Holocaust Denial Advertised in Student Newspaper
In late November, the student newspaper at MSU-Billings published an advertisement by the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH). CODOH's advertisement contained a picture of prisoners at the Auschwitz death camp. The committee claimed the photo had been altered to propagate the belief that Jews were murdered during World War II. The ad said there is no proof the German Nazis gassed anyone.
CODOH is part of the Holocaust denial movement which seeks to revise the portrayal of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. Some Holocaust deniers claim the Holocaust never happened. Others question the degree to which the Nazis targeted Jews. No matter which view is presented, all Holocaust denial rests on anti-Semitism.
Bradley Smith, the committee's founder, claims accounts of the Holocaust are similar to stories in the National Enquirer. The group's website includes writing by leading Holocaust deniers, including Fred Leuchter and David Irving. The site also has links to Holocaust denial organizations like the Campaign for Radical Truth in History. This group is run by Michael Hoffman of Idaho. Hoffman frequently attends Aryan Nations' rallies, including the one held in October 2000. CODOH's site also provides a link to the Posse Comitatus, a white supremacist group which provided the basic beliefs for today's freemen.
This isn't the first time CODOH has run an advertisement in a Montana student newspaper. Back in 1992, the University of Montana's student newspaper published a CODOH advertisement similar to the one run in Billings. The ad in Billings prompted a forum regarding Holocaust denial groups at the MSU-Billings campus.