Free Inquiry holds out its arms to each one of us, urging us to embrace it, use it, exhaust it in our passion for understanding. Understanding, however, unlike Free Inquiry, promises nothing. That's why there are professors willing to denounce a scholar while refusing to exchange ideas with him. They would rather see certain books suppressed than have to face the awful possibility of coming to understand something that they have committed their lives and their careers to not understanding. When we suppress open debate on the Holocaust we promote bad history and undermine the traditionally humane values of the university.
Bad history replaces historical understanding with self-righteous nationalism both here and abroad.
It encourages us to scape-goat old enemies and to seek vengeance rather than reconciliation. Our refusal to allow critical examination of even the most bizarre accusations made against Germans encourages men and women to bear false witness, betray their chosen professions, and contributes to the vulgarization of Jewish suffering.