For several years now, Jewish organizations have said that to debate those who dispute the Six Million story gives legitimacy to a view that is beyond the bounds of decent public discourse and provides a forum for “hate.” Deborah Lipstadt, the author of Denying the Holocaust, insists that there is not and cannot be a debate on the Holocaust. In a few countries, including France and Germany, those who express dissident views on this issue are treated as criminals.

Actually, there have already been a few scattered Holocaust debates. For several hours in April 1979, French professor Robert Faurisson defended his revisionist views against challenge by several “exterminationist” historians on Italian-language Swiss television. That same year the Italian history journal Storia Illustrata opened its pages to both Faurisson and anti-revisionist scholars to present their conflicting arguments. (See R. Faurisson, “The Gas Chambers: Truth or Lie?,” Winter 1981 Journal, pp. 319-373.)

Several of those who attended the Weber-Shermer exchange commented that it was not much of a debate because Shermer made so many concessions to the revisionists. In any case, this event was a big step forward for the cause of historical revisionism because it dramatically gave the lie to the often-repeated claim that “the Holocaust” is “undebatable,” and showed that the revisionist view of the Holocaust story is one that cannot be dismissed out of hand.

Read our full writeup on the debate here: https://codoh.com/library/document/debating-the-undebatable-the-weber-shermer-clash/en/

If you'd like an actual hard copy DVD of the debate, you can purchase it on IHR's website here: https://ihr-store.com/ihrstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=26