The Polish-American Journal Over the past few years, Americans have been inundated with news
reports about the information superhighway, also known as the Internet.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, think of all the computers in New
York State being able to communicate with one another -- that would be
one network. The Internet is a global network of networks, allowing
information to be shared between computers in different parts of the
world, through email, bulletin boards, and list services.
The Polish Genealogical Society of America operates a bulletin
board service to share genealogical information. But not everyone uses
the vast resources of the Internet for good purposes -- pornography is
one example, and electronic Nazism is another. According to Norman
Swartz of Simon Fraser University, "Although Nazis and anti-Semites
discovered the power of computers a decade ago, they peddled their hate
among themselves in a covert, patchwork network. In the past three
years they have switched to the vast public forum of 20 to 40 million
people on the global Internet, to publish lies, announce meetings, and
recruit members."
It is nothing new for some quacks to deny the reality of the
Holocaust. The Nazis themselves began the process of revision,
cloaking their hideous actions in euphemisms such as 'special treat-
ment' and 'final solution.' Modern day Holocaust deniers are much more
sophisticated, masquerading their hate behind a scholarly veneer and
making a mockery of the historical record. Confronting and exposing
Holocaust denial is extrememly important for American Polonia, for if
there was no Holocaust, if the Nazis did not commit genocide, then those
millions of Poles that were slaughtered by the Nazis did not die after
all. It is the final insult to their memories.
One man is at the forefront of monitoring and confronting
Holocaust denial on the Internet.
Ken McVay of Vancouver operates the
Fascism and Holocaust Archives, a collection of over 1,000 computerized
documents, which he uses to challenge and refute the false history of
revisionists on the information superhighway. Using an old personal
computer and relying on donations and his income from his job as
assistant manager of a gas station,
McVay has created an archive that
is available for use through the Internet by at least 50 major universities around the world.
Because of all the time he spends at the keyboard,
McVay suffers
from both tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome. His Holocaust Research
Mailing List, which operates through email, has generated over 1,000
messages in one day. Despite the enormous amount of time and energy
that this mission requires,
McVay remains adamant in his quest to
provide the facts on the Internet. 'There's a war going on here because
these people want the Holocaust all over again,'
McVay has said. 'If we
don't fight this now, we're going to have to deal with them 20 or 30
years down the road.' As Professor Swartz has observed, 'The only way
to counter this racism is to reply immediately, and forcefully, with the
truth.'"
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
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January 1995
Nazism on the Internet
by John A. Drobnicki