BEST WITNESS The Mel Mermelstein Affair and the Triumph of Historical Revisionism - By Michael Collins Piper 1994

A NOTE TO THE READER FROM THE PUBLISHER:
You hold in your hands a "burned book" that was not supposed to have ever been
published. It miraculously survived a series of events that could only have been orchestrated
by forces with a great interest in keeping highly significant news from the public – the news
that in a court of law one of the world's most famous "Holocaust survivors" was proven a
fraud. This was the greatest victory, in spite of all the obstacles, that the Institute for
Historical Review and perhaps the cause of holocaust revisionism, had ever had, following a
protracted legal struggle that lasted over ten years.
An author commissioned to write the book immediately after the victory, September
19, 1991, repeatedly reported "progress" in the task although after more than a year and a half
not a line was written. Then, when it was finally written by another author, and readied for
the printer, a second duplicitous employee of the Institute, although directed to get the book
into print as soon as possible and agreeing to do it, figuratively if not literally "burned" the
book.
This edition was pieced together from the odds and ends remaining in the possession of
the three authors, Mark Lane, Michael Collins Piper and Willis Carto, and is substantially
the same book suppressed by the perfidious employees of the Institute for Historical Review.

Preface
The Cult of Death
Every schoolchild has been instructed time and again that "Six Million Jews were
gassed by Adolf Hitler." Every schoolchild "knows" that the Germans turned the bodies of
dead Jews into soap. Every schoolchild has heard about the lampshades made out of human
skin. Every schoolchild ... The list goes on and on.
Yet, as Hans Schmidt, one of the most respected researchers into the truth about the
Holocaust has pointed out, if you ask an American schoolboy how many American soldiers
died fighting in World War II, he won't be able to answer the question. "Why?" asks
Schmidt. (The number of Americans who died in World War II, by the way, is 407,316. An
additional 786,301 were wounded – including this author's own father – but survived.)
The Holocaust – however defined – and the remarkable legends which surround that
period in history have become an enduring part of the public consciousness as a result –
largely – of the constant media focus on the subject. Yet, a number of very real holocausts –
including several substantially larger than the Holocaust which is said to have happened to
the Jews during World War II – are virtually unknown and certainly ignored.
How many Americans know that a minimum of some 70 million people – probably
many more – died during Communist rule in the U.S.S.R? Or that 63 million Chinese died
under communist rule ?
What about the massive and ongoing genocide in Africa by a series of tinhorn dictators
who have ruled over the beleaguered nations on that continent since the end of the colonial
period ?
What about the 200,000 German civilians who were killed during the Allied
firebombing of Dresden during World War II ?
Or, as Black historians are now asking, what about the holocaust of millions of Blacks
who died en route to America during the slave trade and under slavery ?
[2]
All of these "holocausts" really happened, but knowledge of their place in history is
scant, at best. And, ironically, the list appearing here is by no means complete.
The alleged mass extermination of the Jewish people has taken on a life of its own and
has also, in its own way, become a focal point – the defining factor – in the rich history of
the Jewish people, much to the distress of many Jews in particular who are concerned that
their own heritage and accomplishments have been lost in the shuffle.
"The centrality of the Holocaust for American Jews," wrote one Jewish dissenter, Leon
Wieseltier, "amounts virtually to a cult of death ... How many American Jews," he asks,
"know anything about the Jewish medieval poets, the wealth of the culture, the Jewish
philosophers?" "The Holocaust" has also been the linchpin upon which the powerful Israeli lobby in
the United States has brow-beaten Congress into soaking the American taxpayers for U.S.
foreign aid giveaways to Israel, not to mention requiring unswerving congressional support
for any and all actions by the state of Israel.
The direct result of this, of course, has been that virtually the entire Arab world – and,
indeed, the entire Islamic world – is now steadfastly allied against the United States, putting
Americans at risk wherever they go throughout the world – not to mention their risk to being
victims of terrorism at home. This all a consequence of the focus on the Holocaust.
Dr. Alfred Lilienthal, an American Jewish historian who was perhaps the earliest prominent critic of America's biased U.S. Middle East policy, has scored what he has called
"Holocaustomania" on the part of those exploiting the Holocaust as a political tool to advance
Israel's demands upon the taxpayers. The Holocaust, he says, "is a cult, and the reigning cult"
(1
) among those obsessed with Israel.
When Congress was debating an arms sale to Saudi Arabia, the Israeli lobby flooded
Capitol Hill with copies of a fiction book entitled "Holocaust," based on a much-ballyhooed
television presentation by the same name. The point being made was that "another Holocaust"
could happen – this time in the Middle East – if Israel's perceived enemies received U.S.
arms.
[3]
It was perhaps inevitable that the repeated re-telling of the events of the Holocaust
would invite inquiry – inquiry into the specific details of the specific stories that had been
told time and again. And as time passed, the old adage that "truth will out" proved correct.
Much of what had been said about the Holocaust proved simply not true.
Over a period of years, a small but growing group of intrepid researchers and historians
from around the world began delving into the legends of the Holocaust and publishing their
findings, much to the dismay of those who had so much to gain – and who did indeed gain –
from their exploitation of the Holocaust.
The driving force behind the research into the real facts – not the legends – about the
Holocaust was the Institute for Historical Review, the IHR. It was the IHR that emerged as
the driving force behind this new endeavor by serious historians to bring the historical record
into accord with the facts.
The IHR agreed with the thinking of Yehuda Bauer, the scholar of Holocaust studies at
the Hebrew University in Jerusalem : according to Bauer, "It's the historian's task to examine
myths," (2
) and, if necessary, to explode them. Bauer himself upset many of his fellow
Israelis and Jews everywhere when he said that the number of Jewish victims at Auschwitz
was, in fact, far less than the officially accepted figures.
Bringing the historical record into accord with the facts could be an unpleasant task, as
Bauer found out. Many Holocaust survivors, it seemed, were incapable – or unwilling – to
accept the facts as the historians (such as those the IHR) were uncovering them.
It was one Holocaust survivor in particular who made it his virtual life mission to
extinguish the work of the IHR and the very existence of the IHR itself. This was Mel
Mermelstein.
Mermelstein, in his heyday, achieved much fame and glory – and immense financial
gain – from his clever and calculating exploitation of his own experiences (and non
experiences, so to speak) during the Holocaust. He proclaimed himself to be his own "best
witness" as to what happened during the Holocaust, but, as the IHR discovered, that was not
the case at all.That the American public is now beginning to recognize, according to one controversial
poll, that the tales of the Holocaust are indeed a matter of controversy – subject to question –
is a tribute to the work of the IHR and its associates in the historical revisionist movement.
(3
)
This new skepticism, likewise, is also a direct consequence of the false tale spinning
and vainglorious prevarication by people such as Mel Mermelstein, whom, the IHR had
concluded, was a demonstrable fraud.
It is ironic, indeed, that one such as Mermelstein – a man who placed the Holocaust as
the central defining experience in his own existence – would have been the one person who,
in his own fashion, helped bring about the ultimate triumph of historical revisionism.