Cal Thomas, writing in the Washington Post/Newsweek On Faith blog, sees the threat of Holocaust deniers as an assault on memory.
He writes:
"Never forget" is the admonition Jews often use when referring to the Holocaust. With modern deniers like Iran’s Ahmadinejad and Bishop Williamson, it is a useful reminder that others want us to forget for evil ends.
Actually, the admonition is "Never Again." Remembrance is one thing, but preventing a recurrence is what matters. Which seem to be what Thomas was getting at with his warning about "evil ends." But if it needs to be clearer, Menachem Rosensaft, discussing the revoked excommunication of Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson, makes it rather plain.
Why do Williamson’s rehabilitation and the 2006 Tehran [Holocaust] conference have ominous significance? Because [David] Duke, who managed to get 43 percent of the vote in his unsuccessful 1990 U.S. Senate campaign from Louisiana, is now able to tell students at colleges in heartland America with a straight face that his contention that there were never any gas chambers has international academic and institutional support, and because Holocaust deniers across the globe will interpret Williamson’s return into polite Roman Catholic society as a victory for their cause.
