Statement of Purpose

Committee for Open Debate of the Holocaust (CODOH)

CODOH was founded to encourage intellectual freedom with respect to the Holocaust. CODOH is not a membership organization and is not affiliated with any political party or political group. It is not the purpose of CODOH to prove “the Holocaust never happened,” or that European Jews did not suffer a catastrophe during the Hitlerian regime. Those who try to convince you it is want to muddy the waters. While we no longer believe the gas chamber stories (we used to very much believe them) or the “genocide” theory, we remain open to being convinced we are wrong.

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 reasons I no longer believe either story are that no physical remains of authentic homicidal gassing chambers exist today, and there are no war-time generated documents which prove they ever did. I believe the gas chamber story to be a grotesque hoax.

For half a century the gas chambers have been at the heart of the holocaust story. In the literature, the two have been absolutely inseparable. It's tempting to say: “No gas chambers, no Holocaust.” I have said it myself. But too often it can be–has been–misleading, particularly to those who are just becoming acquainted with revisionist theory. It's misleading because it suggests that, if there were no gas chambers–and there were not–the Jews of Europe did not suffer a tragedy at the hands of the Hitlerian regime. They did.

While it is true that the Germans were criminally responsible for the death of a large number of their slave labor prisoners, much eyewitness testimony about German atrocities against Jews and others is demonstrably false. It's wrong to bear false witness against others–most of us were taught to understand this when we were children. False testimony against anyone, including Germans, together with those who promote it, should be exposed to the light of public scrutiny.

The attempt to identify every call for open discussion about the gas chamber controversy with anti-Jewish sentiment is juvenile. Those who protest that it is more important to be sensitive to “survivors” than truthful about the historical record represent a world view that has no place in Western culture.

I'm willing to be convinced I'm wrong about any or all of this. I'm willing to be convinced it is hateful to weigh the evidence for and against gas chambers. I'm willing to consider the possibility that the press and our intellectual elites are justified in their efforts to suppress open discussion about the gas chambers. I'm even willing to discuss the idea that intellectual freedom corrupts public discourse when it involves the gas chamber controversy.

I'm not willing to go away, however. I don't know why, but I'm not willing.