COMMUNITY VIEWS

Holocaust Denial Efforts
Boosted By The Internet

S

far from making serious inroads, is
eventeen years ago this month
working
hard for acceptance. The argu-
I first discovered Holocaust
ments
are
less confrontational, the pre-
denial. Today this anti-his-
sentation
is
smoother and the approach
toric, anti-Semitic
is
more sophisticated. They
movement, while still on the
piously declare they are not
margins at best, is stepping
anti-Semites and trumpet
up its efforts to whitewash
academic freedom and the
Hitler, promote Nazi ideology
search
for the truth. By
and demonize Jews.
masking
its hatred of Jews as
In 1981, I was a University
"historical
scholarship,"
of Michigan senior only two
deniers
hope
to make anti-
months shy of graduation. A
Semitism "respectable" and
friend who lived in the dorms
further their political and
received a letter from the
social
goals.
head of something called the
DONALD H.
Bradley
Smith, founder of
Legion for the Survival of
COHEN
the
Committee
for Open
Freedom Inc. It was a real
Special to
Debate
on
the
Holocaust
eye-opener.
The Jewish News
(CODOH), continues to tar-
The letter, written express-
get college students and cam-
ly for college students,
pus newspapers. Just this past fall he
claimed that universities were teaching
launched a new campaign to place
about the Holocaust because the
advertisements
promoting his Web site
administration and faculty were under
and
offering
a
$50,000
reward for any-
the control of powerful forces, i.e., the
one
who
could
get
a
90-minute
video
Jews.
broadcast
on
network
television
during
The letter claimed Anne Frank's
prime
time.
Ongoing
education
by
the
diary was a hoax and Nazi gas cham-
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and
bers were a Jewish "fantasy."
quick action to alert campus editors
Promoting what was then a new
nationwide
resulted in just a handful of
organization, the Institute For Histori-
papers
publishing
the ads. None were
cal Review, the letter argued that the
in
Michigan.
Jews had created a massive hoax to gar-
The video Smith promotes is not
ner support for the creation and main-
new,
but the effort to promote it is.
tenance of the State of Israel and to
The video is of a "David Cole" who
compel Americans to shed their blood
walks around the Auschwitz death
in its defense.
camp wearing a kippah and challenging
Today, Holocaust denial, while still
the veracity of the Holocaust. Just last
Don Cohen is the director of the Anti-
month copies of this video were
Defamation League in Michigan. -
received by a number of public schools

in the Philadelphia area. It shows that
the deniers are broadening the scope of
who they are trying to reach, and this
portends greater challenges in the
future.
The biggest boon for the deniers is
undoubtedly the Internet. The ADL's
new report High-Tech Hate: Extremist
Use of the Internet, reports that Holo-
caust denial is "the fastest-growing anti-
Semitic propaganda line on the World
Wide Web." Nine sites are devoted
exclusively to Holocaust denial, and if
you've ever put the
word "holocaust"
into a search engine
you have already dis-
covered these sites
regularly show up in
the first ten posi-
tions. Hate groups
often promote these
sites and provide
easy access to them
in their links sec-
tion.
Whether it is the
neo-Nazis, white
supremacists, the
Identity Church or
skinheads, these sites
are featured promi-
nently around the
world.
The Zundelsite is
the most widely linked site. Named
after the Holocaust denier Ernst Zun-
del of Toronto, Canada, it is ostensibly
run by Ingrid Rimland who works
from her home in California. The real

source of the information is being
investigated by the Canadian Civil
Rights Commission acting on a civil
complaint charging Zundel with violat-
ing the Canadian Human Rights Act.
The site is published in English, Ger-
man, French, Russian, Spanish and
Portuguese.
It is unusual to find Holocaust
denial books on the shelves of your
local library or bookstore. This is not
the result of censorship nor a Jewish-
backed conspiracy, but because they
just aren't relevant
in the non-fiction
section. It is
widely under-
stood that while
such books add
to one's under-
standing of anti-
Semitism, they
contribute little
to the under-
standing of
World War II or
the Holocaust.
But when you
visit a Holocaust
denial site you are
on their turf The
Internet allows
the haters to
spread their lies
broadly, swiftly
and cheaply.
The deniers are marshaling their
resources and preparing for the day
when the testimony of survivors and
HOLOCAUST on page 33

court could meet the needs of these
players.
Recently, a more accurate list of
players was compiled which has the
number of players at 250: 149 for rac-
quetball and 106 for squash (four peo-
ple play both). Using the same logic, it
only makes sense that the true number
of courts should be three times what
was needed for 85 players, or 15
courts broken down by number of
players per game to nine racquetball
and six squash courts. Some of the
courts could be made dual-purpose by
utilizing the new sliding back wall and
snap-on tin for conversion of a rac-
quetball court into a squash court.
To eliminate most of the courts, as
is currently planned, would create an
intolerable situation. Access to courts
would be extremely difficult. This sit-
uation would cost the JCC many

Squash players at the JCC.

LETTERS

modate conversions performed by
their rabbis. Of course, all Jews who
wish to use the mikvah for non-con-
version purposes will be welcome at
the Oak Park facility.
The Oak Park mikvah currently
in use is rundown, too small to
meet the demand and sorely in
need of replacement. By leasing this
land, which approximates 3/4 acre,
the United Jewish Foundation
sought to be responsive to a deep-
felt need within the Orthodox com-
munity.
This is an altogether appropriate
action. The Jewish Federation of Met-
ropolitan Detroit and its partner, the
United Jewish Foundation, exist to
serve the needs of all members of our
community, representing all streams of
Judaism. We will continue to follow
this policy on behalf of Conservative

3/6
1998

28

and Reform as well as Orthodox insti-
tutions.
Robert Slatkin
President, United Jewish Foundation

Survey Numbers
And Logic

As a follow-up to the letter by Lloyd
Snider ("Renovation Plans are Upset-
ting" Feb. 20) regarding the proposed
decrease in the number of racquetball
and squash courts at the Maple/Drake
JCC, I feel the need to add some
information.
It turns out that the JCC commis-
sioned a study which determined that
the number of racquetball and squash
players was 85. From this number it
was calculated that two racquetball,
two squash and one doubles squash

