Nizkor's Response to the Zündelsite

11 September 1995

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.

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