Ernst Nolte

[Spencer Thiel]

At 03:42 PM 6/23/00 +0200, Robert wrote:

>I don't see their dismissals as violations of their right to free speech.
>This year an academic historian at Opole University in Poland published a
>book denying in a way the Holocaust (claiming, in fact, that Auschwitz
>wasn't an extermination camp, but a labour one.) Upon several occasions he
>even voiced his views on the radio. He was expelled from his university -
>and rightly so, in my opinion. But he wasn't criminally prosecuted by the
>law - again, rightly so, in my opinion.

Am I the only one freaked out about all this?  Write a paper with such and 
such a thesis, and get dismissed?  Since when has history been 
objective?  What I am so frightened by is that Holocaust scholars on both 
sides of the coin are handcuffed by the reactions of the ruling academic 
class (and by public opinion).  Academics should be free to write about 
exactly what they want.  If they come to conclusions that aren't in 
agreement with the current paradigms in their respective fields, it is 
likely that their work will get ignored.  If they continue to produce work 
like this, then they serve no purpose to their institutions and are 
expendable.  However, the quick dismissals give these scholars way more 
exposure and press then they would ever have received from their original 
work, and thus martyrs the dismissed academics and their cause.

But this is a situation that is far removed from the original Ernst Nolte 
story.  Somehow his work hasn't been ignored (at least by the Christian 
Democratic Party).  But how is it that 'one of Germany's most prestigious 
literary prizes' is given by a group that is associated with the far right 
anyway?  The problem seems to be that political interests have gained 
strongholds both inside and outside the German institutions and are 
superseding the academic institutions by legitimizing works that fit in 
with their political agenda.  They are the real criminals, not the 
historians who wittingly or not serve their cause.
- st.