Year: 1997

Soap and Lampshades: The Lies Persist

In his recently published book, Why People Believe Weird Things, Skeptic editor Michael Shermer recounts an exchange from the Phil Donahue show. On that particular episode, CODOH director Bradley Smith stated, “It [is] a lie that Germans cooked Jews to make soap from them.” Shermer, who is skeptical of many things, but generally a believer…

What I Believe, What I Don't, and Why

I understand perfectly well that the Hitlerian regime was anti-Semitic and persecuted Jews and others. I understand many peoples, European Jews among them, experienced unfathomable tragedies in Europe during World War II. Nevertheless, I no longer believe the German State pursued a plan to kill all Jews or used homicidal “gassing chambers” for mass murder….

The Holocaust: denial and memory

They caught Eichmann.” My mother flew into the kitchen, hissing an epithet through tight lips—a mixed curse and hosanna that reverberated against the knotty Dine walls. I was sitting at the kitchen table with our neighbor and my mother's best friend Audrey, who gasped in response. The Israeli government had just announced that twelve days…

Global Internet Liberty Campaign: Open letter to German Chancellor H. Kohl

April 23, 1997 Chancellor Helmut KohlAdenauerallee 14153113 BonnGERMANY Dear Chancellor Kohl, The undersigned organizations, members of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, are writing to express concern about the prosecution of Felix Somm, German representative of CompuServe, for the transmission of allegedly illegal materials over the Internet. The news reports we have received indicate that Mr….

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