Archive/File: pub/people/carto.willis carto.006
Last-Modified: 1994/11/04

                     Copyright 1994 U.S. Newswire, Inc.  

U.S. Newswire 
October 20, 1994 

SECTION: NATIONAL DESK 

LENGTH: 920 words

HEADLINE: ADL Report Reveals Split in Holocaust Denial Movement that
is as Hateful as their Anti-Semitic Propaganda 

CONTACT: Myrna Shinbaum
or David Lehrer of the Anti-Defamation League, Oct.  20-23 at the ADL
press office in Los Angeles, 310-285-1292, or after Oct.  23 at
212-490-2525 

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES, Oct.  20 

BODY: 

A bitter dispute about control over a $10 million bequest and who will
direct a crucial propaganda group has caused a serious split in the
Holocaust denial movement, according to the Anti-Defamation League
(ADL) in a report released today at the fall meeting of its National
Executive Committee, its highest policy-making board. 

   "Embattled Bigots: A Split in the Ranks of the Holocaust Denial
Movement" reveals that the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), a
pseudo-academic group based in Orange County, Calif., and the
movement's main propaganda source, is embroiled in lawsuits and
countersuits with Willis Carto, who founded the group in 1979.  Carto,
who was ejected as leader last year, heads the nation's largest
anti-Jewish propaganda organization, Liberty Lobby, which he founded
in 1955.  He was formerly closely linked to the far-right Populist
Party, established in 1983, which ran the former neo-Nazi and Klan
leader, David Duke, as its candidate in 1988 for U.S.  president. 

   Carto's ouster by other IHR activists led to physical violence last
year when he attempted to retake the group's building and was dragged
from the premises by the police.  Following the scuffle, legal action
was taken by both sides to determine who will control the group and a
$10 million bequest from the late Jean Farrel, the granddaughter of
inventor Thomas Edison.  

   Trying to regain power, Carto has blamed a Jewish conspiracy,
writing a letter, to his supporters, "There is not the slightest doubt
in my mind that the ADL and/or other forces of political Zionism are
behind this..." 

   Abraham H.  Foxman, ADL national director, said, "Carto is
promoting a conspiracy theory that he hopes will downplay the
allegations against him and instead focus on longtime adversaries of
the IHR and Liberty Lobby.  Frankly, his fate in the IHR is less
important to us than how effectively Holocaust denial propaganda can
be countered.  That is our main concern." 

   The ADL document reports that the IHR suffered financial setbacks
ever since it agreed in a 1985 court settlement to pay $90,000 to Mel
Mermelstein, an Auschwitz concentration camp survivor.  Mermelstein
sued the group for failing to pay him the $50,000 reward it offered
for "proof" that Nazis operated execution gas chambers during World
War II. 

   The mutiny at the IHR was ignited in October 1993 when Carto was
ousted, ostensibly for his reputed highhandedness toward employees and
mishandling of funds including the Mermelstein affair.  However, the
primary point of contention revolved around editorial direction of the
group's "Journal of Historical Review." 

   Staff members charged that Carto wanted to reduce Holocaust denial
features -- the mainstay of the publication -- and planned to abandon
the issue entirely and change the name of the magazine. 

   "Ironically, they accused Carto of attempting to turn the journal
into a 'racist' and 'Nazi' publication," said Foxman.  "That has
always been part of the agenda of the Holocaust denial movement." 

   While the battle rages on, the ADL report concludes that even if
the two groups continue on their self-destructive path, the Holocaust
denial movement will not collapse.  There are many others for whom
Holocaust denial is a propaganda mainstay.  Included among them are
Bradley Smith of the "Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust"
(closely associated with the IHR), the organization that places its
advertisements in college campus publications; Gary Lauck, the leading
supplier of neo-Nazi propaganda abroad, and George Dietz, publisher of
"Liberty Bell," a gutter-level, pro- Hitler monthly publication. 

   "Measures to preserve the memory of Hitler's victims have taken on
a new importance," the ADL report concludes.  "Education on the
Holocaust, at both the secondary school and college levels, the
establishment of Holocaust museums, other programs and public exposure
of these hateful propagandists are vital tools in upholding the
promise never to forget." 

   The report was prepared by the Research Department of the ADL Civil
Rights Division. 

   The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading
organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that
counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry. 

   ------ 

   Editors: Copies of the book are available from the ADL Public
Relations Department.  

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