I had hoped to give you today a bit of relief from traditional "Holocaust"
fare, but there is a temporary snag in my line of communications with headquarters,
and therefore I am shipping a "canned Z-Gram" that I wrote quite
some time ago. It is of interest primarily to educators and parents.
Here goes:
Apparently there is a listserve discussion group that recently dealt with
Holocaust Denial Literature. The following post was forwarded to me, the
speaker or writer unknown:
". . . For those who are interested in the issues surrounding (the Holocaust) topic, I heartily recommend the following recent article:
Wolkoff, Kathleen Nietzke. "The Problem of Holocaust Denial Literature in Libraries". (Library Trends, Summer 1996, v.45, no.1, pp.87-96. Includes bibliography).
Ms. Wolkoff reviews the three possibilities:
(1) that such materials must be included to uphold the precepts of intellectual freedom,
(2) that they should be excluded because they are false, and
(3) that they should be included but labeled as inaccurate." (p.87)
The denial of the Holocaust is not legitimate historical revisionism but rather a manifestation of the vile social phenomenon of bigotry. Should librarians hide their heads in the sand and pretend that anti-Semitism does not exist? To do so would be to fail to acknowledge its place in contemporary discourse, however repulsed or ashamed by it librarians may be.
Holocaust denial literature should not be suppressed -- not because the views it represents are of equal stature with others, not because it claims to be just another side of the story, but simply because it exists. And through the simple fact of its existence, it has much to teach about the past, the present, and the future. . . " (p.95)
The post goes on to say (I am not sure if it's the same voice speaking)
". . . Holocaust denial literature" is, like the sun, the moon, the winds, rain, the diurnal tides, etc., a fact of life. It exists. Exterminationists (those who are in favour of the holocaust theory as an historical fact) are in a quandry about "holocaust denial literature" because
(1) it exists in large quantities,
(2) much of it is cogent, grammatical and non-emotional,
(3) much of it exhibits structured thinking and internal coherence, and is, therefore, likely to cause the reader to believe, or at least begin to believe what is written, and finally because
(4) the "holocaust," "shoah," the trips, the books, the films, the mementos, etc., etc. have all become a very large and thriving business which seeks to expand itself, rather than be attacked as a fraud.
History is not in question here, it is political and financial power on a global scale that is being discussed. Of course "holocaust denial literature" should be found unimpeded in libraries. Of course the revisionist theory should be presented in public schools side-by-side with the exterminationist theory. *THAT* is history at work, where the individual student is presented with opposing views and can, in the quiet places of his own mind, decide which argument has more merit.
After all, we want to know the truth, don't we? And isn't the truth the distillate of our thoughts *after* we have heard all sides of a subject? . . "
Did she say "public schools? Side by side with exterminationist
theory? Would you say, as I do, that if every librarian were to hold this
point of view, we would be more than half-way there?
I believe that there's a special place in Heaven for librarians.
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"Truth is never alone; to know one will require the knowledge of many. They hang together in a chain of mutual dependence; you cannot draw one link without many others."
(Joseph Glanvill, in "The Vanity of Dogmatizing")