Institute for Historical Review

The Institute for Historical Review (IHR), founded in 1978, is an American Holocaust denialHolocaust denial
*Carlos C. Juerta and Dafna Shiffman-Huerta "Holocaust Denial Literature: Its Place in Teaching the Holocaust", in Rochelle L. Millen. "New Perspectives on the Holocaust: A Guide for Teachers and Scholars", NYU Press, 1996, ISBN 0814755402, p. 189.
*"While denial of the Holocaust's very occurrence had emerged already during the early postwar period, it gained new prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. During this period denial attempted to leave the lunatic fringe and set out for the mainstream in both the United States and Europe, as figures such as Arthur Butz, Bradley Smith, and Robert Faurisson, together with organizations like the Institute for Historical Review, attempted to lend academic credibility to Holocaust Denial." Gavriel D. Rosenfeld "The politics of uniqueness: reflections on the recent polemical turn in Holocaust and genocide scholarship" in David Cesarani, Sarah Kavanaugh. "Holocaust: Critical Concepts in Historical Studies", Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0415275091, p. 376.
*"In recent years, Holocaust denial has become a propaganda mainstay of organized racism. It is promulgated by racist groups and by organizations like the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), which publishes the scientific-looking "Journal of Historical Review"." Kathleen M. Blee. "Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement", University of California Press, 2003, ISBN 0520240553, p. 92.
*"The pseudo-scholarly guise of Holocaust deniers is epitomised by the Institute for Historical Review - established in the United States in the late 1970s - and its journal, the "Journal of Historical Review", which have provided the core of the more contemporary Holocaust denial movement (Stern 1995)." Lydia Morris. "Rights: Sociological Perspectives", Routledge (UK), 2006, ISBN 0415355222 p. 238 note 1.
*"The chief organization promoting Holocaust denial is the Institute for Historical Review, a California organization founded in 1978 by Willis Carto, who also founded the extreme right-wing Liberty Lobby." Suzanne Pharr. "Eyes Right!: Challenging the Right Wing Backlash", South End Press, 1995, ISBN 0896085236, p. 252.
*"Denial is an international phenomena with deniers active across the globe. This is not an incidental occurrence, but rather is the result of organized international networking. Organizations such as the California-based Institute for Historical Review (IHR) have played the pivotal role in this process by organizing regular international conferences since 1979 in America." Konrad Kwiet, Jürgen Matthäus. "Contemporary Responses to the Holocaust", Praeger/Greenwood, 2004, ISBN 0275974669, p. 141.
*"A growing number of white nationalist and white supremacy groups have adopted innocuous-sounding names such as the Euro-American Student Union, the Institute for Historical Review (a Holocaust denial group), ..." Carol M. Swain. "The New White Nationalism in America: its challenge to integration", Cambridge University Press, 2002, ISBN 0521808863, p. 28.
*"Since its inception in 1979, the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), a California-based Holocaust denial organization founded by Willis Carto of Liberty Lobby, has promoted the antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jews fabricated tales of their own genocide to manipulate the sympathies of the non-Jewish world." [http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw2000-1/usa.htm Antisemitism and Racism Country Reports: United States] , Stephen Roth Institute, 2000. Retrieved May 17, 2007.
*"The IHR is the Holocaust-denial group in Costa Mesa that attempts to rewrite the history of World War II in favor of the Axis powers and present nazism in a favorable light. The IHR is sponsored by Willis Carto who also leads the antisemitic and quasi-Nazi Liberty Lobby." Russ Bellant, "Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party", South End Press, 1991, ISBN 0896084183, p. 43.] organization that describes itself as a "public-interest educational, research and publishing center dedicated to promoting greater public awareness of history." Critics have accused it of being an antisemitic "pseudo-academic body" with links to neo-Nazi organizations, and assert that its primary focus is denying key facts of Nazism and the genocide of Jews and others. [http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/historical_review.asp?LEARN_Cat=Extremism&LEARN_SubCat=Extremism_in_America&xpicked=3&item=ihr Extremism in America: Institute for Historical Review] , Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved February 28, 2007.] Peter Vogelsang & Brian B. M. Larsen. [http://www.holocaust-education.dk/eftertid/holocaustbenaegtelse.asp#IHR Holocaust Denial:The Institute for Historical Review] , The Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 2002. Retrieved February 28, 2007.] Jack R. Fischel. [http://www.vqronline.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/7483 "The New Anti-Semitic Axis: Holocaust Denial, Black Nationalism, and the Crisis on Our College Campuses"] , "The Virginia Quarterly Review", Spring 1995. Retrieved February 28, 2007.] [http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/holocaust/later2c.html Other Holocaust deniers: Institute for Historical Review (IHR)] , Channel 4. Retrieved February 28, 2007.] It has been described as the "world's leading Holocaust denial organization.""Earlier this year, Huber and three of his closest collaborators, the NPD's Horst Mahler, Jürgen Graf (a leading Swiss Holocaust denier who fled to Iran to avoid serving a 15-month jail sentence for his activities), and the Swedish-based Ahmed Rami, a former Moroccan military officer who in 1987 founded Radio Islam to disseminate antisemitic, Holocaust denial, and pro-Nazi propaganda, teamed up with the California-based Institute for Historical Review (IHR) -- the world's leading "Holocaust denial" organization -- to organize an IHR-sponsored conference that was scheduled to take place in late March in a Hezbollah-controlled section of Beirut, Lebanon." Kevin Coogan, "The mysterious Achmed Huber: Friend to Hitler, Allah and Ibn Ladin?", "HITLIST magazine", April/May 2002.] [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0203/05/i_ins.01.html "Insight"] , CNN, March 5, 2002. Retrieved February 28, 2007. Similar descriptions are used by the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, the Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, "National Review" (April 7, 2003), Michael Shermer, Alex Grobman, "Denying History", University of California Press, 2002, Suzanne Pharr. "Eyes Right!: Challenging the Right Wing Backlash", South End Press, 1995.] IHR published the non-peer-reviewed "Journal of Historical Review".

History

The IHR was originally founded by Dave McCalden (also known as Lewis Brandon), a former member of the National Front, and Willis Carto, the head of the now-defunct Liberty Lobby. Dave McCalden left the IHR, and Willis eventually lost control of it, in an internal power struggle. Liberty Lobby was an antisemitic organization best known for publishing "The Spotlight", now reorganized as the "American Free Press". The current head of the IHR is Mark Weber.

Beginning in 1979, IHR publicly offered a reward of $50,000 for verifiable "proof that gas chambers for the purpose of killing human beings existed at or in Auschwitz." This money (and an additional $40,000) was eventually paid in 1985 to Auschwitz survivor Mel Mermelstein, who sued the IHR for breach of contract for initially ignoring his evidence (a signed testimony of his experiences in Auschwitz). As a result of Mermelstein's case, a U.S. Superior Court in California declared the Holocaust an indisputable legal fact.

David Irving, Robert Faurisson, Ernst Zündel, Fred Leuchter, Arthur Butz, Joseph Sobran, Pete McCloskey, Bradley R. Smith, Carlo Mattogno, Jürgen Graf, Doug Collins and Radio Islam founder Ahmed Rami have attended conferences and/or contributed to publications of the IHR.

Allegations of Holocaust denial

Although the Institute for Historical Review comments on a variety of subjects, it is most noted (and criticized) for its views on the Holocaust. Critics have accused the Institute of antisemitism and having links to neo-Nazi organizations, and assert that its primary focus is denying key facts of Nazism and the genocide of Jews and others.

In the news, the United Kingdom's Channel 4 describes the IHR as a "pseudo-academic body based in the United States which is dedicated to denying that the Holocaust happened," while the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" called the IHR a "blatantly anti-Semitic assortment of pseudo-scholars".Dennis Roddy. "The woman who defended history", "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" p. J-1, May 29, 2005.] The "Daily Star", the leading English language paper in Lebanon, in response to a planned IHR meeting in the country called the IHR "loathsome pseudo-historians" and an "international hate group," and reported "as one former PLO official has put it, ' with friends like that, we don't need enemies'." ["Don't tolerate hate", "Daily Star", March 24, 2001.]

IHR has insisted that they do not deny the Holocaust, claiming that, "The Institute does not 'deny the Holocaust.' Every responsible scholar of twentieth century history acknowledges the great catastrophe that befell European Jewry during World War II. All the same, the IHR has over the years published detailed books and numerous probing essays that call into question aspects of the orthodox Holocaust extermination story, and highlight specific Holocaust exaggerations and falsehoods." [ [http://www.ihr.org/main/about.shtml About the IHR] ]

Commentators have argued, however, that the avowals by the IHR that they do not deny the Holocaust are misleading. Paul Rauber writes that:

The question [of whether the IHR denies the Holocaust] appears to turn on IHR's Humpty-Dumpty word game with the word Holocaust. According to Mark Weber, associate editor of the IHR's Journal of Historical Review [now Director of the IHR] , "If by the 'Holocaust' you mean the political persecution of Jews, some scattered killings, if you mean a cruel thing that happened, no one denies that. But if one says that the 'Holocaust' means the systematic extermination of six to eight millions Jews in concentration camps, that's what we think there's not evidence for." That is, IHR doesn't deny that the Holocaust happened; they just deny that the word 'Holocaust' means what people customarily use it for. [Paul Rauber, "East Bay Express", January 17, 1992, page 4.]

According to British historian of Germany Richard J. Evans:

Like many individual Holocaust deniers, the Institute as a body denied that it was involved in Holocaust denial. It called this a 'smear' which was 'completely at variance with the facts' because 'revisionist scholars' such as Faurisson, Butz 'and bestselling British historian David Irving acknowledge that hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed and otherwise perished during the Second World War as a direct and indirect result of the harsh anti-Jewish policies of Germany and its allies'. But the concession that a relatively small number of Jews were killed was routinely used by Holocaust deniers to distract attention from the far more important fact of their refusal to admit that the figure ran into the millions, and that a large proportion of these victims were systematically murdered by gassing as well as by shooting. [Richard J. Evans. "Telling Lies About Hitler: The Holocaust, History and the David Irving Trial", Verso, 2002, ISBN 1859844170, p. 151.]

Criticism of methods

The IHR is not regarded as conducting historical research by mainstream historians and academics, but rather as conducting pseudo-science aimed at proving that the Holocaust did not happen. The editorial board of one of the leading historical journals, the "Journal of American History", wrote, "We all abhor, on both moral and scholarly grounds, the substantive arguments of the Institute for Historical Review. We reject their claims to be taken seriously as historians." ["Journal of American History", Vol 80, No. 3, p. 1213.]

"The Independent" wrote of an IHR meeting: "The Institute for Historical Review insists in all its publicity material that they are 'objective historians' who are only interested in discovering 'the truth about the Holocaust and other controversial historical events'. That claim seems implausible within ten minutes of the conference starting. The audience reacts with whoops to waves of antisemitic claims and slander."Johann Hari. [http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=30 "Undercover with the Holocaust Deniers"] , "The Independent", January 7, 2003, page 18.]

The conspiracy theory satire site "The Mad Revisionist", taking at face value the IHR's claims of having no agenda other than the search for historical truth through free discussion, attempted to enlist their aid in critically examining the Irish Potato Famine in the same manner as the IHR examines the Holocaust. "While at first supporting The Mad Revisionist's right to freedom of opinion ... Mr. O'Keefe upon viewing the nature of The Mad Revisionist's conclusions, suddenly becomes hostile, calling The Mad Revisionist crazy and implying — without even having received the full submission — that The Mad Revisionist's theories are not even worthy of scholarly debate!" [ [http://www.revisionism.nl/IHR.htm Revisionism] ] Showing the similarity between the theory and methodology of "Holocaust revisionism" and "Irish Potato Famine revisionism", The Mad Revisionist continues the parallel by suggesting that Mr. O'Keefe's loyalty to his heritage is blinding him to even considering "the possibility that his ancestors were liars, and that those who share his ethnic background are engaged in a sinister and elaborate plot against the interests of America and the world."

In 2001, Eric Owens, a former employee, revealed that Mark Weber and Greg Raven from the IHR's staff had been planning to sell their mailing lists to the Anti-Defamation League.

In April, 2004, following a complaint by The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, "The Nation" magazine refused to accept advertising from the IHR, stating " [T] here is a strong presumption against censoring any advertisement, especially if we disagree with its politics. This case, however, is different. Their arguments are 'patently fraudulent.'" [ [http://www.wymaninstitute.org/press/2004-04-22.php www.wymaninstitute.org] ]

Journal of Historical Review

The IHR published the non-peer reviewed "Journal of Historical Review", which its critics (including the ADL, the Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide studies, and other scholars, such as Robert Hanyok, a National Security Agency historian, [ [http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00044.cfm www.nsa.gov] ] accused of being pseudo-scientific. When Noam Chomsky defended an author who wrote articles for the journal (Dr. Robert Faurisson), it led to great controversy, though Chomsky insisted he was defending Faurisson's right to free speech rather than any specific claims made in his articles.

The journal, "History Teacher", wrote of the "Journal of Historical Review" that the "magazine is shockingly racist and antisemitic: articles on 'America's Failed Racial Policy' and anti-Israel pieces accompany those about gas chambers... They clearly have no business claiming to be a continuation of the revisionist tradition, and should be referred to as 'Holocaust Deniers'." ["History Teacher", Vol 28, No.4, p 526.]

The journal has halted publication since 2002 however, due to "lack of staff and funding", according to the organization's website.

Alleged links to Islamic antisemitism

In an article published in Hit list Magazine in 2002, author Kevin Coogan wrote that there have recently been attempts to forge ties between American and European Holocaust-denial groups such as the IHR and radical Middle Eastern extremists. According to Coogan, Ahmed Rami, a former Moroccan military officer who founded Radio Islam to disseminate antisemitic, Holocaust denial, and pro-Nazi propaganda, teamed up with the IHR to organize conference in a Hezbollah-controlled section of Beirut, Lebanon.

References

See also

*Carlo Mattogno
*David Irving
*Fred Leuchter
*David Hoggan
*Nizkor Project
*Ernst Zündel
*Norman Lowell

External links

* [http://www.ihr.org Institute for Historical Review home page]
* [http://www.nizkor.org/faqs/ihr/ Willis Carto and the IHR] (critical site hosted by the Nizkor Project)
* [http://www.adl.org/holocaust/ihr.asp Institute for Historical Review (IHR): Outlet for Denial Propaganda] (critical site hosted by the Anti-Defamation League)
* [http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/holocaust/denial2.html Institute for Historical Review] Critical description of IHR from Channel 4's "The Holocaust on Trial" page.
* [http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/revision.htm Deniers in Revisionists Clothing] Information about the IHR and Mermelstein settlement
* [http://www.holocaust-history.org/denial/abc-clio/index.shtml Holocaust Denial, a Definition] Includes a description of the IHR and Mark Weber's views.
* [http://www.revisionism.nl The Mad Revisionist] Spoof of the IHR and its "Journal of Historical Review"