ADL Counters Holocaust Denial on Campuses

Date: November 4, 2009

A student newspaper like the distinguished Harvard Crimson is the last place you expect to see an advertisement refuting an incontrovertible fact of history. Yet, recently, that's where an ad denying the Holocaust appeared – along with 12 other college publications across the country.

In recent months, pseudo-scholar Bradley Smith launched a campaign to spread anti-Semitic propaganda and disrupt university communities. While his so-called Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH) has only himself for a member, Smith is far from harmless. So far this year, 13 student papers have published his ads. In response, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the national Hillel have developed a new resource to help institutions of higher learning to stand against Holocaust denial on their campuses.

The ADL Plains States distributed the joint guide, Fighting Holocaust Denial in Campus Newspaper Advertisements, to colleges and universities in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, where fortunately Smith's nefarious ads have yet to appear.

"Holocaust denial is as historian Deborah Lipstadt called it, 'an assault on truth and memory.' But, publishing Smith's falsehoods in a student-run and student-read newspaper takes it one step further," ADL Regional Director Alan Potash said. "We're pleased that we can help campuses in our region counter this kind of hatred."

David Irving, another Holocaust denier, has been making stops throughout the Midwest on his speaking tour, but thanks to thinning public interest and Irving’s restrictions on admission, his presentations are failing to draw many people.