Letters

A Tip of the Hat

Today, for the first time, I took a tour of your [internet] website, and was overwhelmed by the wealth of info there. If this is your spare-time project, please accept a tip of the hat from me. Please also be assured that what you've placed there at everyone's disposal is a valuable public service indeed. Thank you very much. Keep on trucking with it.

K. R.
Ste. Therese, Quebec
Canada

Interest in Ukraine

Recently I was just surfing the net and came upon your site, where I found the article “Vinnytsia: The Katyn of Ukraine” [from the Winter 1980 Journal]. Because I am of Ukrainian origin, this article was of immediate interest to me. I was totally mesmerized by the content, almost to the point of crying.

I am very interested in finding out more about Ukraine or further historical information about the former Soviet Union from your site or Institute.

J. K.
[by Internet]

Draconian Measures

Thank you very much for providing this important information on historical revisionism [through the Internet]. I have long been frustrated by the sacrosanct “facts” that are continually pounded into our minds through television, film and print.

I do not count myself among those who deny historical atrocities, but I wonder why so much attention and sensationalism has been devoted to the sufferings of this one particular religious-ethnic group, and not others that have suffered as much if not more than Jews.

I recently read a newspaper item about a Japanese magazine [Marco Polo] that had been closed down because it featured an article that called the Holocaust a hoax. While I don't believe it was a hoax, I do not approve of such draconian measures to placate a single group, particularly because such tactics reflect the same arrogance and abuse that was inflicted on people in Axis-occupied Europe during World War II.

D. D.
Washington, D.C.

Wrong Journal Priorities?

As it has for years, the Journal continues to stick pretty much to its original agenda, which is to refute the Holocaust story. However, you should recognize that for most current and potential Journal readers the Holocaust is no longer a red-hot, visceral issue.

What are the red-hot issues? I think they are: (a) the steady destruction of the economic base of ordinary middle class Americans, (b) vast, unrestricted immigration, especially from the Third World, which is irreversibly changing the nation's racial character, and (c), spineless pandering to vocal minorities.

When someone first encounters Holocaust revisionist writings, he no doubt finds them astonishing and even a little breathtaking. (“What, are you seriously trying to tell me that the Nazis didn't kill six million Jews?”). But after six months or a year, you've either convinced him or haven't. And in either case, what more do you then have to say to him?

You should also keep in mind the excruciatingly technical nature of many Holocaust revisionist arguments: traces of this, traces of that, comparison with this, comparisons with that, and so forth. Even though I am a trained engineer, believe me when I tell you that I was barely equal to the demands on my intellect of revisionist arguments. Just imagine how much less attention you can reasonably expect from the typical Journal reader.

While your insistence on keeping the Journal on a high level is admirable, I am afraid this has hurt you. In your preference for the cerebral to the visceral I fear you have stripped the Journal of its power to arouse, excite and enrage.

R.E.
Montville, New Jersey

The Journal's Purpose

What should be the purpose of the Institute for Historical Review and its Journal? As I see it, the primary focus should be a serious, factual examination of the Jewish question as it affects historical issues. While this obviously encompasses the Holocaust and Holocaust revisionism, it should also include the Jewish role in World War II, World War I, the Russian revolution, and other critical aspects of 19th and 20th century history.

A related but secondary goal should be to clarify the history of Third Reich Germany and National Socialism. The social and cultural record of the National Socialist regime, Hitler's historical role, and the origins and causes of World War II are endlessly distorted and, as a result, are still not clearly understood today.

I realize that dealing fairly with this chapter of history can be a problem. Hitler and the Third Reich have been so demonized that to deal objectively with them inevitably entails a certain meassure of “rehabilitation.” The Institute's stated purpose is not to rehabilitate this or that regime, and that is as it should be. In treating these prickly issues, the main thing should be to deal with the facts truthfully and objectively, and to make sure that the intent is not to rehabilitate.

My extensive reading and study over the years has strongly reinforced my conviction that an awareness of the Jewish dimension is essential to an full understanding of human affairs, especially in the West during this century. As numerous prominent Jewish figures have affirmed, the Jewish element is a key factor in many of the problems we experience today.

Scrutinizing entrenched historical myths and uncovering widely-accepted historical lies is obviously no way to win applause from mainstream academic and publishing circles.

While some other periodicals may touch on the Jewish issue, no one dares tackle it with the consistency and seriousness of the IHR Journal. What the IHR has already accomplished is magnificent, and it should continue on the same path.

M.B.
Bellevue, Washington

Russian Events Pertinent

I found Ernst Zündel's “Impressions of the New Russia” in the Sept.-Oct. issue very pertinent, for it was interesting to see the nationalist trend discussed there reflected in the recent Russian parliamentary election. The same alien tyranny imposed on the Russian people for 70 years also afflicts us. As Solzhenitsyn said during his years in exile: How the Soviet Union will find its way out of totalitarianism is not the great issue, but rather how the rest of the world will escape the same fate. Your Institute is doing wonderful work, and I hope it provides a shortcut to realization of this by the peoples of the Western world.

A.S.
Queensland, Australia

United in Love and Compassion

… May your soul suffer the same fate as any Nazi who took part in implementing the Final Solution. May God pity you, but never forgive you and your kind for the seeds of hatred which you have planted, thereby denying Hitler's victims the eternal rest which they deserve. This is what Wiesel meant by leaving a place for hatred in our lives …

May humanity some day become so enlightened that it will be able to forgive you for your sins against everything moral and everything crated [sic] by the God Who unites the rest of the world in love and compassion.

Rabbi Matthew Futterman
[by Internet]
Ashkelon, Israel

Fascinated

I have read your flyer and am fascinated by how low you have stooped … You are a desgrace for the hole human race …

Gileul Swerdlow
[mailed anonymously from Calif.]

Disturbed Teen

Who are you to judge? Who are you to say that the something so horrible and so devastating? If the holocaust never happened then what happened to the six million jews that are no longer existing or what about my relatives that I never got to know? I don't understand how you can sit there and write these questions about something that did in fact take place …

[signed]
A very disturbed teen
[mailed anonymously from Woodland Hills, Calif.]

Great Hopes

I am somewhat fed up with statements such as this one in the article about the IHR in the Sept.Oct. 1995 Journal [p. 19]: “Although the Institute does not 'deny the Holocaust,' over the years it has published detailed books and numerous probing essays that call into question aspects of the orthodox Holocaust extermination story.”

Why not “deny” it? For a long time now sufficient proof has been available to “deny” the existence of even a single homicidal “gas cqamber” in a wartime German concentration camp.

The sooner this truth is made available to all people in every country, the better. Then, perhaps, the great personal sacrifices of so many great individuals of character can be made good – in their lifetimes. I have great hopes that the truth will prevail through the Internet.

The sooner the lie of the “greatest crime in history” – that is, about “gas chambers” and six million “murdered” Jews – is laid to rest forever, the sooner the IHR can progress to other urgent historical issues.

H.G.
Herfordshire, England

A Blessing

I am a 70-year-old woman. I fled east Germany in December 1945 and have lived in America since 1948. The outright lies and misinformation about Germany has caused me lots of mental anguish over the years.

Thank you and bless you for your efforts to air the other side.

A.T.
Milbridge, Maine

Intriguing Information

John Weir's review of The Warburgs [Sept.-Oct. 1995 issue] was very intriguing. Especially interesting was the information under the subtitle “International Network.” Any of the matters dealt with there could be expanded upon.

I am enclosing two checks for the IHR. The $140 check is for my monthly pledge and a Journal subscription renewal. The $500 check is a “bonus” for the IHR.

Many thanks for your continued and untiring efforts on behalf of revisionism.

M.P.
Denver, Col.

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