THE REVISIONIST

By Richard A. Widmann

 For another nine issues on-line, The Revisionist blazed trails with hard-hitting editorials, up-to-date book reviews and challenging feature stories.  Free of the political baggage of some revisionist materials, The Revisionist became the voice for intellectual freedom with regard to this one event in history, the Holocaust.

After much discussion between revisionists, it was generally understood by all that a scholarly journal of English language revisionism was needed.  Germar Rudolf who had been successfully publishing the leading revisionist journal, Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung for several years appeared to be the man with the energy and the drive to take on this challenge. 

In February 2003, Germar Rudolf launched the English language hardcopy journal, The Revisionist.  Just as CODOH's e-zine was running out of steam, The Revisionist evolved once more, into a stronger, much valuable tool.  What follows is the first article from the first issue of Germar Rudolf's journal The Revisionist.

The Dawning of a New Era

In 1996, I had to leave my home country Germany, where publications like the one you are holding in your hand are often subject to confiscation and where its authors and publishers are prosecuted, fined, and sometimes even thrown in jail for harboring dissenting historical views, particularly when ‘Topic No. 1’ is touched, the ‘Holocaust.’

I had run afoul of these German censorship laws and of the ensuing book burning which has been increasingly raging in Germany since the German reunification in 1990. Any reader interested in why Germany issued an international arrest warrant against the publisher of this periodical can find a comprehensive answer in a new book: The Rudolf Report. Expert Report on Chemical and Technical Aspects of the ‘Gas Chambers’ of Auschwitz (see the ad on the back cover of this issue).

After the famous Leuchter Report, which made many claims about the alleged gas chambers of Auschwitz, was torn apart by hostile critics, my own expert report--packed with scientific evidence supporting many of Leuchter’s claims--was hailed as an important relief by the ‘revisionist community.’ As a result, persecution at all levels of German society was unleashed against me. I hit the proverbial establishment brick wall. The only way out of it, so I thought, was to go into exile where I could continue my struggle for scientific knowledge and exactitude, and where I intended to restore my honor. I wanted to prove that I was right.

Hence, in 1997, I started to publish a German language periodical with focus on historical topics that are heavily censored in Germany, be it by social pressure only or even by legal means. It was a daring leap for me, since I knew that sooner or later I would have to face the fury of the German authorities, who would move all levers to get me extradited. I also thought that trying to sell a periodical that is deemed ‘illegal’ by the German authorities might fail due to anxieties of both my potential customers and those in Germany I needed to promote my products. After all, they expose themselves to harassments or outright persecution by German authorities when buying/selling/distributing/advertising my controversial scientific material.

I was correct in expecting that the German authorities would seek my extradition. It has come so far that the German government now consider me to be one of the biggest threats to their constitution, although all I do is to merely publish historical facts and interpretations, of which the articles presented in this issue are representative samples. How insecure must a government be if it considers harmless articles like those printed in this issue as the most severe threat to its existence?

Over the last ten years, I gained some experience in dealing with persecuting authorities, so I can assure you that all attempts to throw me into a German dungeon for years on end have failed so far and will keep on failing.

My fears about the business risks involved in publishing dissenting scientific material, however, was misplaced. My German periodical Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung (Quarterly for Free Historical Research) is now in its 7^th year of publication. It has a fairly stable number of subscribers and receives growing attention from all sides, even from the establishment which has realized that the exact and convincing arguments published in my journals, books, and brochures will not go away by ignoring, badmouthing, threatening, or insulting me. They have to deal with the arguments.

I have achieved this performance record under the most difficult circumstances, i.e., producing high quality books and periodicals even though most of the time I had to work from underground and sometimes even while ‘on the run.’ Although the financial support I received was marginal compared to all other individuals and organizations active in this same field, I was encouraged by an increasing number of scholars from all over the world not only to publish English language books (which I do under the Imprint Theses and Dissertations Press), but also to start an English periodical featuring articles on controversial historical topics which are ignored by ‘establishment’ publishers.

The background of their reasoning is that for almost ten years now, the existing English language periodicals featuring revisionism basically ignored the research and publishing activities going on abroad, and for various reasons, they also alienated many revisionist writers and researchers. As a result, the English speaking world, i.e., almost the entire world, had no way of finding out about the tremendous scientific progress made by revisionism during those years. Most revisionists have now concluded that after years of trying, without success, the old periodicals cannot be reformed, and so, a new journal needed to be established. Dr. Robert H. Countess, for instance, who is featured in this issue, recently felt that revisionism in the English world is "imploding", and Prof. Arthur R. Butz called the current activities in this field "comatose."

It took friends and supporters four years to convince me to do something about it, that is, to do the second big leap of my history as a publisher. The result is in your hands.

Right now, the publishing company Castle Hill Publishers is a very small operation. That might change over the next years if this endeavor is successful. But for now, I do depend on--and am tremendously grateful for--the assistance I receive from uncounted volunteers from all over the world. They translate, coordinate research, write and edit articles, review books and journals, and help to operate the world’s largest revisionist website that hosts The Revisionist and thousands of other revisionist books and articles (www.vho.org).

Hence, The Revisionist is in fact ‘our’ journal. It is made by and with the help of people like you and me, and it features worthwhile articles without applying as strict an editorial censorship as is the case with other periodicals. With a joint effort, we can and will get revisionism back afloat!

I hope that you enjoy reading this first issue of The Revisionist and that you will help us promote this new and exciting journal.

Source: The Revisionist 1(1) (2003), pp. 2.