarship expected of a premier Holocaust Revisionism, which was examined research University. deniers in 1993. The degree was subsequently awarded. The University does not endorse any of This was received and incorporated into his the findings in theses that are passed for ODAY’S New Zealand Jewish Chronicle devotes a substan- thesis in January of this year. It sets out the degrees. Our examining procedures are tial number of pages to the story surrounding a thesis on perspectives he now has on this sensitive issue designed to grade the quality of the analysis Holocaust denial. It was written more than six years ago, and the validity of the references he used in and writing, the maturity of judgment, and embargoed until last year and now the author has retracted T the thesis. the ability to absorb, transmute and present its conclusions. There’s nothing particularly new in the conclusions We encouraged Dr Hayward to take this material. reached in the Hayward thesis - it repeats the same time-worn theories, step and to make his current views more widely Professor Graeme Wake lies and half-truths Holocaust deniers have been pushing for years. known in the light of the fact that his thesis Dean of Postgraduate Studies What does astonish, disturb and concern is that a thesis which denies was being misused. It is pleasing to see this is the existence of the gas chambers at Auschwitz should be sanctioned University of Canterbury by a reputable academic institution. This is a scandal and a concern for all New Zealanders. As we know, it takes little provocation for racist views to surface. Holocaust deniers are first and formost anti- Deniers delighted by academic acceptance Semitic. Why else would they want to rewrite the gruelling and CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 gruesome story of six million Jews? suggests that he was inexperienced when he scuttled by gross errors of calculation; and Take one of Hayward’s conclusions: that probably less than two wrote this thesis. That may be so, but it because it is suspect of falsification. The million Jews were killed - a common assertion of Holocaust deniers. should be noted that his fellow founders and Leuchter Report lands in the cesspool of Yad Vashem - the Holocaust museum and memorial in Jerusalem - has committee members in a organisation called pretentious human folly’. [5] shelves stacked with files recording the names and details of more Opposition to Anti-Semitism Incorporated, than three million relatives and friends remembered by survivors. What The same article is mentioned in the argued with him at the time about all the about the millions who can’t be remembered? Those who lived in Hayward thesis bibliography, so we can assume major points in his thesis. villages and towns where the devastation was 100 per cent, where that the thesis supervisor, Associate Professor generations of entire families were blotted out? Orange, was aware of this. Yet there is no Caught in the web of This writer’s uncle returned to Russia from England to help with explanation in the thesis for this extraordinary Holocaust deniers turnabout. the revolution. He stayed, married, had a family and corresponded In 1991 it seems that Joel Hayward had regularly with his mother in London – right up until the Ukraine was Six millions deaths refuted been caught in the web of Holocaust deniers. invaded by Germany. There’s no doubt in this writer’s mind that he Although he set out to critically analyse their The other conclusion in the Hayward and his family, his wife’s family and all the other innocent Jewish views in an objective academic manner, he thesis refers to the number of Jews murdered families in his forgotten shtetl were murdered by the Nazis. Their names ended up supporting them. He came to in the Holocaust. On page 336 of the thesis, aren’t included in Yad Vashem’s files because too little information admire people like Irving, Faurisson and Joel Hayward wrote: exists today. But the Holocaust denier would have the world forget Weber. As he noted in his conclusion: their very existence. ‘The total number of Jewish deaths is ‘Some Revisionist books and articles (such probably impossible to determine, as even Yet Canterbury University is unwittingly supporting and abetting as those by Weber, Irving and Faurisson) are scholars upholding orthodox opinion agree. such claims by apparently being the only university in the western world balanced and authoritative, containing both Figures range from four to six or seven to accept a thesis supporting the claims of Holocaust deniers. Will solid research and highly-developed analysis’. New Zealand now be seen as a soft spot for Holocaust deniers to have million. No estimate has been offered in this thesis, although the total would undoubtedly their message gain academic sanction? The door was opened in References Canterbury - how many have stepped in? Who is checking? Jewish be more than one million and far less than students throughout New Zealand, and especially those at Canterbury the symbolic figure of six million’. 1- www.us.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people (look University, must be concerned. Jewish students and potential students In other words, even though he clearly under ‘h’) may be concerned for their cultural safety. Their fears are unlikely to states that he has not researched this matter, 2 - The Report is posted on the IHR website. be assuaged while the Hayward thesis has academic credibility. he is, nevertheless, ready to say that the 3 - The report can be found on the Adelaide generally accepted total by reputable Holocaust What should be done? Some, including Dr Hayward himself, have Institute’s website. historians of about six million Jewish deaths, called for the thesis to be withdrawn. Canterbury University refuses to 4 - See Arthur Goodman, Leuchter:Exposed should be accepted as a mere ‘symbolic figure’. do this - in some ways understandably. The document is written, it has and Discredited by the Court, in Shelley More specifically Joel Hayward suggests the been read around the world, they can’t now destroy it. They could be Shapiro (ed.), Truth Prevails – Demolishing estimate to be ‘more than one million’. Else- accused of tampering with history if they tried. Holocaust Denial: the End of the Leuchter where in the thesis he is not so generous. On Report, New York, 1990, p79. It is this newspaper’s opinion that Canterbury University should page 17 he suggests the figure to be ‘hundreds 5 - Jean-Claude Pressac, The Deficiencies and immediately revoke Hayward’s degree leaving the thesis in their of thousands of Jews or even more’. Inconsistencies of the Leuchter Report, in archives as just another document. At the same time they might like to In his letter in this issue, Dr Hayward Shelley Shapiro (ed.) op.cit.p.55 answer a few other questions: What control does the University have over matter produced by graduate students? Are they happy with the quality of supervision and scholarship surrounding the Hayward Some related Internet sites Anti-Defamation League thesis? How can they guarantee the supervision and scholarship for The Nizkor Project - dedicated to the mil- www.adl.org/ their current graduate students? Can their previous honours’ students lions of Holocaust victims have confidence in the way their theses were treated? What is the Simon Wiesenthal Centre responsibility of the university? It wouldn’t be a bad idea to also find www.nizkor.com www.wiesenthal.org/ some way of apologising to New Zealand society and to the memory of David Irving's website. Contains his version Adelaide Institute the six millions Jews murdered in Nazi Europe. of the British trial www.adam.com.au/fredadin/index.html www.fpp.co.uk/trial/index.html Page 4 New Zealand Jewish Chronicle - April 2000 REVISIONISM The techniques of Holocaust denial

Canterbury BY PROFESSOR DOV BING, DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO

Introduction signed by more than 300 members attending the organisation’s University annual conference. In 1994 the AHA reaffirmed its position Historical revisionism is an honest endeavour that is under- in a press release which stated that ‘the Association will not taken by many historians. Any work that examines a well- provide a forum for views that are, at best, a form of academic warned understood facet of history and comes to a new conclusion may fraud’. be said to be revisionist history. Holocaust denial, which refers to itself as Holocaust Revisionism, is not history at all. It is one In France, in response to Robert Faurisson’s assertion that The Christchurch-based organisa- of the most notable anti-Semitic propaganda movements to there had been no gas chambers in the Holocaust, 34 of France’s tion, Opposition to Anti-Semitism develop over the last two decades. It is also an organised effort leading historians issued a declaration that reads in part: Inc., wrote to The Registrar of the to deny the reality of the Nazi regime’s systematic mass murder, ‘Everyone is free to interpret a phenomenon like Hitlerite University of Canterbury in May partly in gas chambers, of nearly 6,000,000 Jews in Europe genocide according to his own philosophy. Everyone is free to 1992 pointing out the direction compare it with other enterprises of murder committed during the Second World War. earlier, at the same time or later. Everyone is free to offer this being taken by Joel Hayward in his On the surface, the Holocaust deniers portray themselves or that kind of explanation; everyone is free, to the limit, to thesis. These extracts are taken from as individuals engaged in a legitimate, dispassionate quest for imagine or to dream that these monstrous deeds did not take that letter: historical knowledge and truth. They dress themselves in place. Unfortunately, they did take place and no one can deny pseudo- academic garb. They assert that the accepted premise, their existence without committing an outrage on the truth. It that Nazi Germany engaged in a premeditated campaign of is not necessary to ask how technically such mass murder was “I am writing to you regarding systematic genocide against the Jews, is one that does not stand possible. It was technically possible, seeing that it took place. Opposition to Anti-Semitism’s (OAS) up to honest scholarly scrutiny. That is the required point of departure of every historical concern about the MA thesis of a They do not deny History student at Canterbury that Hitler engaged in University. The name of the student persecution and is Stuart Hayward (also known as Joel discrimination against Stuart Hayward).... Jews in Germany and German occupied “He said that he has spent 64 countries. They even pages critiquing the [infamous] admit the existence of Leuchter Report and he “came to the concentration camps. conclusions that Leuchter’s report is They argue, however, essentially flawless”. This report has that the actions of the been soundly and totally discredited Nazis were in large part – it purports to prove that there were a legitimate response to Jewish misdeeds and no gas chambers at Auschwitz!.... disloyalty during war- “Stuart: My thesis supervisor is a time. As such, the man called Dr Vincent Orange, measures taken and who’s been at the University of the use of concentra- Canterbury as PhD senior lecturer tion camps, is not to be since 1961. That’s 31 years now. He’s seen as qualitatively written three biographies on the different from similar wartime actions of the Second World War plus two more Western Allies and the general books on the Second World Soviet Union. An overview of Krema4 in Auschwitz. The gas chambers are in the back; in the foreground, the morgue and the crematorium. War. He’s a very well regarded Only Germany has scholar. He said .... in November, been singled out for “OK! I agree there were no gas special condemnation, they argue, and this only because it lost inquiry on this subject. This truth it behoves us to remember chambers....” the war. They also often deny the existence of any German plan in simple terms: there is not and there cannot be a debate about the existence of the gas chambers’. “While OAS has absolutely no or programme to systematically murder the Jews in gas wish to have Stuart’s thesis censored chambers. The full text of this declaration appeared in ‘Le Monde’, February 21, 1979. in any manner, we are deeply The cynical truth comes by way of an obscure extremist group, which boasts: ‘The real purpose of Holocaust concerned about what he has told us Holocaust denial arguments he is including in his thesis, and also Revisionism is to make National Socialism an acceptable alternative again.’ (1) This explains the stance taken by about the impact that his beliefs on There are a number of well known arguments which the Holocaust deniers. Holocaust deniers repeat. Their arguments are rather the Holocaust may have on his simplistic and could be ignored, were it not for the fact that thesis. The information he has given The roots of Holocaust denial they are being taken seriously in some university circles. The us is in direct opposition to that of Holocaust denial can be found in the bureaucratic language of following are summaries of some of the major assertions by all reputable historians.... Nazi policy itself. The Nazis sought to camouflage the Holocaust denial propagandists, with brief factual responses: “A student at this level should genocidal intent of what they called ‘The Final Solution to the A) There were no gas chambers used for mass murder at know better and must be expected to Jewish Question’. In France, an obscure group of post-war Auschwitz and other concentration camps have gained the research skills to Trotskyites led by Paul Rassinier denounced evidence of the genocide as ‘Stalinist atrocity propaganda’. Gas chambers were the primary means of murder used enable him to tell the difference against the Jews in the Holocaust. A directive establishing large- between serious historical research An organised propaganda movement took root in 1979 when scale gas chambers was issued in the fall of 1941. Between and anti- Semitic Holocaust revision- , founder of the Liberty Lobby – the largest anti- January 1940 and August 1941, 70,273 Germans – most of ism (in the guise of serious historical Jewish propaganda organisation in the United States – them physically handicapped or mentally ill – were gassed in research)... incorporated the Institute for Historical Review (IHR). The IHR hermetically sealed gas chambers disguised as shower rooms.(2) publishes the Journal of Historical Review (JHR) and its “OAS do not believe an MA Three directors of the mass murder, Erhard Wetzel, Alfred members meet at annual conventions. Rosenberg and Victor Blank met in 1941 with Adolf Eichmann would be awarded on the basis of to discuss the use of gas chambers in the mass murder such a thesis. However as the The reactions of historians programme. (3) Thereafter, Christian Wirth and Dr. Kalmeyer University of Canterbury is the final In December 1991 the Governing Council of the American were sent to Poland to begin construction of the gas judge of the worth (or lack thereof) Historical Association (AHA), the largest and oldest professional chambers.(4) of Stuart’s work, we feel that it is organisation for historians in the USA, unanimously approved Mobile gassing vans, using the exhaust fumes of diesel important to let you know what he a statement condemning the Holocaust denial movement, engines, started in November 1941.(5) At least 320,000 Chelmo has told us so that you can deal with stating: ‘No serious historians question that the Holocaust took prisoners, most of them Jews, were killed by this method; a this as you see fit..... place’. total of 870,000 Jews were murdered using gas vans and diesel- The letter was signed by Kingsley N. The Council’s action came in response to a petition powered gas chambers. (6) Gas chambers were installed and operated at Belzec, Lublin, Sobibor, Majdanek and Auschwitz- McFarlane, President. circulated among members calling for an official statement Opposition to Ant-Semitism Inc against Holocaust denial propaganda. The petition had been CONTINUED, PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 10 New Zealand Jewish Chronicle - April 2000 Page 5 REVISIONISM The techniques of Holocaust denial CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 The trials resulted in one 10-year Birkenau from September 3, 1941 until sentence; one 15-year sentence; two 20- November 1944 (7). At its height the year sentences and three life sentences. programme accounted for as many as Eleven received the death penalty and 20,000 victims per day. (8) Authorities three were set free. Hardly a rubber stamp have estimated that approximately two to verdict. The defendants, moreover, had three million Jews were murdered in the access to 206 attorneys – 136 of whom gas chambers. The total number of Jews had been Nazi party members. killed in the Holocaust remains at nearly A second round of trials resulted in 6,000,000, of whom approximately 25 death sentences; 20 life sentences; 97 1,000,000 were killed in Auschwitz. (9) sentences of 25 years or less and 35 not- B) The estimate of six million Jewish guilty verdicts. (13) losses during the Holocaust are greatly D) Testimony of survivors is exaggerated unreliable; there is no objective documentation proving the Holocaust deniers first argued that The plan of the gas chamber of Krema II in Auschwitz. The air extraction there were no gas chambers and then Holocaust. system (which the Holocaust deniers claim didn’t exist) is clearly shown. moved on to claim that without gas No crime in history has been as well Remains of the air-extraction system can still be seen in the ruins. chambers it was simply not possible to documented as the Holocaust. It is murder so many Jews. Some suggest demonstrated by a myriad of documents, 325,000 as a realistic figure, others about the majority of them Nazi-authored and Similarly Raul Hilberg, in his three- Nazis, skinheads and other extremist a million (at least) and then go on to captured by Allied troops before the volume edition of ‘The Destruction of the groups and more recently within univer- argue such deaths were caused as a result Germans could destroy them. Davidowicz European Jews’ wrote that the sities. of war action; natural deaths and being wrote: ‘the German documents captured accumulated paperwork of the German bureaucracy was vast enough to survive in If Holocaust denial has demonstrated sentenced to death. Being sentenced to by the Allied armies at war’s end have anything, it is the fragility of memory, death implies that these Jews exacted such provided an incomparable historical significant quantities, and even sensitive folders remained.(15) reason and history. (16) Professor punishment because they had broken the record, which, with regard to volume and Lipstadt observed ‘that the deniers also law and had therefore met with their just accessibility, has been unique in the Both the first hand testimony of survi- sport an outward veneer, but rather than deserts. annals of scholarship .... the national vors who lived through the death camps, expose who they are, it camouflages The figure of six million can be archives and the American Historical as well as the reports and confessions by them. The stripping away of the deniers’ demonstrated by comparing Europe’s Jew- Association jointly have published 67 the perpetrators – a gross juxtaposition – cloak of respectability reveals that at their ish population before and after the war. volumes of Guides to German Records leave little doubt as to the nature of core they are no different from these neo- Even after making allow- Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’. Horrifying films facist groups. They hate the same things ances for those who fled and photos of killing operations and and have the same objectives – the Europe, there are nearly Estimated number of Jews killed in the ‘Final Solution’ their aftermath can only begin to give a destruction of truth and memory. But 6,000,000 who cannot be ac- picture of the extent of Nazi atrocity. the deniers have adopted the demeanour Estimated Estimated Jewish counted for. The Anglo- population It should be noted, that Nazi war of the rationalist and increasingly avoid American Commission of Country pre-‘Final crimes’ suspects who stood trial for their annihilated the easily identifiable one of the extrem- Enquiry, meeting in April Solution’ crimes never claimed that the crimes of ist. They attempt to project the appear- 1946, put the total Jewish population Number % which they were accused were fictional. ance of being committed to the very losses at 5,721,500. The They argued instead that they were ‘only values that they, in truth, adamantly historian and international following orders’. oppose: reason, critical rules of evidence Poland 3,300,000 3,000,000 90 jurist Jacob Korherr arrived Countless new records from the and historical distinction. This is what at a figure of 5,820,960. The Baltic countries 253,000 228,000 90 former Soviet Union have recently be- makes Holocaust denial such a German historian Helmut threat’.(17) Germany/Austria 240,000 210,000 90 come available. The evidence for the Nazi Krausnick, put the number death machine has by virtue of such data References nearer to 7,000,000. Studies Protectorate 90,000 80,000 89 become so overwhelming that on Octo- 1) Winston Smith, The Importance of of censuses, statistical analy- Slovakia 90,000 75,000 83 ber 9, 1981, Judge Thomas T. Johnson Holocaust Revisionism, [NS Net Bulletin#5, ses and other demographic of the California Supreme Court, took July 24, 1996]. Smith is the leader of the studies of European Jewry Greece 70,000 54,000 77 judicial notice of the Holocaust, ruling National Socialist White Peoples Party, have consistently demon- The Netherlands 140,000 105,000 75 that ‘the Holocaust is not reasonably formerly known as the American Nazi Party. strated the accuracy of the subject to dispute. It is capable of imme- 2) Encyclopaedia of the Holocaust, volume 1946 assessment. (10) Hungary 650,000 450,000 70 diate and accurate determination by 2, p.453. The Encyclopaedia of the SSR White Russia 375,000 245,000 65 resort to resources of reasonable, 3) Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust, 1985, Holocaust (5,860,129) and indisputable accuracy. It is simply a fact’. p.219. Davidowicz (5,933,900) offer SSR Ukraine* 1,500,000 900,000 60 4) Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the a country by country Belgium 65,000 40,000 60 Conclusion European Jews, volume 3, pp873-876. [NY accounting of Jewish death. 1985]. Yugoslavia 43,000 26,000 60 The attempt to deny the Holocaust The table (right) is based on enlists a basic strategy of distortion. Truth 5) Encyclopaedia of the Holocaust, volume Davidowicz (11). Romania 600,000 300,000 50 is mixed with absolute lies. By juxtapos- 2, pp.541-544. C) The Nuremburg Trials Norway 1,800 900 50 ing lies with truth, the lies are given 6) Encyclopaedia of the Holocaust, volume were a farce validity. The assertion that there were no 2, p,542; volume 4, pp.1483-1486. France 350,000 90,000 26 gas chambers is a monstrous lie. In fact, 7) Encyclopaedia of the Holocaust, volume This is another centre- Bulgaria 64,000 14,000 22 Holocaust denial is a peculiarly 2, pp.113,116. piece of Holocaust denial postmodern phenomenon. It is both an 8) Holocaust, Keter Books 1974, p.87. propaganda. The deniers Italy 40,000 8,000 20 expression of, and a refutation of, the claim that the top Nazis’ 9) Yehuda Bauer 1989; Raul Hilberg 1961; key postmodernist dogma; that there is Lucy Davidowicz 1975. evidence cannot be relied Luxembourg 5,000 1,000 20 no such thing as truth, historical or 10) Lucy Davidowicz, The War Against The upon because as indicted Russia (RSFSR)* 975,000 107,000 11 otherwise, there are only ‘constructions’, war criminals they were try- Jews, 1933-1945, p.402. Denmark 8,000 ‘competing narratives’ with no reason 11) Ibid, p.403. ing to protect themselves; to ‘privilege’. Indeed a dangerous saying what would most 12) Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the Finland 2,000 phenomenon. likely be expedient for the European Jews, NY 1985, p.1060. In an attempt to hide the fact that outcome of the trial. * The Germans did not occupy all the territories in this republic 13) Hilberg, The Destruction of European The Nuremberg Trials they are fascists and anti-Semites with a Jews, volume 3, pp.1075-1078. were based on a carefully specific ideological and political agenda, 14) Davidowicz, The War Against the Jews, Microfilmed at Alexandria, VA. For my the Holocaust deniers state that their p.437. prepared process. Discussions of the treat- work I have limited myself mainly to pub- objective is to uncover historical false- 15) Hilberg, The Destruction of the ment of war criminals started as early as lished German documents’.(14) October 1943. (12) The first trials began hoods. This way they have been able to European Jews, volume 3, p.1223. in the autumn of 1945. The chief The author then lists 303 published sow confusion. They do this amongst the 16) Deborah Lipstadt, Denying the defendant was Hermann Goering. The sources. Among these sources are the confused and the disoriented. Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth prosecution had selected a further 20 writing of Adolf Hitler; Heinrich Holocaust deniers have found a ready and Memory, 1994, p.216. leading Nazis. Himmler; Rudolf Hoess and Alfred following amongst the Ku Klux Klan; Neo 17) Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust..., p.217. Rosenberg. Page 6 New Zealand Jewish Chronicle - April 2000