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Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 10:19:42 -0400
To: ezundel@cts.com
From: jamie@voyager.net (Jamie McCarthy)
Subject: "Breakthrough"
Cc: jamie@nizkor.almanac.bc.ca

Mr. Zuendel, I just now noticed your "Breakthrough" page, in which you
quote my letter and respond to it.  I agree fully that our
correspondence should be public, but I would appreciate your notifying
me in email when you put something related to Nizkor or myself on your
web.  I infer that your response has been available since September 2,
but I just noticed it a little while ago.

I will briefly respond to some of the points you raise.  I will ignore
your rhetoric about the Holocaust itself;  this is not the time to
discuss that.

First, I must point out that it is ironic that you refer to this call
for open discussion of your claims as a "breakthrough."  I understand
that you are used to your views being suppressed in the traditional
media, Mr. Zuendel.  And for the record, I note that I personally
disagree with laws against free speech (though I should point out that
I do not believe the Nizkor Project takes an official stand one way or
the other on such laws).

But on the Internet, open discussion on the Holocaust or any topic is
not an exception, it is the norm.  Ask Greg Raven, Bradley Smith, Fritz
Berg, Michael Hoffman, or Ross Vicksell, each of whom has participated
in Usenet discussions which were of course not censored in any way. 
And I personally am all for open discussion -- ask David Cole or David
Irving, with whom I've corresponded via "snail-mail."

The reason that it's ironic that you call this particular call for open
discussion a "breakthrough" is that each of those deniers -- Raven,
Smith, Berg, Hoffman, Vicksell, Cole, Irving -- has found it to be in
their best interests to cease open discussion.  Each and every one of
them has decided to leave the net, ignore my letters, or otherwise
put an end to our communication.[*]

So, Mr. Zuendel, it will indeed be a "breakthrough" if you, unlike every
other denier which I have encountered, do not turn away from this new,
free, and exciting means of helping people learn the truth through an
open exchange of ideas.  Indeed, if you would like to begin a small
"breakthrough" of your own, I suggest you post some of your claims to
the Usenet newsgroup alt.revisionism, and try to defend them there.
I guarantee you that there is no more free and open discussion forum in
the civilized world.

You ask whether I have "checked out this idea" with my "superiors."  I
must point out that the supposition that I have "superiors" with whom I
must confer is fallacious -- I am, as I pointed out, the webmaster of
Nizkor.  My only "superior," I suppose, would be the Director of the
Nizkor Project, Ken McVay, and I do not need to ask his permission to
engage Nizkor in any sort of dialogue with you or anyone else I see
fit.

You go on to imply that perhaps Nizkor is yanking your chain:

   It has been our experience in the past that lower echelon people who
   are "...believers in the Holocaust" are just as eager as we are to
   evaluate both sides of the issue, but that, in the past, players
   "behind the scenes" who have hidden agendas and political goals
   would not agree to a free and open debate.

I assure you, Mr. Zuendel, that there is no one "behind the scenes."
When I request an open exchange between our two web sites, with our
material cross-linked as much as it makes sense to do so, rest assured
that I have no hidden agenda and that no one standing behind me will
yank me off this project or otherwise inhibit Nizkor from achieving
these goals.  Nizkor is committed to making available hyperlinked
information about the Holocaust and about its denial, which includes
links to hate material and lies such as those you provide at your
"Zuendelsite."

I am puzzled by your writing about discussing:

   ...how we could cross-link with you and get you to agree to
   cross-link with us so that both sides could be heard equally.

As I pointed out in my email of September 1:

   We have a collection of links to other sites on the web that are
   related to the Holocaust and its denial, and among them, of course,
   yours. See http://www.almanac.bc.ca/other-sites/denial-promotion.html.

Why would you have to "get [Nizkor] to agree to cross-link" when Nizkor
has already done so?  And I assure you that getting both sides heard
equally is all I intend -- if each of our sites has links to the other
at every appropriate place, I will be quite satisfied.

In closing, I note your final paragraph:

   Please give us a couple of weeks so we can consult with other
   revisionists, scholars, our technical people and with our attorneys.
   We will be back with a response that will be fair to all.

I am unsure why you would feel it necessary to consult with "other
revisionists" and "scholars" to decide whether or not to honor your own
calls for "letting both sides be heard" and for the "free marketplace
of ideas."  Either the Zuendelsite is firmly committed to those ideals,
or it is not.

Nevertheless, a couple of weeks will give us enough time to put up our
66 replies to your 66 Q&A. Please notify me in email when you have made
your decision.  We hope to hear that you will be willing to engage us
in some sort of discourse about those subjects and others, and that you
will take the first step by joining us in cross-linking together your
site's Q&A and our site's replies.

[*] With the possible exceptions of Cole and Irving, who have not
returned my letters for several months, but who may still maintain
an interest in corresponding with me -- I don't know.

--
 Jamie McCarthy  jamie@voyager.net jrm0@aol.com  http://www.kzoo.edu/~k044477/
 I speak only for myself.            Co-Webmaster of http://www.almanac.bc.ca/
 Unless otherwise specified, I consider pro-"revisionism" email public domain.

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