THE LIGHT OF THE TRUTH CAN CAST THE BLACKEST SHADOWS

Towards a post-truth world.

by Daniel Barge 

Today is the birthday of Robert Faurisson, the man described by the "lamestream" media as "the father of the Holocaust denial movement." He was born on this day in 1929 and died in 2018 at the age of 89 in his hometown of Vichy. 

Although denounced as a closet Nazi and a hatemonger, he was in reality a mild-mannered historical revisionist who, whatever you think about his historical research, was unjustly persecuted for his views by an illiberal French state.

Born in England to a French father and a Scottish mother, Faurisson later moved to France and became a professor of French literature. In the early 1960s he became a sympathiser with the French colonialists in Algeria, and was even arrested as a suspected member of the Organisation Armée Secrète, a paramilitary group that carried out attacks on those who supported a French pull-out from Algeria.

He also became a defender of Marshal Petain, the French leader who was unfairly convicted of "collaborating" with the Nazis in World War II, when he became President of Vichy France, the part of France that was not occupied by the Germans. All defeated nations have to "collaborate" to a certain extent with their conquerors, and Petain took over as President in order to protect France as much as was possible following its crushing defeat in 1940. When the pendulum swung the other way and France was liberated, he became a convenient scapegoat for the kind of behaviour that tens of millions of French people had participated in.

These experiences prepared Faurisson for the work for which he became famous, namely presenting an alternative view to the official Holocaust narrative, which contained many factual errors and was often based on false accounts.

Faurisson famously claimed that the gas chambers in Auschwitz were the "biggest lie of the 20th century" and attacked the authenticity of the famous "Diary of Anne Frank," claiming it was a forgery. He believed that most Jewish deaths were due to disease and malnutrition caused by the chaos of war and the bombing of supply lines by the Allies. 

Needless to say these ideas were like catnip to many Neo-Nazis, White Nationalists, present-day Alt-Righters, Jew obsessives, and of course the Feds and agent provocateurs who like to manipulate them. But Faurisson was firmly focused on the facts as he saw them.

Interestingly, some on the Left actually supported Faurisson on the grounds that he was entitled to free speech. In 1980 one of his works was published with an introduction by Noam Chomsky, of all people, who stated:

"I see no anti-Semitic implications in denial of the existence of gas chambers, or even denial of the Holocaust...I see no hint of anti-Semitic implications in Faurisson's work."

The French government meanwhile moved increasingly towards heavy-handed censorship. In 1990 a law was passed by France's Socialist government making Holocaust revision a crime. The next year Faurisson was dismissed from his academic post. 

Throughout the years he faced several court cases and was fined for so-called "holocaust denial."

In later life he became friendly with the controversial comedian and political activist Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, appearing with him on stage. On one of these occasions Dieudonné awarded Faurisson an "insolent outcast" prize, which was rather tastelessly presented by one of Dieudonné's assistants dressed in a concentration camp uniform with a yellow badge. 

Because of the role of the "official" Holocaust narrative in legitimising the state of the Israel, he was much admired in the Muslim world. In 2012 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran granted Faurisson an award for "courage" in Tehran.

By attacking the Holocaust narrative, Faurisson was attempting to counter the demonisation of certain nationalist elements in Europe. In short, his work was an attempt not only to get at the truth but also to fight hatred. However, he did not manage to achieve this.

The heavy-handed draconian efforts to clamp down on free speech that he sparked off, accelerated our descent to a post-truth World later identified by Ralph Keyes and Colin Crouch in their 2004 books The Post-Truth Era and Post-Democracy. Rather than the Holocaust becoming a topic of objective historical debate, it became a convenient cosh to demonise and smear nationalists as hate-filled bigots; while, on the other hand, it created the unfortunate impression, whether true or not, that Jews were overly dominant and privileged, something that continues to provoke further hatred against them.

Connected content: Holocaust Amnesia Day