LEITERS
Ideas on Tri al
To the Editor :
In her a rticl e "Forge tting
the Past"
(Partisan R eview, 4,
1981), Erika Apfelbaum has a
number of interesting things to
say on three topics: (1) "the
political meaning a nd context of
the suits against rev isioni sm"
(referring spec ificall y to the Pa ri s
tri als in which R obert Fa uri sson
was convicted ), (2) the "growing
number of people [who] seem to
be touched by, drawn into, or
even converted to the revi sionist
a rgume nts" denyin g the H olo–
caust (particula rly, "liberta rians"),
a nd (3) the "psychosocia l" con–
tex t for thi s phe nomenon. She
also refers to my role in the
"Fa urisson a ffa ir ." The fo llowing
rema rks a re exce rpted from a
letter comme nting on these
points .
C onsider first po int (1). As
Apfelba um observes, Fa uri sson
was suspe nded from teaching
a fter "class room di sruptions."
She does not indi ca te whethe r
she perce ives an issue o f
academi c freedom he re, though
the ques ti on is surel y relevant to
the "support" fo r Fauri sson tha t
she di scusses.
Turning to the tri a ls, Ap fe l–
ba um focu ses a ttenti on on the
mos t significant of these, the
tri a l for falsificati on of hi story.
She does not cite the verdi ct of
the court but writes tha t "these
judicial dec isions seem co rrect
a nd in accorda nce with the
norma l orde r of things." They
a re indeed in accorda nce with
the no rma l order of thin gs - in
the USSR , fo r exampl e. In fact,
they amount to little o ther than a
reitera ti on of the bas ic content of
the Zhda nov doc trine . Fa uri sson
was condemned fo r fa ilure of
"res ponsibility" a nd "prudence"
as a hi sto ri a n , fo r fa iling to deal
properly with "all the documents
a nd all the tes timony," fo r treat–
ing docume n ts with "a sema ntic
a na lysis always orie nted in the
direc ti on of negati on ," etc. He
was not cha rged with inciting
rac ial ha tred , but with "all owing
others
[ !]
to u se hi s writing with
the inte nti on of a pologe tics for
wa r crimes or incitement to
racia l ha tred ." For these and
similar crimes he was con–
demned
to
a suspe nded three–
month se ntence a nd
to
what
Apfelba um desc ribes as "va rious
tines," including the cos ts of
publicizing the judgme nt in the
press, radio, a nd telev i ion,
whi ch in hi s a ppeal Fa urisson
es tima tes (whether ri ghtl y or
wrongly, I do not know) at
seve ra l
hundred
thousand
dolla rs.
Apfelba um writes that "the
tri a l wa no t inte nded
to
impose
censorship , nor was the court
