A New Zealand historian whose work once denied the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz was appointed dean of a key British defense school.
Joel Hayward was appointed dean of the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell last year, Britain’s Jewish Chronicle revealed last Friday. Britain’s Prince William currently is training at the college to be a pilot.
Hayward, 44, became infamous in New Zealand after his 1993 masters’ thesis on the historiography of Holocaust revisionism prompted furor in the local Jewish community, which demanded unsuccessfully that Canterbury University revoke his degree.
Once described by notorious British Holocaust denier David Irving as “New Zealand’s leading Holocaust historian,” Hayward’s thesis was subject to an inquiry by Canterbury University.Although its report in 2000 found that Hayward’s conclusions about the Holocaust were “seriously flawed,” it did not cancel his master’s degree.
Hayward later issued an addendum to his thesis, saying it contained “several errors of fact an interpretation.” He added that “extensive reading in subsequent years convinces me that, without doubt, millions of Jews perished during World War II, murdered by Nazis and their allies.” He told the Jewish Chronicle that “life is a learning process and one learns from one’s mistakes as a young man.”
Hayward claims Jewish descent through his grandmother and said he was involved in pro-Israel organizations and campaigns against anti-Semitism, according to the report in the Jewish Chronicle.
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