Seriously, professor, did you really say that the Holocaust was “the greatest hoax of all?”

NOTE: The following is my e-mail exchange with NC Wesleyan Prof. Jane Christensen, teacher of Political Science 495: “911 The Road to Tyranny”:


From: Jon Sanders
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 1:10 PM
To: Christensen, Jane T
Subject: Re: “Jane Christensen: Holocaust Denial and 9/11 Investigation”

Is this account accurate: http://cryptogon.com/2005_03_13_blogarchive.html#111111555338323748

Did you write “I rather think the ‘Holocaust’ denial sites have a great deal of credibility since the ‘Holocaust’ was the greatest hoax of all”? Do you believe the Holocaust is a hoax?

Jon Sanders


From: “Christensen, Jane T”
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 14:11:19 -0400
To: “‘Jon Sanders'”
Subject: RE: “Jane Christensen: Holocaust Denial and 9/11 Investigation”

Jon, You still haven’t answered my questions below.
JC

That was in reference to her e-mail to me of Monday, April 18, in which she asked me: “Why didn’t you mention the stuff about NORAD standing down? Or the article detailing the breakfast meeting in the Capitol between Porter Goss, Bob Graham, and Pakistan’s Chief of Intelligence who just happened to have delivered the money to Mohamed Atta? What about the Jews from JINSA article? Don’t you want you [sic] readers to know who’s callaing [sic] the shots inside the Beltline?” Of course I had answered her questions.


From: Jon Sanders
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 2:38 PM
To: Christensen, Jane T
Subject: Re: “Jane Christensen: Holocaust Denial and 9/11 Investigation”

I beg to differ. I point to you in my reply of Monday, April 18, 2005 1:59 PM where I wrote, “see where I wrote that I had included ‘just a fraction’ of the articles on those sites that day?”

Perhaps at this point it is necessary to say that phrase is a cue to the intelligent reader that There’s a lot more where those came from. My article gives the web address of each site, as does your syllabus, also linked on my article.

Again, I ask: Is the account on cryptogon.com accurate? Did you write “I rather think the ‘Holocaust’ denial sites have a great deal of credibility since the ‘Holocaust’ was the greatest hoax of all?” Do you believe the Holocaust is a hoax?

Jon Sanders


From: “Christensen, Jane T”
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 14:55:05 -0400
To: “‘Jon Sanders'”
Subject: RE: “Jane Christensen: Holocaust Denial and 9/11 Investigation”

Which Holocaust do you refer to, the one in Fallujah?


From: Jon Sanders
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 3:27 PM
To: Christensen, Jane T
Subject: Re: “Jane Christensen: Holocaust Denial and 9/11 Investigation”

If that was your quotation, which were you calling a hoax?

I was referring to, as commonplace in the use of that term with the initial capital, “The genocide of European Jews and others by the Nazis during World War II”– The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, definition No. 2.a. See http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Holocaust

That dictionary notes the following: “When capitalized Holocaust refers specifically to the destruction of Jews and other Europeans by the Nazis and may also encompass the Nazi persecution of Jews that preceded the outbreak of the war.” The word traces its origins back to Hebrew.

Princeton University’s WordNet definition No. 2 of “Holocaust” is “the Nazi program of exterminating Jews under Hitler,” with “final solution” given as a synonym.

Links at the bottom of that page include one to Merriam-Webster’s definition for “Holocaust”; citation No. 3.a. is “often capitalized: the mass slaughter of European civilians and especially Jews by the Nazis during World War II.” See http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=Holocaust

That site includes a link “For More Information on ‘holocaust’ go to Britannica.com,” which defines it as “the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II.” See http://www.britannica.com/search?query=holocaust&submit=Find&source=MWTEXT

JPS


From: “Christensen, Jane T”
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 15:26:10 -0400
To: “‘Jon Sanders'”
Subject: RE: “Jane Christensen: Holocaust Denial and 9/11 Investigation”

Why are you not interested in the Holocaust that just happened in Fallujah?


From: Jon Sanders
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 15:52:07 -0400
To: “Christensen, Jane T”
Subject: Re: “Jane Christensen: Holocaust Denial and 9/11 Investigation”

As I said, to which Holocaust did you refer in your quotation as a hoax — if that was your quotation?

I apologize if I have not been clear enough in my questions. I am attempting to learn whether the remarks attributed to you on cryptogon.com — specifically, “I rather think the ‘Holocaust’ denial sites have a great deal of credibility since the ‘Holocaust’ was the greatest hoax of all” — are indeed yours. (If the remarks are yours, presumably you know to what you were referring.)

JPS


From: “Christensen, Jane T”
Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 10:13:24 -0400
To: “‘Jon Sanders'”
Subject: RE: “Jane Christensen: Holocaust Denial and 9/11 Investigation”

Absolutely correct.