The Holocaust Historiography Project

Letters to the Editor

8 October 1980

Dear Mr. Branton: [sic]

Thank you for writing in response to People Weekly's 25 August issue article on Samuel Pisar. We are glad to have the opportunity to respond to your comments.

Mr. Pisar’s assertion regarding the existence of a gas chamber compound at Auschwitz is supported by reputable sources too numerous to list. The New York Times on 24 February 1979 published a photograph of the extermination unit at Auschwitz taken from a WWII aerial reconnaissance film. In this photograph, a gas chamber was fully visible. In addition, testimony at the War Crimes Trials of 1964 from survivors of the Holocaust verified that there were indeed gas chambers at Auschwitz. While you disagree with this evidence — along with scores of books written on the subject — we trust that the foregoing has stated our point of view.

Sincerely yours,

Maureen Fulton
People Weekly
Rockefeller Center
New York, NY 10020


31 October 1980

Dear Mr. Lewis: (sic!)

Please remove my name from your mailing list as per requirements of the U.S. Postal Law.

I have close personal friends who were interred (sic!) in concentration camps in Europe during the second World War; and I have an uncle who “liberated” the first such camp in Europe who has photographs and documentation as to their existence.

Denying truth and reality will not make it go away. And to do so to profit from those who are mentally and socially malformed is reprehensible.

Any so-called “academic” which supports your mythology probably also believes in flying saucers, astrology, Superman, aryan superiority and that man is civilized; and they have no right to call themselves educated men.

I feel quite certain that your backing comes from foreign governments and organizations and wonder whether you have registered as a lobby organization with the Justice Department. Your concepts are alien to all that the United States of America stands for in this troubled world of ours.

With no respect,

Dr. Marvin R. Bensman
Professor Department of Theatre and Communication Arts
Memphis State University
Memphis, TN 38152


6 November 1980

Sirs:

Your advertisements are really quite funny. Keep them coming because I really need the comic relief.

Why don’t you offer special discounts on swastika armbands and the like?

Sincerely,

James K. Ash
Director Japan Program & Cooperative Education Department
Fort Lewis College
Durango, CO 81301


4 November 1980

Gentlemen:

After a careful review of your publications, I find that I am distressed at their perspective and content.

Please be good enough to remove my name from your mailing list.

Sincerely,

Dr. Peter O’Keefe
Associate Professor
Department of History
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601


30 October 1980

Dear Sir/Madame:

This is to inform you that I find your literature offensive, and would be most appreciative if you would remove my name from your mailing list immediately.

Thank You.

R.J. DiCenzo
Asst. Prof.: History East Asian Studies
Department of History
Oberlin College
Oberlin, OH 44074


From The Journal of Historical Review, Spring 1981 (Vol. 2, No. 1), page 7-9.