Thanks for your inquiry about
The Nizkor Project.
To give a precise answer to your question would require
an in-depth analysis of all of the contents of the
Nizkor Website. It would require also an in-depth
explanation of exactly what is right and what is wrong.
The Nizkor site, like the CODOH site is quite large and
a complete answer would require far more space than we
allot for this column and far more time than I care to
spend on the matter.
Certainly much of the Nizkor information is in fact
correct. There can be no doubt for example of the
existence of various concentration camps or various
personalities. There are also useful historical
documents, like the various Nuremberg documents which
are of use to scholars and researchers.
With regard to your specific question however about
how much of the site is truthful, let us consider only
one page of the site -- the homepage of Nizkor.
Besides the various links to other pages on the site and
a few advertisements, there are basically only three
statements on the page. Let us examine them one by
one.
First, the site is "dedicated to 12 million Holocaust
victims who suffered and died at the hands of Adolf
Hitler and his Nazi regime." Nizkor has at various
times reported "nearly twelve million" victims and
"millions of victims." They have become more
decisive recently and support the number 12 million.
This number is a wild exaggeration. For a time
supporters of the orthodox Holocaust story suggested 11
million victims. The idea was six million Jewish
victims and an additional five million "other victims."
Peter Novick points out in his book, "The Holocaust in
American Life" that this number "makes no historical
sense." The eleven million number originated with
none other than Simon Wiesenthal. According to
Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer, Wiesenthal admitted in a
private conversation that he simply invented the figure.
(See Novick, p. 215). Novick also notes that
"before the late seventies, few in the United States had
ever heard the figure "eleven million." Nizkor's
dedication shows their lack of objectivity on this
subject. Their figure is not supported by
historians on either side of the debate.
Nizkor then supplies the question, "Given the
evidence, why do people deny the Holocaust"?The
answer they provide is "The real purpose of holocaust revisionism is to make
National Socialism an acceptable political alternative again." To support
this quote, Nizkor cites the obscure "group" the
National Socialist White People's Party and specifically
Harold Covington. Although this quote supports
Nizkor's worldview it is a blatantly false statement.
Rather than quoting from a reliable revisionist source,
Nizkor has chosen to cite a neo-Nazi organization and
utilized a bit of circular logic. Of course Nizkor
would not quote early revisionist pioneer Harry Elmer
Barnes who explains that "Revisionism means nothing more
or less than the effort to correct the historical record
in the light of a more complete collection of historical
facts, a more calm political atmosphere, and amore
objective attitude." In fact, revisionism is not a
political movement and its adherents come from every
place in the political spectrum from the far left to the
far right with most in the United States supporting
either the Democrats or the Republicans. Nizkor's
use of this quote is a bit of a slogan for them that
they have used for some ten years. It is a
stereo-type and just out and out anti-revisionist
propaganda.
Finally, the Nizkorites tell us that "Nizkor
is a Hebrew word which means 'We will remember.'"
Although no expert in Hebrew, this appears to be a valid
translation.
If the homepage of Mr. McVay's Project is
representative of the balance of his site only 1 in 3
statements seem to hold up.