Letter to the American Civil Liberties Union

Susan N. Herman  President
Anthony D. Romero  Executive Director
Geri E. Rozanski  Director
Louise Melling Deputy Legal Director
Melling@LibertyLouise
[email protected]

Dear officers of the American Civil Liberties Union:

Greetings from the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust.

Although the ACLU is less involved with civil liberties outside of the United States we are contacting you as part of our outreach to progressive organizations to encourage defense of free speech and open discussion.  We are asking people to Speak Up for Free Speech.

Few people know that asking questions or expressing doubt of “Official History” has been made a felony in many Western Countries. These laws are generally directed at what is called "Holocaust Denial." 

The penalties in France can be up to one years in jail. In Austria, the maximum sentence is 20 years.

The number of cases is low but there is a constant persecution of artists, comedians, and scholars under these laws. This campaign has grown more fanatical and extreme in the last year with the imposition of strict censorship on Facebook posts by German Federal Minister of Justice Heiko Maas and Italy's criminalization of Holocaust Denial, just last week.  

For an outline of the issues, please see here.

There are many reasons why laws which criminalize discussion and debate are wrong.  CODOH is collecting people's comments on these laws and posting them.

We invite the ACLU, its members, or its directors to participate by sending us a short video for us to post.  If you could share this letter with your Board of Director members, it would be appreciated.  Please consider putting our letter on your Editor's Picks, the ACLU's most provocative and uncompromising content.

See our video on YouTube here.

Respectfully,

David Merlin,
Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust
PO Box 20774
York  PA 17402
[email protected]

"The enemies of tolerance are not always the same. Nor are their targets. However, one certain sign of bigotry is an unwillingness to allow others to speak".–CODOH Founder, Bradley Smith