David Merlin

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Peter Black Senior Historian Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies United States Holocaust Memorial Museum E-mail: [email protected] Tel: 202.479.9728   August 23, 2013 Dear Mr. Black: On July 3, 2013 Mr. Bradley Smith wrote your office at the USHMM regarding the Rosenberg papers, asking, "Why do you not simply scan and …

Peter Cassells, Chairperson Holocaust Education Trust Ireland Clifton House Lower Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 2 Tel: +353 1 6690593 Email: [email protected] http://www.hetireland.org 29 August 2013 Dear Chairperson Cassells- First, congratulations on your election as new Chairperson of HETI. In November 2010 the Holocaust Education Trust held a conference entitled International Conference …

Son of Saul: Wartime Propaganda with Few Takers

Yet another Holocaust movie was released late last year, and it looks like this one will be a flop. Finally. But why do they keep trying? Well, it's not just about business. It's about teaching us goyim a lesson...

Letter to PEN

I am writing in response to Executive Director Nossel's recent letter regarding the release of reporter Jason Rezaian and poets Fatemeh Ekhtesari and Medhi Mousavi. Thank you for the good new! While escapes from theocratic regimes make good press and fund raising material, I am writing regarding a more pernicious threat to Freedom of Expression.

Architectural Considerations Not Anti-Semitic

I am responding as a member of CODOH to an article regarding Bradley Smith, the Krema I building at Auschwitz, and accusations of anti-Semitism (www.vtcynic.com/email-incites-bias-report/).

Mr. Smith failed to respond because he died on February 18. Our e-mail was not directed at Jewish students, but rather at anyone with a critical mind. It did neither claim “that an Auschwitz crematorium was a ‘hoax’” nor that “a particular crematorium at Auschwitz was created post-war.”

I would like to address the statement attributed to Stevens and Vogel:

“We want to be clear that a communication such as this that perpetuates anti-Semitism by falsely proclaiming inaccurate historical events has no place at the University of Vermont.”

Stevens and Vogel seem ignorant about Krema I at Auschwitz, the focus of our “communication” (goo.gl/qzEgJD). In 1941, Krema I is said to have been reconfigured to contain a gas chamber during a time when exclusively Russian PoWs were allegedly gassed (see goo.gl/FJ0bV6, p. 30; see also goo.gl/q8aDu8), but no Jews. How then can a discussion of this gas chamber’s origin be anti-Semitic?

Stevens and Vogel claim that we “proclaim inaccurate historical events.” The article we sent around discussed alterations made to Krema I after the end of the war. These alterations are admitted by all mainstream scholars, e.g.:

  • Franciszek Piper, former curator of the Auschwitz Museum’s Archives: goo.gl/Kkxano
  • French Auschwitz researcher Jean-Claude Pressac, in a work published in cooperation with the Auschwitz Museum, lamented that the post-war changes were undocumented and are deeply flawed: goo.gl/l9jE3Y; goo.gl/JcBtGJ

However, until not too long ago, Auschwitz tour guides told tourists that the building was in its original state (http://goo.gl/SD5lBq). Only in recent years did the Museum put up signs admitting those alterations (goo.gl/98p0Fk; goo.gl/PriZbY).

It is therefore an incontrovertible fact that what we see there today is not what the Soviets found in 1945.

I am not sure what Stevens and Vogel claim is the "correct history" of Krema I, but its history has already been subject to extensive revision by the Auschwitz Museum itself. Discussing these revisions has nothing to do with anyone’s attitude toward Jews.

Stevens and Vogel owe Mr. Smith an apology.

Letter to the Canadian Embassy

David Merlin and Jett Rucker write a letter to the Canadian Embassy at Washington D. C. to support the application for a visa by the French comedian and social critic Dieudonne M’bala M’bala.

Letter to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

David Merlin writes a letter to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt regarding the  years of generous donations of the royalties earned from Adolf Hitler’s "Mein Kampf" and the considerations of a wider base of  beneficiaries from these donations.

Letter to The Electronic Intifada

In this letter, David Merlin, directs his attention to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and their view of free speech as a danger, as they are particularly worried about the internet and have spent  $20,000,000  to send out the alarm.

Letter to "The Economist"

David Merlin writes to The Economist to comment on an article published in this magazine, titled “Free Speech Under attack” and addresses the issue of the Holocaust Laws that have crippled free speech in many European countries and other parts of the world. 

Letter to PEN

David Merlin writes a letter to PEN America, which  according to their site, stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. Merlin’s letter to PEN calls on them to defend Free Speech with regard to the Holocaust.

Letter to the American Civil Liberties Union

In this letter to the American Civil Liberties Union, David Merlin writes this letter,  as part of our outreach to progressive organizations to encourage defense of free speech and open discussion regarding the Holocaust narrative. 

Letter to Access Now

There are many reasons why laws that criminalize discussion and debate are wrong. David Merlin, encourages AccessNow.org to support free speech on the Holocaust.

Letter to the Editor Fitzhugh

David Merlin writes to editor Jasper Fitzhugh to refute Mr. Jacobs’ claim on his post that assures "Holocaust denial requires individuals to suspend history and science in service to hatred." 

Letter to the USHMM on Majdanek

David Merlin writes to the USHMM to remind them that the death told at Majdanek have been corrected from 1,400,000 to 78,000 according to the Majdanek Museum itself.

Letter to Ashleigh

"Acclaimed historian" and author Deborah Lippstadt is promoting her new book that gives birth to the new movie “Denial” at an event Co-Sponsored by the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and the Nathan & Esther Pelz Holocaust Education Resource Center. David Merlin sends some tough questions for this "Shoah celebrity."

"Behind the Scenes"

David Merlin tells a "behind the scenes" story on the trial of Deborah Lipstadt vs David Irving.

"Negación" termina el año como un fracaso

Han pasado 3 meses desde la inauguración, pero Denial por su nombre en inglés, el guión y película de David Hare sobre el juicio de Irving vs. Lipstadt, ahora se puede clasificar como un fracaso.

Denying Denial

If historian Norman M. Naimark is right in saying that “genocide has been a part of human history from its very beginnings,” why are we memorializing one genocide to the exclusion of all the others?

Irving v. Lipstadt Trial for Movie Theaters, Part II 2015-10-10 David Merlin Smith's Report, no. 216, October 2015, pp. 5-7 (…continued from SR 215) Ms. Alison Thompson Mr. Mark Gooder Cornerstone Films, c/o Sunray Films 12 Sunray Avenue Herne Hill London, SE24 9PY [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)758 033 758 September …

(…continued from SR 216) As Judge Gray wrote: “Although Irving spent hardly any time in his cross-examination of van Pelt on the evidence that gassing took place elsewhere at Auschwitz, it is the Defendants’ case that gassing took place in other gas chambers, notably at crematorium 3.” Irving’s main objections …