After the Museum

HANS SCHMIDT. As mentioned above, I toured the museum with Hans. The following day we got together in my digs in Crystal City when I had my new Sony videocam set up. I interviewed Hans on tape for four hours about his impressions of the museum. Hans, a German nationalist, has interests different from mine, but whenever I have a chance to talk with Hans, I always find him informative and insightful, and he's a good story teller too with a good sense of humor. David Cole has edited the interview, and the two-hour videotape is available in our new D&B Productions Catalog.

CHARLES PROVAN. After finishing with Hans, late that afternoon I put my gear into my rented car and made the five-hour drive to Monogahela up near Pittsburgh to interview my friend Charles Provan. Charles came into adulthood believing the gas chamber stories, became a revisionist as he matured — and then did the incredible — he found reasons to revert to belief in the gas chambers and most of the rest of the Holocaust story too. Arriving about 11 pm, I set up the videocam in his printing shop around the corner from his house, and we talked until three in the morning. The next day at noon we returned, and I filmed for three more hours. I pressed him hard, particularly on the data he now uses to support his belief in the gassing chambers at Auschwitz. This controversial interview isn't available on videotape yet, but when it is, we'll notify you.

THE LATEST FROM THE USHMM. With regard to Ms. Raye Farr, permanent exhibits director of the Museum, I was never able to get in touch with her to see if she had answers for my five questions. I'm not sure how happy she would have been to talk to me anyhow. After I returned to California I received a note saying she had passed my questions on to “one of our historians” to answer. I then received a note from Dr. David M. Luebke, Historian, the Permanent Exhibition. He noted that obviously we had missed connections. Addressing the my questions that Ms. Raye had passed on to him, he wrote:

“I trust that you have already had all opportunity to view the permanent exhibition and that it is no longer necessary for me to describe what you have seen for yourself.”

I'm pleased that Dr. Luebke took the time to drop me a line, and in such a civil manner too. His trust in me is misplaced, however. I didn't find answers to any of my questions, and I don't find them in Berenbaum's book either, which represents faithfully the museum's exhibits, so I suspect I am going to prove to be a big disappointment to Dr. Leubke. There's nothing for it. I'm going to have to ask the questions again. But there hangs another tale, which 1 will tell you about in the next issue of SR.

THE MARK HARRIS SHOW. WRC-AM RADIO. My press release to Beltway media resulted in one interview — by Mark Harris on WRC-AM — Washington D.C., the town that's blacked me out for so long. I did the one hour interview live on 8 June. Harris was determined to tell me over and over again that, because 99.99% of all historians agree that “the holocaust happened,” it happened and that I am either wasting my time or indulging myself with an anti-Jewish agenda. It didn't occur to Mr. Harris that our listening audience might want to know WHY revisionists no longer believe the gas chamber stories.

Nevertheless, I got as much information out as was possible. A lady with a German accent got through on the call-in line and very firmly corrected Mr. Harris on his beliefs about Dachau, as well as the way he was handling the interview. After my interview was finished, Harris continued for a second hour talking about what we had talked, or I had tried to talk, about. He's not a man with an open mind. He wanted to win an argument rather than interview me, but he's not a name-caller either, and in his own limited way he gave me something of a run at it.

(A cassette recording of the Harris/Smith “interview” is available for the usual donation.)