Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Supplements
Supplement 1: The International Holocaust Controversy
Presented orally at the 1979 conference of the Institute for Historical Review.
This is a slightly edited version of the paper as published in the Journal of Historical
Review, vol. 1, no. 1, Spring 1980, pp. 5-22.
Some of you may be accustomed to hearing of me speak on the subject that I
call “The Hoax of the Twentieth Century,” the legend of the physical extermination
of millions of Jews, usually six million, by the government of National Socialist
Germany during the Second World War. On several occasions, I have met
with interested groups and given them what amounts to an oral synopsis of many
of the arguments in my book.
Today I will cover different ground; I shall not concentrate on the hoax itself,
but on the development of the international controversy surrounding the hoax. I
have several reasons for this choice of subjects, and probably the most obvious is
the fact that this is after all an advanced group of well-informed persons, many or
most of whom are familiar with the relevant English language literature, and Dr.
Faurisson is here to show you some things about the hoax you probably have not
seen yet. 478 Another subject only partially known to most here is the development
of the international controversy. Indeed, many “well informed” Americans are not
aware that there has been a very loud international Holocaust controversy recently,
because they are forced to get most of their information on world developments
from the U.S. press, which sometimes gives readers the impression that
Butz is the only author who has rejected or challenged central claims of the extermination
legend.
There are important perspectives to be gained by viewing the controversy on
an international scale. Permit me to say a few more words motivating the present
focus on the controversy surrounding the hoax rather that the hoax itself.
A Simple Subject
One of my dilemmas is that, by writing a whole book on the hoax, I may have
suggested something that I did not wish to suggest, because there is an important
point that I should perhaps have stressed. I wrote on page 24, but did not stress,
the important point that
“There are many considerations supporting this view, and some are so
478
Robert Faurisson, “Extensive Research on the ‘Gas Chambers’ at Auschwitz”, audio tape, 90
min., Newport Beach, CA: Institute for Historical Review. Published as: “The Mechanics of Gassing,”
The Journal of Historical Review, Spring 1980, p. 23-30.
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