After the revelation of death camps in Nazi Germany, a small group of people began to distribute materials that maintained that Hitler and the Nazis did not try to exterminate the Jews, gypsies and others. Their theme is that there was no Holocaust. They are known as Holocaust deniers. The group has been aggressive in presenting its views, particularly through advertisements in college newspapers and on the Internet, www.codoh.info. (CODOH stands for Committee for Open Debate On the Holocaust.)

The Holocaust revisionists have published material questioning the existence of gas chambers, the death toll of Jews and other aspects of the Holocaust story.

A clearinghouse called the Institute for Historical Review was set up several years ago to organize the work of these revisionists. Unsuccessful in placing their material in the mainline media, they turned to campus publications.

The Institute was successful in placing its messages in newspapers on the campuses of Valdosta Sate University in Georgia, St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, Vanderbilt, Ohio State, Northwestern, Rutgers, Duke, Louisiana State, Cornell and the University of Georgia, among others.

The ads were turned down by Yale, Harvard, Brown, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgetown, the University of Tennessee, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Texas. A second ad submitted to Duke was refused. Most of the campus newspapers that used the advertisement did so on the grounds that they did not want to censor advertisers. Some ran the advertisement with countering comments.

With the refusal of many campus newspapers to run full-page advertisements, the historical revisionists decided on two actions. They purchased space for small ads, and they turned to the Internet to publicize their denial that Germany engaged in a calculated plan to eliminate Jews.

The Spectator at Mallory College has received a revisionist advertisement and the student publications board is considering whether to run it. You are to write a story for the local newspaper about the controversy. Conduct a search for material about the Institute for Historical Review and the controversy stirred up on campuses when the advertisements were sent to these school newspapers.

You might want to interview members of the history department on campus and consult material about the period, such as The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials, A Personal Memoir by Teflord Taylor (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992). Taylor was the chief American counsel at the trials.

The Student Press Law Center (www.splc.org) provides information about advertising policies for student publications. The College Media Review has published several articles on Holocaust-denial advertising. The Review is the journal of College Media Advisers whose executive-director is Ron Spielberger at the University of Memphis.