Publication Date

September 1, 1994

Perspectives Section

Letters to the Editor

Errant Hitler Analogy

In the context of the recent Cincinnati/Chicago controversy, Thomas Holt wrote (“Adhering to Principle on Human Rights,” Perspectives, April 1994, p. 21) “We might also reflect on the fact that Hitler came to power via majority rule.” I have watched this debate from afar and frankly feel the whole affair to be a bit of a “storm in a teacup”; I hope to attend the 1995 meeting regardless of its location. What I do have strong feelings about is a careless handling of the historical record, particularly on such a sensitive issue as Nazism.

The truth is that the Nazis never came close to a majority in any fair, free, democratic election in the Weimar years. In the presidential race against Hindenburg, in spring 1932 Hitler won 36.8 percent of the vote. The Nazis exceeded this with their astonishing electoral success in the Reichstag elections that summer (37.2 percent). But in the last free election of the Republic (November 1932) the NSDAP won only 33.1 percent of the vote. Hitler did not (despite Dr. Holt’s “fact”) get the reins of power in January 1933 “via majority rule.” It had rather more to do with the backroom intrigues and fantasies of the likes of Hugenberg, the Hindenburgs, and, above all, von Papen. Even after becoming Reichskanzler, after turning Göring and Frick loose to persecute and jail opponents, and after unleashing the full fury of the SA on the streets of Germany, Hitler and his party could still only muster 43.9 percent in the March 1933 elections! Perhaps what Dr. Holt meant to say was that Hitler was personally determined to get power by using or abusing parliamentary institutions such as election campaigns or through the semilegal camouflage of an Enabling Act. (The vote for the Enabling Act was a clear majority. But Hitler had by then already been Kanzler for two months, the transformation to a police state was well under way via presidential decree, and the constitutional validity of the act is highly questionable since many leftist deputies were in jail, the SA and the SS intimidated the debate in the Kroll Opera House, and the Reichsrat was by then improperly constituted after Hitler’s attack on the Lünder governments.)

Let me be clear: While there is no question that Hitler had mass support, nothing close to a majority of Germans ever voted freely for Nazi rule in Germany. Hitler was very good at distorting the historical record in order to answer critics and to suit his present political needs. That, to my mind, is what the AHA must be ever vigilant to avoid.

Stephen A. Pagaard
International School of Düsseldorf

Kudos on Cincinnati Decision

Hooray for Thomas Holt and his reply on the Cincinnati decision. He was kind in calling two of the objections to equal rights disingenuous. I recently joined the AHA because I believed it better fit my interests than has the OAH. The move by the AHA on the Cincinnati problem has strengthened my decision.

As you read this, my check is on its way to the AHA Human Rights Fund.

F. Michael Mase
Golden West College

Condescending Relocation Accusations

As the author of one of the letters published in Perspectives opposing the AHA Council’s decision to move its 1995 meeting from Cincinnati, I feel it is my duty to respond to President Holt’s comments in answering the dissenting letters. I believe that Professor Holt was somewhat hypocritical and condescending in the arguments he used to dismiss the opinions presented in opposition to the relocation of the meeting to Chicago.

At one point in his letter, Dr. Holt leveled a “backhanded” accusation at the motives of the opposition, calling them “disingenuous arguments that merely camouflage an actual opposition to the principles of equal rights.” With all due respect to Professor Holt, neither he, nor any other member of the AHA Council, has the right to suppose the intentions of those who object to their actions.

I must also object to Dr. Holt’s assumption that the opposing viewpoint in this matter is the product of a successful effort by “[t]he right-wing sponsors of the Cincinnati referendum [who] propagated the disingenuous campaign cover story that their proposal merely repealed ordinances giving ‘special’ rights to gay and lesbian citizens.” Such an argument is equal to my accusing the AHA Council of being swayed by an effective propaganda campaign sponsored by “left-wing militant homosexuals.” The manner in which Dr. Holt addressed this matter reflects the obvious ideological leanings of the AHA leadership.

Finally, I must seriously question Professor Holt’s misuse of history in his attempt to cast an unfavorable light on the democratic actions of the voters of Cincinnati. While he was accurate in pointing out that Hitler was democratically elected, that example is not applicable in this case. I find it interesting that Dr. Holt appears to use John C. Calhoun’s idea of the “concurrent majority” as a needed defense against “tyrannical, self-righteous majorities.” I am sure Dr. Holt is happy that this idea did not gain favor when Mr. Calhoun proposed it, or else there might still be slaves in the South. However, if the minority is to be protected in this fashion, who will protect us from such “tyrannical, self-righteous” actions as those recently taken by the AHA Council?

Stephen Dale Cronin
University of Delaware

As president of the Institute for Historical Study, an AHA-affiliated organization, I am writing to make clear the strong differences between our organization and the unfortunately named Institute for Historical Review, which falsely represented itself as affiliated with the AHA and made appearances at the last AHA meeting in San Francisco.

Chartered by the state of California in 1980 and based in the San Francisco Bay area, the Institute for Historical Study is a group of independent scholars committed to the research, writing, and discussion of history. Among our activities, our organization holds regularly scheduled meetings at which members present and engage in critical discussion of their ongoing research projects.

We have absolutely no connection with the Institute for Historical Review, and we deplore in the strongest terms their attempts to deny the historical reality of the Holocaust. Their efforts are in fundamental conflict with the goal of rigorous historical research which we seek to encourage.

Michael Griffith, President
Institute for Historical Study

AHA Failures on Holocaust Denial

To the Editor:

In May 1993, I and one-half the AHA membership received a mailing from the “Institute for Historical Review” (IHR), an anti-Semitic group specializing in denying the Holocaust, which you in your apology characterized as “unwelcome” but I considered revoltingly offensive, to say the least. Of course, you apologized in the September issue of Perspectives, blaming it on failures in your mailing-list vending procedures, and I at the time simply breathed a sigh of relief. (I was worried that they had reached me through the History Book Club membership I had at the time; it seemed logical that they would target amateurs, who would presumably be more vulnerable to their attempt at the appearance of scholarly revisionism.)

Recently, however, I read Deborah Lipstadt’s Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory (Free Press, 1993), in which she chronicles the attempts of Holocaust deniers to gain an audience by calling on “free speech,” “open debate,” “objectivity”—twisting scholarly ideals to their own purposes. Indeed, the student editors of my own university’s newspaper fell into their trap by printing an anti-Semitic op-ed piece (from someone without any affiliation to the school) and later one of the infamous Committee on Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH) ads with the belief that “free speech” compelled it, and that in the light of day the deniers’ claims would be seen as patently false. (Tragically, 22 percent of Americans could indeed be lured in, according to a 1993 poll in which that percentage said that they thought it was possible that the Holocaust never happened.)

Lipstadt goes on to describe the involvement of professional historical organizations. In 1980, OAH sold its mailing list to the IHR, who sent copies of the first issue of their Journal for Historical Review to the whole OAH membership. This resulted in protests by some, but, shockingly, defense of “intellectual freedom” by others, and only an ambiguous final statement by the OAH. In 1981, the Journal of Modern History likewise sold its list to a related anti-Semitic group, the Liberty Lobby, though they had the good sense to later apologize to their readers via letter. Also, in 1991, the OAH faced controversy over the placement by the IHR of an ad in the OAH newsletter (Lipstadt, pp. 203–206). Given these events, and presuming even minimal contact between professional organizations, the AHA should have been on guard against this horrifyingly anti-Semitic organization, so that it would have no more chance of “slipping through the cracks” of the AHA’s list-vending procedures than the KKK.

What sort of policy does the AHA have in place that will ensure that this betrayal never happens again? According to Lipstadt, the AHA in 1991 adopted a statement condemning Holocaust denial; it seems to me that, especially in light of the student newspaper “ads,” we as professional historians have a responsibility to take a more active role in opposing these people—perhaps, at the least, through publications: a set of guidelines for the individual historian when the problem surfaces on his or her campus, a pamphlet available for general use, etc. Lipstadt argues persuasively that to engage them in debate, in any way, would be granting them a sort of legitimacy; instead, we need to expose their so-called “objective arguments” as intrinsically bigoted and hateful.

Elizabeth Jensen
Notre Dame, Indiana

Editor’s Note: Ms. Jensen accurately sums up the points made by Ms. Lipstadt, but the latter’s account of the response of professional historical organizations to the Journal for Historical Review is incomplete. The AHA actually had encountered the JHR prior to the 1993 incident—in 1983 the Association sold its mailing list to the journal. At that time, an apology was issued in Perspectives, and, to guard against a recurrence, the Association established a two-level procedure for review of mailing list requests. Within that context, the 1993 incident was even more problematic than Ms. Jensen realizes.

The AHA has policies in place to address this matter. The terms upon which we make our mailing lists available provide the basis for denying a request from a group such as the Institute for Historical Review: “Labels are for mailing materials of genuine professional historical interest, and the AHA reserves the right to refuse orders.” Any questions about whether publications such as the JHR are of “genuine professional historical interest” are answered by the Council’s 1991 resolution: “The American Historical Association Council strongly deplores the publicly reported attempts to deny the facts of the Holocaust. No serious historian questions that the Holocaust took place.” Unfortunately, the existence of both policy statements did not prevent the 1993 episode. The key is careful screening of requests. The two-level review procedure in place in 1993 involved staff members who were not historians and did not have a full understanding of the issues at stake. We now require approval of all mailing list requests by the executive director. There remain concerns, however, about our policies and procedures regarding mailing lists, and the AHA Council will discuss the development of clearer guidelines at its January meeting. Ms. Jensen also raises the possibility of a publication that would arm historians to deal with Holocaust deniers on their own campuses. The AHA Council is willing to consider specific proposals to address that need.

Revive the White-Collar WPA

I wish to second the sentiments expressed in Andrew Gyory’s letter (“Nothing Irrational about Job Fears,” Perspectives, April 1994, p. 20) in the April issue. The fact is that there are not enough jobs for historians in need of permanent, full-time employment. The few jobs that do become available are increasingly reserved for women and minorities so that faculties can salve their collective consciences regarding past real or imagined hiring discrimination and also avoid legal action. It is policy in many history departments and historical agencies to forego further hiring of white males (especially over a certain age) until some sort of gender and racial equity in staffing is attained. This self-imposed system of quota hiring is the profession’s open secret. We all know it exists, but we don’t acknowledge it.

In the current economic climate, it is obvious that those unemployed historians who do not fit a politically correct social profile are in jeopardy of seeing their careers placed on indefinite hold or terminated. Perhaps the best way to defuse an increasingly unpleasant and divisive situation—in lieu of professional internecine warfare—is to actively work to create needed employment. Specifically, the AHA might consider petitioning the Clinton administration to revive and update some of the white-collar WPA projects of the 1930s, such as the Historical Records Survey. To paraphrase Harry Hopkins, historians (even white, male ones) need to eat, too.

Wayne M. O’Leary
Orono, Maine

Subtler Forms of Job Discrimination

This is in reaction to Andrew Gyory’s letter to the editor in Perspectives (“Nothing Irrational about Job Fears,” April 1994) and Professor Nell Irvin Painter’s response (“Serious Job Problems Require Serious Attention,” May 1994). As the issue dealt, in part, with affirmative action (AA), I feel compelled to provide another viewpoint. I am a Ph.D. candidate, listed alternatively as Puerto Rican, Hispanic, or Latino. It is not labels that vex me as much as what appears to be a debasement of the term diversity by those who profess to champion AA. I can relate an event that highlights a problem both Gyory and Painter touched upon. While one should not base criticism upon a limited number of incidents, I know I am not alone in my feelings, “irrational” as they may appear. A letter I received read as follows:

X seeks candidates for an Affirmative Action position. The field is open, but preference for African, Hispanic, or Latin American. The position is open to qualified minority candidates.

I called the department and identified myself as an interested candidate. The conversation seemingly declined after I mentioned my fields: military history, American diplomatic, and East Asia. At that point, the chair stated that the community consisted of a large Hispanic population. As such, the department sought a Hispanic candidate for Hispanic/Latino Studies. I drew the conclusion that I qualified under AA only if I specialized in ethnic studies. Using such a rationale, a potential black/African American candidate would be appropriate only if he or she engaged in black studies/African history or an Asian candidate in Asian studies.

Though not proof of an unconscious practice, the end result might appear so. Observers might conjecture that academia seeks not diversity, but rather a return to categories once deemed stereotypical, racist, and outmoded. The scenario, as I can delicately define it, is as follows: only blacks/African Americans, Hispanic/Latinos, and Asians/Asian Americans could work in their own cultures (the reverse would, of course, be racist; that is, only Caucasians can work with each other).

I feel that Gyory was wrong when he argued that “in the current climate of diversification, it is unlikely that a minority student will not be offered a job.” His use of “diversification” conflicts with academia’s current definition. Professor Painter wrote, “I do welcome the effort … to diversify.” The existing mechanism does not seem to support that process. Minorities will get jobs, but perhaps stereotyped jobs, for the current usage of diversity supposes a single-minded and monolithic intellect for minorities.

If one genuinely sought diversity, then AA would mean an effort to increase the number of underrepresented minorities, not define appropriate fields of study. As a minority I am expected to be a model. Though I do not shrink from that duty, the current climate means that all I can offer is ethnic studies. As such, one could conclude that nonminority students could learn little from me.

Carlos R. Rivera
Columbus, Ohio

Distancing from “Ignorance” Suggestion

Readers of Maxine Lurie’s article in the April 1994 Perspectives (“Revitalizing State History in the Classroom,” p. 17) may gain a distorted impression of the argument I made in the November 1992 issue. Referring to my article, Dr. Lurie suggests that University of Utah students were “ignorant” about history, even the history of the settlement of Utah or the history of Mormonism.

“Ignorant” is a word I would never use to describe a student, but beyond that point, I would emphasize the following: My students are not, and I did not characterize them as, ignorant; in contrast, I do think, the evidence of my survey showed, and I argued that students come into history classes with a version of history already in mind, not as the ignorant tabula rasa that much of the debate about history teaching assumes. Perspectives readers who are interested in what I said would do well to consult my article rather than Dr. Lurie’s extrapolations or misrepresentations.

James R. Lehning
University of Utah