I run ads in college newspapers encouraging students and professors to take seriously the great ideal of Western culture and intellectual freedom — even with regard to the Jewish holocaust story. Because I argue for an open debate on the Holocaust story it is said I am anti-Semitic; yet I invite Jews to join with me to discuss the controversy over the orthodox version of the story.

It’s said I’m racist, yet my family is Mexican. It’s said that I am a liar though my promise is to correct any error of fact discovered in my ads.

It is said that my ads mislead students. I urge all to read the text of my ads carefully and to refuse to be misled by me or by anyone else.

It is said that my ads claim that the Holocaust is a “hoax.” That is not true. What I do claim is that the Jewish holocaust story is a war story and like all war stories some of it happened; some of it didn’t.

It is said it is ludicrous that I involve myself in a historical controversy when I have no academic degrees. The ideal of a free press is not a matter of credentialism, but of honor and good social sense and that every free man and woman of good faith is free to question what he or she no longer believes. It is said that I am a “hater” because I try to convince professors that they should encourage intellectual freedom rather than suppress it, even with regard to the Jewish holocaust story.

It is said I am wrong to doubt that Germans killed millions of Jews and others in homicidal gassing chambers. I am willing to be convinced I am wrong. I ask that one professor inform me of one exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum that proves Germans used gas chambers to kill Jews as part of a planned ethnic genocide.

It is said that college newspapers have no obligation under the First Amendment to print my advertisements. I agree. I encourage student editors to ignore this self-serving “legalism.”

We are told that the “Holocaust ” is about Jews, but I argue it is about Jews and Germans. There would be no Jewish Holocaust story without German villainy. Is it wrong to argue that Germans are innocent of those specific charges you have good reason to doubt?

It is said that it was wrong for Nazis to intentionally kill civilians because their motives were wrong, but that it was all right for Democrats and Republicans to intentionally kill civilians because their motives were good.

I’m willing to be convinced I’m wrong about this, but I will not be convinced I am wrong by being slandered, threatened, suppressed or censored while academics and journalists play their roles as silent bystanders.

Bradley R. Smith

Resident

San Diego