The Denial of the Dead

Had he been able to attend the meeting of the First Civil Court on June 1, 1981, at the Palais de Justice in Paris, Hitler would undoubtedly have been overjoyed. Close to 40 years after the masterful—albeit incomplete—realization of his attempt to annihilate the life of the Jews, there were new zealots at work to annihilate the death of the Jews. In effect, the court was called upon to pass judgment on works of a new evangelist (literally, bearer of good news), Robert Faurisson. Faurisson had first been heard from two and a half years earlier with an article in Le Monde that concluded with the following words: “The nonexistence of ‘gas chambers’ is good news for poor humanity. Good news that it would be wrong...