From: grstate@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu (Gavriel State)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: URGENT: Need info about David Irving
Date: 13 Oct 92 02:00:14 GMT
Organization: University of Waterloo

Thanks very much to everyone who gave their input; it was very much appreciated.

Unfortunately (?) in the end, the article I wrote was more of an op-ed piece, 
rather than an informational one, primarily because someone else at the
university beat me to it and did an excellent job of summarizing Irving, and 
a number of other prominent neo-Nazis.  I will ask him (Prof. Shallit, 
mentioned in my article below) to post his article to the net next time 
I see him.

In the meantime, here's my article, as per a number of EMail requests: 

[Note: Kitchener-Waterloo is a small city in southeastern Ontario with 
about 200 000 people.  There is a large German community in Kitchener - 
which before WW I was in fact called 'Berlin'.  The University of Waterloo, 
where I go, has one of the most highly regarded engineering faculties in the
country.  This article will appear in the engineering society student 
newspaper later this week.]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nazism, I am sad to report, is alive and well in Kitchener-
Waterloo.

If you haven't yet heard, the local contingent of white 
supremacists, Holocaust deniers, and other assorted racists are 
planning a gathering next month where the infamous self-proclaimed 
British "historian" David Irving will deliver his standard Nazi 
garbage about "the blood lie of the Holocaust".  

Overt racism comes in many forms, from inappropriate slang to 
lethal violence, from snickering and name calling to arson and 
murder.  We can be thankful that here in Canada racism very rarely 
shows its more deadly side, but we must not let that allow us to 
become complacent when it comes to standing up against those who 
incite it.  The fires of Rostok, Germany remind us of the results 
of complacency.
 
In order to fight the racists and neo-Nazis one must first be well 
prepared to refute their arguments.  Thankfully, those arguments 
are mostly unsophisticated, illogical and contradictory; the half 
truths offered as proof are easily exposed for what they really 
are.  Professor Jeffrey Shallit has done an excellent job spelling 
out those arguments in last weeks Imprint, and so I won't waste my 
time or yours reproducing those arguments here.  Suffice to say 
that the sum total of the evidence against the claims of the 
Holocaust deniers could likely fill a volume greater than that of 
this University.

What I do want to bring to your attention is the fact that 
Kitchener-Waterloo is not immune to this scourge, and indeed seems 
to be an active hotbed for it.  A man by the name of Michael Rothe 
owns European Sound Imports, a stereo store in the middle of 
downtown Kitchener, inside which can be found a variety of 
anti-semitic propaganda, such as a book by Fred Leuchter that 
denies the existence of the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau and 
various other similar pamphlets.  It is within this store that 
David Irving will meet with his supporters before going on to 
Milton to give his "talk".  It is within this store that tickets 
can be procured for the event.  The store is in fact nothing more 
than a front for the organization of the racist forces in our 
community.

Last week, I attended a rally in front of Mr. Rothe's store where 
I saw with my own eyes some of the putrid filth offered to 
customers.  About 30 people form various different cultural, 
religious, and ethnic backgrounds gathered to protest the fact 
that racist refuse is being peddled as truth right here, smack dab 
in the middle of downtown Kitchener.  Placards were waved, a 
letter from our local MP was read, and our feelings were made 
known, but what was most interesting about the event was the 
response by the people we were organizing against.

About a half hour into the protest, a number of neo-Nazis thugs 
appeared and went into the store.  There they heartily greeted Mr. 
Rothe and proceeded to jeer at us and laugh as we marched past.  A 
number of them were wearing fascist symbols of various kinds, 
including huge pins with Nazi swastikas. They began to videotape 
us, perhaps so that we could be added to their lists of people to 
harass.  In fact, a number of the marchers mentioned having being 
threatened by telephone, and an elderly survivor of the Holocaust 
had actually been assaulted while protesting during the previous 
week.

One of the neo-Nazis came out of the store and proceeded to start 
up with another Holocaust survivor, telling her that the protest 
was all "emotional Jewish sop", and that she was lying about her 
experiences.  Early on in the altercation he told her to stay back
from him and made certain to keep his distance presumably so that 
he would not risk accidently come into physical contact with a 
Jew. 

Amongst the neo-Nazis was Wolfgang Droege, head of the white 
supremacist Heritage Front, and former Grand Wizard for the Ku 
Klux Klan. Mr. Droege recently was forced to close down a call-in 
hate line in Toronto due to an injunction, so perhaps he was just 
coming to Kitchener to vent his spleen - but I would suggest to 
you that he was more likely here to assist Mr. Rothe with his own 
organization.  Mr. Droege's verbal diarrhea included such classic 
lines as "You know I myself used to believe in the Holocaust story 
up until about 12 years ago...", and he later tried to convince a 
survivor that her description of five children between the ages of 
two and five being murdered was just senility setting in.  
Ominously he also tried to get the name of the organizer of the 
protest.

These events frighten me, not because I fear physical violence but 
because I fear that the people of this city will be complacent, 
and that the neo-Nazis will dupe more people into believing their 
lies.  The price of peace is eternal vigilance.

 
-- 
Gavriel State | 2B Systems Design Engineering/Economics | University of Waterloo
grstate@descartes.uwaterloo.ca           |  "What in God's name is going on?"
(519) 884-6478 (Waterloo #) <- Current # |   "FOUL!  No rhetoric!  Two-one!"
(613) 721-9738 (Ottawa #)                | Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead