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Lukacs on Barnes. SR readers on Lukacs

By Bradley R. Smith ∙ March 1, 1995

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I reported in SR 19 that it was a little dismaying to discover that, according to historian John Lukacs, revisionist historian Harry Elmer Barnes wrote that Hitler's only fault was that he was “too soft, generous and honorable.” Several readers responded to put the lie to Lukacs.

“Re your inquiry on the Barnes 'quote.' It's from a pamphlet originally self-published by Barnes entitled Blasting the Historical Blackout—Professor A.J.P. Taylor's The Origins of the Second World War—Its Nature, Reliability, Shortcomings and Implications. Originally published by IHR under David McCalden as part of The Barnes Trilogy in 1979, you can find Barnes' quote on page 17: 'Defenders of Hitler, of whom I am not one, contend that he lost the War and his life by being too decent and honorable.'” (From WW, Indianapolis IN)

The quote you are looking for is on page 251 of Barnes Against the Blackout, where he writes: 'While the theory of Hitler's diabolism is generally accepted, there are very well informed persons who contend that he brought himself and Germany to ruin by being too soft, generous and honorable rather than too tough and ruthless.'“ (From S.N., Carlisle MA.)

It would seen that Lukacs is not shooting quite straight when he quotes Barnes. W.W. writes that he recalls Deborah Lipstadt misusing-using the Barnes quote in her Denying the Holocaust.

(S.N. asks) “What if Barnes actually were a sympathizer with Nazi Germany? There appears to be a train of thought that those who sympathize with a movement are guilty of every one of the movement's crimes. If you sympathize with 'democracy' are you personally guilty of supporting (for example) the atom bombing of Japanese civilians, the firebombing of German Civilians, the enslavement of Blacks, the genocide of the Indians, the starvation of German POWs, etc., etc.?”

  • Bradley R. Smith

    Bradley R. Smith was born in Los Angeles on February 18, 1930. At 18 he joined the army and in 1951 served with the infantry in Korea where he was twice wounded. After three decades of a variety of professional activities, it suddenly hit him: In 1979 he read a leaflet by Professor Robert Faurisson, "The Problem of the Gas Chambers." Then, Arthur Butz’s The Hoax of the Twentieth Century did it for him. He understood from the beginning that he would address the censorship, the suppression of independent thought, the taboo against publishing and debating revisionist arguments—not the arguments themselves. That has remained his position. In 1989, Smith founded Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH) dedicated to defending free speech and free inquiry into the Holocaust question. He handed over CODOH's helm in late 2014. He passed away on his 86th birthday, February 18, 2016. Read a series of obituaries here.

Bibliographic information about this document: Smith's Report, no. 21, March 1995, p. 6.
Other contributors to this document: n/a
Editor’s comments: n/a

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