COMMENTS
617
Perhaps the monstrous realities may be too frightening for some to
cope with. From my own experience, I know that a sense of despair
comes when one confronts th'ese events once again, some forty years
later-even if only through intensive readings. As Kren and
Rappoport warn: "Those who gaze deeply into the Holocaust may
find themselves, if not turned to stone, then at least profoundly
changed ."
A final look to the courtroom. In all three cases, the verdicts
were against Faurisson. On the charges of willful distortion of
history, Faurisson was judged to be civilly and morally responsible,
and he was sentenced to pay the symbolic one franc in damages
demanded in the civil suit. On the charge of "incitation to racial
hatred," he was sentenced to three months of imprisonment (with
reprieve) and various fines.
At the institutional level, these judicial decisions seem correct
and in accordance with the normal order of things . But let us not
close the book on the revisionists and shelve the legal files just yet.
The case is not closed as long as the myths, fabrications, distortions,
or rumors disseminated by Faurisson and other revisionists remain
alive, in France, and elsewhere. '"
• In the Superior Court for the State of California for the County of Los Angeles,
Case #C-356542, filed in February 1981, Mel Mermelstein vs, Institute for Histori–
cal Review et. al " is a civil action involving six causes, among them: breach of
contract, libel, intentional infliction of emotional distress, declaratory relief, and
injurious denial of established fact.
