NU
rips Holocaust denial
President calls prof an embarrassment but plans no penalty
By Jodi S. Cohen
Tribune higher education reporter
Published February 7, 2006
Northwestern University President Henry Bienen said Monday that a
professor's recent comments denying that the Holocaust happened are "a
contemptible insult to all decent and feeling people" and an
embarrassment to the university.
Bienen commented days after tenured engineering professor Arthur Butz
commented in the Tribune and in the Iranian press that he agreed with
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's assertions that the Holocaust
is a myth.
Iran's semi-official Mehr News Agency and the English-language Tehran
Times have published Butz's comments, promoting the Northwestern
professor as one of the world scholars who support the Iranian
president. Ahmadinejad, who also has called for Israel to be "wiped off
the map," recently ordered the restart of uranium enrichment, raising
fears that Tehran could try to build a nuclear weapon.
Butz's comments did not address the Iranian president's statements
about present-day Israel or nuclear issues.
"While I hope everyone understands that Butz's opinions are his own and
in no way represent the views of the university or me personally, his
reprehensible opinions on this issue are an embarrassment to
Northwestern," Bienen said in a statement to be e-mailed Monday night
to all Northwestern students, faculty and staff.
Northwestern's chapter of Hillel, the Jewish student organization,
purchased a full-page advertisement, to be published Tuesday in the
Daily Northwestern student newspaper. Hillel also called for a
community meeting Tuesday night to address the topic: "Why does the
Holocaust matter? How do we ensure that `never again' means never
again?"
"We're frustrated because we feel forced to take action, but we don't
want to dignify his lunacy with a response," the ad says.
Butz, a tenured Northwestern professor since 1974, is known for denying
that the Nazis killed 6 million Jews during World War II. He promotes
his views through his Northwestern-affiliated Web site, including a
link to his 1976 book, "The Hoax of the 20th Century: The Case Against
the Presumed Extermination of European Jewry."
Butz told the Tribune last week that he e-mailed comments to the Mehr
News Agency after he was approached by an Iranian journalist.
Butz wrote that the Holocaust didn't happen, that it is a "deliberately
contrived falsehood" and that its promulgation was motivated by the
desire to create a Jewish state in the Middle East. About Ahmadinejad,
he wrote: "I congratulate him on becoming the first head of state to
speak out clearly on these issues and regret only that it was not a
Western head of state."
He posted the same comments on his Web site.
Northwestern sophomore Stuart Loren, a history major from Highland
Park, commended Bienen's response but said it wasn't enough. He wants
the university to revoke Butz's university-provided Web site.
"This is so historically inaccurate and so biased that I think the
university might need to do something more than a passive approach,"
Loren said. "The fact that he uses Northwestern as a forum to convey
his views, that is where I get upset."
Bienen said in his statement that Butz is entitled to express his
personal views, and the university will not take action against him as
long as he represents them as his own and does not discuss them in
class. He also noted that the university has a professorship in
Holocaust studies and offers several courses on the Holocaust.
Butz did not return a call for comment Monday afternoon.
Adam Simon, Hillel's executive director at Northwestern, said he has
fielded many calls from students, faculty and alumni upset by Butz's
comments.
"There are two ways to respond: ignore it or convert it into something
positive," Simon said. "Engaging in a conversation about whether the
Holocaust happened is a waste of time. ... We are setting a different
tone. We are going to talk about why it is important to remember the
Holocaust."