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Anti-Semitic flyers suggesting the Holocaust is a fraud have been distributed around Glasgow University’s campus, The Glasgow Guardian has learned.
One of the flyers, which was found in the Boyd Orr building, was entitled “The Greatest Swindle of All Time” and urged students to visit a conspiracy theory website along with the hashtag “#holohoax”. The flyer included quotations from Norman Finkelstien, a controversial political scientist who has been a longstanding critic of Israel, writing that the Jewish people exploit the legacy of the Holocaust as an “ideological weapon” and a means to profit off of Western guilt.
The flyers refer to the Holocaust as “the greatest robbery in the history of mankind” and allege that “the field Holocaust studies is replete with nonsense if not sheer fraud”.
The flyers have also been found in the multiple buildings around campus, including the library and the chapel’s billboard. The vice president of Edinburgh’s student union tweeted a picture of the same flyer found in the Boyd Orr two days ago.
It is not currently known who has been distributing the flyers around the campuses.
Norman Finkelsein’s book The Holocaust Industry, from which the flyer takes its quotes, has been condemned for its poor research, misinterpretation of evidence and incitement of anti-Semitic prejudices. Finkelstein has been branded a Holocaust denier, in spite of his family being victims of the Holocaust.
The conspiracy website printed on the flyers includes a number of claims about the Holocaust, such as: “The harrowing scenes of dead and dying inmates were not the result of a German policy of ‘extermination,’ but rather the result of epidemics of typhus and other disease brought about largely by the effects of Allied aerial attacks.”
As well as lengthy criticisms of Western propaganda, the website also includes quotes from notorious Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson, including: “I assert, in fact, that these famous alleged homicidal ‘gas chambers’ are nothing but a tall story of wartime.”
(Update 17:07, 22/4/16) A spokesman for the University told the Glasgow Guardian: “In common with other universities in Scotland a small number of leaflets containing objectionable comments on the Holocaust were found, and removed, from university premises. The University of Glasgow has a zero tolerance policy on racism, anti-Semitism and the distribution and display of materials that are likely to cause offence. Given the public nature of many of our buildings it is possible that someone from outwith the University was responsible for this incident. We will continue to be vigilant and to again emphasise that such literature has no place on our campus”.
If you know any information regarding the flyers, then please email [email protected]
