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The Path to Enlightenment

By Germar Rudolf ∙ November 13, 2019

“Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one’s intelligence without the guidance of another. Such immaturity is self-caused, if it is not caused by lack of intelligence, but by lack of determination and courage to use one’s intelligence without being guided by another. Sapere Aude! [dare to know] Have the courage to use your own intelligence! is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.” —Immanuel Kant, Königsberg, 1784

This motto is displayed prominently on the home page of our website HolocaustHandbooks.com. On August 27 of 2018, Ronald Unz posted a lengthy article on his website unz.com explaining in detail why he came to doubt the orthodox Holocaust narrative. It is a personal chronicle of him leaving his self-caused immaturity by mustering the determination and courage to use his own, considerable intelligence without being guided by others. He granted us the right to republish his article. It is included in this issue of Inconvenient History. I apologize for not publishing it earlier.

In this context of his maturing, Unz also approached me to acquire the right to post the entirety of our series Holocaust Handbooks on his website. We quickly came to an agreement in this regard. Hence, his quickly growing archive now includes our valuable material.

Anti-Defamation League: hysterical anti-Enlightenism
Anti-Defamation League: hysterical anti-Enlightenism

Unz is described by Wikipedia as a child of “a Ukrainian family of Jewish descent.”[1] I leave it up to the reader to come to grips with what exactly that means for Ron himself. His various writings do not indicate any allegiance to Judaism or Zionism as ideologies or to the self-chosen tribe as an ethnic entity. Quite to the contrary. His detractors would probably categorize him as a self-hating Jew, if they mention his family’s Jewish background at all. The ADL, for instance, in their hysterical attack on Ron for having written the very article you are about to read, does not mention his Jewish background at all.[2] That would only confuse their readers, and horribile dictu, could put them on a path of using their own intelligence without the ADL’s guidance. Who at the ADL would want to encourage that?

In the end, it doesn’t matter what we think about Ron’s background. What matters is that Ron gives his growing audience of skeptical minds a road map on how to overcome their self-caused immaturity by mustering the determination and courage to use their own intelligence without being guided by others, such as the ADL. This is the sine qua non for understanding the world, in which Holocaust propaganda plays a still increasingly large role. I am grateful to Ron for shining a light onto that path for his readers, so that they might follow.

We hope to feature more articles from Ron and other contributors to his website in the future.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Unz

[2] https://www.adl.org/resources/news/ron-unz-controversial-writer-and-funder-anti-israel-activists; https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/california-entrepreneur-ron-unz-launches-series-rhetorical-attacks-jews.

  • Germar Rudolf was born on October 29, 1964, in Limburg, Germany. He studied chemistry at Bonn University, where he graduated in 1989 as a Diplom-Chemist, which is comparable to a U.S. PhD degree. From 1990-1993, he prepared a German PhD thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in conjunction with the University of Stuttgart, Germany. Parallel to this and in his spare time, Rudolf prepared an expert report on chemical and technical questions of the alleged gas chambers of Auschwitz (see The Chemistry of Auschwitz). He conclude in it that "the alleged facilities for mass extermination at Auschwitz and Birkenau were not suited for the purpose as claimed." As a result, he had to endure severe measures of persecution in subsequent years. Hence, he went into British exile, where he started a revisionist publishing outlet. When Germany asked Britain to extradite Rudolf in 1999, he fled to the U.S. There he applied for political asylum, expanded his publishing activities, and in 2004 married a U.S. citizen. In 2005, the U.S. granted him an immigrant visa based on his marriage, but seconds later arrested and subsequently deported him back to Germany in crass violation of U.S. law. In Germany, where he was put in prison for 44 months for his scholarly writings, some of which he had published in the U.S., where they are perfectly legal. Since not a criminal under U.S. law, he managed to immigrate permanently to the U.S. in 2011. Rudolf has published more than 90 books (currently available through Armreg US and Armreg UK), among them the 54 volumes of the Holocaust Handbooks. He has compiled 9 documentaries and authored 20 non-fiction books, among them the bestselling Holocaust Encyclopedia. With a brief interruption, he has managed the free-speech organization Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust since 2014, where we defend free speech at the forefront of corporate censorship and governmental persecution. In 2017, he became chief editor of CODOH’s quarterly periodical Inconvenient History. In early 2025, he launched the Holocaust Academy, dedicated to bringing critical thinking to Holocaust education. In that context, he organized the 2026 Holocaust Summit, dedicated to “Tackling the Most-Harmful Ideology Undermining Peace, Truth and Freedom Worldwide”.

    Read more about him here.

Bibliographic information about this document: Inconvenient History, 2019, Vol. 11, No. 4
Other contributors to this document:
Editor’s comments:

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