The placement in the Oct. 27 edition of the Manitou Messenger of a politically slanted advertisement headed "Proof of Œgas chambers'?" that questions the existence of the Holocaust created widespread controversy and heated discussion around campus, and raised a number of questions surrounding the ad's origins and intentions.

St. Olaf isn't alone in this quandary. Over the past 15 years, similar ads have appeared in campus newspapers around the country, either deliberately or, as in the Messenger's case, as an editorial oversight.

Over 70 colleges and universities, including Cornell, Duke, Northwestern, the University of Michigan, and Washington University have printed the ads. Some campus newspaper editors simply overlook the ad's content and accept it, while others choose to knowingly run the ad as an exercise of their First Amendment rights, agreeing to face any controversy that might arise from its publication.

The bulk of these ads have come from one source, the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH), which was created by Bradley Smith, a well-known denier of the Holocaust. His movement, which he and his contemporaries label "revisionism," presents the Holocaust as a hoax and attempts to refute the facts surrounding its existence by offering an "open academic debate" on the subject.

"I don't see the denial of the Holocaust as a valid debate," said Eida Berrio, dean of community life and diversity. "It would be the same as if we were denying slavery and the extermination of the Native Americans. I don't think that we should dignify [revisionists] by entering into a debate."

The majority of revisionists do not deny the deaths of millions of Jews during the second World War; instead, they refute the existence of any German plan to subject the Jews of Europe to genocide. They assert that there were great exaggerations in post-war assessments of concentration camps and of the estimation of the number of Jews killed during Hitler's reign.

All credible historians see Holocaust deniers as anti-Semites and neo-Nazis that prey on young idealistic minds who are skeptical of authority. The revisionist groups serve as a uniting and legitimizing base for fringe groups like the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation and other neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic groups.

In 1991, the American Historical Association, the nation's largest and oldest professional organization for historians, unanimously approved a statement condemning the Holocaust denial movement, saying that "No serious historian questions that the Holocaust took place."

"Historians may differ in their interpretations of the Holocaust, and some details may be disputed, but no legitimate historian doubts that it occurred. The evidence is massive and incontrovertible," said Bob Entenmann, professor of history. Entenmann and other St. Olaf faculty members are embittered by the fact that revisionist organizations convince some to reconsider whether or not the Holocaust occurred as history has recorded it.

The particular ad printed in the Messenger hails David Irving and his "brilliant and courageous closing statement to the British High Court." Irving made his statement during a trial last spring in which he attempted to sue historian Deborah Lipstadt for libel after she called him a "liar" in one of her 1993 book entitled "Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory."

Irving, who has been called Smith's "poster boy" and "Hitler's Spin Artist" by the New York Times, has written several revisionist books and regularly contributes to Holocaust denial organizations such as CODOH.

In the British courts‹which are more harsh on libel infractions than American courts‹Lipstadt and her defense team had to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the Holocaust indeed occurred and that Irving had lied about facts surrounding the Holocaust. They succeeded in this, thereby avoiding indictment and ruining any remaining semblance of Irving's standing as a reputable historian.

It is by no coincidence that Smith spends most of his effort targeting college newspapers. His ads employ a savvy marketing technique intended to appeal to college students, many of whom are predisposed against authority and eager to challenge received wisdom and conventional thought.

Many ads don't even include the word "Holocaust" and offer "simple answers" to "difficult questions" and list Smith's Web site as the source for these answers. Once students log onto the Web site, they are confronted with an overwhelming salvo of anti-Semitic propaganda and pseudo-academic writings that declare the Holocaust to be a "manipulation of facts" and a "sense of guilt and shame." CODOH claims the Holocaust was manufactured by the western world to "swindle billions of taxpayer dollars" to recompense Jews and the state of Israel for their suffering.

Smith is pleased with the cleverness of this approach, as quoted on the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Web site: "When [students] first see this ad they have no idea what's waiting for themŠŒIgnore the Thought Police, Read the Evidence. Judge for yourself.' Three fundamental concepts in ten wordsŠNot one word that is confrontational or that could be judged to be in bad taste‹yet perfectly clear. Brilliant."

Other ad campaigns implemented by Smith include a 27-page insert entitled "The Revisionist," which made it into a handful of campus newspapers in 1999. Another ad promises $250,000 to anyone who can arrange a 90-minute, nationally televised debate between Smith and a representative of the ADL.

CODOH strategically delivers these ads to campuses around times of Jewish celebration. "The ad is submitted to all student newspapers around the observance of Yom Kippur, the most solemn holiday of the Jewish year, a day of atonement, causing great pain to college and university communitiesŠ" said Berrio, who has seen similar incidents on other campuses.

Smith sees each ad campaign as a win-win situation. If an ad gets printed, it invariably generates outrage, pain and­most importantly­publicity. If an ad gets rejected, then Smith is once again the victim of the "Thought Police," his own term for the debasement of revisionist claims by academic institutions.

Interim President Martin Marty and other faculty and staff members were surprised to learn that many students were unaware of the existence of groups like CODOH and hope that this incident can educate students and others on the dangers.

"We have to learn to turn[the ads] into learning opportunitiesŠbut we have to work on the premise that the people who send these out have not the faintest interest in history or historical accuracy; they simply hate JewsŠ" said Marty.