http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=131863

     Varsity leader defends historian

     15.04.2000 - 

     PALMERSTON NORTH - Massey
     University in Palmerston North has leapt
     to the defence of military historian Joel
     Hayward after he was accused of being
     a Holocaust apologist. 

     Pro vice-chancellor Barrie Macdonald
     said yesterday that Dr Hayward was "no
     longer involved in teaching, writing or
     research related to the Holocaust" and
     was a respected member of Massey's
     academic staff. 

     The New Zealand Jewish Council this
     week condemned Canterbury University
     for condoning publication of a master's
     thesis by Dr Hayward which questioned
     the extent of the Holocaust. 

     The New Zealand Jewish Chronicle
     reported that the thesis, written in 1991
     and 1992, claimed there were no gas
     chambers, far fewer than six million
     Jews were slain and that there was no
     means to carry out a plan of mass
     murder. It reported that other revisionist
     historians who question the Holocaust,
     such as David Irving, tried to use the
     thesis. 

     The Chronicle published a letter from Dr
     Hayward saying that he made mistakes
     in the thesis, and had withdrawn its main
     conclusions. The university had refused
     his request to withdraw it from its library.

     Professor Macdonald said Dr Hayward
     completed his master's thesis, on the
     historiography of Holocaust revisionism,
     at Canterbury in 1993. 

     "He subsequently chose to change his
     academic focus to military history, in
     which he completed a PhD." 

     Dr Hayward is programme coordinator of
     Massey's defence and strategic studies. 

     - NZPA 

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