Internet Roundup

On February 15, 1997 a private conference held on the Jersey shore drew a strong contingent of revisionist historians, scholars, writers and activists. It was my honor to address this important group on the past, present, and future of CODOHWeb. as well as on the value for revisionism of other facets of the Web and the Internet.

In my presentation I made the connection between revisionism and the Internet by first recounting how I came to revisionism through obtaining and reading Arthur Butz's The Hoax of the Twentieth Century, then giving some brief background on my familiarity with computers and the Internet. I related my first contact with Bradley Smith, after learning of Bradley’s decision to set up his own Website in August of 1995 (through his request for help in Smith's Report #25), soon after which we were exchanging e-mail and CODOH’s Internet project was underway.

Within two short months the Bradley R. Smith Website (CODOHWeb) was bom. Initially it was short on content, but big on ideas. Over time much-needed volunteers came forth, most notably David Thomas, who is responsible for much of the aesthetics (in the form of graphics and design) and organization of the site materials.

I told these mostly non-computer-oriented revisionists how, from its humble beginnings, CODOHWeb has grown into the largest single Holocaust revisionist Website in the world, featuring at present over 20 departments and areas including: Gas Chambers and Gas Vans, the ThoughtCrimes Archive, War Crimes Trials and CODOH International. There are now over 60 megabytes of material posted to the site, that is, 60 million bits of information. This translates into an excess of 5 million words!

Hard-hitting, scholarly revisionist articles are available in eight different languages (languages in which well over a billion people have a native fluency, and of which many more have a reading knowledge). To date, the total number of “hits” (recorded individual accessings) on the site is estimated at around 150,000. We will soon have the technical capability to record visits not merely to the site as a whole but to trace the visitor’s route as he makes his way from document to document.

After informing conference attendees of where CODOHWeb stands at present, I filled them in on opportunities for the site in the future, above all the more costly, but eminently achievable, possibility of adding audio messages and video images.

My talk was well received. I found it very gratifying that a simple oral description of CODOHWeb’s present accomplishments and future potential fired the enthusiasm of my revisionist audience— although most of them had never seen CODOHWeb. I believe that all of them left this valuable mini-conference convinced of the importance of the Internet for the future of revisionism, and with an enhanced appreciation of the leading role of CODOHWeb in world-wide revisionist outreach.

The conference, a pleasant affair with plenty of food and wine for all, featured a variety of other lectures and discussions, including a learned consideration of the linguistic roots and actual meanings (in documentary and other contexts) of such key words as “extermination” in English, German, and Polish (it need not connote killing in German or Polish). There was news of the continuing harassment of revisionists and their families—even in America—including the recent death of the German author of The Auschwitz Lie, Thies Christophersen.

As with every well-run revisionist conference, this one-day mini-con was a very worthwhile affair for its organizers, for the speakers, and for the attendees. I look forward to the day when I can stand before readers of Smith's Report and speak to you about CODOHWeb.