My life as a Holocaust Revisionist: April 2006

About Me

Location: Baja Norte, Mexico

Smith was raised in South Central Los Angeles in the 1930s and 40s. Smith is a combat veteran (Korea, 7th Cavalry, where he was twice wounded), has been a deputy sheriff (Los Angeles County), a bull fighter (Mexico), a merchant seaman, and was in Saigon during the Tet offensive of 1968 as a freelance writer. He has been described by the Los Angeles Times as an "anarchist libertarian," and by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith as one of the most dangerous "extremists" in America. He has been married to a Mexican woman for 30 years, there are two children, and now two grandchildren. Smith argues that the German WMD (gas-chamber) question should be examined in the routine manner that all other historical questions are examined. He argues that the Holocaust is not a "Jewish" story, but a story of Jews and Germans together--forever. Those who want to challenge the concept of the "unique monstrosity" of the Germans should be free to do so. He believes it is morally wrong, and a betrayal of the Western ideal of intellectual freedom, to imprison writers and publishers who question publicly what privately they have come to doubt.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

THE PASSION OF CHRIST

Last night I watched Mel Gibson's film for the first time. On television, here in Baja, with Spanish sub-titles. What struck me most forcibly was:

The actor playing Jesus had a good face. The violence began too early on, went too far, and I did not believe that the Jesus character could have kept going the way he did. And then there was the Roman counsul (?) who was uncertain of the morality of executing Jesus, and the priests who were certain that he should be executed. I didn't believe in the Roman character, he was too "sensitive." I did believe the Priests, who were adamant that Jesus was dangerous to their own beliefs, their own position and should be killed by the State. The priests were true believers, the Roman was not.

That is the way it is now with regard to intellectual freedom and the Holocaust story. Those who want to destroy revisionists and revisionist arguments are absolutely certain of what they want. They are true believers. The great majority of us who believe in intellecual freedom are uncertain of the morality of "offending" the victims of the Holocaust and those who identify with the victims, for whatever reasons. We are paragons of sensitivity. The search for truth and the ideal of intellectual freedom take a back seat to our felt need to respect the sensitivity of those who demand it, even when it is for themselves alone.