Copyright 1998 Times Mirror Company
Los Angeles Times  
March 15, 1998, Sunday, Orange County Edition  
SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 12; Editorial Writers Desk 

LENGTH: 292 words 

HEADLINE: REVISIONISTS AND THE HOLOCAUST 

BODY: 

* Benjamin Hubbard's column attacking "Holocaust denial" unfairly 
characterizes the Institute for Historical Review and its work. 

If the revisionist view of the Holocaust were really as "simplistic and 
naive" as Mr. Hubbard contends, it would not have gained the support of 
university professors such as Arthur Butz and Robert Faurisson, 
historians such as David Irving and Harry Elmer Barnes, and even some 
former concentration camp inmates such as Paul Rassinier. These 
individuals did not decide publicly to reject the orthodox Holocaust 
story--thereby risking public censure, and worse--because they are 
fools, or because their motives are evil, but rather on the basis 
of a sincere and thoughtful evaluation of the evidence. 

Revisionist scholars do not "deny" the Holocaust. They acknowledge 
that many hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed and otherwise 
perished during the Second World War as direct and indirect 
result of the brutally anti-Jewish policies of Germany and its allies. 

At the same time, IHR publications carefully document that numerous 
specific Holocaust claims have been quietly abandoned over the years as untrue. 

In January 1995, the prestigious French weekly magazine L'Express 
acknowledged that the "gas chamber" at Auschwitz that has been 
shown for decades to tourists in its "original" state is actually 
a postwar reconstruction. 

Hubbard's claim that "Holocaust denial/revisionism" is "a form of 
anti-Semitic hatred of the most vile type" is a malicious smear. 
Since its founding in 1978, the IHR has steadfastly opposed bigotry 
of all kinds in its efforts to promote greater public understanding 
of key chapters of history. 

MARK WEBER 
Director 
Institute for Historical Review 
Newport Beach 

In response to Mark Weber's letter in the _Los Angeles Times_, Professor
Nancy Fitch sent in the following letter:


Copyright 1998 Times Mirror Company
Los Angeles Times  
 March 29, 1998, Sunday, Orange County Edition  
SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 7; Editorial Writers Desk 

LENGTH: 368 words 

HEADLINE: INSTITUTE HAS NO CREDIBILITY 

BODY: 
Mark Weber, director of the Institute for Historical Review, 
asserts in his March 15 letter that Benjamin Hubbard has 
unfairly characterized the institute and its work in his column March 7. 

He argues that Hubbard must be wrong or the institute would not 
have gained the support of university professors. 

But who are those professors? 

Arthur Butz teaches computer science and wrote a book called "The 
Hoax of the Twentieth Century," which clearly denies that there 
was a Holocaust. No reputable historian accepts his arguments 
as having any merit. 

Robert Faurisson, a professor of French literature, another "expert" 
whose work is rejected by professional historians, denied that gas 
chambers were used to kill people. 

H.E. Barnes and David Irving, both historians, are less extreme 
in their arguments, but both wrote pieces exculpating Hitler. 

Paul Rassinier, a former socialist and member of the resistance 
during World War II, was arrested and spent time in Buchenwald and Dora. 

Supposedly writing as a witness to what went on in the camps, 
Rassinier refused to acknowledge that he was treated differently 
from other prisoners and never abandoned his vitriolic anti-Semitism, 
which predated the outbreak of World War II. 

Accepting the arguments of individuals with little historical 
credibility, the IHR repeatedly refuses to acknowledge the 
countless works by professional historians which have demolished the 
arguments of its so-called experts. 

Weber wants readers to believe that because the French magazine 
L'Express is prestigious that everything printed in it is the truth. 

But in 1978, the magazine published an interview with one of France's 
most notorious collaborators and anti-Semites, Louis Darquier de 
Pellepoix, a Nazi sympathizer and head of Vichy France's Office for 
Jewish Affairs. 

In that interview Darquier de Pellepoix claimed that "at Auschwitz 
only the lice were gassed." In other interviews, he called the 
Holocaust "a Jewish invention." 

With all of these examples, it is difficult to accept the conclusion 
that the IHR has "steadfastly opposed bigotry of all kinds." 

NANCY FITCH 

Professor of modern 
European history 
Cal State Fullerton 


Here are two more published responses to Mark Weber's letter in the Los
Angeles Times:


                   Copyright 1998 Times Mirror Company
                             Los Angeles Times

               March 22, 1998, Sunday, Orange County Edition

SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 8; Editorial Writers Desk

LENGTH: 321 words

HEADLINE: REVISIONISM AND THE HOLOCAUST

BODY:
      Mark Weber of the Institute for Historical Review would have us think
that his organization is intellectually respectable (Letters, March 15).
Don't believe it.

The IHR is the same outfit that in 1979 offered $ 50,000 to anyone who
"could prove that the Nazis operated gas chambers to exterminate Jews
during World War II." When Mel Mermelstein provided the proof, the courts
forced the IHR to pay up and to sign a letter of apology to Mermelstein.

About three years ago, I became interested in the organization and
requested information. I was sent a leaflet, written by Weber, called
"Auschwitz: Myths and Facts." In it, Weber wrote that "America's leading
gas chamber expert, Boston engineer Fred A. Leuchter, carefully examined
Auschwitz's supposed 'gas chambers' in Poland and concluded that the
Auschwitz gassing story is absurd and technically impossible."

Sounds impressive. But, as Deborah Lipstadt reveals in her book, "Denying
the Holocaust," Fred Leuchter, Weber's "expert," is not an engineer and has
no education in engineering. Further, Lipstadt can find no evidence that
Leuchter has ever built a gas chamber.

That the director of the IHR is willing in this way to play with the facts
rightly causes us to doubt the reliability of the IHR.

ROY BAUER

Trabuco

*

As an infantry officer, one of the first to open up Dachau, I can assure
you that no matter what Weber tries to say, he still denies that what
happened at Auschwitz, Dachau and other concentration camps did take place.

Just because the French weekly magazine L'Express acknowledged that the
"gas chamber" was rebuilt after the war does not mean that the original did
not do the job.

Behind the guise of "promoting greater public understanding of key chapters
of history," Weber's article and statements smack of anti-Semitic hatred.
He should dig deeper to educate himself as to the facts.

R. BURKE

Newport Beach

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