Monday, August 31, 1998
Letters
It’s good to question
This letter is in response to the Aug. 24 column by Julianne
Sohn ("Propaganda denies Holocaust occurred") in which the CODOH
(Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust) is mentioned. I am the
director of CODOH.
Sohn writes of discovering a leaflet on her car’s windshield
with a headline reading "Fight the Lies of the Holocaust." She
wonders, "Who would fabricate stories about the Holocaust? (And how
did these so-called lies motivate people to go out of their way to
paper cars with these somewhat scary flyers?)" These two simple
questions, asked in a perfectly reasonable voice, go to the heart
of the growing Holocaust controversy.
To begin with then, Who? Well, the Soviets. It has been shown,
for example, that the Nuremberg court accepted false documents
supplied by the Soviets concerning German war crimes. (See Porter,
"The Holocaust: Made in Russia.")
How about the Israelis? Wasn’t the Holocaust story the one
morally legitimating factor supporting the invasion and conquest of
Palestine by European Jews at the end of World War II? (See "The
Founding Myths of Israeli Politics," by Roger Garaudy.)
And there is the old saw that tells us if you want to get the
real skinny on a difficult story, follow the money. Follow it,
then, through the $200-billions-plus money trail from the German
government, through the U.S. Congress, Tel Aviv and on to the Swiss
banks. Look anywhere for this one.
But what would motivate the distribution of such a leaflet? I
haven’t seen it yet, but I’m going to suggest that in all
likelihood it was distributed by one or more persons who are
interested in the Holocaust controversy and can find no place that
will allow an authentic exchange of ideas on the issue.
Not in their classrooms, nor privately with their professors,
not in their newspapers or magazines, not on radio or television.
It isn’t merely that they are interested in the controversy, but
that the controversy is taboo.
I encourage Sohn to ask her professors why, at UCLA, the
controversy over the Jewish Holocaust story is not open to free
inquiry and open debate but has been tabooed. (Porter and Garaudy
can be found at www.codoh.com.)
Bradley Smith
Director of the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust