Derek Scruggs

I agree with David Velleman at Left2Right. Having had my own recent brush with kooky holocaust deniers, I know that they see things through the crackpot worldview and looooove conspiracy theories, especially about Jews (of course).

David Irving has been shown to be a fraud in a court of law, and he has no one to blame but himself because he brought the lawsuit.

That said, I think it’s wrong to proscribe even crackpot speech, and provided there is no incitement to violence, certainly no one should ever go to jail. The Austrian courts have escalated Irving to martyrhood and he’ll be a rallying cry for the next generation of neo-Nazis.

Historians, humanities professors and scientists should all speak out against this. Irving must not be allowed to become the Galileo of the Holocaust denial industry.

I don’t know why I feed the trolls. In the interest of free speech and all that, here’s her response. She lost me at “Jewish Communist.” Why not just “Soviets?” She took the rope and hung herself. The forensic evidence for the crimes of Mao and others is often very spotty – when’s the last time the Soviets invited medical examiners in to inspect the gulags? – but the eyewitness testimony, as with the Holocaust, is overwhelming.

I don’t doubt that millions of people could be murdered. And I concur with you, there is a great deal of evidence that suggests that over 20 million were killed under Mao and the Armenians by the Turks. Let’s not forget the 30 million (conservative estimate) Eastern Europeans slaughtered by the Jewish Communists. Butchers like Kagonovich, Yagota and so many others who ran the death camps and gulags.

I agree with you that there is much forensic, corroborative and substantial evidence for the aforementioned crimes against peoples but I was referring to alleged crimes committed by the National Socialists. There is zero evidence of Gas chambers at any of the German run camps. If the “holocaust” is defined as Jews being put into concentration camps where a small number died, most from natural causes, some from reprisals, and a very small amount from maltreatment, then I would agree with you, there was a “holocaust”. But don’t be surprised if many think the word “holocaust” hyperbolic to describe the events just listed.

I’ve studied this era of history too closely to believe the sickening tales ala “Schindler’s List” etc.

In my reply I suggested she join her friend Michael Hoffman in Idaho.

And thus concludes this thread. I’m done with this topic.

Today the Daily Northwestern printed letters to the editor in response to Arthur Butz’s column. In addition to the what you might expect – angry alumni expressing their displeasure, in which group you can place me – they also received a letter supporting Butz from a Michael Hoffman, editor of a publication called “Campaign for Radical Truth in History.” A quick Google search and I found his (hate) site. He’s a conspiracy theorist who not only denies the Holocaust, but also believes, among many other things, that the Catholic Church is actually under the thumb of a Jewish conspiracy. He also is clearly a white supremacist – he wrings his hands over “black skin privilege” and condemns the idea of America being a melting pot.

He lives in Idaho. It’s a shame Butz doesn’t move there too.

Sigh…

Today the Daily Northwestern allowed Holocaust-denier Arthur Butz to write an opinion piece. If you click through you’ll see that I posted a short response.

This afternoon I received this email:

I was checking out the postings concerning Prof Butz and the “Holocaust”.

Derek, I’m asking this next question with the most inquisitive, forthright honesty I can. I don’t mean this sarcastically or maliciously. I’m honestly amazed. You seem intelligent. Do you REALLY believe in this Holocaust stuff? I mean, do you sincerely believe that 1) people were gassed and 2) 6 million jews died?

I just can’t imagine, it boggles my mind that people believe things like this in this day and age.

I’m just asking. I just want to know. Do you REALLY believe, seriously, sincerely?

Here is what I wrote back:

My wife is from China. Over 20 million people died there under Mao, including her grandfather, and Mao wasn’t even efficient enough to operate death camps. Japan killed over 100,000 people in the rape of Nanjing. Genocide happened and there’s plenty of evidence. The real question is not whether Germany carried out the Holocaust, but why we continue to look the other way in the face of other genocides, both in the present (Sudan) and the past (Turkey and the Armenians in 1915-17).

6 million is easy to believe.

Where do people like this come from?

I’m embarrassed to admit that my alma mater has its own Ward Churchill, an idiot named Arthur Butz.

From today’s Daily Northwestern:

McCormick Prof. Arthur Butz recently backed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in comments published by several Iranian news agencies. Calling the Holocaust a myth, Ahmadinejad said Israel should no longer exist as a country. The remarks are causing global controversy.

“I congratulate him on becoming the first head of state to speak out clearly on these issues and regret only that it was not a Western head of state,” Butz said. His comments were reprinted in Saturday’s Chicago Tribune.

Butz was at NU when I was there and I remember we all thought he was an idiot then. He wasn’t very outspoken, but about every 5-10 years something like this comes along. A friend of mine took one of his computer science classes and said he was a sucky teacher.