INDEX
- Development of "revisionism" since 1945
- Themes of contemporary "revisionist" writing
- The international network of "revisionism"
- The legal situation
- Summary
Development of "revisionism" since 1945
Most people understand so called "revisionism" as just another
word for the movement of holocaust denial (Benz 1994; Lipstadt 1993;
Shapiro 1990). Therefore it was suggested lately to use the word
"negationism" instead. However in the author's point of view
"revisionism" covers some more topics than just the denying of the
National Socialist mass murders. Especially in Germany and Austria
there are some more points of National Socialist politics some people
have tried to minimize or apologize since 1945, e. g. the
responsibility for World War II, the attack on the Soviet Union in
1941 (quite a modern topic), (the discussion) about the number of the
victims of the holocaust a. s. o.. In the seventies the late
historian Martin Broszat already called that movement "running amok
against reality" (Broszat 1976). These pseudo-historical writers,
many of them just right wing extremist publishers or people who quite
rapidly turned to right wing extremists, really try to prove that
history has not taken place, just as if they were able to make events
undone by denying them.
A conception of "negationism" (Auerbach 1993a; Fromm and Kernbach
1994, p. 9; Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz 1994 ) or "holocaust
denial" (Lipstadt 1993, p. 20) would neglect the additional
components of "revisionism", which are logically connected with the
denying of the holocaust, this being the extreme variant. As Auerbach
puts it, in truth they all are apologists of National Socialism
(Auerbach 1993a, p. 36). Therefore all efforts to rewrite history
with the aim of apologizing or de-criminalizing National Socialism
for personal or political purposes will be called "revisionism" in
this article. In Austria and Germany the word "revisionism" has a
historical background quite different from that in the USA. In the
latter it is connected to a historical tradition of the twenties when
historians re-interpreted the history of US entering the war (see
later on). In the first mentioned countries the word is sometimes
associated to a trend in the German labour movent at the beginning of
the twentieth century (Bailer 1992; Landesamt für
Verfassungsschutz 1994).(2)
"Revisionism" is mostly connected with right wing extremism or
neo-Nazism, even if the authors do not regard themselves as
rightwing-extremist their publications are being used and
instrumentalized by those political groups. Since National Socialist
ideology is inseparably associated with the unbelievable crimes of
this regime all these groups which try to revive that ideology have
to fight the remembrance on the crimes. They have to white wash the
leading National Socialists and their politics in order to win
followers. The historical roots of "revisionism" reach back into the
late forties and early fifties when tendencies to minimize the
National Socialist crimes as well as to excuse the starting of World
War II by the Hitler-Regime arose.
One of the first European "revisionists", Maurice Bardéche,
according to Lipstadt "a French fascist" (Lipstadt 1993, p. 50),
already mixed the said themes in a way that set the fashion for many
of the following "revisionist" publications. In 1948 he published a
book Nuremberg or the Promised Land where he contended that
documents concerning the Holocaust had been falsified, that the
"final solution" just meant the transfer of the Jews to ghettos in
Eastern Europe. Bardéche argued that Jews were not victims of
National Socialism, but have to be held guilty for the offspring of
World War II. National Socialist Germany had to defend herself
against communism and Stalin's lust for power all over Europe.
Paul Rassinier started his publishing activities in the late forties
with his books Crossing the Line and The Lie of Ulysses
in which he tried to prove that the accusations against the National
Socialists were false and unfair. Later on Rassinier sort of
specialized on denying the National Socialist genocide against Jews.
Both, Bardéche as well as Rassinier, in some way came out of
the ranks of collaboration with the German occupation power though
Rassinier started his contacts as prisoner in the concentration camps
of Buchenwald and Dora. Later he wrote that the direct contact to the
SS had caused his entirely different point of view (Baier 1982, pp.
89 f.). One of Bardéche's relatives again was executed for
collaboration (Fromm and Kernbach 1994, p. 10). Bardéche
himself edited Rassiniers books in France (Baier 1982, p. 97).
In Germany and in Austria "revisionism" started with the denial of
Hitler's responsibility for World War II respectively the
glorification of the German soldiers' virtues with former National
Socialists playing a leading part. Among the first of these books in
Germany was Peter Kleist's Auch du warst dabei (You took part
also) which became an example for all later authors (Graml 1989).
Kleist himself was a close assistant to National Socialist Foreign
Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and the Minister of the occupied
eastern territories Alfred Rosenberg. Kleist presented three lines of
arguments which can be found in many "revisionist" publications since
then:
1. the accusation against the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, which he
uses as excuse for almost every brutal measure of National Socialist
politics;
2. the contention that western European statesmen supported by the
Jewry of the world just wanted to demolish prospering and powerful
Germany;
3. playing down of National Socialist reality by using glossing over
terms (Graml 1989, p. 68).
One of the first Austrian apologists was Erich Kernmayr (Erich Kern)
a former National Socialist and member of the SS and after 1945
prominent activist in a number of right wing extremist organisations.
He started with glorifying the German World War II soldiers and their
heroical fight against the enemies of the "Reich" as well as by
emphasizing the "crimes" of the Allies against the German people
(Lasek 1994).
From the beginning European "revisionist" authors clearly showed a
tendency towards apology of their own individual past as well as the
German people's past. "Revisionism" in the USA shows itself in a
somewhat different way claiming another tradition. The term
"revisionism" has a different connotation in the US-historiography
which modern "revisionist" try to use by choosing that name. After
World War I a group of American historians using archival material
argued that contrary to the prevailing American opinion Germany had
not sought to go to war 1914. That historiographic movement was
called World War I revisionism. One of these was Professor Harry
Elmer Barnes who "soon surpassed ... every other revisionist in his
vehement criticism of American foreign policy" (Lipstadt 1993, p.
32). After 1945 the said Barnes became the "father" of American
holocaust denial. Using similar methods he wrote some of the first
attacks on the historiography of the Holocaust and became promoter of
David Hoggan, one of the central contemporary "revisionists". The
same time some of Barnes texts and books, especially those on Western
civilization were required texts at prominent US-universities
(Lipstadt 1993, p. 67). In the light of this development we can
state: On the one hand right wing extremist "revisionists" uses the
traditional name reaching back in the twenties of the 20th century to
camouflage their political background and to claim historical
seriousness which is not theirs. On the other hand there is a
personal and methodical tradition from excusing Germany's war-guilt
after both World Wars to contemporary "revisionism". After 1945
US-"revisionism" obviously stands in a similar anti-Semitic tradition
as in Europe. In the sixties both lines of "revisionism" found
together when David Leslie Hoggan's book The Forced War was
published by Herbert Grabert in Germany in 1961. That book is in some
distant way based on Hoggan's Harvard dissertation in which he had
stated that Hitler had not wanted war but that Great Britain was to
be held responsible for the outbreak of World War II. What he
published later on was quite different however. Now the Germans had
become innocent victims of English, American and Polish efforts to
start the war and to destroy a prospering Germany.
Hoggan's book marked a change and progress in "revisionism" compared
to German apologetic literature published before. His statements
radically criticize the policy of the USA and Great Britain; Hoggan's
Hitler is a peace seeking, faultless statesman full of virtues. For
the first Hoggan broke with the "revisionist" tradition of not using
archival material. He gave his book a scientific appearance by citing
a lot of that material and literature which have just one big
problem: most of it is either a fake or a misinterpretation of
authentic documents (Graml 1989, pp. 70 f.). In that way Hoggan
however founded a "revisionist" tradition which is lasting up to
now.
In the following years apologetic literature of a new quality was
published in Germany and in Austria. The main topics stayed in
excusing National Socialist policy, accusing the former Allies of
responsibility for the outbreak of World War II and deploring the
fate of Germany and the Germans. There was Udo Walendy who published
Truth for Germany (Wahrheit für Deutschland - Die
Schuldfrage des Zweiten Weltkriegs) in 1962 which was just a
rewriting of Hoggan's statements. Walendy misinterpreted and
falsified historical literature and archival material in a really
shameless way as the historian Hermann Graml (1989, p. 73) shows.
In Austria Franz Scheidl, a man of academic education but a furious
anti-Semite, published his work Geschichte der Verfemung der
Deutschen (History of the Defamation of the Germans)
stating among other things that World War II was a war between
Germans and Jews. International Jewry had declared war on Germany and
therefore the Jews themselves were to be held responsible for the
German atrocities against them, as there were deportation, forced
wearing of the yellow star, separation of Jews from Germans. Scheidl
doesn´t even mention the mass murders, well knowing that these
are the heaviest accusation against National Socialist Germany. In
his book Das Drama der Juden Europas (The drama of the Jews
in Europe) published in Germany in 1965 Paul Rassinier already
doubted the number of Jews murdered, thus catching up a since then
everlasting "revisionist" theme.
Rassinier has found a series of followers in that string of
argumentation who not only refer to differing numbers of murdered in
serious historical works but even construct sort of evidence in
citing never existing letters of the International Committee of the
Red Cross, using pseudo-statistics about the Jewish population in the
world or aimfully misinterpreting statistics about deaths in
concentration camps (Benz 1994; Neugebauer 1992).
In course of the so-called "Hitler-wave" of the seventies books of
obvious "revisionist" character were published as well as books of
quite serious historians though with sometimes doubtful tendencies
(e. g. Maser 1971; Fest 1973, 1977).
So the British pseudo-historian David Irving produced his description
of Hitler stating that Hitler did not know anything about the
so-called "final solution" and the mass murdering of Jews, having
neither wanted nor ordered these crimes. That book (Hitler's
War) was followed by a whole series of biographies about leading
National Socialists like Rudolf Heß, Erwin Rommel u. a. (Lasek
1994, p. 543). The late historian of the Institute for contemporary
history in Munich, Martin Broszat, unmasked Irvings pseudo-scientific
methods at the example of Hitler's War (Broszat 1986).
The seventies were the decade when Holocaust denial fully came to
life. Until then even the most extreme neo-Nazi groups did not
totally deny the use of the gas-chambers for murdering people.
According to Lipstadt the first generation of "revisionists" "sought
to vindicate the Nazis by justifying their anti-Semitism" (Lipstadt
1993, p. 52), arguing that the Jews as enemies of Germany had
deserved the atrocities against them. But the second generation of
"revisionists" turned to totally denying the Holocaust and the
existence of gas-chambers for mass murder in German concentration
camps. Therefore the newly published books of the seventies
distinctly mark a new quality in "revisionism".
Graml regards that as just a logical result of the Hitler apology
boom of the years before as Hitler could not be presented as a great
politician and statesman as long he was implicated with the greatest
crime of our century (Graml 1989, p. 80). So far Graml´s point
of view, but there are other explanations too:
While right wing extremist groups were quite successful in Germany
and Austria during the sixties the political climate favoured the
left side of the political spectrum in the seventies. We can find
right wing extremist and even neo-Nazi radicalisation simultaneous
with left wing radicalisation in the seventies as well (Bailer and
Neugebauer 1994; Benz 1989). It was quite necessary for these
political aims to excuse National Socialism of the Holocaust in order
to be able to do neo-National Socialist propaganda once more. In the
second half of the seventies historians, social scientists and
teachers began to react to the problem of "revisionist" publications,
conferences were held (Internationale Konferenz 1977) and articles of
refutation of neo-Nazi history lies were written (e. g. Broszat
1976).
Nevertheless the standards of "revisionist" literature were published
in those years. For instance there could be mentioned:
Thies Christophersen, Die Auschwitz-Lüge (1973)
Austin App, The Six Million Swindle. Blackmailing the Germany
People for Hard Marks with Fabricated Corpses (1973)
Richard Harwood, Did Six Million Really Die? (1975), the same
year edited by Volkstum Verlag in German language (Starben
wirklich sechs Millionen?)
Arthur R. Butz, Der Jahrhundert-Betrug (1977), published in
the USA already 1976 - The Hoax of the 20th Century.
Robert Faurisson, Es gab keine Gaskammern (1978)
Wilhelm Stäglich, Der Auschwitz-Mythos. Legende oder
Wirklichkeit. Eine kritische Bestandaufnahme (1979) (could be
translated as The Myth of Auschwitz. Legend or Reality? A critical
Survey).
Themes of contemporary "revisionist" writing
The themes of "revisionist" writing were settled at the end of the
seventies. Since then methods have changed, but almost no new topics
were introduced by "revisionists". The main strings of argumentation
can be grossly categorized as follows although there can be found
differentiations in the categories themselves which cannot all be
listed here.
The "revisionists" chose those subjects which most clearly
demonstrate the criminal character of the National Socialist regime
whereby denying of the holocaust as the worst crime has become the
most central theme since the seventies. In the whole there can be
seen two main fields of themes: the first referring to World War II
and National Socialist guilt for war-crimes, the second one
concerning atrocities against Jews especially denying the planned and
executed mass murder in industrial scale of millions of Jewish people
(Bailer-Galanda 1992a; Bailer 1994).
a) Minimizing and denying guilt for and in World War II
As shown above "revisionism" started in the late forties and early
fifties with disputing the National Socialist responsibility for the
outbreak of World War II. There are two main arguments:
1. It is stated that the "Weltjudentum" (Jewry of the world) had
declared war on Germany already in 1933 and that Germany herself
simply had to react (Auerbach 1993b).
2. "Revisionists" maintain that Germany got too powerful during the
thirties. Therefore the western Allies decided to destroy their rival
and supported Poland in provoking World War II.
In the last years especially the subject of a defensive character of
the attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 was raised stating that
Stalin had already planned an invasion of National Socialist Germany
and Hitler had to defend Germany and the German people in attacking
Russia in a preemptive strike ("Präventivkriegsthese"). All
these theories should be classified as pure apologetic propaganda
even though the "Präventivkriegsthese" (Preemptive War Thesis)
has found partisans beyond right wing extremist circles and veteran
organizations in the last years (Ueberschär 1987).
In addition to these arguments we can find the myth of the heroic and
brave German soldier who never committed any crimes against humanity
and rules of warfare.
In the context of German warfare some "revisionists" especially David
Irving in his first books try to show prominent or leading National
Socialists in a positive light. Mainly Rudolf Heß who is shown
as a misunderstood peace bringer (Emmerer 1993) and Walter Reder,
responsible for mass murder on Italian civilians
(Dokumentationsarchiv 1985), were those characters especially apt for
right wing extremist adoration as martyrs of the German cause since
both stayed imprisoned quite long after 1945. It is remarkable that
Reder was put backstage after his liberation from Italian
imprisonment. His use for right wing extremist propaganda was reduced
that way.
If German crimes are not entirely denied they are at least set off
against allied atrocities regardless of truth and fiction as if these
deeds could minimize the German guilt. Main themes are the expelling
of the German population of Eastern Europe (Czechoslovakia,
Yugoslavia, Poland) and the bombing of German cities during the war,
especially the attack on Dresden. The numbers of victims are mostly
exaggerated to an enormous extent (Mayr 1993).
Diverting from the fates of allied - especially Soviet - prisoners of
war in German camps a book by the Canadian journalist James Bacques
just came right. Bacques stated that the USA would have let starved
almost a million German prisoners of war. Though this book presents
no proof for that statement (Steininger 1993) it is still being
advertised and positively reviewed in a lot of Austrian and German
right wing extremist papers.
b) National Socialist crimes against Jews
The most important accusations against National Socialism refer to
its planned and industrially executed extermination of European Jews.
This crime became the central theme of "revisionist" literature
during the last twenty years. There is a number of reasons for
stressing this subject.
1. The murdering of the European Jews is the heaviest accusation
against National Socialism as being a crime of singular dimension in
the history of mankind. The only way to a revival of National
Socialist ideology leads over minimizing or denying that crime.
2. "Revisionists" use the fact that the "final solution" is a crime
of almost unbelievable dimension and therefore they hope people can
easily be convinced that the Holocaust was an invention of allied
propaganda. It is certainly easier to imagine that the murder of
millions of people has not taken place than being forced to realize
that Auschwitz-Birkenau and the other extermination camps (Treblinka,
Sobibor, Chmelno, etc.) just were huge slaughter houses for human
beings.
3. Denial of the Holocaust is a kind of anti-Semitism and
anti-Semitism still is a widespread prejudice in Germany and Austria
as well as in the USA. The Anti-Defamation League in New York points
out that "revisionism" is a new method of propagating anti-Semitism
(Anti-Defamation League 1989; 1993). As we will show later on
holocaust denial uses existing anti-Semitic habits of thought just to
"prove" that the Holocaust did not take place.
4. Denying the Holocaust is used to question the legitimacy of the
state of Israel and the German payments of reparation and
indemnification to the Jewish people.
Minimizing and/or denial of the atrocities against the Jews include
the following lines of argumentation (Spann 1992; Shermer 1994):
- denial of the intentionality of the genocide primarily based on
race
- denial of the use of gas-chambers and crematoria in course of a
highly technical well organized extermination program
- doubting and minimizing the number of five to six million killed
Jews (Benz 1991)
- excusing the atrocities against the Jews as a necessity in the
course of the war; only traitors, criminals, spies and enemies of
National Socialism had been killed
- stating that the persecution and murdering of the Jews had just
been the deeds of subordinate officials. Hitler and other leading
National Socialists had neither ordered nor intended these
murders.
- naming the Jews themselves as responsible for their fate because
they had declared war against Hitler's Germany; interpreting World
War II as a conflict between Jews and Germans.
- questioning the authenticity of Anne Frank's diary. The description
of the young girl's life in her hiding place in Amsterdam moved
hundreds of thousands readers all over the world and therefore it
seemed necessary for Rightists to state that the book was not
authentic. Meantime a great research project of the Netherlands
Institute for War Documentation proved the diary to be the original
writing of the young girl Anne Frank though the edited versions
differ because of minor corrections by Anne Frank's father,
interpreters and publishers (Rijksinstituut 1988; Bailer-Galanda 1992
b).
Conspiracy theories
All "revisionist" theories must necessarily be founded on the belief of a huge world wide conspiracy which induces and has induced thousands of people to tell the same story about persecution of Jews and mass murder with poisonous gas. That conspiracy must have worked quite hard to produce those thousands of documents in many archives which deal with National Socialist crimes. But those conspiracy theories are an old element of anti-Semitic agitation propagating a world wide plot of Jews to reach for the reign of the whole world. See for instance the Protokolle der Weisen von Zion which were produced by Russian anti-Semites about one hundred years ago and still are quoted in right wing extremist writing.
Methods of "revisionism"
The first to deal with the methods of pseudo-historiographic "revisionist" writing was the late leader of the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich Martin Broszat (Broszat 1986). In the meantime he was followed by other historians (e. g. Graml 1989; Spann 1992; Lipstadt 1993; Benz 1994).
Presenting themselves as serious scientists
Most of the "revisionists" try hard to give their publications a serious and scientific appearance to find their way to a readership outside right wing extremism. They want to hide their propagandistic aims some deny that they have any contact to neo-Nazi groups or are right wing extremists themselves. As Lipstadt (1993, p. 217) puts it: "They attempt to project the appearance of being committed to the very values that they in truth adamantly oppose: reason, critical rules of evidence, and historical distinction." They argue to be just interested in finding the historical truth but their use of historical facts unmasks this assertion as pure propaganda.
The use of documents
While the very first German "revisionists" did not use any
documents for their pseudo-historical writing their followers really
went to archives or at least pretended to use authentic historical
material to put more weight to their publications. One of the first
"revisionists" working that way was David Irving who joined the ranks
of the total deniers some years ago but started as apologist of
leading National Socialists including the "Führer" himself. He
really went into archives and found historical materials not being
used until then. Therefore his works called historians on stage to
analyse his way of using these documents (Broszat 1986). Irving as
well as Hoggan and others use the sources in an eclectic way:
referring to documents which seem to support their theses neglecting
those which would contradict their maintaining.
Documents are also interpreted in the aimed sense and sometimes
intentionally misunderstood when for instance Irving argues, the
German word "ausrotten" would not mean exterminate when used by
National Socialist officials. In that way the clearly named intention
for murder is diverted into the intention of expelling the Jews.
Constructing a different history (Geschichtsklitterung)
The course of historical events is cut into pieces and put together to an entirely different and false picture of historical events. "Revisionists" make use of just these events proving their theories and leave out all others, similar to the above explained method of misusing and misinterpreting documents. Additionally there are constructed wrong causal connections between historical events for instance by stating the atrocities against the German Jews were sort of a revenge for the bombing of Dresden (Spann 1992, pp. 17 f.).
Production of "historical" material
Sometimes it is quite difficult for "revisionists" to prove that
history had not happened by using existing material. So there is a
tradition in producing exonerating documents or testimonies of
witnesses. Already in 1977 the right wing extremist publisher Druffel
Verlag edited the memoirs of the prominent National Socialist
architect Hermann Giesler which the historian Hermann Graml (1989,
pp. 77 ff.) easily could prove to be invented a very unskilled way.
In 1988 the Austrian neo-Nazi Gerd Honsik published his book
Freispruch für Hitler. 36 ungehörte Zeugen wider die
Gaskammern (Acquittal for Hitler. 36 until now not heard witnesses
against the gas chambers) in which he presented interviews or
pseudo-interviews with more or less prominent National Socialists
denying the Holocaust and the existence of gas-chambers.
In 1987 another Austrian, Emil Lachout, produced a pseudo-document in
which he contended that an allied commission had found out that there
were no gas-chambers in certain concentration-camps. That
pseudo-document was published in a series of right wing extremist
magazines of Austria and Germany. Lachout even acted as a witnness
for the defense in the trial against the Canadian "revisionist" Ernst
Zündel. In the meantime there is no more ado about him.
Hiding behind prominent or pretended authorities
Many "revisionist" publications show a large and impressing
apparatus of footnotes and references whereby the authors of those
pamphlets hope that everyone trusts in the correctness of citations
in historiographic works. This camouflage is used not only in
referring to not existing documents but in citing the books of
prominent historians like Raul Hilberg and others as well. But they
cite as they use documents: they quote out of context and that way
misuse leading historians to buttress their own position (Graml 1989;
Shermer 1994).
One standard argument in that context is the maintaining that the
International Committee of the Red Cross had stated that only 300.000
Jews died in the course of National Socialist persecution. This lie
has been repeated for decades though the Red Cross itself has many
times formally denied having ever published such a number of victims.
That does not hinder "revisionists" from further using the authority
of the Red Cross for their propaganda (Benz 1994).
If there are no authorities to be employed they quote each other
pretending "revisionists" to be serious writers, scientists or
historians (see above).
Exploiting of errors and differences in tiny details
"Revisionist" writers conclude from differences in small details or from irrelevant errors of historians that all results of historical research concerning National Socialist crimes are wrong. Debates between historians like the discussion intentionalists - functionalists (Kershaw 1985) are taken for a debate about the veracity of the entire field.
Making use of public belief in the objectivity of natural sciences
The latest development in international "revisionism" is the use
of claimed scientific research to "prove" that the gas-chambers in
Auschwitz-Birkenau or in Mauthausen could never have functioned as
instruments for mass murder by poisonous gas.
For the first time this argument was used in a trial against the
Canadian neo-Nazi Ernst Zündel who was accused of denying the
Holocaust. The French "revisionist" Robert Faurisson engaged Fred
Leuchter supposed expert in constructing gas-chambers for executions
in American jails.
In Zündel's charge Leuchter travelled to the extermination camps
Auschwitz and Majdanek in Poland where he illegally took so called
samples out of the ruins of the gas-chambers and other facilities and
had them chemically analyzed on residues of Zyklon B though
chemically there could not be expected any (Bailer 1992). According
to the results of his "technical" investigation Leuchter stated, that
in his "engineering opinion" the mass murder with Zyklon B could not
have taken place. During cross-examination in the Court of Toronto
Leuchter had to admit that he had never been an engineer and that he
had no historical knowledge about the Holocaust besides some
information from Faurisson and other "revisionist" sources. The
Canadian Court refused to take Leuchter's report as part of the
recorded file. Later investigations showed that in contrary to his
own assertions Leuchter was no expert in constructing gas-chambers
either (Shapiro 1990; Lipstadt 1993, pp. 169-179). Nevertheless Fred
Leuchter became the most famous figure of "revisionism"for some time.
His report was sold all over the world and German versions were
spread by the Austrian neo-Nazi Walter Ochensberger and the German
"revisionist" Udo Walendy. The propagandistic aim could easily be
seen by comparing these versions. It could be shown that these
differed even in the numbers of the so called results of Leuchter's
calculations (Bailer-Galanda 1992c). That is a most remarkable doing
by people who claim to be just and only interested in finding the
truth and who accuse others of every error and mistake they can
discover.
In the meantime mostly historians refuted Leuchter (Wegner 1990;
Auerbach 1993c). Jean-Claude Pressac a French apothecary having done
almost ten years of research on the question of the building of the
Auschwitz crematoria and gas-chambers (Pressac 1989, 1993) writes
about the "Leuchter-Report": "Based on misinformation which leads to
false reasoning and misinterpretation of data, "The Leuchter Report"
is unacceptable. It was researched illegally, ignoring the most
straightforward of historical data, and founders in gross errors of
measurement and calculation. What is inexcusable is Leuchter taking
historians for idiots. Leuchter's ultimate errors definitively land
"The Leuchter Report" in the cesspool of pretentious human folly"
(Pressac 1990, p. 31).
This new tactics of denying the Holocaust by means of natural
sciences seemed to be successful and was able to impress less
informed people. So it did not take long to find followers for
Leuchter. In 1991 in the course of a trial against the German old and
neo-Nazi Otto Ernst Remer a Germar Rudolph a young German chemist
working with the Max Planck Society was engaged by Remer's lawyer to
repeat Leuchter's investigation. In the meantime his report is spread
in different versions which accordingly to the propagandistic aim
quote him differently as it happened already with Leuchter. Though
Rudolph's report even looks more scientific and serious than
Leuchter's it is as scientifically wrong as Leuchter's (Bailer 1995).
Rudolph was dismissed by the Max Planck Institute and has finally
found his way to right wing extremist circles who publish his
report.
A little bit different is the case of the Austrian engineer Walter
Lüftl who was president of the Austrian federal engineering
association and an expert for questions of structure and buildings.
He wrote technically and chemically untenable papers (Bailer 1995)
about the - as he thinks - impossibility of murdering human beings
with Zyklon B and carbon monoxide and sent these papers to Austrian
politicians and journalists. He was asked by Remer's lawyer to
produce an expertise for Remer's trial but allegedly refused.
Nevertheless he was forced to retreat as soon as his papers became
known in the public. The Department of Public Prosecution in Vienna
investigated against him but dismissed the case reasoning Lüftl
being no "revisionist" or right wing extremist. Since then Lüftl
is celebrated as a new hero of international "revisionism" being the
first real expert (though he writes nonsense) to deny the murders in
the gas-chambers and additionally having not been prosecuted by an
Austrian court what "revisionists" wrongly interpret as proof for
Lüftl writing the truth (Deutschland in Geschichte und Gegenwart
3/1994).
The international network of "revisionism"
"Revisionism" and holocaust denial have become central elements of
right wing extremist and neo-Nazi propaganda during the last years.
That means that "revisionist" publications are spread by these
organisations as well as by the existing international "revisionist"
network itself. These two means of transport for "revisionism" cannot
really be separated as they go hand in hand.
As is pointed out above there were close connections between
"revisionism" in Europe and Northern America from the seventies on
which still exist today and have even become closer the last
years.
The organizational centre is the Institute for Historical Review
(IHR), founded in 1978 by the leader of the anti-Semitic right wing
extremist Liberty Lobby, Willis A. Carto. The first director was
William David Mc Calden, co-founder of the neo-Nazi British National
Party (Lipstadt 1993, p. 137; Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz
1994, p. 19). The IHR organizes regular conferences and publishes the
Journal of Historical Review which presents a platform to all
apologists and Holocaust deniers. Traditionally there are many
contacts to German and Austrian "revisionists" as well as to
"revisionists" in Canada, France, Great Britain and other countries
all over the world. So for instance the said papers of the Austrian
Walter Lüftl were published in the IHR's Journal of
Historical Review quite soon . The IHR organizes regular
conferences on "revisionism" which are attended by authors and
"revisionists" from USA, Canada, Germany, Austria and other
countries.
There are also contacts between IHR and like-minded Europeans and the
US-organization NSDAP-AO of Gary Rex Lauck who spreads neo-Nazi
material to Germany and Austria and supports "revisionist" meetings
in Europe (Schmidt 1993).
Another overseas "revisionist" centre has its seat in Toronto, Canada
and is organized by the German-Canadian Ernst Zündel. His
"Samisdat" publishing house produces newspapers, reprints and
distributes "the usual array of anti-Semitic, racist and Holocaust
denial material" (Lipstadt 1993, p. 158) and sends National Socialist
music favourites, Hitler speeches, videocassettes of Leuchter's visit
to Poland etc. all over the world. Between 1978 and 1980 two hundred
shipments of neo-Nazi and "revisionist" material by Samisdat
Publications were sent to Western Germany.
In Europe the "revisionist" network has strings in a series of
countries. In Spain Pedro Varela and his CEDADE (Circulo Espanol
de Amigos de Europa) does not only publish and spread
"revisionist" and neo-Nazi material but gives shelter to legally
prosecuted friends as well. Gerd Honsik one of Austria´s leading
activists and diligent writer of anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi and Holocaust
denying books has fled to Spain after being sentenced by an Austrian
Court because of his neo-Nazi activities. Supported by CEDADE he
still produces his paper Halt and sends it to Austria. A short
time ago the German old- and neo-National Socialist and Holocaust
denier Otto Ernst Remer, sentenced by a German court, also fled to
Spain where he was welcomed by Honsik.
Great Britain contributes the said pseudo-historian David Irving as
well as structures of the Nationalist Front. From Sweden
anti-Semitic and "revisionist" publications by the Austrian born
Ditlieb Felderer are distributed. Felderer regularly visits the IHR
conferences and supported Ernst Zündel during his trial in
Toronto (Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz 1994). In Switzerland
Max Wahl produces his "revisionist" paper Eidgenoss and
spreads it in Austria and Germany. Thies Christophersen, author of
Die Auschwitz-Lüge, dispatches his magazine Die
Bauernschaft which deals with "revisionist" themes and other
neo-Nazi contents from Denmark.
The German and Austrian networks consist of neo-Nazis as well as of
traditional right wing extremist organizations and parties and even
spread their propaganda beyond that area into parts of the
non-extremist population. Extremist groups and publishers of these
two countries traditionally cooperate closely.
In Germany some publisher houses have specialized on "revisionist"
themes since the fifties. For instance the Grabert Verlag
which first published Hoggan's book (Der erzwungene Krieg) and
Stäglich's Der Auschwitz-Mythos and is still editing the
"revisionist" paper Deutschland in Geschichte and Gegenwart.
The Druffel Verlag which edits anti-Semitic and "revisionist"
books has a similar program. Advertisements of these publishing
houses can be found in many German and Austrian right wing extremist
newspapers. Some of these regularly give place to themes of Holocaust
denial and to National Socialist apologists. Since many years the
Deutsche Nationalzeitung has fought against "anti German lies"
and still maintains to unmask allied re-education and propaganda. It
takes up each up to date theme: in 1978 the TV-serial Holocaust, in
the last years it was steadily repeating that the number of victims
in Auschwitz had been corrected and last it was trying to denunciate
Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's list as historically
untrue. The paper is sold publicly at newspaper sellers in Austria
and Germany though it was prosecuted by Austrian Courts already some
years ago. The editor of Deutsche Nationalzeitung Dr. Gerhard
Frey is a quite rich man and leader of the party Deutsche
Volksunion which had some success in regional elections.
Magazine like German Code which was sold at Viennese train
stations only recently but nowadays is distributed by subscription
only as most right wing extremist papers do or Nation (and)
Europa often deal with "revisionist" themes as well as the quite
recently founded paper Nation which is produced in eastern Europe but
written by Austrian and German right wing extremists. The said Otto
Ernst Remer edited the Remer Depesche which concentrates on
the denial of the mass murder of Jews in National Socialist
extermination camps and tries to minimize the number of the Jewish
victims of persecution.
The organization background is supplied by neo-Nazi groups like the
Amt für Volksaufklärung und
Öffentlichkeitsarbeit which is lead by the professional
German neo-Nazi Ewald Bela Althans, one of the successors of the late
leader Michael Kühnen who himself was a "revisionist" activist.
Other Kühnen successors who must be mentioned in that respect
are Christian Worch and his Nationale Liste and the
Nationalistische Front lead by Meinolf Schönborn. The
Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD) is amongst the
most traditional right wing extremist parties in Germany. It was
founded already in the sixties and has survived ups (remarkable
successes at elections) and downs since then. Right now it
cooperating the Deutsche Liga für Volk and Heimat a right
wing merger movement without much significance. All these political
parties and groups organized, supported or attended "revisionist"
meetings during the last years in Germany where prominent authors
like Irving, Faurisson or Leuchter were invited.
Most of these German activities reach Austria as well. Austrian
neo-Nazi organizations and papers traditionally have close
connections to German like-minded friends (see to the following
persons and organizations Dokumentationsarchiv 1994). Walter
Ochensberger with his monthly Sieg acted as a centre for
contacts between Austrian, German and international neo-Nazis and
"revisionists". Meanwhile he is in jail for his neo-National
Socialist activities, his paper is not appearing any more. Already
mentioned Gerd Honsik numbers among the most important Austrian
"revisionist" authors in the neo-Nazi scene though he lost most of
his influence after his flight to Spain. The Volkstreue
außerparlamentarische Opposition (VAPO) lead by the
neo-Nazi Gottfried Küssel who was sentenced in the meantime had
the closest connections to Germany since Küssel had been
nominated as the successor of the late Michael Kühnen. Members
of this militant neo-Nazi group took part in demonstrations in memory
of Hitler´s deputy Rudolf Heß in Germany and attended most
of the international "revisionist" meetings during the last years.
Beside these militant organizations there are traditional right wing
extremist groups which concentrate on right wing extremist cultural
activities and organize regular meetings which are attended by
like-minded persons not only from Austria but from Germany and other
European countries as well. At these meetings "revisionists" present
their ideas, the papers of these organizations regularly content
articles about Holocaust denial or National Socialist apologetic
themes. Most outstanding are Arbeitsgemeinschaft für
demokratische Politik (AFP) and Deutsche Kulturwerk
Europäischen Geistes brother to a German group with the same
name.
A monthly with a more serious appearance to be named here is the
Aula which represents the so called New Right in Austria and
tries to found bridges to right wing conservatives as well. This
paper belongs to the political surrounding of the Freedom Party
(Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs) a party which got more
than 20 % at the federal elections of October 1994. Its publishing
house (Aula Verlag) is owned by an association of university
graduates most of them being members in German-nationalist student
associations (Burschenschaften). Aula sometimes publishes
positive references to "revisionists" like the above mentioned David
Irving, Germar Rudolph or Walter Lüftl. Especially the fact that
Lüftl was not accused for his papers was celebrated by the Aula
(Aula 7-8/1994).
Papers belonging to the Freedom Party itself are not free of
"revisionist" tendencies either. Party members and representatives
evoked public protests by doubting the Holocaust or by minimizing the
National Socialist crimes (Bailer and Neugebauer 1994). The party's
leader Jörg Haider himself had to retreat as Landeshauptmann
/head of provincial government/ of Carinthia for praising the
National Socialist employment (3) policy in June 1991.
"Revisionist" tendencies or sympathy for "revisionist" arguments can
be found outside the organized right wing extremism in Austria as
well as in Germany. German historians fought the so-called
Historikerstreit (quarrel of the historians) in 1986 in which the
historian Ernst Nolte took a prominent part. Nolte then pleaded for a
historization of National Socialism whose uprise he interpreted as a
German reaction to communism in the Soviet Union. Nolte did not see
National Socialist crimes as a singular event in our century but
wanted them to be compared and connected with the crimes of Stalin's
dictatorship. He was vehemently contradicted by historians and other
scientists, especially Jürgen Habermas (Diner 1987;
Historikerstreit 1987). Since then Ernst Nolte formerly an honoured
historian and researcher about fascism turned to the right
furthermore. In his last book Nolte (1993) shows his sympathy for
"revisionist" authors some of them he even grants to be scientists
though he himself does not doubt the facticity of the Holocaust.
Nevertheless Nolte at least doubts the number of victims and shows
understanding for the National Socialist policy against the Jewish
population of Europe. Lipstadt comments Nolte's and other German
historian's positions: "Though these historians are not deniers, they
helped to create a grey area where their highly questionable
interpretations of history became enmeshed with the pseudo-history of
the deniers; and they do indeed share some of the same objectives"
(Lipstadt 1993, p. 209). No wonder that the Journal of Historical
Review printed a quite positive review of Nolte's last book and
found place for a long interview that Nolte had granted. (Journal of
Historical Review 1/1994)
Historians like Nolte and people like Herbert Fleissner the owner of
a number of publishing houses in Germany publishing books of David
Irving among others help to reestablish German nationalist feelings
by playing down the German guilt (Diner 1987). That is the point
where all "revisionist" in Germany and Austria meet with those
historians. The "revisionists" make use of the fact that the National
Socialist past was thrusted aside, feelings of guilt and
responsibility for National Socialist crimes were denied. A lot of
people in Austria and Germany do not want to be remembered of
National Socialism. The past is felt as a burden. So there are people
beside right wing extremism who grab for any excuse of National
Socialism and thereby feel excused themselves (Benz in Diner 1987).
Veteran soldier organizations give an example for that. In Austria
the most read newspaper Neue Kronenzeitung gives space for
"revisionist" arguments (Botz 1994) which are - as said above - one
way of uttering anti-Semitism. A historization of National Socialism
relativizes the crimes of Auschwitz but would be welcomed by not only
a few Germans and Austrians. Though in that point the German
situation differs from the Austrian. Germany after reunification
shows a tendency to revival of nationalist feelings which has no
place in Austria because of the entirely different political
conditions.
But nobody is to believe that "revisionism" could be reduced on right
wing extremism.
In 1985 the German Bundestag passed a law which made the denying
of the Holocaust punishable. This Gesetz gegen die
Auschwitz-Lüge was vehemently opposed by right wing
extremists in Germany and Austria. But Holocaust denial could only be
prosecuted if it was uttered in close connection with defamation of
the Jews. That condition led to different and contradictory sentences
of the German Bundesgerichtshof and the Bundesverfassungsgerichtshof.
While the Bundesgerichtshof stated that simple denial of the
Holocaust without intention of defamation or propagating National
Socialist ideology was not to be punished the
Bundesverfassungsgerichtshof reasoned that denial itself was an
attack on dignity of man of the Jews living today. Therefore an
amending of the law became necessary and was planned already in May
1994. But the amendment was mixed with another law the Social
Democrats refused to agree. Since there are no differences between
the governmental coalition and the Social Democrats in the case of
Holocaust denial the amendment will probably be passed quite soon
(Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz 1994).
In Austria neo-Nazi activities can be punished according to the
Verbotsgesetz originally dating back to 1945. This law was passed to
forbid the NSDAP and to hinder any revival of that party or its
ideology. As a result of problems of the forties it got more and more
difficult to execute that law in connection with neo-National
Socialist activities. Besides that the law contained no passage which
clearly stated that denial of the Holocaust meant activity in
National Socialist sense though Austrian courts and judges
interpreted the law that way. When "revisionism" became a central
argument of neo-Nazi propaganda in Austria too, it took long and
various discussions until the law was finally amended in February of
1992. Beside other changes there came a new section into the law
which explicitly forbids the denial or gross minimizing of National
Socialist genocide or of other National Socialist crimes against
humanity. This amendment makes it definitely easier for the courts to
deal with neo-Nazi propaganda and "revisionism". Sentences against
leading Austrian right wing extremists like Ochensberger, Honsik and
Küssel show that the discussions about the National Socialist
past and the amendment of the Verbotsgesetz helped to change the
public climate against neo-Nazi and right wing extremist activities.
"Revisionism" is not really a new phenomenon. It started already in the first years after the end of World War II but has changed its character since then. With growing distance to the reality of the National Socialist dictatorship it became easier for the remaining devotees of that ideology to play down crimes and guilt until they turned to total denial of the main crime, the Holocaust. The movement for a historization of the years 1933-1945 invites all those who finally want to put an end to the so-called "Vergangenheitsbewältigung", to all the discussions of the past. But it is necessary not to bury that memory not only for political morality but as well for the danger neo-Nazism, racism and anti-Semitism still mean today. In the aftermath of the fundamental changes in Europe since 1989 there new political and economical problems have arisen. Right wing extremism and in his course "revisionism" find new followers. States and politicians can cope with these problems by using laws and courts. That for sure is one necessary answer. But developing a sensible conscience against racism will be as necessary as refusing right wing extremism in all his appearances. This problem cannot be solved by historians only. Everyday politics have to create the basis of a secure and content living for as many people as possible and they have to make clear that right wing extremism can never be a possible partner in government or official life.
Notes:
(1) The word is put between quotation marks to set it
off any serious efforts of true historians to revise some thesis of
historiography.
(2) Recently left wing historians have used the term
historical revisionism for tendencies of historians like Emil Nolte
or Rainer Zitelmann (Karl Heinz Roth 1994) who are no "revisionists"
but sometimes prepare the ground for them as it is worked out later
on in this article. We have to ask if such a parallel use of terms
does not help to minimize right wing extremist "revisionism" and
therefore produces the contrary of the planned aim.
(3) Haider spoke of the "ordentlichen
Beschäftigungspolitik des Dritten Reiches", that means the
correct employment policy of the Third Reich.
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