A8 - Sunday, September 9, 1984 - North Shore News Heaven help Professor Pinkus's students (EDITOR NOEL WRIGHT has given mea letter from Philip Pinkus, a Zionist and academic who lives at 2924 Rosebery Avenue, West Vancouver. Mr. Pinkus seems to be a bit miffed that I wrote a column on the book ‘'The Hoax of the Twen- ueth Century’’, which disputes that 6,000,000 Jews were killed during the war. His letter is reproduced below. My reply follows.) f&® UPPOSE I were to say that Doug Col- lins collaborated with the enemy in World War II, that he is a coward and a traitor, and that the only reason he talks so much about being a prisoner of war is to cover up. ‘*t don’t know true or not. But what dif- ference should that make? Don't | have the right to say it, if 1 wish? Isn’t that freedom of speech, Collins style?”’ ‘Collins should approve of my calling him a traitor. To him freedom of speech ts absolute. Any poison, any lie that promotes hate and violerntte, may be published in the name of the greater good, freedom of speech. ‘That is why Collins never if that is bothered to check Butz’s book. Had he done so he would have found a moun- tain of evidence proving it to be an elaborate hie. The bulk of this evidence is in the of- ficial archives of the West German government at Lud- wigsburg. But official copies of much of this material is right here in Vancouver at the UBC library. ‘““‘Most of this archive material was condensed into a book by Dr. Adalbert Rueckerl, head of the ar- get this straight Doug Collins chives and Attorney General for German war crimes. This book 1s English. ‘*Dr. Rueckerl was in Van- couver two years ago. Al a press conference and later at a meeting at UBC he said there was hard evidence that at least 4,000,000 and very hkely 6,000,000 Jews (some 11,000,000 altogether) were killed in the camps. ‘*As for the so-called Red Cross report that put the con- centration camp deaths at 380,000, that does not exist. A simple phone call to the In- ternational Red Cross would have discovered that. **All this evidence is readi- ly available to anyone who wants to find it. But Collins is not in the business of get- ting evidence. He deals in innuendo. **Butz’s book is indeed im- moral and anti-semitic. It is immoral because it deliberately dwindles into mere wartime excess one of the most appalling crimes in history. It is anti-semitic translated into because the crime which tt tries to bury destroyed almost the entire population of European Jewry. To deny the Holocaust is to deny the Jews even the right to mourn their dead. **For Collins not to check the available evidence on an issue SO sensitive tO camp sur- vivors, their relatives and friends, to Jews everywhere, is to render him utterly in- competent as a journalist.”’ -_* & If the above represents the standards of UBC academics, then God help the students. Perhaps Pinkus’s brain needs oiling. | gave Butz’s version of the Holocaust (as my col- umn made clear) because the book had been banned by Canada Customs at the re- quest of Pinkus’s friends in B'nai B’rith. | also said that no one was going to tell me what or what not to read. Pinkus compounds his assininity by suggesing that to question the Holocaust is no different from calling so- meone a coward and a traitor without cause. What is being disputed in ‘‘Hoax’’ and other books is whether a crime took place on the scale alleged. Even he mentions two figures (4,000,000 and 6,000,000) and only recently the CBC said it was 6,500,000. So why shouldn’t Butz say it was 300,000? After all he is a professor too! My other point was that it is insane to demand that anyone who challenges an or- thodox version of history should be persecuted, which is what some Jews are doing. What is this? Stalin’s Russia? The Ayatollah’s lran? How about burning a few heretics? Finally, if it came to a choice between being called a coward and a traitor, and having a country in which on- ly Pinkus’s views were per- mitted, | would opt for the former. Hi mailbox >< y Status of men commission the need now Dear Editor: Thank goodness for Doug Collins’ excellent articles and now Mrs. Whiting (North Shore News, August 24th) on men’s rights. Many men have lost jobs to women, yet the shrill voices of tax-sup- ported women’s action groups continue unabated. We are indeed becoming a split society which now features women’s anarchist groups who don’t hesitate to burn down stores to force change. These groups seem to be fighting themselves as women rather than taking a constructive place in society. A status of men commission would appear long overdue! L. Simon West Vancouver Death camp total wrong Dear Editor With regard to Doug Col ins’ “‘How big” was) the Holocaust?’’ As a survivor of a concentration camp at Ravensbruck, where | was a Personen fot aine moaths be fore the end of the war, | wish to strongly protest the figure of 300,000 given in the article At Ravensbruck alone at least 92,000 women Poe cotonrtiatioe oat HOG West Penile ver 2634 Granvidie Var 1645 Marine lor West var 1452 Lonsdale Ave North: Var: and children died, incinerator was kept burning twenty four hours a day, and it was one of at least ten such camps Banning the book isn't the answer, but why Doug Collins try ant) Semitisimn? Eila Warrington North Vancouver would Cooostir up BEAT THIS ! 122% CONVENTIONAL FIRST MORTGAGE — 6 month term — fully open ay oe ‘46 Ghat 972 OVOR Ob 74a! and the Guara we Disability Doug says what we think | ba "9 amusing ° Dear Editor: Jean Chretien’s funny mouth was caused by poho. Doug Collins’ sister can see even more amusing sights at disability centres, or some- times at senior citi- zens’extended care centres. Mr. Collins is to be con- gratulated at keeping his cool when she laughs at his disability. Mrs. Hatelt North Vancouver Doug likely speaks for 80 per cent Dear Editor Collins Doug states (August 19th) that 80> per cent of BC's) population were against flooding the country with refugees from Southeast Asia Probably the same 80 per cent think and feel like Doug on all issues he writes about Too bad so tew have the guts and/or opportunity to express their feelings M. Haller North Vancouver Trust cOMPARY OFC AnADS Dear Editor: Thank heavens Doug Col- lins can be read in your paper. This informed man says what we, the silent ma- jority, really think. He finds out facts and reports to the local public what is behind the glamor and ‘‘facade’’ of topical and current events. He is knowlegeable and straightforward -- something major newspapers should at- tempt to be, and thus they would be less biased. Collins talks and writes about West Coast concerns, from a West Coast perspective and con- text. We need more of Col- lins, all across B.C. In closing let me commend you for seeing through the shallow-minded complainers and whiners amongst us who decry the revealing of the other side of a story. We live in a wonderful democracy where we must know both sides if we are to make an informed opinion of current events and happenings. Thanks again, Doug -- keep us enlightened, please. P. Dickinson-Starkey Vancouver North Vancouver- Burnaby Chuck Cook, M.P. North Vancouver-Burnaby