IHR: Is the Ship Sinking?

Background and Effects of a Nine-Year Crisis

Germar Rudolf

In his 1993 PhD thesis, the New Zealand historian Joel S. Hayward described the California Institute for Historical Review as revisionism's "mover and shaker." And in fact the Institute and its flagship, the periodical The Journal of Historical Review, have had a leading, and often decisive, role in international revisionism since they were established in 1979 and 1980, respectively. However, at almost the same time as Hayward published his doctoral dissertation, the IHR began its decline, initiated by a huge sum of inherited money that caused a major disagreement between IHR's staff and its founder Willis Carto over whether IHR or Carto would control the money. The legal battle over this money has now lasted nine years, and an end is not in sight. In the meantime, the IHR's effectiveness has suffered greatly, and in consequence that of international revisionism scarcely less. More and more critical voices are pointing out IHR's lacks and calling for measures to correct them. The following contribution gives a short summary of the history and background of the current IHR crisis, as well as of critiques by others.

The Institute for Historical Review

Since the 1960s, Willis A. Carto has been quite successful doing business as a right-wing political publisher. In the 1960s and 1970s, he published the American Mercury, a successful political magazine with a right-wing conservative slant. It was in the Mercury that, in 1966, Carto published the first Holocaust revisionist articles to appear in America.[1] Two years later Carto received an anonymous manuscript entitled The Myth of the Six Million, which analyzed inconsistencies in the Holocaust tale. In 1969, Carto published this booklet, which later served as a raw model for Richard Verall's Did Six Million Really Die?,[2] in his small publishing house The Noontide Press. It turned out later that the author of this first Holocaust revisionist work in the English language was David L. Hoggan.

After Holocaust revisionism had gained considerable momentum due to the publications of Paul Rassinier,[3] Franz Scheidl,[4] Thies Christophersen,[5] Arthur Butz,[6] Wilhelm Stäglich[7] and finally the controversy stirred up in France by Prof. Robert Faurisson,[8] Willis Carto took the initiative and, together with various other revisionists, in 1979 established the Institute for Historical Review, followed by its chief publication, the Journal of Historical Review, in the following year. This periodical replaced Carto's American Mercury, which he suspended at that time to make room for the new publication. Thereafter the mailing list of the former periodical became available to the institute and its new journal.

Even though the IHR was formally an independent entity, it depended heavily on Carto's organizational skills and massive financial support. He viewed the IHR both as his offspring and as his scholarly prestige project. As with other organizations he had founded, such as the Liberty Lobby, Carto was always the gray eminence in the background of the IHR. Formally he exercised no direct influence on the organization, but in fact controlled all lines of authority, choosing, for example, only such corporate directors as would safeguard his interests. Malicious voices might call such board members mere Carto's puppets. But it has to be understood that most of the organizations established by Carto would hardly have been able to survive without his financial input and his organizational skills.

It is, of course, very risky to build a publishing empire in this way, for if the actual power is not in the hands of those who, legally seen, should have it--the board members--any kind of "palace revolt" can lead to serious conflict between those with the actual power, such as Carto, and those who exercise authority formally--and legally.

That is exactly what happened in 1993, after Mrs. Farrel-Edison, reputedly a descendant of the famous inventor Thomas Edison and a longtime supporter of the Institute for Historical Review, died and left a multi-million dollars fortune to the IHR.

Battle over Money

Greed is the death of all friendships. The millions inherited by the IHR might have tempted both IHR's behind-the-scenes management and its staff. As the founder and gray eminence of the IHR, who decided all its major financial matters and was used to dealing with large sums of money, Carto felt entitled to control the inheritance. After all, it was Carto who founded the IHR and had established the relationship with the late Mrs. Farell-Edison. Hence, he simply took control of the millions, which he probably did not intend to spend entirely on Holocaust revisionism.

The IHR's employees, however, insisted that the money had been inherited by the IHR and not by Carto. This fight eventually escalated to an incident in which Carto, his wife, and three others sought to regain power at the IHR by taking physical control of its offices, whereupon one of the IHR's employees, Greg Raven, drew a gun, effectively ending the Cartos' attempt. Subsequently, the IHR's board of directors was changed from a puppet show staged by Carto into one put on by the IHR's employees, in a manner not to be described here in more detail.

The hatred aroused on both sides by this greed and by the ensuing violent confrontation led to lawsuits in which the two sides tried to bankrupt each other. All attempts to mediate failed due to the stubbornness of both sides. The only winners of this ongoing fight have been the lawyers--and revisionism's opponents. Millions of dollars have been wasted, and years of creative research as well as countless publications have been lost to the bickering.

The Excuse

Of course, no company can function properly if it is permanently engaged in legal fights. It is therefore not surprising that since 1993 the IHR's productivity has been less than adequate. It is also understandable many revisionists have excused the IHR's lack of productivity entirely on the basis of the ongoing legal battles against Willis Carto. Prof. R. Faurisson, for instance, expressed this view recently in an email to the IHR's director Mark Weber as follows:[9]

"I, for one, have witnessed the sheer extent of the work which was yours in the days you had to fight against Carto the Thief and Liar. I remember how, first with Tom Marcellus and then without him, you and Greg, you had to deal with mountains of papers and legal matters. At the time I thought it was an impossible task. I admired you nearly as much as I admired Ernst Zündel in his own uphill climb. This should be remembered forever."

The reader will have noticed that Faurisson takes sides here, and that he insults Carto by calling him a criminal, which is in itself legally actionable.[10] His language gives indication of how irreconcilable is the gulf which separates today's revisionists.

However, things aren't as simple as they seem at first glance. The ongoing legal fight against Carto has of course been a tremendous burden for the IHR, but, since neither side is willing to give in, both must share responsibility for the continuing impasse.

Furthermore, I would like to offer a provocative notion in order to make the reader think: to date the IHR has prevailed in every one of the court cases against Carto. All of Carto's own recoverable assets have been confiscated by the court and transferred to the IHR, and Carto's Liberty Lobby has been forced into bankruptcy. Should it therefore not be Carto who is no longer able to work effectively? But in fact he continues to successfully publish the revisionist periodical The Barnes Review[11] and the weekly tabloid American Free Press. Despite all its victories, it is the IHR which functions very ineffectively. There may be a variety of reasons for this fact, and I would like to analyze them below, after first proving my thesis that the IHR is working most unproductively.

The IHR's Productivity

A comparison between the productivity of Carto's companies and the IHR is probably unfair: one can argue that Carto has access to a larger circle of supporters and subscribers, and thus greater financial resources, than the IHR, just as it can be argued (but, to date, not proved) that Carto has hidden the money stemming from the inheritance and is using it to finance his enterprises, as well as his legal attacks on the IHR.

I therefore venture to make a completely different, and much more enlightening, comparison: between my production, as one individual, and that of the IHR, an organization. This comparison is an unbalanced one, to be sure, but does it favor the IHR?:

Let us now turn to the raw production figures.

BOOKS 1994-2004

(Reprints of old works not included)

A. GERMAR RUDOLF

  1. Ernst Gauss, Grundlagen zur Zeitgeschichte, Grabert, Tübingen, November 1994, 418 pp., also online (www.vho.org/D/gzz).
  2. Herbert Verbeke, Auschwitz: Nackte Fakten, Vrij Historisch Onderzoek, Berchem, December 1995, 176 pp., also online. (www.vho.org/D/anf).
  3. Germar Rudolf, Kardinalfragen zur Zeitgeschichte, Vrij Historisch Onderzoek, Berchem, December 1996, 120 pp., also online (www.vho.org/D/Kardinal).
  4. Jürgen Graf, Carlo Mattogno, KL Majdanek, Castle Hill Publishers, Hastings, July 1998, 320 pp., also online (www.vho.org/D/Majdanek).
  5. Jürgen Graf, Carlo Mattogno, Das Konzentrationslager Stutthof, Castle Hill Publishers, Hastings, August 1999, 144 pp., also online (www.vho.org/D/Stutthof).
  6. Jürgen Graf, Riese auf tönernen Füßen, Castle Hill Publishers, Hastings, October 1999, 160 pp., also online (www.vho.org/D/Riese).
  7. Ernst Gauss, Dissecting the Holocaust, Theses & Dissertations Press, Capshaw, AL, August 2000, 608 pp., also online (www.vho.org/GB/Books/dth).
  8. Jürgen Graf, The Giant with Feet of Clay, Theses & Dissertations Press, Capshaw, AL, March 2001, 128 pp., also online (www.vho.org/GB/Books/Giant).
  9. Joachim Hoffmann, Stalin's War of Extermination, Theses & Dissertations Press, Capshaw, AL, 416 pp., not online.
  10. Germar Rudolf, Das Rudolf Gutachten, Castle Hill Publishers, Hastings, UK, 2001, 240pp., also online (www.vho.org/D/rga2) and as CD-ROM.
  11. Gregory Douglas, Regicide, Monte Sano Media, Huntsville, A, 2002, 224pp. not online.
  12. Carlo Mattogno, Jürgen Graf, Treblinka: Vernichtungslager oder Durchgangslager?, Castle Hill Publishers, Hastings, UK, 2002, 432pp.
  13. Germar Rudolf, The Rudolf Report, Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago, IL, 2003, 453pp., also online (www.vho.org/GB/Books/trr)
  14. Jürgen Graf, Carlo Mattogno, Concentration Camp Majdanek, Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago, IL, 2003, 316pp., also online (www.vho.org/GB/Books/ccm); 2nd., rev. ed., 320pp., 2004.
  15. Jürgen Graf, Carlo Mattogno, Concentration Camp Stutthof, Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago, IL, 2003, 122pp., also online (www.vho.org/GB/Books/ccs); 2nd., rev. ed., 126 pp, 2004.
  16. Germar Rudolf, Dissecting the Holocaust, 2nd., rev., paperback ed., Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago, IL, 2003, 616pp.
  17. Don Heddesheimer, The First Holocaust, Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago, IL, 2003, 140pp., also online (www.vho.org/GB/Books/tfh)
  18. Arthur R. Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century, 3rd, revised edition, Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago, IL, 2003, 506pp., also online (www.vho.org/GB/Books/thottc)
  19. Carlo Mattogno, Sonderbehandlung in Auschwitz, Castle Hill Publishers, Hastings, UK, 2003, 160pp.
  20. Carlo Mattogno, Jürgen Graf, Treblinka: Extermination Camp or Transit Camp?
    21. , Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago, IL, 2003, 370pp., also online (www.vho.org/GB/Books/t)
  21. R.H. Countess, Ch. Lindtner, G. Rudolf (eds.), Exactitude. Festschrift for Robert Faurisson to his 75th Birthday, Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago, IL, 2004, 140pp., also online (www.vho.org/GB/Books/e)
  22. Carlo Mattogno, Belzec in Propaganda, Testimonies, Archeological Research, and History, Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago, IL, 2004, 138pp., also online (www.vho.org/GB/Books/b)
  23. Don Heddesheimer, Der Erste Holocaust, Castle Hill Publishers, Hastings, UK, 2004, 174pp.
  24. Ingrid Weckert, Auswanderung der Juden aus dem 3. Reich, Castle Hill Publishers, Hastings, UK, 2004, 61pp.
  25. Carlo Mattogno, Special Treatment at Auschwitz, Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago, IL, 2004, 151pp., also online (www.vho.org/GB/Books/st)
  26. Ingrid Weckert, Jewish Emigration from the Third Reich, Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago, IL, 2004, 72pp.
  27. Carlo Mattogno, Bunkers of Auschwitz. Black Propaganda versus History, Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago, IL, 2004, 266pp. also online (www.vho.org/GB/Books/tboa)

B. Institute of Historical Review
  1. Roger Garaudy, The Founding Myths of Israel, 224 pp., 6"×9", not online.

C. Performance Ratio Rudolf/IHR:

26:1 by books, 32:1 by pages

JOURNALS 1997-2004

A. GERMAR RUDOLF

G. Rudolf's German journal was established in 1997, therefore this period of time is taken. It should be noted that a considerable amount of the articles published in his journal stems from other periodicals, like The Barnes Review, The Journal of Historical Review (both English), Akribeia, L'Autre Histoire, Revision (all three French), etc., as it should be for a reputable revisionist periodical. Also, since 2003 Rudolf publishes The Revisionist:

Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung [Quarterly journal for free historical research], ISSN 1370-7507, (end of 2004: 3280 pp. DIN A4 with 7000 characters per page =) 23 million characters, completely online (www.vho.org/VffG).

The Revisionist, ISSN 1542-376X, (end of 2004: 842 pp. 8.5"×11" with 6500 characters per page =) 5.5 million characters, partly online (www.vho.org/tr).

B. Institute of Historical Review

Journal for Historical Review, ISSN 0195-6752, (end of 2003: 1410 pages letter size with 5000 characters per page =) 7.0 million characters, partly online (www.ihr.org/jhr/JHRvolumes.html). The JHR hardly ever features articles published in any other foreign language revisionist periodical. Its publication was supsended in 2003

C. Performance Ratio Rudolf/IHR:

2.9:1 by pages, 4.1:1 by content

WEBSITES

A. GERMAR RUDOLF

  1. http://www.vho.org (the multilingual revisionist website with the highest data download, a gigantic revisionist resource, put there almost entirely by myself!)
  2. http://www.tadp.org
  3. http://www.ihr.org - the entire text of all issues of the Journal for Historical Review vol. 1 through vol. 12 was scanned, OCR-processed, corrected and formatted by Germar Rudolf himself and a friend of G. Rudolf, who got paid for this by G. Rudolf.

B. Institute of Historical Review

  1. www.ihr.org - note: the entire text of all issues of the JHR vol. 1 through vol. 12 was scanned, OCR-processed, corrected and formatted by Germar Rudolf himself and a friend of G. Rudolf, who got paid for this by G. Rudolf.

RESEARCH EXPENSES

A. GERMAR RUDOLF

Since 1997, Rudolf has spent almost $50,000 to finance the purchase of documents from eastern European archives, and to pay researches analyzing them. This effort goes on, despite the fact that he has to take this money from his living expenses, and pile up lawyer bills once in a while...

B. Institute of Historical Review

Zero spent on research expenses.

C. Performance Ratio Rudolf/IHR:

$50.000:0 by funds.

CONFERENCES

A. GERMAR RUDOLF

As a fleeing and hiding "criminal", it is impossible to organize conferences.

B. Institute of Historical Review

  1. September 3-5, 1994
  2. May 27-29, 2000
  3. End of June, 2002
  4. April 23-25, 2004: picking up the pieces of the busted Sacramento Conference.

C. Performance Ratio Rudolf/IHR:

0:3.5

BOOK PROJECTS

A. GERMAR RUDOLF

The completion of some of these projects depends primarily on my legal status in the USA.

  1. Carlo Mattogno, Belzec (German edition, at printer)
  2. Germar Rudolf, Vorlesungen über den Holocaust (at proofreader)
  3. Germar Rudolf, Kardinalfragen an Deutschlands Politiker (at proofreader)
  4. Carlo Mattogno, The Central Construction Office in Auschwitz (layouting)
  5. Carlo Mattogno, Die Zentralbauleitung von Auschwitz (layouting to be scheduled)
  6. Germar Rudolf, Auschwitz-Lügen (writing well progressed, translation planned)
  7. Germar Rudolf, Lectures on the Holocaust, 500pp.
    8. (in translation)
  8. Walter Post, Hitler's Defamed Wehrmacht. Reality and Propaganda
    9. (in translation)
  9. Franz. W. Seidler, Victim Wehrmacht. Atrocities of the Red Army
    10.  (in translation)
  10. Carlo Mattogno, Auschwitz: The First Gassing (due for translation)
  11. Carlo Mattogno, Auschwitz: Die erste Vergassung (due for translation)
  12. Carlo Mattogno, Geschichtsleugung (assembling)
  13. Carlo Mattogno, Denying History (translation scheduled)
  14. Fred. A. Leuchter, The Leuchter Reports. Critically Commented Edition (assembling)
  15. Germar Rudolf, Grundlagen des Holocaust, 2nd revised edition (planning stage)
  16. Germar Rudolf, Der Auschwitz-Prozeß (research stage)
  17. Carlo Mattogno, The Crematories of Auschwitz (translation to be scheduled)
  18. Ernst Manon, Tödliches Allotria. Die jüdische Umarmung der westlichen Gesellschaft
    19. (editing stage, postponed)
  19. Carlo Mattogno, Manfred Gerner, Micheel Gärtner, Auschwitz: The Real History
    20. (research stage)
  20. Richard Krege, The Krege Report. Ground Penetrating Radar Research at the Operation Reinhardt Camps Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibor  (projected)
  21. John Clive Ball, Air Photo Evidence, 2nd revised edition (projected)
  22. Jürgen Graf, Manfred Köhler, ‘Eyewitnesses’ for the Holocaust (projected)
  23. Victor Suvorov, Icebreaker. Hitler in Stalin's Strategy.
    24. (possible project)
  24. Victor Suvorov, Day M. Pinpointing Stalin's Date to Overrun Europe
    25.   (possible project)
  25. Victor Suvorov, Suffocating World Revolution. How Hitler prevented Stalin's First Strike
    26.   (possible project)
  26. Franz W. Seidler, Partisan Warfare in WWII. Dispelling Legends and Propaganda
    27.   (possible project)
  27. Claus Nordbruch, German Bloodletting. Reparation and Compensation for Germans?
    28.   (possible project)
  28. Philippe Gautier, Germanophobia. Origin, Background, Effects
    29.   (possible project)

B. Institute of Historical Review

unknown

C. Performance Ratio Rudolf/IHR:

28:??? by books

Summary

The result of this purely quantitative comparison is obvious and so embarrassing for the IHR that I spare any further comment..

Considering these facts, it is not really surprising to make the following conclusion when analyzing the publicly accessible financial records of the IHR:[12]

  1. The IHR's list of expenses does not include a position proving that there was any noticeable production like printing costs for books of journals. The IHR's main expenses are attorney fees, salaries and rents.

  2. When the IHR received several hundred thousand dollars from Carto in 2000, this money was not only spent on paying lawyer fees, but also to roughly double the salaries of the IHR employees. There was, however, still no noticeable expense for production.

Thus, the results of this analysis require a different explanation than that a higher productivity and efficiency was impossible due to the ongoing conflict with W. Carto. Thus, I will dig more deeply in the following.

My initial experiences with the IHR

[Note of December 2004: In order to improve relationships with the IHR, and thus hopefully its performance, I decided to temporarily remove my exhaustive criticism of the IHR staff.]

Notes

[1]Austin J. App, That Elusive Six Million, The American Mercury, Summer 1966, p. 112; Teressa Hendry, Was Anne Frank's Diary A Hoax?, ibid., Summer 1967, p. 109; Leo Heiman, The Jews That Aren't, ibid., Fall 1967, p. 107; Herbert C. Roseman, Paul Rassinier: Historical Revisionist, ibid., Fall 1968, p. 116; Harry Elmer Barnes, Zionist Fraud, ibid., Fall 1968, p. 117; online: http://www.vho.org/GB/Books/tmotsm/index.html
[2]Historical Review Press, Richmond, GB, 1975; online: http://www.zundelsite.org/english/harwood/Didsix01.html
[3]Le Mensonge d' Ulysse, La Vieille Taupe, 1979. Ulysse trahi par les siens, La Vieille Taupe, 1980. Le Véritable Procès Eichmann ou les vainqueurs incorrigibles, La Vieille Taupe, 1983. Le Drame des juifs européens, La Vieille Taupe, 1985. L'Opération "Vicaire": Le rôle de Pie XII devant l'histoire, La Table ronde, 1965.
[4]Geschichte der Verfemung Deutschlands, 8 vols., publ. by author, Vienna 1968 (online: http://www.vho.org/D/gdvd_2)
[5]Die Auschwitz-Lüge, Kritik no. 23, Mohrkirch 1973; Der Auschwitz-Betrug, Kritik no. 27, ibid.
[6]The Hoax of the Twentieth Century, Historical Review Press, Richmond 1976.
[7]Der Auschwitz-Mythos, Grabert, Tübingen 1979 (online: vho.org/D/dam).
[8]"'Le problème des chambres à gaz' ou 'la rumeur d'Auschwitz'", Le Monde, 29.12.1978, p. 8; cf. "The 'problem of the gas chambers'", JHR, 1(2) (1980), p. 103 (online: ihr.org/jhr/v01/v01p103_Faurisson.html); cf. article and letters to the editor in R. Faurisson, Mémoire en défense, La Vieille Taupe, Paris 1980, pp. 71-101.
[9]Email to Mark Weber, 7/3/2002.
[10]Carto was never convicted in a penal court, but lost only civil court cases, hence he cannot be described as a criminal („thief").
[11]130 Third St., SE, Washington, D.C., 20003, USA; http://www.barnesreview.org/
[12]Cf. the publicly accessible revenue declarations of the LSF online: http://justice.hdcdojnet.state.ca.us/charitysr/trust_list.asp?CT_INT=97397&intPageT=1, particularly of the year 2001: http://167.10.5.131/Ct0501_0600/0568/1SNZ3IE.PDF