Ads Disputing the Holocaust
Your Dec. 23 editorial, “Humbug Ads About the Holocaust,” contains a factual error in stating that the Institute for Historical Review is “devoted to propagating the view that the Holocaust never occurred.”
In a recent court case involving a Holocaust survivor who sued the institute for defamation, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen Lachs admonished the plaintiff’s attorneys on this very point, correcting their inaccurate representations about the institute’s position on the Holocaust.
Judge Lachs was able to understand clearly what your editorial writer has not, that the institute is simply taking issue with a number of claims made about the Holocaust, such as allegations that the Nazis employed homicidal “gas chambers” and planned or implemented an extermination program against the Jews of Europe.
Moreover, to suggest as your editorial did that anyone calling for open debate on the Holocaust should not enjoy the same rights as you have argued on behalf of pornographers, for example, is a shocking admission of hypocrisy coming from an institution whose very existence hinges on the First Amendment.
THOMAS MARCELLUS
Director, Institute for Historical Review
Costa Mesa
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