ADL REPORTS HOLOCAUST DENIAL AD CAMPAIGN TARGETS COLLEGE
NEWSPAPERS
New York, NY, December 10, 1997...A renewed effort by a veteran Holocaust denier
to target college students was reported by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). According to
ADL, Bradley Smith has inundated campus newspapers with requests to place anti-Semitic and
Holocaust denial ads. The League is alerting campus editors and advertising managers to
Smith's background, tactics, and motives, and urging them to take a strong stand against
promoting Holocaust denial by refusing to run his material.
"The First Amendment is not an issue here," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL
National Director. "There is no moral or legal obligation to present anti-Semitic,
hateful propaganda. Rejecting these ads does not violate freedom of expression. They deny
the reality of the Holocaust and perpetuate blatant lies about the near-extinction of
European Jewry. Would a campus newspaper run an ad that denies slavery in America?"
With this recent activity, ads have appeared in newspapers at the University of
Nebraska, Colgate, Cleveland State, Pace, MIT, University of Denver, Farleigh Dickenson,
Villanova, Rice, University of New Haven, SUNY New Paltz, SUNY Fredonia, and University of
Delaware. "ADL has been in contact with college leadership on each affected campus,
providing guidance and exhaustive documentary materials on Holocaust denial. We have been
instrumental in urging college presidents to speak out on this issue," said Jeffrey
Ross, ADL Director of Campus Affairs and Higher Education.
Smith's new tactic is to offer a large monetary incentive to readers. A quarter-page ad
offers "$50,000 to the one individual instrumental in arranging a 90-minute
presentation on National Network Television, in prime-time, of the Video of the
Century," a video produced by Holocaust deniers. "The offer is just a hook to
draw attention to the information in the ad and lure readers to Smith's Holocaust denial
web site," said Mr. Ross. "There is also a smaller ad that attempts to attract
people to the web site by promising to reveal mis-representations in an exhibit at the
U.S. Holocaust Museum," he added, "and, an op-ed piece that is a slickly-worded
attempt to deny the existence of mass gassing at Nazi death camps by arguing that the
doors leading into the gas chambers are really standard-issue doors made for bomb
shelters."
Smith, who heads the so-called Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH), has
been attempting to infiltrate campus press for almost 8 years. In 1991, he published a
full-page paid advertisement in The Daily Northwestern of Northwestern
University. The ad, which looked like a news article, carried the headline, "The
Holocaust Story: How Much is False? The Case for Open Debate." Since then, Smith has
managed to place Holocaust denial ads in papers on nearly 80 campuses.
