In a new show dedicated to making sense of current affairs, “Weekly Roundup With Mark Weber,” host Fróði Midjord and historian Mark Weber provide insightful, “big picture” perspective on important events.
IHR News & Views
The Forced War: When Peaceful Revision Failed
David L. Hoggan
Completely reset, expanded and reformatted new IHR edition! In this important, detailed study of the origins of the Second World War, Dr. Hoggan explains why Hitler decided to attack Poland in 1939, and examines the short-sighted policies that made war all but inevitable. The author dismantles the often-repeated charge of sole German responsibility for the war, which for many years has been a centerpiece of the prevailing narrative of twentieth century history. The eminent American historian Harry E. Barnes called this “the first thorough study of the responsibility for the causes of the Second World War in any language ... likely to remain the definitive revisionist work on this subject for many years.” With an introduction by Mark Weber, dust jacket, detailed index, source notes, extensive bibliography, map, and 30 photographs. Also available in softcover edition.
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Collusion: Franklin Roosevelt, British Intelligence, and the Secret Campaign to Push the US Into War
Mark Weber
Secretive and unlawful collusion by an American leader with a foreign power that subverts the US political process is not new. The most far-reaching and flagrant case was by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1940-41. In the months before the US formally entered the war in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt did everything he could to get America into the global conflict without actually declaring war. The cooperation with British intelligence by the President and other high-ranking US officials during that period was quite illegal. Such collusion by the nominally neutral US to further the war aims of a foreign government was contrary to both US law and universally accepted international norms.
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On the Importance of Revisionism for Our Time
By Murray Rothbard
Revisionism as applied to World War II and its origins (as also for previous wars) has the general function of bringing historical truth to an American and a world public that had been drugged by wartime lies and propaganda … Revisionism brings to the artificial frenzy of daily events and day-to-day propaganda, the cool but in the last analysis glorious light of historical truth. Such truth is almost desperately needed in today’s world.
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A Straight Look at the Jewish Lobby
Mark Weber
… Jews wield immense power and influence in the United States. The “Jewish lobby” is a decisive factor in US support for Israel. Jewish-Zionist interests are not identical to American interests. In fact, they often conflict. As long as the “very powerful” Jewish lobby remains entrenched, there will be no end to the Jewish-Zionist grip on the US political system and the American media, the Zionist oppression of Palestinians, and the Israeli threat to peace.
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Our Job in a Time of Crisis
Institute for Historical Review
Mark Weber explains why the work of the IHR in countering the forces of historical deceit, bigotry and cultural distortion is vitally important. An awareness of factual history is essential to an understanding of ourselves and the great issues of our age, says the IHR director in this five-minute video presentation. Unless and until the interests that have gripped our nation are clearly identified and discredited, he says, there will be no change in basic policies or direction.
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In a remarkable but under-reported address, one of America’s most prominent and influential political figures has acknowledged the “immense” and “outsized” Jewish role in the US mass media and cultural life. Joe Biden – now President of the U.S. – said that this has been the single most important factor in shaping American attitudes over the past century, and in driving major cultural-political changes. “Jewish heritage has shaped who we are – all of us – as much or more than any other factor in the last 223 years. And that’s a fact,” Biden told a gathering of Jewish leaders in Washington, DC.
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Suggested Reading: A Study Guide
Mark Weber
In an age when vast amounts of information from a wide range of sources are instantly available online, it can be difficult to sort out what’s reliable, useful, and trustworthy. In response to many inquiries over the years, here are recommended books on five important historical topics: The Second World War, American History, International Relations, Communism, Marxism and the Soviet Union, and, Zionism, US-Israel Relations, and the ‘Jewish Question.’ This listing is neither exhaustive nor final. Additional subject categories and titles are planned, and descriptions may be revised or updated.
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History and Historians
By Revilo P. Oliver
… The development of a working philosophy of history is the most urgent, as well as the most difficult, task of Twentieth Century thought … The future will always resemble the past because human nature does not change; men will always be actuated by the same basic desires and motives … The social and political questions of our day are all primarily historical problems. To think about them rationally, we must begin by consulting the record of human experience in the past. And we soon realize that if only we knew enough about history – and understood it – we should have the answers to all our questions.
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What Christians Don’t Know About Israel
By Grace Halsell
American Jews sympathetic to Israel dominate key positions in all areas of our government where decisions are made regarding the Middle East. This being the case, is there any hope of ever changing U.S. policy? … The answer to achieving an even-handed Middle East policy might lie elsewhere — among those who support Israel but don’t really know why. This group is the vast majority of Americans. They are well-meaning, fair-minded Christians who feel bonded to Israel – and Zionism – often from atavistic feelings, in some cases dating from childhood.
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Was Hiroshima Necessary?
By Mark Weber
America’s leaders understood Japan’s desperate position: the Japanese were willing to end the war on any terms, as long as the Emperor was not molested. If the US leadership had not insisted on unconditional surrender — that is, if they had made clear a willingness to permit the Emperor to remain in place — the Japanese very likely would have surrendered immediately, thus saving many thousands of lives … General Curtis LeMay, who had pioneered precision bombing of Germany and Japan (and who later headed the Strategic Air Command and served as Air Force chief of staff), put it most succinctly: “The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war.”
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Liberating America From Israel
By Paul Findley
Nine-Eleven would not have occurred if the U.S. government had refused to help Israel humiliate and destroy Palestinian society. Few express this conclusion publicly, but many believe it is the truth. I believe the 9/11 catastrophe could have been prevented if any U.S. president in recent decades had had the courage and wisdom to suspend all U.S. aid until Israel withdrew from the Arab land seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The U.S. lobby for Israel is powerful and intimidating, but any determined president could prevail and win overwhelming public support for the suspension of aid by laying these facts before the American people.
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Our Mission and Record
Institute for Historical Review
In this five-minute video presentation, IHR director Mark Weber explains the Institute’s mission and record. “We strive to provide factual information and sound perspective on US foreign policy, World War Two, the Israel-Palestine conflict, Middle East history, the Jewish-Zionist role in cultural and political life, the ‘Holocaust’ remembrance campaign, war propaganda, and much more.” The IHR, is also explains, is an “independent educational center and publisher that works to promote peace, understanding and justice through greater public awareness of the past, and especially socially-politically relevant aspects of modern history.”
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The most widely anticipated speech ever given by Adolf Hitler was his address of April 28, 1939. It’s also widely regarded, even by his most vehement critics, as perhaps his most impressive address ever. It was a response to a much-publicized message from US President Franklin Roosevelt, who had called on the Chancellor to promise not to attack 31 countries. Broadcast on radio stations around the world, Hitler’s two-hour Reichstag speech was heard by millions. In the US, major radio networks broadcast it live. The next day, it was the leading news item on the front page of every major US daily newspaper. In his address, Hitler laid out his view of Germany’s place in the world, lucidly reviewed his government’s foreign policy objectives and achievements in recent years, and concluded with an eloquent, imposing retort to the US President.
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How Hitler Tackled Unemployment
By Mark Weber
To deal with the massive unemployment and economic paralysis of the Great Depression, both the US and German governments launched innovative and ambitious programs. Although President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” measures helped only marginally, the Third Reich’s much more focused and comprehensive policies proved remarkably effective. Within three years unemployment was banished and Germany’s economy was flourishing. And while Roosevelt’s record in dealing with the Depression is pretty well known, the remarkable story of how Hitler tackled the crisis is not widely understood or appreciated.
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Tactics of Organized Jewry in Suppressing Free Speech
Prof. Tony Martin – Institute for Historical Review
… I’m going to try to extract from my experience certain basic sort of tactics that I think the Jewish lobby has used over the years pertaining to my particular situation … The first and major tactic that I discovered in their attack on me was their reliance on lies — just straight-up lies. There’s no other way to describe it, just telling lies. Many of the categories that I will enumerate overlap, and many of them could also come under this general rubric of telling lies. But I think that if one had to isolate a single tactic, it was a tactic of telling lies. I think they’ve elevated telling lies to a very high artistic form.
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Why Germany Attacked the Soviet Union
Institute for Historical Review
As dawn was breaking on Sunday morning, June 22, 1941, military forces of Germany, Finland and Romania suddenly struck against the Soviet Union. The stunning news of this attack was announced to the world by German radio at 5:30 that Sunday morning, when Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels broadcast the text of a proclamation by Adolf Hitler to the German people that laid out his reasons for the historic offensive. Following that was the broadcast of Germany’s declaration of war against the Soviet Union. This was in the form of a diplomatic note to the Soviet government. Because Hitler’s proclamation and the German Foreign Office declaration explain at some length the reasons and motives for the fateful decision to strike against the USSR, these are documents of historic importance. With a foreword by Mark Weber.
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YouTube Censors 'Restrict' IHR Videos
Institute for Historical Review
In line with a recent crackdown policy, YouTube has “restricted” a number of independently produced videos of IHR talks and presentations. To watch a “restricted” video, the viewer must first click through a warning screen. Also, comments on the video are not allowed, and the number of views is not given. Even worse, YouTube will never “suggest” a “restricted” video to viewers, which is how many people find our videos. While YouTube claims that its “restriction” policy is aimed at videos with “inflammatory religious or supremacist content,” applying it to IHR videos is absurd. YouTube restricts our voice not because we have violated any objective standards, or because we have done anything wrong or illegal — but because it doesn’t like what we say.
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In 'Eisenhower's Death Camps': A U.S. Prison Guard Remembers
By Martin Brech
… In Andernach about 50,000 [German] prisoners of all ages were held in an open field surrounded by barbed wire. The women were kept in a separate enclosure that I did not see until later. The men I guarded had no shelter and no blankets. Many had no coats. They slept in the mud, wet and cold, with inadequate slit trenches for excrement … I encountered a captain on a hill above the Rhine shooting down at a group of German civilian women with his .45 caliber pistol. When I asked, “Why?,” he mumbled, “Target practice,” and fired until his pistol was empty.
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Stalin's War Against His Own Troops
By Yuri Teplyakov
… In August 1941 Hitler permitted a Red Cross delegation to visit the camp for Soviet POWs in Hammerstadt. It is these contacts that resulted in an appeal to the Soviet government, requesting that it should send food parcels for our officers and men. We are prepared to fulfill and comply with the norms of the Geneva convention, Moscow said in its reply, but sending food in the given situation and under fascist control is the same as making presents to the enemy … How great was Stalin’s hatred for those who had found themselves behind enemy lines. It made no difference: who, where, how and why? Even the dead were considered to be criminals.
News & Comment
Students Go After the Hypocrites
Eric Margolis
… The Biden administration is providing over $14.1 billion in arms to Israel, including the deadly 2,000 lb bombs used to crush entire civilian apartment buildings and hospitals, plus tank shells fired at residential targets. All in clear violation of US arms export laws written by Congress. Why is Biden the key player in such mass destruction? Why is his UN delegation vetoing resolutions to stop Israeli laying waste to Gaza? It’s election time coming up. And because the Democrats get the lion’s share of their finances from pro-Israel sources. Big money talks. Human rights walk. The US Congress, a sorry collection of used car salesmen, has been bought and sold. What a disgrace for the USA … The Gaza massacre has revealed the US to be a deeply corrupt society. University students at least helped save America’s honor.
Israel, US Said Working to Prevent ICC Arrest Warrant Against Netanyahu
The Times of Israel
According to reports in several Israeli media, the United States is part of a last-ditch diplomatic effort to prevent the International Criminal Court from issuing arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials … Netanyahu is “under unusual stress” over the prospect of an arrest warrant against him and other Israelis by the UN tribunal in The Hague, which would be a major deterioration in Israel’s international status. Netanyahu is leading a “nonstop push over the telephone” to prevent an arrest warrant … The US, which, like Israel, is not among the 124 countries that signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, is already engaged in the effort to block the arrest warrants, according to Harel.
Attorneys Inside and Outside the Administration Urge Biden to Cut Off Arms to Israel
Politico
A coalition of lawyers domestic and abroad — including at least 20 that work in the Biden administration — are calling on President Joe Biden to halt military aid to Israel, arguing that its actions in Gaza do not comply with U.S. and international humanitarian law. They plan to send a letter arguing their case to Attorney General Merrick Garland and general counsels across the administration in the coming days. In the letter, obtained by Politico, the lawyers contend that Israel likely violated U.S. statutes including the Arms Export Control Act and Leahy Laws as well as the Geneva Conventions prohibiting disproportionate attacks on civilian populations. The group that drafted the letter includes current attorneys from the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.
Disparate Impact Thinking Is Destroying Our Civilization
Heather MacDonald
The most consequential falsehood in American public policy today is the idea that any racial disparity in any institution is by definition the result of racial discrimination …As a result of this falsehood, we are eviscerating meritocratic and behavioral standards in accordance with what is known as “disparate impact analysis.” … What is at stake in these changes? Future medical progress and, ultimately, lives … If we cannot acknowledge the skills gap and the behavior gap, we are going to continue destroying our civilizational legacy … As for interracial violence, blacks are a greater threat to whites than whites are to blacks … It is urgent that we fight back against disparate impact thinking. As long as racism remains the only allowable explanation for racial disparities, the Left wins, and our civilization will continue to crumble.
America Warms to Mass Deportations
Axios
Half of Americans — including 42% of Democrats — say they’d support mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, according to a new Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll. And 30% of Democrats — as well as 46% of Republicans — now say they’d end birthright citizenship, something guaranteed under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution … Amid a record number of border crossings, nearly two-thirds of Americans said illegal immigration is a real crisis, not a politically driven media narrative … “I was surprised at the public support for large-scale deportations,” said Mark Penn, chairman of The Harris Poll and a former pollster for President Clinton.
The UniParty’s Day of Infamy
David Stockman
… The dreadful grip of the UniParty on national security policy has finally produced sheer madness in a single package. To wit: $95 billion of foreign aid boondoggles that do not benefit America’s homeland security in the slightest; An extension of section 702 of FISA that wantonly expands an already egregious affront to the Fourth Amendment … Only fourteen Republicans voted against all four components of this wholesale assault on constitutional liberty and fiscal rectitude. As we have previously documented, America is now careening on fiscal automatic pilot toward a $140 trillion public debt by mid-century, but the overwhelming share of House Republicans choose to hammer the US economy with even more debt …
Recalling Truman’s Fateful May 1948 Decision to Recognize Israel
Richard H. Curtiss
… An “insider’s account” of the discussions leading up to these [1947-1948] decisions has been published by former Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford, one of the few living parties to the discussions leading to partition … Clifford’s story once again disproves the assertion that American diplomatic or military personnel ever viewed Israel as a ” strategic asset.” The foreign policy establishment, 43 years ago as today, saw Israel as a geopolitical liability that owes its US support to the extraordinary clout of its apologists within the American Jewish community and the American political system.
Plato’s Final Hours Recounted in Scroll Found in Vesuvius Ash
The Guardian
Newly deciphered passages from a papyrus scroll that was buried beneath layers of volcanic ash after the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius may have shed light on the final hours of Plato, a key figure in the history of western philosophy. In a groundbreaking discovery, the ancient scroll was found to contain a previously unknown narrative detailing how the Greek philosopher spent his last evening, describing how he listened to music played on a flute by a Thracian slave girl. Despite battling a fever and being on the brink of death, Plato – who was known as a disciple of Socrates and a mentor to Aristotle, and who died in Athens around 348 BC – retained enough lucidity to critique the musician for her lack of rhythm, the account suggests.
TikTok Hypocrisy
Ron Paul
… One major reason behind strong bipartisan support for the TikTok ban is the wish to engage in a cold war with China … Another major reason banning TikTok has strong bipartisan support is that the site is being used by many young people to share information on the Israeli government’s action in Gaza. The head of the Anti-Defamation League was actually caught on tape complaining about the “TikTok problem.” This use of TikTok made TikTok a target for the many politicians who think the First Amendment makes an exception for speech critical of Israel. The silver lining in the TikTok ban is it is waking up more Americans, especially young Americans, to the threat the out-of-control welfare-warfare-surveillance state poses to their liberty and prosperity.
World Leaders Misdiagnose the US With a Crisis of Confidence
Daniel Larison – Responsible Statecraft
… One of the biggest problems with our foreign policy is that U.S. policymakers remain enthusiastic about a “leadership” role that is ill-suited to current realities. American power is in relative decline, but our foreign policy is still defined by the pursuit of dominance in every region. Our political leaders are eager to reaffirm and expand U.S. commitments without any real debate over the risks or the resources that will be needed to make good on those commitments … Far from suffering from a crisis of confidence, the U.S. still seems far too sure of itself. The U.S. doesn’t need to hear self-serving cheerleading from allies about how “indispensable” it is. It needs sober advice on how it can responsibly unwind the many unnecessary commitments it has accumulated over generations … A thorough reassessment of our foreign policy is long overdue.
Netanyahu Calls for Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Protesters in the US
D. DeCamp - Antiwar.com
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday called for a crackdown on Americans protesting against Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza at college campuses across the United States. “What’s happening in America’s college campuses is horrific. Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities,” Netanyahu said. His comments echoed President Biden, who labeled the demonstrations “antisemitic protests.” At some American universities, police have arrested and dispersed protesters, but Netanyahu said more should be done … “We see this exponential rise of antisemitism throughout America and throughout Western societies as Israel tries to defend itself against genocidal terrorists, genocidal terrorists who hide behind civilians,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu Likens US Campus Encampments by ‘Antisemitic Mobs’ to 1930s Nazi Germany
The Times of Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lambasted “an antisemitic surge” in the United States in an English-language video message Wednesday, amid widespread anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses across the US … “Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities. They call for the annihilation of Israel, they attack Jewish students, they attack Jewish faculty,” Netanyahu charged in his statement, which likened the scenes to those that preceded the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. “This is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s. It’s unconscionable. It has to be stopped. It has to be condemned unequivocally,” the Israeli premier said.
Is Putin Bent on Conquering Europe?
Ted Snider – American Conservative
… President Joe Biden told Congress on December 6 that “If Putin takes Ukraine, he won’t stop there … He’s going to keep going. He’s made that pretty clear.” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned that “Putin will not stop at Ukraine.” … The insistence that Putin’s ambitions are not limited to Ukraine but have their sights on Europe is based on two historical myths … The historical record shows that, in his over two decades in power, Putin has not “kept going.” When Russian forces have been deployed, they have been limited to specific objectives when they could have easily kept going, as in Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014, when military conquest could have been accomplished with ease.
German Reparations for Holocaust Reveal Complexities of Atonement
Christian Science Monitor
Germany is considered a global model when it comes to atonement, having paid out nearly 90 billion euros [US$ 96 billion] to Holocaust survivors around the world over the past 70 years. The government has constructed world-class memorials and museums to highlight Nazi Germany’s role in the murder of six million Jews. Holocaust education is mandated in the public school curriculum, and the federal government staunchly allies itself with Israel … There are an estimated 245,000 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust era left. Germany has made some form of payments to survivors since the 1950s, when the Claims Conference first began negotiating on behalf of survivors and administering the resulting payments … Last year’s negotiation resulted in $1.4 billion for 2024, with additional one-time funds for some of the poorest survivors …
Final Nail in America’s Coffin?
Ron Paul
When future historians go searching for the final nail in the US coffin, they may well settle on the date April 20, 2024. On that day Congress passed legislation to fund two and a half wars, hand what’s left of our privacy over to the CIA and NSA, and give the US president the power to shut down whatever part of the Internet he disagrees with. The nearly $100 billion grossly misnamed “National Security Supplemental” guarantees that Ukrainians will continue to die in that country’s unwinnable war with Russia, that Palestinian civilians will continue to be slaughtered in Gaza with US weapons, and that the neocons will continue to push us toward a war with China. It was a total victory for the war party. The huge spending bill is all about politics for Biden, yet so many Republicans simply went along with it.
Quotations From Chairman Maher, NPR’s New CEO
Christopher F. Rufo – City Journal
Katherine Maher has a golden résumé … As of last month, she is CEO of National Public Radio … On every topic, Maher adopts the fashionable language of left-wing academic theory and uses it as social currency, even when her efforts veer into self-parody … Maher’s general policy at Wikipedia, she tweeted, was to support efforts to “eliminate racist, misogynist, transphobic, and other forms of discriminatory content” … The new CEO of NPR, then, is a left-wing ideologue who supports wide-scale censorship and considers the First Amendment an impediment to her campaign to sanitize the world of wrong opinions. Maher is no aberration. She is part of a rising cohort of affluent, left-wing, female managers who dominate the departments of university administration, human resources, and DEI.
As Surgeons, We Have Never Seen Cruelty Like Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
F. Sidhwa, M. Perlmutter – Common Dreams
On March 25 the two of us, an orthopedic surgeon and a trauma surgeon, traveled to the Gaza Strip to work at Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis … As humanitarian surgeons we thought we had seen all manner of cruelty in the world, but neither one of us has ever experienced anything like what we found when we arrived in Gaza … We walked through the wards and immediately found evidence of horrifying violence deliberately directed at civilians and even children … As we got to work we were shocked by the violence inflicted on people. Incredibly powerful explosives ripped apart rock, floors, and walls and threw them through human bodies, penetrating skin with waves of dirt and debris.
China Has Over 200 Times the U.S.’s Shipbuilding Capacity
Video - The Wall Street Journal
China has transformed into a shipbuilding powerhouse over the past two decades, cementing its status as a major maritime power. In 2023, more than half of the world’s commercial shipbuilding came from China, while the U.S. accounted for less than 1%. Runtime: 8:24 mins.
‘Half of the Holocaust’: David Cole’s Final Word on the Final Solution
Video
David Cole lays out his considered view about “the Holocaust,” “gas chambers,” and the “six million” in this two-hour interview with Frodi Midjord, and looks back at how his views on this emotion-laden subject have evolved. Cole, who is Jewish, was famous or notorious especially during the 1990s as a prominent “Holocaust revisionist.” His widely viewed “Cole-Piper Auschwitz video,” based on his 1992 visit to the camp site, exposes some of the deceit of the familiar Holocaust narrative. During those years Cole also presented his provocative views on national television. He was a victim of physical violence by Jewish Defense League thugs. In recent years he has been a regular columnist for Taki’s online magazine.
Breaking Silence: My Secret Life, and Why I’m Still a Holocaust Revisionist
David Cole; Audio CDs. Two disc set.
David Cole breaks 18 years of silence to speak publicly for the first time about his challenges, achievements, and mishaps during the 1990s, and his remarkable new career under an assumed name. His articulate presentation at a special IHR meeting is packed with colorful anecdotes, humorous asides and eye-opening insights. This two-disc IHR recording includes an introduction by Mark Weber, and the meeting’s lively question-and-answer session.