Resistance

GERMAR RUDOLF, RESISTANCE IS OBLIGATORYBut suppose that he had also read the Lectures of Germar Rudolf andwas convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that there were no homicidalgas chambers built or employed by the Third Reich. 25 If he dared tospeak publicly or to write professionally of this contention (that therewere no homicidal gas chambers), would he still be smeared as a Holocaustdenier or an anti-Semite or both?If history really repeats itself as it so often does, the professor at firstwould be ignored or shunned. His colleagues would begin to avoid contactwith him; his access to university committees and panel discussionswould be limited, always with some other excuse, if any, being offered.If he did get his contrary views on gas chambers published, even in alocal small-circulation paper, righteous and indignant counter articleswould appear to drown out his voice. Letters of protest would be sent tohis employer; threats by alumni would be generated and threats to withholddonations to his university would materialize.If he persisted, his colleagues would not only shun him, they wouldsmear him, often behind his back. They might charge him with “questioningundisputed facts,” “blaming the victim,” “spreading unsupportedvitriol,” “fostering hate speech,” or failing to meet “minimally rationaland minimally humane discourse.” 26 If he were not tenured, hesurely would never be, no matter how outstanding his teaching evaluations,publications, and community service. 27 If tenured, he would findhis “new” office in the basement well out of sight. 28 If retired, he wouldface calls to revoke his status as a faculty emeritus. 29And it could be worse. He might be accused of “fraud in research”and tried in secret with the administration soliciting testimony from professionalHolocaust experts. 30 Or in fourteen countries, including Ger-252627282930Germar Rudolf. Lectures on the Holocaust: Controversial Issues Cross Examined (Chicago, IL:Theses & Dissertations Press, 2005).These were all charges made in a smear letter sent to over 300 people by seven of this author’scolleagues when he merely defined “Holocaust Denial” as Ahmadinejad spoke at the UnitedNations in the fall of 2009.The rejection of tenure for renowned author Norman Finkelstein at DePaul University is not theonly case in point.The banished, unidentified office of Professor Arthur Butz at Northwestern University is anexcellent example. He is the author of The Hoax of the Twentieth Century: The Case Againstthe Presumed Extermination of European Jewry.A smear letter allegedly signed by dozens of faculty members called for the revocation of thisauthor’s faculty emeritus status at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in reprisal for an op-edpiece that simply defined Holocaust denial based on the three features mentioned above.This was the fate of David O’Connell, a Professor Emeritus at Georgia State University. HisHolocaust Heresy Trial was held in secret from December 2005 to October 2006 as the result ofhis article entitled “Elie Wiesel and the Catholics” (Culture Wars magazine, November 2004,19