H -°, L 50° | Tomorrow: 
H 77°, L 54°For the past week, members of the UW-Madison community have been debating the extent to which denials of the Holocaust, or more specifically, ads that deny the Holocaust constitute free speech. As a scholar in German studies, I want to take a few moments to address a slightly different set of issues.
Many of the comments that have been submitted to The Badger Herald emphasize the consequences of such denials for members of our Jewish community. They are right to be concerned about the consequences. We are fortunate to have larger numbers of Jewish students as a percentage of our total population than most of our Big Ten peers, a fact of which we are not only proud, but of which we are all beneficiaries.
Anyone sensitive to the long-term, intergenerational effects of trauma, but also everyone who cares about truth, will be disgusted by efforts to deny the source of that trauma and the facts about Nazi genocide that have been established by the historical record.
The Nazis themselves (e.g., Adolf Eichmann) fixed the number of murdered Jews at between five and six million. They also planned and implemented the murders of the Roma, of communists, homosexuals and the disabled. Add to that the more than 10 million mostly Slavic civilians and prisoners of war, and thousands of civilians of other nations. In 1941, Nazi planners designed the deaths by hunger of approximately 30 million non-combatants in the Soviet Union alone. The Holocaust was a project of genocide, an effort to eradicate European Jews. It was part of a huge project of mass murder. Denying it contributes to a failure to understand this project of criminal inhumanity, which concerns every one of us who share the world together.
Denials of the Holocaust are offensive to everyone who elevates fact over ideology, and they are a serious breach of the academic principles on which this particular community rests. They amount to an effort to deny hundreds of millions of planned deaths and to negate the long-term effects of this horror on the world.
We are an academic community dedicated to “sifting and winnowing” in the pursuit of truth. We arrive at truth and separate facts from ideology or opinion through the rigorous study of the available record and through ongoing scholarship that tests and builds on that record.
At the moment, we live in a world that too readily substitutes mere opinion and shrill ideological or partisan claims for the serious pursuit of fact and reasoned argument. Virtually any opinion or claim, however unfounded, can find space. It is our responsibility to oppose reckless claims with the vigorous pursuit of truth and with actual knowledge. For those who want to assure themselves of the unimpeachable record that has been established showing Hitler’s genocidal intentions and actions toward Jews (as well as homosexuals, communists, Roma and the disabled), I refer you to “Holocaust Denial on Trial” at http://www.hdot.org/.
I would also like to suggest two reading lists for those who are interested in learning about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, a list from a respected scholar of German History at Cornell University, Professor Isabel Hull, (http://www.arts.cornell.edu/history/2180.pdf) and the list at the end of this letter from our own UW-Madison historian, Professor Rudy Koshar.
I hope members of our community will use this opportunity to do more than take sides for or against The Badger Herald’s decision to run an ad placed by Holocaust deniers.
I hope you will combat lies and distortion with education. I hope you will feel a sense of outrage at efforts to deny history. I hope you will act on a sense of responsibility for our shared humanity.
Biddy Martin, Chancellor
Professor of German
Recommended by Professor Rudy Koshar:
- Doris Bergen, War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust. Rowman & Littlefield, 2008.
- Saul Friedlander, The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945. HarperCollins, 2007.
- Christopher R. Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy. University of Nebraska, 2004.
- Gotz Aly, Final Solution: Nazi Population Policy and the Murder of the European Jews. Oxford University Press, 1999.
- Susannah Heschel, The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany. Princeton University Press, 2008.
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Actually, Mrs. Martin, it’s the liberals and Muslims who are promoting Holocaust denial on this campus. If it were conservatives, the liberals would be out on the street protesting in full force and the Muslims would be standing on the sidewalks snickering.
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When did she say the Conservatives are promoting the Holocaust denial? If you’re that same assclown that kept ranting about liberals and Muslims on the original denial-ad article, you can go back to finger-banging your cat now.
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Thank you for your well-referenced comment and for stereotyping the campus community in an effort to incite further hatred.
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Woohoo inflamatory blanket statements!
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Holocaust-Denial Advertisements: It is important to be in touch with campus newspaper editors to educate them about the nature of Holocaust denial on a continuing basis. Campus newspaper staffs change from year to year. Outreach is needed well before any Holocaust-denial advertisements are received. Attempted intervention after the fact may be too late.
Educate campus editors on the background and agenda of Holocaust deniers such as Bradley Smith, David Irving and Ernst Z�ndel. Emphasize that campus newspapers are under no legal or moral obligation to accept unsolicited advertising containing false, misleading and defamatory premises. Commercial newspapers generally do not accept such advertising. Despite the claims of Holocaust deniers, this is not a legitimate First Amendment issue.
Counter-ads and letters to the editor should expose Holocaust deniers as representatives of the larger hate movement and show how their message, though cleverly packaged, is really one of semicamouflaged anti-Semitism. Responding to the deniers by attempting to prove the historicity of the Holocaust plays into the hands of the deniers, by giving the impression of an ongoing debate on the subject.
Appropriate leaders of the academy, such as the university president and the chairman/members of the History Department should be encouraged to take a public stand against the use of the campus newspaper to spread Holocaust denial propaganda.
Source: “Schooled in Hate: Anti-Semitism on Campus” http://www.adl.org/sih/SIH-holocaust.asp
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Administrators, faculty, staff and students have an important responsibility to establish and maintain a tone of civility on campus by demanding and enforcing a policy of zero tolerance towards all forms of bigotry. If they send mixed or muddled messages concerning anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred, some will see this as tacit approval and even as license to engage in such behavior.
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A+, Chancellor Martin.
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Where in any of Ms. Martin’s response does she place blame on conservatives or liberals? She mentions about partisan claims, but doesn’t place blame squarely on any one party label, rather those in general that are trying to deny the Holocaust occurrence. Way to try to start another pointless partisan blame game. Who cares who started it…regardless, it needs to stop, partisan bickering included.
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As a “liberal” I don’t deny that the holocaust happened. Please don’t stereotype. Also, I don’t think that Biddy is married so you should probably not refer to her as mrs. It would be more respectful to call her Chancellor Martin
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I concur: A+ Chancellor Martin. You are to be commended for your excellent comment on this tiresome and cruel thread.
One recommendation from the peanut gallery.
I am a strong proponent of free speech. It is THE most important constitutional right that distinguishes America, even from European countries, and most certainly from Islamic countries.
That said, I wonder if there is a way to distinguish between free speech and speech intended to cause harm. If there has been any legal precedent in this regard it seems to me it is in UW/Madison�s interest to punish those who manipulate free speech as tools of hatred. After all, what distinguishes many of the comments on these sites from what Josef Goebbels said during Nazi Germany�s reign?
If one cannot figure out a way to do this UW/Madison risks becoming like UC/Irvine where invited speakers are shouted off stage and require a contingent of bodyguards. I would guess this is not the direction (or a problem) Chancellor Martin wants to go or to deal with. And I believe that if some real actions are not taken against those who agitate for hate then this is where UW/Madison will likely end up.
In any case my appreciation to the good Chancellor for her initial response to this poisonous situation.
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“….UW/Madison risks becoming like UC/Irvine where invited speakers are shouted off stage and require a contingent of bodyguards”.
It is not a risk. It is a fact. To the shame of all UW students and faculty, this HAS happened repeatedly over the decades at Madison.
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Actually UW Madison is going to seek approval from AIPAC and the ADL from now on before publishing anything. In UC/Irvine the Muslim students shouted down a speaker not allowing him to speak. They learn t well from AIPAC, an organization that has used threats to intimidate and shut down free speech when it comes to Israeli apartheid.
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“We arrive at truth and separate facts from ideology or opinion through the rigorous study of the available record and through ongoing scholarship that tests and builds on that record.”
One should not separate facts from ideology or opinion, but make sure one’s ideology and opinion adheres to the facts.
A hodgepodge of facts taken without integrating them into a system of ideas - an ideology - is not knowledge. Ideology is essential and unavoidable. The only question is whether a particular ideology adheres to the facts or not.
Nazi ideology is bad because it is false, not because it’s an ideology.
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Great article but I would have liked to see Chancellor Martin crack down on the Herald a little harder after they refused to pull the ad off their website.
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I think the point was that doing so would be pointless because it wouldn’t change the Herald’s mind. She has to be a moderate in this situation, and rather than getting on one side or the other, she’s just dealing with it. Bravo to her, a very candid and well-written piece by a chancellor who is proving herself to be one of the best.
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Also, even though it was a poor choice for the Herald to accept the ad, it is their First Amendment right to keep it up. A lot has been said about the First Amendment on these boards, and much of it has been twisted around or absolutely false. It comes down to this: He had the right to try to buy advertising in the Herald and the Herald had the right to accept or deny his ad.
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You are partly right. The Herald has the absolute right to accept or deny an ad. But the advertiser doesn’t have a right—Constitutionally or otherwise—to place an ad if the publication won’t accept it. The Herald abused its rights and abdicated its responsibility by running an ad that even the Herald’s own editors acknowledge was false. But freedom of the press does give them the freedom to be stupid, I suppose.
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Great article Chancellor Martin!
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This is the poorest excuse of a comment from a Chancellor of a major University. Although Chancellor Martin wrote about Holocaust deniers, she made no comment on the newspaper running the ad itself. This has nothing to do with freedom of speech but rather lies in advertisement. By not saying anything regarding if the newspaper should run the ad, she in fact is giving the newspaper an endorsement and help spread hate based on lies. She is also inviting other hate groups to advertise in the newspaper so they too can recruit people to their beliefs and spread hate right here at the University. I truly doubt that people who think along this ideology are really going to read the books that she suggested. I am truly disappointed in the Chancellor.
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“Lies in advertisement”?? What do you think advertising is? Does Oxiclean REALLY work as magically as Billy Mays says it does???
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I think Chancellor Martin wrote an eloquent and sensitive reaction piece to such an emotionally charged issue. Free speech and liberty are ideals paramount to the founding of our country and the Herald has the right to publish whatever they wish as a privately run newspaper. There is need, however, more than ever to rally and put truthful information about the Holocaust out in the public eye and combat these hurtful and shameful accusations that ads like this continue to perpetuate.
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I feel it is important for the public to know that these crazies exist. I don’t have a problem with the ad, it sheds light on these clowns.
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Here is a fact for Biddy Martin - the Nazis wrote death certificates for the prisoners that died at Auschwitz and these records were captured and hidden by the Soviets. They released them in the late 80’s, now you can see a summary by googling Auschwitz Death Books. You will discover that the records show that more Roman Catholics died at Auschwitz than Jews.
And here is another book for the reading list - ‘The Hoax of the Twentieth Century’ by Northwestern U Prof Arthur Butz.
The fact is that any deviation from the Zionist approved version of the holocaust results in the shrill denunciation as exemplified by Martin’s editorial. The ‘intergenerational trauma’ indeed ! We’re supposed to censor historical research to appease who? How absurd can the University be?
The US is engaged in three wars, stemming from the Iraq war. According to Fritz Hollings, Senator from South Carolina, “The US invaded Iraq to secure Israel, and everyone knows it”. We are fighting wars to maintain an apartheid state, and we are not allowed to question the justification for the policies of that state. The very idea is disgusting, her word, to Martin. It’s unbelievable that such thought control can exist in the US, but it does.
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You do realize that near the end the Nazis were just killing people straight off the trains and never bothered to register people?
If there was no Holocaust, where did the European Jewry go? The fact of the matter is that millions upon millions of people disappeared and many members of the SS admitted to the existence of the Holocaust.
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Bradley Smith would have liked to place this ad - ‘Can you give the name of one person who died in a gas chamber at Auschwitz, along with proof?’
Here is Biddy Martin’s chance to answer that simple question, I’m asking her explicitly. She is a scholar and believes that rational questions deserve rational answers. Will she answer this question?
No, she won’t. Here is the reason, she can’t. The evidence for the holocaust is basically ‘testimony’ of survivors, there is no physical evidence. And the testimony is for the most part obvious phantasmagoria. There is not one credible ‘eyewitness’. Remember the five eyewitnesses who identified John Demjanjuk as ‘Ivan the Terrible’ of Treblinka at his trial in Israel in the 80s? He had never set foot in Treblinka as the court had to admit. Now he’s on trial for being a guard as Sobibor ! With no shortage of eyewitnesses ! Incredible lies, all of it.
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“The evidence for the holocaust is basically �testimony� of survivors, there is no physical evidence.”
Except for the ashes. And the concentration camps. And the documents. And the confessions of Nazis and their allies who participated in mass murder. And more.
But hey, why concern yourself with facts when you can be a liar and a bigot? That’s all Holocaust deniers like yourself are capable of anyway.
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What ashes? What documents? Confessions were gotten through torture. Just like our own government is doing with “terrorism” suspects. What “more”?
You have not supplied a single “fact.” Are you a liar and a bigot? You should be careful with the words you throw around.
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Wow, All you educated people in Madison are so blind to the truth. Why dont you protest Communist Russia? Stalin and Lenin made Hitler look like an atler boy with all the people they killed. Where is the outrage to that?
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And America committed genocide on multiple occasions against the Indian nations.
I can be outraged by injustice on multiple fronts.
Hitler was a monster Stalin was a monster Jackson was a monster
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Once again the spotlight is on Jewish suffering. I guess the 50,000,000 Christian murdered in a holocaust from 1918-1955 are not relevant. Of course, we never hear word one about Joseph Stalin.
Unless the apologists for the holocau$t lobby are able to come forth and present real evidence to substanciate their story, I consider their words insincere.
Each and every one of these aplogists talk as though reading from the same script. Not one will reveal what the lies are that holocaust researchers are spreading.
Whether they know it or not these defenders of the russian supplied version of the holocaust are being used as tools of the holocaust reparation lobby. It is pathetic because it is clear to me they are clueless when it come to discussing the facts.
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Adolf Eichmann was tortured and his family was threatened. He did say 5,000,000 were killed at Auschwitz, and might ave said 100,000,00 if this is waht his torturers had demanded. That sort of testimony is not valid. Any first year law student knows that.
Examine the coal shipments to Auschwitz and you have your answer as to how many died there.
But hey, why let the facts get in the way of an ideology.
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Chancellor Martin has written a very erudite and informed letter that points to principles and facts before opinions. Chancellor Martin also has to work within the system before she acts towards a student run newspaper - given the rights that they have. The last few lines of this letter are as inspirational as any I have read:
“I hope you will combat lies and distortion with education. I hope you will feel a sense of outrage at efforts to deny history. I hope you will act on a sense of responsibility for our shared humanity.”
On another note - every single commenter here has chosen to do so anonymously. Are that many people afraid to speak what they believe in, defend it, and willing to be known for those thoughts?
Matthew Langley
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Chancellor Martin is VERY proud of her German students at the UW. As one of many German majors on campus I can vouch for this. Not only is she fond of those who study German, but students who are FROM Germany. And unlike your statement NONE of us are anti-German. That is just ludicrous. Along the same lines, if those who study German are anti-German, then all of America is anti-America (after all, we are responsible for one of the greatest human catastrophes…killing 90-99% of Indigenous people and not to mention the slave trade.)
In reference to your Wiesel comment. First, he was not an impostor- plain and simple. I believe he was just trying to say that we cannot forget the past. We must hate what happened in the past to prevent it from occurring in the future.
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The nature of these comments are literally making me sick to my stomach. My wife’s great grandmother and great uncle were killed at Auschwitz; their names and dates of death are printed in death books found after the war. Her mother and grandparents escaped from Prague several months earlier in a horrible (and unfortunately all-too-common) “Sophie’s Choice” scenario. All of my family who lived in Germany during the war were killed. Every one of them. You can quibble about exact numbers (they call that rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic), but the scale and magnitude of the holocaust can be seen in the fact that all living jews have a gaping hole in their extended families.