The American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) has publicly apologized for an advertisement for an anti-Semitic book which it says was “inadvertently accepted” for publication in the Winter, 1984 edition of its periodical, The German Quarterly.
The AATG Executive Council, meeting in Chicago on November 16, unanimously adopted a resolution tightening procedures for accepting advertisements for the Quarterly and declaring that it “categorically repudiates and condemns the dissemination of material that is anti-Semitic or that can be construed as an apology for Nazism. The Council regrets and apologizes for any inadvertent misuse of AAGT offices to publicize such material.”
The advertisement that appeared in the German Quarterly was for a book published by the California-based Institute for Historical Review which specializes in disseminating propaganda that the Holocaust was a myth perpetrated by Jews to serve their own interests.
The resolution adopted in Chicago stated, “A committee will report to the (AATG) Executive Council on the events that led to the publication of the IHR advertisement” and “will also look into the dissemination by outside agencies of offensive material to AATG members.”
Though not stated, this appeared to suggest that individual members of the AAGT have been recipients of direct mail propaganda of the type put out by the IHR. The Executive Council announced that the next edition of the AATG Membership Directory and the next issue of its Newsletter would contain the warning that “Unauthorized use of this list (the Directory) is expressly forbidden” under the copyright laws.
In addition, the AATG Executive Council resolved that an advisory committee will be formed to assist the Executive Director “in evaluating questionable advertising” and that The German Quarterly and other AAGT publications will henceforth carry the statement that “The AAGT reserves the right to restrict advertising to that which it considers appropriate for its jounals.”
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