SMITH’S REPORT On Controversy

No 163 | www.codoh.com | July 2009

See back issues at www.smithsreport.com

Challenging the Holocaust Taboo Since 1990

THE CAMPUS CAMPAIGN

FROM THE WASHINGTON JEWISH WEEK TO YALE UNIVERSITY, ETC.

Bradley Smith

he Summer 2009 CODOH being raised in class, or by another Example. It was a Monday T Campus Campaign began academic at lunch? Not many? morning, 22 June, and I was at the to make its presence known at uni- Probably not many. VA Hospital in La Jolla in the versities around the country the A short revisionist text placed muscular/skeleton clinic to see a middle of June. It’s still very early, before fifty-thousand-plus new doctor about the pain in the back but the Eisenhower ad has run or is folk? It’s worth the effort. And and leg. It had been an over- running in the Daily Lobo at the maybe another 50,000 shortly? nighter, I hadn’t slept well, but University of New Mexico, the It takes a lot of man hours to when my cell phone rang I pretty University Chronicle at St. Cloud run a campaign like this. Submit- much woke up. For all I knew, it University (Wisconsin), and The ting the ad is painless, but follow- was someone I would want to talk Helmsman at the University of ing up with it is where the time is to. Memphis. Three other are to begin spent. No issue with those who It was. A young man named the week of July 6th. ignore the ad (most of them), or Gallagher was calling from adver- The size of student populations those that contact us to make cer- tising at BG-News, Bowling Green during summer classes is larger tain we know that they will not run State University. I was immedi- than I would have expected—at it. With those who are agreeable to ately aware that he and my right the first three campuses alone it running the ad there is the back hand man (I’ve been calling him adds up to some 48,000 students and forth regarding formatting, Hernandez but I think I’ll start and 2,550 faculty. How many of scheduling, changes in scheduling, calling him Roberto) had been in a these 48,000 students have ever emails gone astray, contracts lost, back and forth about running the been exposed to any sensible text faxes not arriving (we’re in Mex- Eisenhower ad. whatever that implies that some- ico), contracts signed, sealed, de- Gallagher told me the BG-News thing might be wrong with the gas- livered and then renounced—I wanted to run the ad, it had been chamber story? How many of don’t think renounce is the right worked out between him and Ro- these 2,550 academics have ever word. Maybe it is. berto, and all that was left to do had to think about such a question was to arrange payment. I said I

could do that in the moment, we Green State University. For the writing at Wellesley College. His did it using my Visa debit, Galla- moment. doctorate is in religious studies, he gher thanked me, with some enthu- As part of the Campus Cam- coordinates the Yale Journalism siasm I thought, and there we paign I would be obligated to write Initiative. That’s not all, but it’s were. I wonder how many grown Mr. Bortel a letter. I did. Mr. Bor- enough to demonstrate that The men, particularly grown men my tel felt personally obligated to re- Washington Jewish Week is read age, would get so much pleasure spond. He did. I posted both letters by informed people in Washington from such a simple business trans- on my Blog. Then I wrote him a D.C. and at Yale University as action with a college student. second, more critical letter and well. So of course I was obligated I was still sitting there a few posted that on my Blog. Haven’t to give him an interview. minutes later when Gallagher heard from him. But now of course Oppenheimer was going to be called back, apologized, and said I feel obligated to distribute my in the Pasadena area and maybe we the BG-News could not run the ad. response to Mr. Bortel’s letter to could meet in the “middle” some- I asked why. He didn’t want to talk Mr. Bortel’s colleagues. And obli- where. Sure. When I understood he about it, but told me that the Direc- gated perhaps to write to the presi- was going to be in the Pasadena tor of Student Publications was dent of his university. area I asked if he were going to see standing there if I wanted to talk to Michael Shermer of Skeptic Maga- him. I figured, what the hell, un- At the same time, though zine, but he did not respond. Any- derstanding that it would be a use- I didn’t know it, another sto- how, that was none of my busi- less exercise. ness. We could meet in San Cle- Mr. Robert Bortel was a per- ry was developing because of mente. fectly civil adult who, while he the Campus Campaign. We did. Irene and Li’l Brad was not a professor, explained to You will remember that the went along for the ride. Irene real- me that he had spent a good Washington Jewish Week pub- ly went to chaperone me, I had amount of time studying the his- lished an article on the Campus only recently ended my 10-month tory of World War II. We talked Campaign on 18 February (my struggle with lymphatic cancer and about ten, twelve minutes maybe. birthday, but I believe that was she didn’t trust me to be “on the The drift of what he said was that almost certainly a coincidence) road” by myself. The most obvious he had read widely in the orthodox titled “Local College Papers say place for Oppenheimer and me to literature, it was obvious that the ‘No’ to ad challenging the Holo- meet was at the Starbucks on the Holocaust happened, and that it caust.” I reported on it here in the main drag. Irene took Li’l Brad for would be “offensive” to many at March issue (#159). The journalist, a walk while I took a nap in the car BGSU if the News were to run the Adam Korbel, was straight with to wait. I was pretty tired, I went ad that suggested it did not. He me, something that doesn’t always right to sleep, probably with my used the words “offend” and “of- happen with journalists writing for mouth open. Here is how the pro- fensive” a number of times. It was any publication. fessor describes our meeting. a fine example of civility used in Unknown to me, a young Ph.D. the service of suppressing a free professor of history who teaches at “[….] the elderly Smith was exchange of ideas. Yale University, Mark Oppen- kindly enough to endure the traffic I brought up a few ideas that he heimer, read the article and was jam at the Mexican-American bor- seemed unprepared to deal with intrigued by the idea of doing der and meet me at the Starbucks directly. You would be familiar something with the core story it in San Clemente, California, the with them. When I had the impres- represented. Early in April he con- beach town where Richard Nixon sion that he was about to hang up I tacted me, asked for an interview, began his exile. Smith had left a would suggest a new line of and I said sure. I googled him and message on my mobile phone say- thought. He would hold on. In the found that he is a real guy. ing that he would wait for me in end it was as it was. Censored. I learned that he is a writer for the parking lot, and that’s where I And so it goes, as we used to The New York Times Magazine, found him, snoozing behind the say. I heard my name called, it was Slate, The Boston Globe, The For- wheel of his pickup truck. I rapped my time to see the doctor about my ward, and other publications. In on the window, and the aging rad- muscular and skeletal arrange- the school year 2008-2009 he’s ical opened his eyes with a lecturing in the English and Politi- ments, such as they are, and that was the end of it with Bowling cal Science departments of Yale Continued on page 13 University, and teaching creative 2 My article described the two- Dead Sea Scrolls,” CJN, June 11). LETTERS thousand fold differential as ‘the Otherwise, we will end up with a central axis around which future generation that defines their Juda- Nick Kollerstrom, PhD, discussion of ‘the Holocaust’ will ism by hysterically defending it [email protected] have to revolve.’ May these figures without even knowing what they assist that revolution. I’d be happy are defending. In my ‘Leuchter 20 years on’ if anyone wants to check through Remember that your paper is article (issue 153 Smith’s Report), them, they are all in the Rudolf called the Jewish News, not The I showed graphs of the data of Ru- Report and Mr. Desjardin’s CO- Canadian – Oh, Woe Be Us, the dolf and Leuchter combined, for DOH article (slight differences are Hated People News three distinct groups: wall possible, where more than one samples from the delousing cham- analysis was done per sample). Paul Fritz-Németh bers (DCs), from the alleged hu- These values are compatible man gas chambers (AHGCs) and with the data published by John I would like to congratulate you from ‘controls’ i.e. barracks kitch- Ball in 1993: from a DC, 3000 and all collaborators for the ap- en etc. I neglected to give the mean ppm (n=2) and from AHGC sites pearance of Inconvenient History. values of the data thus graphed, 0.5 + 0.6 (n=4) ppm and including Online. Be assured that as soon as and here they are. these would lower the mean things pick up I will come through AHGC value, bringing it closer to for you and your worthy cause. Mean wall concentrations of the ‘control’ mean. Seven tons of Until then I would like to add a total cyanide at Auschwitz, from cyanide was used at Auschwitz little tid-bit that I read in our [Ca- combining the Leuchter and Ru- 1942-5, and its destination remains nadian] newspaper which you may dolf data-sets, parts per million of interest. The Ferro cyanide fixed or may not know. I found it in the (µg/g): into the old brickwork gives a Movies pages. The article was more reliable memory of where it about a classic film called Man 1. DCs 4960 ± 3800 (n=15) ppm was used than does anything else! Hunt directed by Fritz Lang. It is Mother Nature gave us that unex- 2. AHGCs 2.7 ± 2.7 (n=16) ppm all about the film but let me quote pected ace card, by the brickwork you verbatim from the article the 3. Controls 1.7 ± 1.3 (n=11) ppm being so porous to the hydrogen remarks regarding this director: cyanide, and by the iron complex “But it was also the work of a A t-test comparing (2) and (3) thus formed being so permanent. Jewish German director who re- gives t = 1.1 which is wholly in- jected Hitler’s overtures to appoint significant: that is the conclusive Danielle Kubes him the Third Reich’s official film refutation of ‘the Holocaust’ – for czar and fled the country soon af- the first time, I suggest. Revision- [Reprinted from the Canadian terwards.” This statement obvi- ists have pointed out that the two- Jewish News] If Martians landed ously raises the question that if thousand fold differential between in Toronto today and wanted to Hitler was so hell-bent to destroy (1) and (2) shows pretty clearly learn more about our Jewish com- the Jews, why would he want to that one was used for regular, mass munity, they would think our en- appoint a Jew to become the offi- cyanide gassing whereas the other tire community hinged on the be- cial film czar? was not. But, the fact is that pro-H. lief that some people have hated us I was shocked to see Obama, experts have not accepted this ar- and other people still do. I realize Judge Matia and even the Pope gument. Unlikely though it may that the Holocaust and anti- genuflecting to a totally unfounded seem, they have argued that this Semitism are issues that do need to hoax. I can see a politician bending data merely shows that ‘bugs are be discussed, but other aspects of to the will of his financiers al- harder to kill’ than humans, i.e. the Judaism should receive equal cov- though it makes me think a great DCs needed more cyanide. My erage in The CJN. Perhaps you deal less of him, but the Pope, who article argued that only the estab- should include more articles, such is supposedly God’s lieutenant and lishing of a ‘control’ group gives a as the one about the Dead Sea should not have to fear anyone truly conclusive argument: viz, Scrolls, which are intelligent and mouthing the same stupid mantra that the two groups of AHGC and interesting, instead of a bajillion is too much to accept. control come from the same pool, articles about Iran and anti-Semitic they are not significantly different. plays that no one bothers to go see anyway (“Prof explores journey of 3 Inconvenient History Notebook The ‘Nazi Extermination the articles from our three online e are actively working on Camp’ of Sobibor in the Context issues of 2009. W putting together the sec- of the Demjanjuk Case, by Paul More information on how to ond issue of Inconvenient History Grubach purchase this important volume which is targeted for a September In addition we have several in- will be made available to readers release. The tentative lineup in- teresting book reviews and editori- of Smith’s Report and those who cludes: als. Our feature “Profiles in His- have signed up for updates online and the Aktion tory” will examine the life and to IH. Reinhardt Camps, by Juergen career of John T. Flynn. As always, we are in need of Graf We are also planning for our assistance. Anyone with writing, The Prohibition of Holocaust annual print edition. The annual editorial, translation skills or oth- Denial, by Joseph Bellinger should be available for purchase in erwise thinks they have a unique early 2010. It will include all of way to help IH, please contact us.

How to Escape from a Homicidal Chamber Over the Years it Gets Easier and Easier

Thomas Kues

n Smith’s Report #149 chamber in a similar, albeit more bers of the fair sex). In her book I (April 2008) I published an cunning fashion: when the gas be- Den Livsfarliga Glömskan (“The article called “Experto Crede, or gan streaming in through “three Fatal Forgetfulness”, Brombergs, How to Escape from a Homicidal large black holes” she started Stockholm 1986), Inga Gottfarb, a ”, devoted to a spe- banging on the door, screaming Swedish-Jewish writer and Zionist cial category of Shoah survivors: that she was a German guard. Fi- activist (an active member of the those resourceful Jewish fellows nally, men in gas masks opened Swedish Committee Against Anti- who saw one of the fabled Nazi the door and pulled her out. Curi- Semitism), quotes from a report homicidal gas chambers from the ously, she was not sent back to the sent by her to the American Jewish inside, and then escaped from it to gas chamber or otherwise punished Joint Distribution Committee in tell their story. once the Germans had discovered New York “in mid-May 1945” To achieve this feat is to reach that she was not one of them. An- concerning the reception of female one step above people like Arnold other Majdanek inmate, Mietek former concentration camp in- Friedman, who survived a gassing Grocher, simply sneaked out mates in the Swedish city of in Flossenburg(!) by means of through the still open gas chamber Malmö on April 29 the same year breathing through a key hole. door while the (single!) guard was (pp. 162-163): Auschwitz eyewitnesses Sophia looking another way and then “Många hade varit i Ausch- Litwinska and Regina Bialek were dodged a hail of bullets from pur- witz, hade “gasnummer” intatuer- both saved in the nick of time suing Germans. ade på sina armar. Några hade when SS men opened the chamber However, I have recently lyckats ta sig ut ur gaskammaren (in the middle of the gassing proc- found out that there are recorded genom ett fönster.” ess) to take them (and no-one else) cases of even more cunning gas Translation: out of there. Needless to say, they chamber escapes. Unfortunately “Many had been in Auschwitz were invaluable to the Germans in we don’t have any names, but we and had ‘gas numbers’ tattooed on some way or another and therefore know that there were more than their arms. Some had managed to spared to tell the world of their one of them, and that they were escape from the gas chamber remarkable experiences. female (clearly not ladies prone to through a window.” Majdanek witness Mary Sei- panic and hysterics but level- Can it really get any cleverer denwurm Wrzos survived a death headed and very resourceful mem- than this? Or should I expect to one day find a story of a successful Albert Einstein: “Two things are stupidity, and I’m not sure about gas chamber lock picker? To quote infinite: the universe and human the universe.”

The Holocaust: No Laughing Matter, Till Now

Eric Blair

his happened during the fied. While the Monty Python In a typical scene, the ditzy T 1985 “false news” trial of comedy Life of Brian had made it daughter of a prospective Holo- the Toronto publisher Ernst semi-respectable to caricature the caust museum donor is moved to Zündel. Defense witness Ditlieb life and work of the Lord Jesus comment to her hosts after watch- Felderer was on the stand being (just as Rowan Atkinson's Black- ing a wheelchair-bound visitor to grilled by crown prosecutor Peter adder would later on blithely lam- Auschwitz touring the site: “I real- Griffiths. Waxing morally injured, poon the casual slaughter of World ly really appreciate it that Ausch- the prosecutor insisted the witness War I trench warfare), the Holo- witz is wheelchair-accessible. You admit that he had, indeed, mailed caust was still off-limits. I say know what I mean? Was it always the condom attached to the leaflet “still” because that has changed that way - I mean, even at the time he brandished to the Auschwitz somewhat in recent years, with of the Holocaust?” museum for inclusion in an exhibit echoes of mockery, now and again, Afterward, this dullard of a of Holocaust artifacts. Felderer heard rumbling over the fenced- character will be named director of readily owned to having sent the off, no-go zone. the Holocaust museum. leaflet, along with the condom; One such rumble was Tova There has of late been some and, with a coy smile, added: Reich’s novel My Holocaust. Crit- evidence that Reich’s lame and “Well, each is encouraged to send ical opinions about the book were tasteless brand of humour is catch- what they can.”1 divided. A New York Times review ing on. A case in point: The frat- However unintentionally, the of Reich’s My Holocaust by one house comedy Hangover, now in scene grew to be hilariously funny. David Margolick summed up her theaters, milks the Jewish tragedy From his perch in the press gallery, satirical novel, based on the Holo- for some cheap laughs. Four reporter Michael Hoffman de- caust industry, as “something so chums spend three days in Vegas scribed what happened: “One of rancid and so primitive.”3 By con- getting absolutely smashed. the most priceless sights of the trial trast, fellow novelist Cynthia Among them is a romantic and [....] came as Griffiths waved Ozick’s response to the work of sentimental dentist who shows the above his head an unraveled con- fiction—whose glowing review other three a special ring that "my dom that had been attached to a was included in Reich’s novel as a grandmother kept [from the Nazis] leaflet urging people to mail such kind of infomercial—was one of during the Holocaust." The man artifacts [....] to Auschwitz.”2 sheer, unrelenting praise. Ozick: then reveals his intention to ask his Which moved the jury and some “[O]ne of the most penetrating so- live-in girlfriend—an irascible, spectators to laugh unabashedly at cial and political novels of the ear- ball-breaking shrew—to marry Griffith’s slavering display of out- ly twenty-first century next to him and at the same time offer her rage. which the last century’s Animal this cherished Holocaust artifact as Back in 1985 the notion of Farm is a mere bleat.”4 My own a meaningful token of their en- “” (read: histori- reaction to Reich’s typically lame gagement. Instead, he gets royally cal revisionism), in spite of satura- and tasteless Holocaust-themed drunk during a boys' night out and tion media coverage of both the humour, speaking of a “mere the precious "Holocaust ring" ends Zündel and the Keegstra trials bleat,” was to punctuate my read- up gracing the finger of a “hot” across Canada, was new and had ing of every other passage, where hooker/stripper whom he sponta- outraged many Canadians. Even the comic element time and again neously marries in a 3 a.m. cere- more outrageous and unheard-of badly misfired, with a deflated mony at a Las Vegas chapel. was the kind of satire and savage pfffttt! While he mourns the loss of his mockery Ditlieb Felderer personi- grandmother's ring on the morning 5 after, one of his companions—the secular society. In the risk-taking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= bozzo in the bunch—voices a flip- business of stoking outrage, Dieu- P1xpwcFi6r4 pant surprise over the fact that donne was in a desperate fight Also culled from Spielberg’s something like a "Holocaust ring" against the Law of Diminishing opus are scenes edited to make the even exists: Returns. Hence, the provocative film Schindler’s List follow a Re- "I didn't know they give out showcasing of ality TV storyline. Schindler, a rings at the Holocaust." with its utterly predictable out- wealthy hedonist and old bachelor, This brand of Animal House come—a slavering, near-universal is inconveniently unmarried and in humour, stealing a page from Real- outrage, knee-jerk summons to a race against time desperate to ity TV, was dramatically ratcheted appear in court to answer charges find the perfect mate. His “wacki- up to a whole new level back in of hate-mongering, and so on. est list” consists of a bevy of Ger- December when the controversial Of course, Hollywood has man beauties whom he sexually French comedian and gadfly, Di- produced Holocaust comedies such test drives, exciting envy and ad- eudonne M’Bala M’Bala, deliv- as Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beau- miration along the way, before ered a startling send-up of award- tiful, but Hollywood has yet to de- deciding upon the ideal spouse that presentations at the Zenith theatre liver the bare-knuckles Life of he, Oskar Schindler, would wed. in Paris before an audience of Brian satire with the Holocaust in To view, click on: 5,000 enthusiastic spectators that the cross-hairs that would leave http://www.youtube.com/watc included a Who’s Who of promi- viewers heaving gasps of violent h?v=17dpK61bsqs nent political and show business astonishment. But maybe it soon Who knows if Hollywood, in personalities. In the course of his will. Given Hollywood’s devotion its own desperate fight against the performance, the envelope-pushing to bankable franchises predicated Law of Diminishing Returns, comic grandly summoned forth on known properties, the film in- won’t one day give the Holocaust a revisionist scholar Robert Fauris- dustry will surely discover some Monty Python do-over? I’ll wager son from out of the audience and way to commodify the Holocaust it will; sooner rather than later. invited him up on stage. Where- for today. Quentin Tarantino, with Money talks, after all. Perhaps, upon Faurisson was awarded a Inglourious Basterds, has already “Borat” or “Bruno”—a.k.a. Sacha special prize for “social unaccept- pushed far into the zone of sadis- Baron Cohen—will boldly kick- ableness and insolence” that was, tic, revenge fantasy. Why not zany start the new genre, with market in turn, handed to him by an actor comedy? In a parallel universe, forces, audience appeal, and the garbed in the striped pajamas of an this kind of daring material has modern cult of ironic irreverence Auschwitz inmate, no less. been making its appearance up on riding roughshod over Holocaust When asked about this and the Internet via YouTube. As in- pieties. similar big publicity stunts during genious samples, consider this pair his interview with the Canadian of spoofs launched as movie trail- 1. Michael A. Hoffman II, The journal Maclean’s, Diedonne ers: One entitled Night at the Holo- Great Holocaust Trial, Wiswell spoke of his need to deploy a caust Museum, and the other Ruffin House: Dresden, NY, 1995, “promotional strategy that was Schindler’s List: Romantic Com- p. 68. based on provocation,” of his de- edy. 2. Ibid. sire to rouse a “wave of indigna- Night stars Ben Stiller working 3. David Margolick, “Happy tion.” To that end, he had turned to the graveyard shift as a security Campers,” Sunday Book Review, Robert Faurisson, excited by the guard at the Holocaust museum The New York Times, May 27, Sorbonne-trained academic's lowly and, in the process, encountering 2007. pariah status within French soci- ghostly Holocaust eruptions culled 4. Tova Reich, My Holocaust, ety. Dieudonne: “I was preparing from Steven Spielberg’s classic HarperCollins: New York, 2007. another show for which I needed film Schindler’s List that rattle him The Cynthia Ozick “preface” ap- explosive material [....] And the to the core: “This is so not worth pears on two unnumbered pages at most untouchable was Faurisson.”5 $11.50 an hour!” Before this, a the front of the novel, under the He personified the hoary taboo promotionally suave, voiceover heading “Advance Praise from against openly questioning and narrator intones: “The New York Cynthia Ozick for Tova Reich’s doubting the received version of Times raves: ‘Ben Stiller makes My Holocaust.” I get the feeling the Holocaust story, with its magi- the Holocaust fun again!’” To these two pages were shoe-horned cal gas chambers—the ultimate view, click on: in at the last minute in order to blasphemy in France's militantly defuse the rage of Holocaust fun- 6 damentalists by spinning the novel locaust Role." Blair saw the news Jews in Germany, says she is hor- as high-brow literature. Tova item as a bang-on validation to the rified at the prospect of Britney Reich, we are told, “is Dean premise in his essay. Namely, making a Holocaust film. Swift’s Jewish sister.” that the Holocaust as a cultural Spears is reportedly reviewing 5. Interview with Dieudonne construct is now hurtling down a a script for a film titled "The Yel- M’Bala M’Bala: A Conversation path toward an increasingly low Star of Sophia and Eton." The with Marin Patriquin, Maclean’s, shameless degree of exploitation film would see her playing a char- June 15, pp. 18-19. and kitsch. acter named Sophia LaMont who END NOTE Spiegel reports that Britney time travels back to the past to fall may hit the silver screen as the star in love with a Jewish concentration A few days after Eric Blair sent of a Holocaust-era romantic trag- camp prisoner named Eton. "In a me the above article I heard from edy—with a hint of sci-fi. It would tricky critique of ongoing anti- him again. His subject header an- serve as a potential comeback for Semitism, the script concludes nounced "Britney Does the Holo- Britney's undistinguished film ca- with the lovebirds traveling back caust." What? He had copied a sto- reer. The news has "raised eye- to the present day before being ry from the International edition of brows" in the Jewish community in killed by Nazis." Spiegel headlined "German Jews Germany. Charlotte Knobloch, Britney doing the Holocaust? I Horrified by Britney [Spears] Ho- president of the Central Council of don't know. It might work.

FROM NUREMBERG TO NINEVEH

War, Peace and the Making of Modernity

By Mark Turley

Reviewed by Jason Willis Myers

ark Turley’s narrative Turley’s account provides a gruppen, deployed in the occupied M From Nuremberg to Ni- very welcomed breath of fresh air areas of the Eastern Front and neveh: War, Peace and the Making into the real history of Allied post- which allegedly murdered some 2 of Modernity (Vandal Publications, war “justice”. Was Nuremberg a million Jews. Turley examines the 2008) is an interesting exposé on fair and honest trial? Was it even evidence presented at the trial, and the final battle of the Second close to being so? Does the lack of finds that many of the claims re- World War. A newer voice to the a 100% conviction rate of the Nazi garding the organization’s activity revisionist community, Turley is defendants mean that the Allies likely resulted from its anti- among the first wave of authors to abstained from instituting victor’s partisan operations, as opposed to take a sensible and objective ap- justice? Were those tried granted a a purposeful hunting down of Jew- proach to the real “trial of the cen- real opportunity to defend them- ish civilians. A 1942 discussion tury” in the 60 years since its oc- selves during the procedure? What between Reich Marshal Goering currence. The book examines the was the quality of evidence pro- and Prime Minister Mussolini re- political climate and ideologies duced to substantiate Allied garding anti-partisan actions de- which gave birth to the trial, as charges? Did the Allied court real- scribed the following: well as the mechanics and opera- ly believe in the Dachau gas “To begin with, all livestock tions of the trial itself. Sifting chambers and Nazi-Katyn connec- and foodstuffs were taken away through court transcripts and many tion? The book helps answer many from the areas concerned, so as to other trial sources, Turley exam- of these questions, as well as cover deny the partisans all sources of ines both revisionist and orthodox other themes raised at the trial. supply. Men and women were tak- arguments, and provides his own One of those themes was the en away to labour camps, the chil- interpretation on the material. real purpose of the Einsatz- dren to children’s camps, and the 7 villages burned down. It was by edge of their existence being de- sors’ self-deemed insight as un- the use of these methods that the nied by every single defendant. challengeable, and un-open to de- railways in the vast wooded areas One interesting exchange dur- bate. In centers recognized from of Bialowiza had been safe- ing the trial concerned the meaning time immemorial as epicenters for guarded. Whenever attacks oc- of the German word ‘ausrottung’. free thought and free debate, that curred, the entire male population To exterminationists, this is one of so many would take hardened and of the villages were lined up on the several words that the Nazis unfalsifiable stances on the “Holo- one side and the women on the used to describe the murder of the caust” is a paradox of the highest other. The women were told that Jewish people. In April 1946, nature. Interestingly, as Turley all men would be shot, unless when Thomas Dodd put to Alfred points out, so many of these intel- they—the women—pointed out Rosenberg the sinister interpreta- ligent people who attempt to edu- which men did not belong to the tion of the word, Rosenberg cate themselves beyond biases and village. In order to save their men, strongly denied such a definition. into a scholarly world of objectiv- the women always pointed out the After Dodd offered to use a dic- ity soak up the nonsense of a pre- non-residents.” tionary to confirm the word’s dark sent evil, and assume that it was Nothing about an institutional meaning, Rosenberg responded: embodied in the Nazi regime. process to murder Jews, but in- “I do not need a foreign dic- Meanwhile, some of these same stead the harsh reality of a brutal tionary in order to explain the professors and scholars have no occupational war. various meanings ‘ausrottung’ problem in praising and supporting In the wider context of the may have in the German language. communist regimes around the book, Turley spends a good One can exterminate an idea, an world—an ideology which has led amount of pages on the Holocaust economic system, a social order, to more deaths than any other in subject. The Nuremberg trial pro- and as a final consequence, also a the past century. vided the cornerstone for the narra- group of human beings, certainly. Revisionists may not agree with tive as we know it today, through Those are the many possibilities all of this book’s contents; how- testimony on the “gas chamber” which are contained in that word. ever, it is well worth the read. It process, and the shooting actions It means ‘to overcome’ on one side supplants Irving’s book as the pre- occurring in the East. Yet, the and then it is to be used not with mier, objective investigation into quality of evidence presented to respect to individuals, but rather the trial, by filling in many of the substantiate these matters was real- juridical entities, to certain histori- gaps and voids left in the trial his- ly very poor; Turley shows a gen- cal traditions. On the other side toriography. Despite the problem- eral pattern by the Allied prosecu- this word has been used with re- atic small-printed text of the book, tion of presenting hard, documen- spect to the German people and we I highly recommend it to those tary evidence for minor charges have also not believed that in con- looking for a fresh approach to the and crimes, but using less solid sequence thereof 60 million of Nuremberg trial. Don’t be discour- witness affidavits and testimony to Germans would be shot.” aged by the small page count (194 support larger allegations. These Turley includes other etymo- pages), as a normal font would witnesses could easily have been logical protests by the leading Nazi bring this book to well over 300. torn apart by skilled cross- defendants as well. Still, Turley provides a good ac- examiners, but alas, the German- In the remainder of the book, count of the trial itself, as well as Nazi defense counsel lacked any Turley makes some tough judg- drawing attention to its relevance real experience with such an alien ments on the cravenness of acade- to current times with the moral legal procedure. Of course, no mia, and challenges them to allow hypocrisy of Allied nations. physical evidence whatsoever was more open debate. As a college shown to verify the alleged homi- student, I can attest to this book’s cidal gas chambers, despite knowl- assessment of university profes-

"Reason and experiment have been indulged, and error has fled before them. It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself." — Thomas Jefferson

8 The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

By Ilan Pappé

(Oneworld Publications, Oxford 2006)

Reviewed by Thomas Kues

n May this year, Alex Miller proposing a law that criminalizes myth. As a result, he has been os- I of the party Israel Beiteinu any publicly demonstrated mourn- tracized, isolated and defamed by (“Our Land Israel”) introduced a ing of the event Palestinians call the usual suspects (for example, new thought-crime bill for delib- "al Nakbah", that is, the brutal eth- one need only take a look at the eration in the Israeli Knesset. As nic cleansing of approximately discussion page for the Wikipedia readers of this newsletter may al- 800,000 Palestinians from their article on Pappé). ready be aware, Israel is one of homeland in connection with the Pappé is a man of integrity, ful- those freedom-loving nations that ly aware of the political impor- outlaw "Holocaust denial". Since tance of the officially sanctioned the alleged gas-chamber genocide, myth, and the role that the revi- to use the famous words of Profes- sionist method has to play in the sor Faurisson, makes up the solving of the Middle-East crisis. “sword and shield” of that neo- Contrary to many Israeli historians colonial entity, this might be a (not to mention politicians and wise piece of legislation. other official spokesmen) who as- The "news bureau" Memrit and sert that Israel emerged like a Da- other Israeli spin-doctor and news vid fighting a host of Western and disinformation agents, parroted by Arab Goliaths, he does not deny most western media, continue to the crucial role the Holocaust had assert, in spite of irrefutable evi- in establishing the neo-colonial dence to the contrary, that Iran's state. There was a strong Western , that new Ilan Pappé opinion (fanned by Zionist lobby- incarnation of Haman and Hitler, is ists) to compensate the Jews with a planning a nuclear holocaust for creation of the Israeli state. If the state of their own in Palestine, the Israelis, even having publicly bill passes, the official Zionist ver- which led to a policy of appease- stated his intent to "wipe Israel off sion of history will, in effect, be ment toward the Jewish settlers. the map" when in fact he said that the only one allowed a voice. Ac- Indeed, the British reply to the the Israeli regime would "disap- cording to this self-serving piece King David Hotel bombing and pear from the pages of history", in of faux historiography, the above- other acts of Zionist terror was the sense of what happened to the mentioned 800,000 Palestinians extremely soft-gloved compared to Soviet regime. These are the same left their homes voluntarily to give their treatment of Palestinian re- propagandists who urge the West free space to the armies of the bels This in combination with the to go to war against Iran because Arab nations that went to war with fact that the attitudes of the of its un-extraordinary nuclear the newly established Israeli state neighboring Arab states toward the program, while denying the exis- in 1948. Palestinian question were highly tence of their own large stack of Ilan Pappé, an Israeli historian ambivalent meant that the Pales- nuclear weapons (as Dick Morris born in 1954, and professor of his- tinians, following the collapse of puts it: "If Iran gets the bomb, it tory at the University of Exeter, their leadership after World War will use it to kill six million has devoted his book The Ethnic II, found themselves in a desperate Jews"). Can you spell "chutzpah"? Cleansing of Palestine to the expo- situation where they could expect Alex Miller has now taken Is- sure of the "voluntary retreat" no one to come to their help. raeli hypocrisy to a new level by 9 In contrast to some other cases forces" were attached to British Jews, and higher Palestinian offi- of ethnic cleansing, those respon- troops fighting a Palestinian revolt cers and officials (within the Brit- sible for the Nakbah are well in 1936. In this way the Haganah ish Mandate system)—were all to known, as are the circumstances of members learned how to terrorize be killed. In addition, transports the decisions leading up to it. The and subdue villagers. were to be damaged, the Palestin- top man was, needless to say, Da- In order to fully realize the Zi- ian economy (water wells, facto- vid Ben-Gurion, in whose home onist program the minutest prepa- ries, etc.) destroyed, and meeting the discussion and planning took rations were made. Topographical places (including cafés) attacked. place. Directly below him was a and ethnological scholars were Perhaps the most damning evi- committee of eleven advisors, recruited by the Jewish National dence against the Nakbah deniers' among them Moshe Dayan, Yigael Fund to register all available data narrative is furnished in chapter 4. Yadin, Yigal Allon and Yitzhak concerning the Palestinian villages, Here we learn that the first stage of Sadeh. The next tier consisted of a project which was completed by cleansing had already begun in regional commanders, each re- the early 1940s. Special note was early December 1947 with Jewish sponsible for the ethnic cleansing made of villages where anti- attacks against a number of Pales- of a certain area. Most of those Zionist feelings were widespread. tinian villages. Although small in men are today touted as "war he- Those were later specially targeted scale compared to what was to roes". The most well-known was by the IDF. As Pappé points out, happen later, these early operations the future prime minister Yitzhak the involved scholars, chief among led to the exile of approximately Rabin, who operated in the cities them Ezra Danin, were fully aware 75,000 people, or almost 10% of of Ramle and Lydda as well as the that their activity was for military the total number of Nakbah vic- Greater Jerusalem area. Other purposes. In 1947 a final revision tims. According to the official sto- commanders were Moshe Kalman, of their "archive" was made which ry, mass expulsions took place on- Moshe Carmel and Shimon Avi- focused on producing lists of ly after May 15, 1948, and were dan. A most important role was "wanted" villagers. This category the consequence of the Arab- played by field intelligence offi- consisted of persons involved in Israeli war. In reality, "Plan D" cers, supervised by the future head the Palestinian national movement was initiated on March 10, 1948. of Mossad and Shabak, Issar Ha- (which had dominated Palestinian This meant that actions against the rel. Those men were involved in politics after 1933), persons who Palestinians were no longer passed some of the worst atrocities, and had taken part in insurrections off as retaliation, but were part of also had the final say with regard against British troops or Zionists, an openly declared program of vio- to what villages were to be de- or people who had simply "visited lence, leading to the expulsion of stroyed and which villagers were Lebanon". In 1948 those people 250,000 more Palestinians by the to be executed. Making a list of the were rounded up and executed. In end of April. This was in turn fol- responsible criminals would pose some cases a whole village was lowed by a number of massacres no great problem, but of course "wanted". intended to scare away the remain- such a trial will never take place. Ben-Gurion's program of ethnic ing population. Pappé stresses that the Nakbah cleansing was finally realized be- The Arab alliance, while aware was not based on a sudden deci- ginning late in 1947. It bore the of the Palestinian plight, waited sion, but rather the result of a long code name "Plan D" (or Dalet in until mid-May, when the British process with its roots in early Zi- Hebrew). As can be surmised from Mandate formally ended and the onist activism. As early as 1917 its designation it had been pre- Jewish state was declared, to actu- Leo Motzkin, described by Pappé ceded by three scrapped plans. The ally intervene militarily. The tacit as a moderate Zionist, spoke of the operation was planned in minute agreement between Ben-Gurion forced resettlement of the Pales- detail and revised to adapt to new and the Jordanian leadership that tinians to areas outside of "Eretz situations. Plan A dated back to Jordan was to occupy 20 percent of Israel". The actual military prepa- 1937, while Plan B was drawn up the Palestinian territory as pro- rations can be said to have begun in 1946. The core of Plan C, a de- posed by the UN, kept the Arab in the late 1930s when the para- tailed list of violent actions to be world's strongest army from de- military group Haganah, later to taken against the Palestinians, was fending the Palestinians and thus become the core of the IDF, was carried over to Plan D. Palestinian greatly aided the progress of the restructured with the aid of the leaders, agitators and people who cleansing. The Zionist leaders, British officer O.C. Wingate, who supported them financially, Pales- while using doomsday visions of a saw to it that the Jewish "defense tinians "taking action" against "second holocaust" to raise the 10 number of IDF recruits, never In the cities of Lydd and Ramleh, aries, and the various aspects of doubted that their military would the inhabitants had to walk on foot the Israeli oppression of those Pal- be sufficient to beat the weak Arab all the way to the West Bank. As estinians who remained on their armies, occupy Palestine and drive can be expected, many perished on land after 1948. A most important out its indigenous population. the way. Air strikes also played an dimension of this tyranny has been Many pages of Pappé’s work important role in the expulsion the official denial that any ethnic are devoted to the large number of process. cleansing ever took place. The massacres carried out in Palestin- The general mentality of the proposal to ban Nakbah remem- ian villages, such as Ayn al-Zaytun Zionist leaders in Tel Aviv and the brance, and the recent bill to make (where, among others, 37 random butchers in the field is glimpsed denial of "Israel's right to exist as a teenagers were tied up and shot), from quotes such as that in Ben- Jewish state" a crime punishable Tantura, Lubya, Ayn Ghazal, Da- Gurion's diary entry from May 24, with up to one year in prison, are waymeh (hundreds of civilians 1948, where the prime minister clear signs of desperation. If, or mowed down in front of a mosque, speaks of crushing Syria, Trans- rather when, these proposals are babies with their heads bashed in, jordan and Egypt in revenge for transformed into laws, the false- women raped or burned alive), their supposed treatment of the ness of Israel's claim of being an Sa'sa, Safsaf, Hula, Saliha. A few Jewish people "in biblical times". ordinary, democratic state will be- murderers were later prosecuted by One may recall here the Jewish come increasingly obvious even in military courts, but most of them hate-tirade against Babylon in Western nations with their pro- were later released. One of them, Psalm 137: "Blessed is the one Israel-biased mass media. In the Shmuel Lahis, who himself had who grabs your little children and meantime, Ilan Pappé's well- killed 35 people, was pardoned by smashes them against a rock". written and well-researched the Israeli president and later had a The last three chapters of the book—it is certainly one of the career in politics. In addition to the book concern the subsequent oc- best books to date on the origin of massacres in the villages, many of cupation of Palestine, the contin- the Israeli state—deserves to be the expulsions took place under ued stealing of Palestinian land, widely read and debated. particularly inhumane conditions. the desecration of Muslim sanctu-

Persecution Is Complicated:

An Update on the "Heretical Two"

Chip Smith

everal months ago, I tried to where they face multi-year prison Judicature is a paper-tendriled Sdraw attention to the little- sentences for expressing thoughts. beast, we are reminded, and the reported case of two convicted The upside is that the LA Times matter is complicated. Prolonged British thought criminals languish- finally -- yesterday -- took notice jumpsuited detention was a neces- ing in a Santa Ana hoosegow as of the story. In a more or less sity, it must be understood. their appeal for political asylum evenhanded report filed by Dana Clogged in the sausage factory of a proceeded before an INS court. Parsons, the saga of the "Heretical process, a lone appeal must stall Several months later, Simon Shep- Two" is lightly spun as a legalistic and sputter in the slow cogwork of pard and Stephen Whittle are still farrago: procedures proceeding in the bu- behind bars, still in U.S. custody. Their lengthy detention is reaucratic jam of so many tittles And the news isn't good. A judge largely the product of the asylum- and forms and strikethroughs and denied their appeal, and after near- seeking process that Sheppard and hearings and caseloads and delays ly a year in lockup the publishers Whittle brought on themselves the rest of it. It's a small price for of Heretical.com now wait to be when they entered the country. civilized order. And someone is shipped back to the island from They and their original attorney always disappointed. which our forebears escaped, acknowledge that motions they filed helped prolong the case. 11 Yet the judge's reasoning is in secondary sources, in related lishment of religion, or pro- never illuminated, never even codifications and principles, or in hibiting the free exercise disclosed. The LAT tells us only dictionaries. To "persecute", ac- thereof; or abridging the this: “In denying asylum, Peters cording to Webster, is "to harass or freedom of speech, or of the ruled that the men hadn't shown punish in a manner designed to press; or the right of the injure, grieve, or afflict; specifi- people peaceably to assem- they had been persecuted in the cally: to cause to suffer because of ble, and to petition the Gov- past or likely to face future per- belief." Interesting. ernment for a redress of secution.” In broader context, Amnesty In- grievances. So we are left to wonder. Is the ternational provides a useful line: judge saying that these hapless pro "Prisoners of conscience" are men, Perhaps there's yet an argu- se appellants failed to state the women or children imprisoned ment, supported by the weight of salient facts of their case? That she reams of case law. Perhaps the fact was not informed of a situation that that these guys were facing serious smells and quacks like any Web- time for writing words, is in no ster-preferred definition of perse- way clear evidence of persecution. cution? Or does her ruling mean I am aware that countless people something very different? have it worse. I can be blind to I am neither a lawyer nor a nuance, slow on the uptake. judge, but it seems clear enough Could've been a lawyer, but I that the operative authority by wound up here. which the matter should have been Stephen Whittle But there is another possibility, adjudicated is contained in a UN and Simon Sheppard almost too simplistic to consider. It Convention, endorsed by the Unit- is at least possible with some effort ed States by dint of a more expan- solely for the peaceful expression to imagine that a gavel-wielding sive protocol. In relevant part, this of their beliefs or because of their magistrate, secure in the knowl- Convention defines a legitimate race, gender or other personal cha- edge that no one was looking, sim- political refugee or asylum seeker racteristics. …. Amnesty seeks the ply didn't like the words used by as: immediate release of all prisoners two men over whose fate she was of conscience. authorized. It is possible, in other A person who owing to a And then there is Article 19 of words, that she was being a twit. well-founded fear of being the original UN Declaration of Whatever the case, seeing as persecuted for reasons of Human Rights, to which the Unit- Simon Sheppard stands to be race, religion, nationality, ed States is also a signatory. Goes locked away for another half- membership of a particular like this: decade, I'll give him the the last social group or political opin- “Everyone has the right to word: ion, is outside the country of freedom of opinion and expres- his nationality and is unable sion; this right includes freedom to We're not cowed and or, owing to such fear, is hold opinions without interfer- we're not repentant….We unwilling to avail himself of ence and to seek, receive and im- have the right even to make the protection of that coun- part information and ideas through mistakes. We could be try; or who, not having a na- any media and regardless of wrong, it's not inconceiv- tionality and being outside the frontiers.” able. We have a right to be country of his former habitual And if such guiding proclama- wrong. All we're doing is residence as a result of such tions still seem a smidge too vague speaking our minds. events, is unable or, owing to and slippery, a U.S. judge might such fear, is unwilling to re- yet seek counsel in the emanations Memento mori. turn to it. and penumbras of a native docu- ment. I know one that might even Note: On 17 June Simon Shep- Assuming a term of art is sub- be "on point." Silly goose that I pard and Stephen Whittle ject to ambiguous construction, a am, I have it memorized: were back in Britain, in court. careful jurist might seek guidance Congress shall make no law respecting an estab-

12 HOW DO YOU SAY REVISIONIST IN SPANISH?

Roberto Hernandez

ometime in March I was days passed, maybe a week, when For Alejandro and me it was the Slooking for a revisionist Bradley got an email asking for a beginning of an interesting friend- website in Spanish. I was curious revisionist document that had been ship. about what revisionist documents I translated into Spanish. He copied This translating work did not might find in Spanish. me and, there it was, a need to stop at The Leuchter Report. We I searched the web for Mexican have at least some of the well- are starting with primary texts. The websites since it is the Spanish- known revisionist documents idea is to help produce basic revi- speaking country I know best, and translated into Spanish: We were sionist documents for those who after searching here and there I got aware that in Argentina there is a do not read English. For example, one interesting result: a website movement to pass a law that would Alejandro has translated Robert called “Biblia y Tradicion” which muzzle revisionist writers and pub- Faurisson’s essay on Anne Frank’s translates as “Bible and Tradition”. lications and we thought maybe we dairy into Spanish. He has sub- My surprise was bigger when I could help in getting revisionism titled in Spanish the film “David found an article by Richard Wid- into Spanish. By now I had con- Cole Interviews Dr. Franciszek mann, our CODOH editor, about tacted the owner of Biblia y Tradi- Piper.” It is good to have this. His the Bishop Williamson affair, cion. site is growing as we speak. We translated into Spanish. As I His name is Alejandro Vil- want this, right? searched the website I noticed that lareal. We soon became friends via I have a new friend. I should its primary interest was religion, e-mail. He is a very pleasant young say we have a new friend. We can from a Catholic perspective, but guy who, I found out, has a great now offer a link to his site. He will with an emphasis on examining the interest in all the revisionist mate- create a link from his site to CO- Orthodox story of the Holocaust. rial he can get his hands on. I do DOH and Bradley’s newly redes- And I also found a link to a sister have to say that this is not his main igned Blog. It looks like my curi- website called: Eco Revisionista. interest, he has said so himself, so osity has paid off. Now you have a Which later I learned was owned I can only imagine what he might website where we can direct peo- by the same person. do if it were. By now, Alejandro ple who want to read in their own So I showed this website to offered to translate The Leuchter language some of the best known Bradley and he was interested and Report into Spanish. This is a very revisionist works in Spanish. We said he would tell Richard about it, important document to have in have an Echo who won’t shut up. but still we did not know what we Spanish on CODOH, the official It is an “Eco Revisionista”. were going to do with it. A couple language in dozens of countries.

THE CAMPUS CAMPAIGN continued from page 2 start, remembered where he was, If I had known at the time that happened during our three-hour smiled at me, popped open his he had seen me in such a rosy light interview that was to change my door, and lumbered out, smiling I would have told him about the mind. We were both in good hu- warmly. In his worn flannel shirt afternoon in Jalisco in maybe 1955 mor throughout the event, even in and jeans, a scraggly white beard when I took a bull’s horn through the couple moments of frustration dressing up his weather-beaten the scrotum, or that time in Guer- on the professor’s part. It appeared face, Smith looked like an old, sa- rero when a horn split my mouth to me early on that the professor gacious cowhand, the kind of guy open, the scar is still there inside, had never had any interest in revi- whose favorite story is about how or the afternoon in Hidalgo when . sionist arguments about the Big H., he forgave the beloved bull who . . . Ah, the good old days. and that reading the article in the once got startled and kicked him in Washington Jewish Week was the the head.” I liked Professor Oppenheimer first time he had felt any interest in the moment I saw him. Nothing revisionists themselves.

In interviewing me, Oppen- sor could publish a book on the ten. I put it in my briefcase, carried heimer did not show any interest in Holocaust in 1976 and be con- it to San Clemente, carried my anything I have written. He was demned for it by academics briefcase into Starbucks where it interested in my private life, in throughout the American univer- never crossed my mind to get it out knowing what it was that formed a sity system for forty years without and plug it in. I want to explain it character that would lead me to one professor publishing one arti- away by noting how tired I was, choose such a disreputable career cle in one peer-reviewed journal to but I am not going to do that. I as the one I had chosen. But then, show where the author was wrong won’t even mention it. that’s my cup of tea. Talking about about anything. myself. That’s a large part of what The second incident, which I I do. There have been periods in think is very revealing, that I tried my writing career, if I can call it a to make a case for with Oppen- career, when I did nothing else. I heimer is the case of President Da- do autobiography. So we sat there vid Sweet of Youngstown State over coffee for three hours, me University. After the CODOH ad talking, him making notes. I got had run in The Jambar there and into this work a long time ago, created the beginnings of a real 1979, so there was a lot of stuff exchange of ideas, the paper pub- leading up to when I got into it, lished a letter from President and then all the stuff afterwards. Sweet repeating the charges the I’m pretty sure I talked too much. president of Boston University, Dr. But I was cooperative I should John Silber, had made against me think, even to a fault. Oppen- ten years ago. There Dr. Silber had heimer had no complaints that he called me a liar without attempting made me aware of. to demonstrate that I am. Now that he has published his Mark Oppenheimer It wasn’t that I had been called article (or series of five—count a liar—as I have written elsewhere ‘em—five articles) I am aware I was speaking of “who am I?”—but that with regard once again that he was not inter- and his Hoax of the Twentieth Cen- to the Holocaust question one uni- ested in what I have written, not tury. I had to bring the subject up versity president will repeat the really interested in what I have more than one time before Profes- charge by another university presi- thought. When you read the arti- sor Oppenheimer would respond to dent that I am a liar and neither cles you see he is significantly it. What he did was sort of groan, will think it necessary to even at- more interested in what Mark We- put his head down toward the ta- tempt to demonstrate where I have ber thinks. Mark is not an aca- ble, and ask why he should read lied about either of the texts in demic, but he has an academic turn Butz. No one reads Butz. Butz question, or indeed about anything of mind, has written and published doesn’t exist with regard to Holo- else. Oppenheimer was not inter- scholarly articles. I’m not, have caust studies. I’m paraphrasing. ested. He didn’t see any signifi- not. Unlike the professor, I wasn’t tak- cance that Dr. Sweet had called me Occurs to me only now!!! I ing notes. a liar before the entire student have not written about Jews as Which brings up an interesting, body of a State university, without Jews. Mark has, does. Odd, I’m tho not flattering, anecdote—but attempting to demonstrate that I going through this piece for the then I’m an anecdotalist if I’m am one. final time before sending it to the anything. I have had a long- Oppenheimer was only inter- printer, and it has only occurred to standing rule that when I do inter- ested in my “life.” That makes two me now that Mark Weber is inter- views, either I obtain the right to of us who are interested in my life. ested in Jews, Mark Oppenheimer record the back and forth as it hap- But I am really interested in it. My is interested in Jews, I’m not, and pens, or we do the interview using life exists in the center of a swirl- that there we are. email so that I have it in black and ing cauldron of politics, culture, Okay. We’ll see. white. In this instance, as I was to violence, beauty and death. We During the course of the inter- be interviewed in person, I planned must have the right to doubt, just view there were two ideas that I ahead. I bought a small device to as we must have the right to be- made an effort to get across to the record the conversation. I was sur- lieve. It all rests on the right to a professor. One was how a profes- prised at how small they have got- free exchange of ideas. Who is 14 there who knows it all? The ortho- with autistic children. She has been [Avenue]. He was circulating with dox historians of the Holocaust? happily married for 20 years to all the people I still circulate with. Those who truly believe in the another man, and she has two In the years I knew him there “unique” monstrosity of the Ger- grown children, three grown step- wasn’t ever any smidgen of a mans and condemn those of us children, and seven granddaugh- thought [about Holocaust denial]; I who doubt it? ters. After I had learned her was getting my Ph.D. then, and name—from an acquaintance of an there was a lot of talking, [but] not In the weeks following our acquaintance of Smith’s—and one iota of glimmer of this bud- meeting in San Clemente Oppen- found her phone number, I called ding thought, nothing at all there.’ heimer contacted me a number of her up. She had fond memories of “Smith was, Brown told me, re- times. I had learned when we met the old Bradley, the one who luctant to adopt party lines; he was that he had already interviewed didn’t think one way or another never a West Coast liberal like so Mark Weber. Makes sense. He about gas chambers. many of the Hollywood people— asked me how to get hold of Willis most of them Jews— he ran with. Carto. He asked me for some other ‘He was not, not a mindless liberal contact numbers, people in life in that way,’ Brown said. ‘He was from as far back as the 1960s and very thoughtful about things he 70s. I tried to give him what he would say. He was not ‘one of asked for. Sometimes I could, them’ in the [world of] sixties poli- sometimes I couldn’t. tics.’ Like many libertarians, During the interview we had whether inclined to the left or the talked about my time in Holly- right, Smith had a maverick streak, wood, the Henry Miller trial, how so perhaps the seeds of his ultimate my life in those days for twenty career were always present, if ap- years on was largely in a Jewish parently benign. community. Including an eight or “‘But I think the thing that nine year affair with a Jewish lady pushed him over,’ Brown said, that was very important for me. He ‘was that he never could get pub- wondered if I was exaggerating my lished.’ For an aspiring writer in a Jewish “credentials.” Primarily he No comment city with so many successful writ- wanted to know the name of that ers and artists, this was a failure certain Jewish lady. There were “‘We met through mutual that could rub a man raw. ‘It other Jewish ladies but only one friends,’ Brown told me. ‘Bradley wasn’t like he never got close. He was really important. I didn’t give had been involved in this trial had corresponded with literary him her name. She has a real life. through his bookstore, so he got to journals—The New Yorker, The Why would she want her name to know a lot of people through the Atlantic. He wasn’t a total dud. He be involved with mine, in the Los Angeles Free Press, which I was sending things back and forth, press, at this stage of the game? was involved with it—I had con- and he couldn‘t crack it. The peo- Nevertheless, he found it out. tributed some money. So that’s ple we knew were all interested in Not that difficult. I might as well how I met him. We were all politi- the same things, and he couldn’t quote Oppenheimer on this old cally involved with that.’ make it like they could, and it was story here, as news of it will be all “I asked Brown if she was sur- killing him.’ over the internet and everywhere prised when she heard about “‘I think he found a niche to do else in a few days. Bradley Smith Smith’s new career, which didn’t a 180; he had the skills that were and a Jewish lady? Too much! The begin until after their relationship needed for that niche. It came from below story comes from Part Four had ended. some happenstance meeting’— of his The Denial Twist. “‘Totally mystified’ is how Smith met a Holocaust denier at a Brown described her reaction, ‘but libertarian convention—‘and it I have some theories. “The Jewish woman Bradley was out of great despair that he “‘Whatever else Bradley is, he Smith lived with for eight years found a place. And I think it just is in addition a very bright guy, during the 1970s is Susan Brown, took over his life. He saw that he very well read, and he worked as- a practicing psychologist in Los could go with it, and he did, and it siduously for many years in poli- Angeles who works principally just took over.’ tics, with the bookstore on Fairfax 15 “Despite the odd turn that pushed me over as it were, written at half a dozen universities. I like Smith’s life took, Brown remem- more or less as it happened, in the numbers. bered their time together as pleas- Confessions of a Holocaust Revi- We have to work through the ant, and their parting as amicable. sionist. The whole little book is months of July and August. This is ‘We lived together all the time I online. The turn of events was normally a time to not work much, was doing my dissertation,’ she simpler than one might expect. but I’m going to break the mold said. ‘He was a wonderful friend to Tho of course the subjective un- here. With your help, of course. me, he was lovely to my two derpinning of any such decision is Meanwhile, my best wishes for young children.’ He even had an always complicated. you. aliyah at her son’s bar mitzvah, reading the prayer for a Torah The first of the five Oppen- reading. ‘I tell you, he was—long heimer articles then was published after our personal sexual relation- on 14 June in The Tablet Maga- Bradley ship was [over, which was] the zine: A New Read on Jewish Life. core of what kept us together, he A couple weeks passed before I was a wonderful friend to me, in heard about them. After being in- terms of my kids, and he under- terviewed by a professor who Smith’s Report stood what was import to me and writes for The New York Times is published by them.’ Magazine, Slate and The Boston “I mentioned to Brown that Globe among other publications, I Committee for Open Debate Smith was now married to a Mexi- have to confess it’s a bit of a On the Holocaust can woman. downer to find myself in The Tab- Bradley R. Smith, Founder “‘That doesn’t surprise me,’ she let. Nevertheless, if it’s good said. ‘It would be too intrusive enough for Professor Oppen- For your contribution of psychologically to live with some- heimer, it’s good enough for me. $39 one who asked too many questions What I do is very simple. Al- You will receive 12 issues of of him. He’d have to be with ways has been. Any truck driver in someone as bright as he is, or be America, after a brief rest stop, can Smith’s Report. with someone with a caretaking understand it. I argue that the ideal In Canada and Mexico--$45 relationship, and there would be of a free exchange of ideas is Overseas--$49 that comfort. It wouldn’t be a meant for all of us, not for some. woman who could provoke him. It’s as if the idea were too simple Letters and Donations to: He has taken a position. He knows for Professor Oppenheimer. I think Bradley R. Smith the other paths, and he doesn’t the idea bores him. Maybe if I Post Office Box 439016 need to be placed in conflict or were to interview him, I would be San Ysidro, CA 92143 turmoil about those things.’” able to focus his attention. ======Now there’s an idea! Desk: 209 682 5327 As a matter of fact, there’s a Cell: 619 203 3151 And thus ended Oppenheimer’s real idea!! Email: remarks from and about Susan [email protected] Brown and me. I am very glad to As I put this issue of Smith’s have heard from Susan after so Report to bed we have ads about to [email protected] many years, even in this distant, appear at three more campuses, we public and abbreviated way. Very have the story developing at Bowl- glad. And I appreciate the fact that ing Green State, and I have one in Oppenheimer would print a report mind for Yale University. This of me that suggests I was probably means that we will soon have Please help me defray the kinda normal, back then anyhow, placed our simple question about even among Jews. So far as Su- why Dwight D. Eisenhower did costs of the Campus san’s theories go about how I took not think to mention the German Campaign. I have put some a bad turn in life, they are perfectly WMD in his book on WWII, Cru- $4,000 into it over the sensible, undeniably possible, yet sade in Europe, before more than last six weeks. you can find an account of the real 100,000 students, faculty and staff beginning of the story, what 16