Dear Editor:
I worked at the Fitzhugh a number of years ago. Periodically, I like to check back and see what’s going on in town. Jasper is a terrific community, which is why I’m dismayed to see that it is home to at least one Holocaust denier. People are allowed to express their beliefs, however odious, and I’m wary of the chilling effects that hate speech laws and human rights commissions have on free expression. Freedom of expression, however, does not legitimize hatred or shield its purveyors from scrutiny. Indeed, shining a light on hateful beliefs allows us to rebut them.
I’m Jewish. No, this doesn’t mean that I’m part of a global Zionist conspiracy; and no, my membership card wasn’t lost in the mail, in case you’re wondering. I’m also a grandchild of Holocaust survivors. To deny the horror of my grandmother’s experience in Auschwitz is to deny fact. It also denies the stories of more than 50,000 survivors and witnesses whose testimony has been collected by the Shoah Foundation.
The Holocaust is one of the most widely researched events in human history; its historical facts are irrefutable and its effects have been long-lasting and multigenerational. Holocaust denial, in short, requires individuals to suspend history and science in service to hatred. To put this feat of superhuman ignorance in a broader context, consider some logical – i.e. not moral – equivalents: climate change isn’t manmade, smoking doesn’t cause cancer, the world isn’t round, facts aren’t facts. Though Holocaust deniers are breathtakingly ill-informed, they cannot be dismissed as mere cranks – especially now.
Intolerance, today, appears to be growing. One only needs to look at elections in the United States and Europe for evidence. Whether it is Holocaust denial or casting Syrian refugees as ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing,’ it is important that people who live in a fact-based world expose and refute vile, factually-challenged points of view.
People are entitled to their opinions but not their own facts. Thanks to the Fitzhugh for providing facts. A few ignorant people shouldn’t be allowed to tarnish Jasper’s reputation for inclusiveness and acceptance.
Daniel Jacobs
Washington, D.C.
