Dialogue: Pro-Nazi campaign stains image of New Zealand

DAVID DICKENS* says the way New Zealand's good name has been besmirched by right-wing extremists raises a cyberspace security issue.

New Zealand's good name has been appropriated in a cyberspace propaganda battle being waged by right-wing pseudo-academics with links to anti-Semitic right wing extremist groups.

The leading light in this cyberspace tussle is the disgraced British amateur historian David Irving. A British judge recently found that Irving deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence, portraying Hitler in an unwarrantedly favourable light. Irving was also found to be an active Holocaust denier, and associated with right-wing extremists who promote neo-nazism.

Irving is one of a band of pseudo-academics who refer to themselves as historical revisionists. The hallmarks of this form of historical revisionism have little to do with the scholarly variety. The pseudo historical revisionists share Irving's predilection for denying the Holocaust and for portraying the Nazis in a favourable light. Some revisionists assiduously cultivate anti-Semitism.

There are proven personal links between the revisionists and some right-wing extremists. Having said this, the linkage should not be overstated. The political values and methods of the extreme right are enormously diverse.

Some seek to replace democracy with totalitarian rule. Others prefer non-violence. Some seek political goals confined to ethnic and religious political discrimination on issues such as immigration, social policy and housing. Others are racial supremacists and extreme nationalists.

The most dangerous fringe of the extreme right is little more than organised criminals in uniform who will attack and are armed. Neo-Nazi skinheads in Britain and Europe are one manifestation of this phenomenon. Another is the far right militia in the United States that are armed and resort to mass terrorism. Timothy McVeigh, responsible for the bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma that killed dozens of people, is an example of the clean-shaven terrorist extreme right.

David Irving and his cohorts are not responsible for the actions of the McVeighs of the world. What they are responsible for is an undermining of religious tolerance, and of the Western liberal conscience that defines itself at least in part by its opposition to totalitarianism.

By arguing that Hitler was not a bad fellow (and quite a good general), and that the Holocaust did not happen, the pseudo historical revisionists help to rehabilitate the reputation of 20th-century fascist totalitarianism. They undermine liberalism's proud values, such as openness, fairness, tolerance, dignity, the rule of law and democracy. By undermining liberalism and rehabilitating totalitarianism the job of promoting religious and ethnic tolerance and an open society is made all the more difficult.

New Zealand has played an unwitting role in this process. Unbeknown to most New Zealanders, Canterbury University awarded a first-class honours pass to a MA thesis by Joel Hayward which stated that Irving and other Holocaust deniers such as Robert Faurisson were balanced and authoritative researchers and that the Holocaust was not about total extermination but deportation. It also supported discredited sources that argued that forced labour and gas chambers did not exist, and nothing like six million Jews perished.

Between 1993 and 1999 the thesis was embargoed. Somehow it found its way to Irving (and to another Holocaust denier) who has used it on his website to support his own disreputable and emphatically discredited beliefs. Irving, for instance, writes on his website that the masters thesis "was a landmark in the turning of the tide in the favour of historical revisionism."

The author has since apologised for the grief his writings on the Holocaust have caused to Jews and has withdrawn or modified some of his conclusions. But the damage is done. The thesis provided Irving with credibility. It stands alone as the only MA with the status of a degree denying the Holocaust, and that explicitly supports Holocaust deniers, awarded by a Western university.

Ironically, the university that awarded this degree was the home of liberal philosopher Karl Popper during the Second World War. While at Canterbury, Popper, a refugee of the Nazis, began one of the greatest modern statements of liberal values, The Open Society and its Enemies, a critique of fascist and communist totalitarianism.

The fact that a New Zealand university had awarded the degree added another layer of credibility to Irving's dubious reputation. New Zealand has a proud reputation for cultural tolerance and openness. An MA thesis asserting that Irving was a credible historian carried weight because it carried the imprimatur of New Zealand. One consequence is damage to New Zealand's reputation for academic integrity.

Irving's website, along with those of his fellow travellers, carry a mass of Holocaust denial links. New Zealand has been used by Holocaust deniers as they wage an unregulated propaganda war on the Internet. This is a point not lost on them - and they are not surprisingly in favour of total unregulated access to cyberspace.

When challenged, the deniers portray themselves as brave champions of freedom of speech. After losing his libel suit, Irving has presented himself on his website as a martyr - a victim of continued Jewish conspiracy against himself.

The case illustrates how easy it is for others to appropriate New Zealand's good name for ugly purposes without most of us even noticing. On another level, the work of the Holocaust deniers and the role they play in undermining the values of liberal democracy is a transnational phenomenon. The use of cyberspace (open to an unregulated and unlimited global audience) by the extreme right warrants further attention as a genuine security issue.

* Dr David Dickens is the director of the Centre for Strategic Studies.