Nick Griffin – Holocaust Denier

Demand an apology

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day.

Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is an international day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust and other genocides – Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda to name but a few.

It commemorates the victims and honours the survivors of the Nazi genocide as well as more recent genocides, in an effort to ensure that these unimaginable horrors are neither forgotten nor indeed repeated, either in Europe or anywhere in the world ever again.

This year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is based on an important theme – to stand up against hatred. Over the past few years, BNP leader Nick Griffin has made a series of disgusting and degrading statements about the Holocaust. To call him to account Searchlight have launched a petition to demand that he retracts these horrendous statements.

Please sign it now-

http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/apologisenow

While on trial for incitement to racial hatred, Griffin wrote –

I am well aware that the orthodox opinion is that 6 million Jews were gassed and cremated or turned into lamp shades. Orthodox opinion also once held that the earth is flat … I have reached the conclusion that the ‘extermination’ tale is a mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie and latter witch-hysteria.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday Griffin added: “It’s well known that the chimneys from the gas chambers at Auschwitz are fake, built after the war ended.”

We need your help in fighting back against these disgusting and degrading lies. The Holocaust remains a horrific scar on humanity’s conscience – but the Nazi message of hate still remains a corrosive force within our society.

It damages all of us.

Only by confronting and defeating this hate can we build a country based on humanity and justice. We must fight his lies and he must be held to account. Please join the campaign to get Griffin to publicly retract these remarks and then invite your friends to do the same.

http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/apologisenow

55 comments on “Nick Griffin – Holocaust Denier

  1. Have to say this seems a bit weird and random. If he apologises does that make him an alright guy then? What is actually going to be achieved here?

  2. terry james on said:

    Griffin can be seen on Youtube under ‘Nick Griifin, Cook Report, 1997′ denying the Holocaust.

  3. reader on said:

    Are you kidding? Ordinary people think that holocaust deniers are weird, pro-nazi idiotic liars. Whilst many ordinary people can be swayed by a bit of populist ‘hidden’ racism stuff like “Well, it stands to reason that if you let more people in they’ll take up housing & jobs that YOU could have”. But they also don’t want to support actual Nazi’s or die-hard racist nutters.

    This campaign reminds people that Griffin is one of those Adolf-loving weirdos.

    It also puts pressure on Griffin and his party. If he apologises and admits he was wrong, he alienates all the headbangers. He would have to admit that he either lied or was too ignorant to look at the truth. So he can’t do it, which makes him and his party look extreme, and alienates potential ‘racist but not nazi’ members.

    Even if he did, it’s a victory for anti-racist campaigners to force fascists to admit the lies necessary to support their creed. And it would probably split the BNP. The headbangers already think he’s soft – not least because of his tactical stance on Israel.

    It’s a good campaign, and to be honest, even if it had little tactical value (which it obviously does), to describe it as “ridiculous” or somehow evidence that the organisation is “wishy washy liberal shite” or “random” is astonishing.

    What’s wrong with an anti-fascist group being crystal clear that the holocaust happened, that it was carried out by fascists, and exposing their ideological descendants who are politically active in the UK today? That’s core anti-fascism, and totally consistent with a socialist view of the world.

    Quite honestly, I worry about someone who thinks taking Griffin to task for holocaust denial is “wishy washy liberal shite”..

  4. pbr streetgang on said:

    It’s a good job that anti-semitism and holocaust denial are exclusive to the BNP and their ilk.

    Imagine if such sentiments were widespread amongst islamist organisations allied to the far left.

  5. pbr streetgang on said:

    9. It is totally fucked up isn’t it?

    Obviously Griffin is a nasty Jew hating thug, but to the extent that I observe these matters, I should have thought that right now (given that they might well be on the verge of an electoral breakthrough) even he would be avoiding the overt holocaust denial, at least in public.

    On the other hand you have the “Jews to the gas” filth on pro Hamas demos in the Dam, Quadari’s mask slipping off completely and all the rest of it and it registers not a jot with the window-lickers here.

  6. Tim Vanhoof on said:

    Currently, attempting to split the BNP might have unpredictable results.

    Suppose this campaign were to be successful in forcing Griffin to distance himself from his holocaust denial statements, it might provoke a split between the Jew-hating and the Muslim-hating wings of the BNP. This might be a good thing … or it might well spawn two smaller, but more dynamic organisations each free to pursue their own obsessions without the infighting.

    The Griffin wing would try to become respectable having ‘renounced its Nazi past’. There are millions of Daily Mail and Daily Express readers who would happily lap up the rest of the manifesto.

    The old-style nazi wing could well try to capitalise on popular outrage at Israel’s crimes, as the German NPD does. Let’s face it, if you were trying to rehabilitate anti-semitism, now would be the most promising time for years to attempt it. Millions are appalled by Gaza, and many of those might be politically naive and potentially open to anti-semitic ‘explanations’ of why Israel behaves as it does.

    I do not want to speculate on how likely this scenario might be, but it is not impossible to conceive of ending up with two moderately viable fascist outfits instead of one.

  7. well the bnp are loons but they are not openly aligned to groups that want to wipe Jews off the map like some of the so called left are.
    As many of the 43 group were Zionist and some moved to Israel I doubt they would be happy.
    Maybe its time for them to make a come back.

  8. TH Respect Survivor on said:

    @ 12: That’s Qaradawi, before someone jumps on your typo.

    But if we forget about that for a second, I don’t suppose you want to comment on the graffiti that says “Arabs to the gas chambers” on the apartheid wall…?

  9. Maybe its time for them to make a come back.

    Effective though they were, I think they’re probably too old to start street fights against the BNP now.

  10. Yes I had worked out they might be a bit past it, However, there may well be a new generation of Jews not willing to allow hamsas 5th column in the UK to spread genocidal filth.

  11. Fred,

    are you for real? do you really think that vigilante inter-communal violence instigated by Zionists against Muslims would make Jews safer?

  12. Andy, do you think if things kick off with some Islamist thugs in the UK we should just turn the other cheek. Its they who say Jewish children should be targets anywhere in the world.
    A mob ran through Golders Green sprouting shit a couple of weeks ago. They would be wise to not make it a habit.

  13. Geronimo on said:

    Will Searchlight be giving the BNP the `good voters seal of approval’ if Griffin recants? Maybe their anti-fascism is limited to certain issues?

  14. And larry o’Hara is widely suspected as being a bit of a Walter Mitty character, so i don’t see that claim and counter claim are very helpful.

    Searchlight are doing most of the heavy lifting in terms of opposing the BNP for the Euro elections, they are the ones with the links with the Daily Mirror for examaple.

    I wonder who agenda is actually served by the perpetual muck raking against them from some on the further left?

  15. JimPage on said:

    Andy

    1 Do you refute O’Haras research on Searchlight, and why?

    2. In a political climate where it has become patently obvious over the last 3 months that the BNP are taking advantage of the recession (the East Wickham and Canvey lsland by-elections last week being the latest examples), we dont have time to mess about on nonsense like this

    Within last 2 months, BNp have lost out on 4 by election victories by 1, 8 , 15 16 votes- (Sedgefileld, Bexley, Whitehaven, Leicestershire) as well as winning one in Boston

    For the Euro elections, the BNP have adopted the viral marketing technology used by Obama, and openly boast they will use the tactics behind Obamas win to get elected. They will get a PPB, 27 million free leaflets via the mail, and a first print run of 700,000 supplimebntary leafets is going out. They will also stand in 350 county council seats

    And we get a petition to Nick Griffin from Searchlight.

  16. Theo Saurus on said:

    Wonder what the 43 group would make of the slaughter that has taken place in Gaza? Pretty much appalled by it I should think?

    Once spoke to Morris Beckman of the 43 Group, who told me how he and others stood up to bullies.

  17. A 17-year-old Vidal Sassoon,[4] joined the 43 group in 1947, and went on to fight in the Israeli Defence Forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War,

    Yes Theo Saurus I’m sure they would all be marching arm in arm with Hamas-NOT!

  18. I’m certainly not going to sign this. Why on earth would we petition this scum to renounce putting Jews in gas chambers when these days he would prefer it if Muslims were put in gas chambers? And he would happy if the Israelis did the gassing. Some of the Zionists posting here would probably also be pleased about that.

    All it shows is that Searchlight is a Zionist outfit, and it wants Griffin to ‘build bridges’ with the Zionists.

  19. id #8

    You win the prize for the most eccentric political argument I have ever heard!

    Do you really think Searchlight is a predominantly Zionist organisation? and ir wants Griffin to build bridges with Zionists?

  20. Not as eccentric as writing to the leader of a ‘Nazi’ outfit demanding an apology for characteristically ‘Nazi’ views! Yes, Searchlight is pretty Zionist and has run stuff about the Middle East in the past that echoed Israeli propaganda, badly equated Arab nationalism with Nazism, that kind of thing.

    Griffin is trying to build bridges with Zionists. That’s why the BNP supported Israel over Lebanon and now Gaza. This Searchlight open letter could well appeal to him as a way to emphasise that even more.

  21. #11 What is a ‘window licker’?

    Is it a reference to people with learning disabilities?

    The Nazi’s murdered them too, so I would be disgusted to see such terms of abuse used in a debate like this, ironic indeed

  22. I didn’t ask whether Searchlight tilted towards soft-Zionism, i asked whether you would characterise their politics as predominantly Zionist. While clearly any Zionsim is peripheral.

    This is just an opportunity to try to get some media exposure of nick Griffin’s hardline nazi views.

  23. I wonder how peripheral its Zionism really is, given this idiotic ‘tactic’? Searchlight is handing him a political opportunity on a plate, as I see it.

  24. Its a very odd move. What if he puts his hands up and say yep I’m wrong -sorry bout that.
    Most of the uber Nazis seem to have been ousted or are a minority fad and it wont do him much harm with the average white working class voter.

  25. I’ve been having a hard time putting into words why this campaign bothers me. I think partly it’s that it smacks of a kind ‘middle class guardian reader’ style politics of offence, it’s just a bit, I don’t know, kind of soft. I also think it totally fails to engage with the politics the BNP are putting forward now, Is it really the best strategy to ask Griffin to dissascociate himself from Nazism at a time when Griffin is trying to dissasociate the BNP from Nazism? We need to be confronting the BNP’s positions politically and directly. To be honest Griffin can probably safely ignore this,just like most people will unfortunately ignore the hope not hate leaflets they get through their door.

  26. Green Socialist on said:

    I think it might backfire as Fred says #35. If Griffin does come out and say he was wrong it will make the BNP more not less credible with voters.

  27. What commenters here overlook is the experience of the Keighley general election campaign, where anti-fascists found that Nick Griffin being the candidate made some potential BNp voters switch to other parties. It also motivated the Labour vote to turn out.

    This is not a “campaign” in its own right, but an opportunity on holocaust day to try to get some press coverage for the fact that Griffin denied the holocaust. This is just part of the huge effort going on to defeat Griffin in the NW Euro constituency.

  28. terryfitz on said:

    Perhaps being endorsed by me won’t do Searchlight’s reputation any good with some of those posting out there but I’m not worried and I’m sure they aren’t either.

    I am not a member or employee of Searchlight but have been involved, as have hundreds of others, in activities with them around the country and certainly know far more about the organisation than most posting here. They are not a Zionist organisation in any shape or form and this accusation is the usual smear as is the one of being a state asset, that comes from the likes of Green Anarchist who is in fact Larry O’Hara.

    Paranoia about this is fuelled further by AFA/Red Action, or should that be Inaction? The strategy worked out in practise by Searchlight is the correct one for the current threat from the BNP. I have personally always been sceptical of those petitions against racism that some spotty faced UAF juvenile is always demanding you sign before your allowed into their meetings, that was when they had any. This however is different.

    The petition will get national publicity, the Asian press are covering it as well, and it is the national exposure that is most damaging. Obviously a petition that is simply used to contact people to join the SWP is a waste of time but this one is different and should be supported.

    What has been done as far as I can see in Searchlight and the broader movement is to rethink the whole of the tactics against the BNP. As soon as Griffin moved the struggle off the streets into campaigns the old tactics of lollypops and shouting Nazi scum off our streets were finished, not that they were very effective in the first place.

    What has now evolved is a countrywide network of autonomous groups which craft their campaigns in response to what the BNP is doing in that particular area. For instance in 2001 I drove a van load of leaflets up to Oldham which exposed a leading BNP member as a convicted gang rapist. On the Sunday morning before the election twenty thousand were distributed which cost the party several seats. This was a good example of intelligence gathering and mass local action.

    There are hundreds of other examples over the last few years but the tactics developed are in direct contrast to the SWP controlled rump of UAF. If white people are going to to be weaned away from the BNP then their concerns have too be addressed. That means going onto estates where the BNP is making headway, leafleting, exposing their lies, knocking on doors and talking to people, even the mundane work of organising multi racial five a side football leagues in Dagenham.

    One of those posting above rightly points out how the BNP are scoring many near misses in local elections. It is no good stating the obvious, we know all that the thing is to organise against it and that takes bodies on the streets leafleting and knocking on doors.

    It is time to put aside the panoia and sectarianism, I’ve been out on days of action with people whose views I don’t agree with and they certainly don’t agree with mine but that doesn’t stop us working together. If the left can’t dump a lot of ideological baggage then, as I have said before, they will remain marginal. It’s no good after Griffin is elected to the European Parliament starting to moan about what has happened. Volunteers are needed and the only group that is actively organising nationwide with a coherent strategy is the Searchlight/Hope not Hate one.

    I saw a pamphlet from the SWP called “How to beat the Nazi BNP” advertised so I squandered a couple of quid to see what pearls of wisdom were contained therein! It was advised to study the writings of Trotsky in the 1930s to find ways to stop the BNP. I was going to say you couldn’t make it up but they just did.

  29. But Terry, Griffin is not an idiot. If he can he will just ignore it, if not he will say I was younger then, thats in the past. We have jewish members/ a councilor.
    If you want to see stuff about the hollocaust ask the allies of Hamas. Hamas dont deny the hollocaust, they want to reenact it.

  30. Green Socialist on said:

    Terryfitz, wrong again

    I am not Larry O’Hara. I’m not even confident his theories vis a vis Searchlight are true, but are widely held by many on the left. Griffin will either 1) Ignore it or 2) take advantage of it to show how mature and moderate the BNP are.
    To be fair when you argue for “What has now evolved is a countrywide network of autonomous groups which craft their campaigns in response to what the BNP is doing in that particular area.” I totaly agree and Red Action/AFA do seem pretty much depleted and I always have had my doubts about their “squadist” tactics, not for moral, but practical reasons.
    I’d advocate campaigning for Peter Cranie who has a good record on fighting the far right and as the Greens are neck and neck with the BNP fighting for the final MEP in the North West Euro Constituency.
    http://northwest.greenparty.org.uk/index.php?id=2948

  31. terryfitz on said:

    I see I have rattled cages out there which of course is good. Green Anarchist is Larry O’Hara. I have no idea who the person standing for the greens in the North West is all that matters is that people get out to vote to dilute the BNP percentage. I am pleased to see that most intelligent people posting agree with me and I won’t get into anything about Ken Livingstone’s disgraced former aid Kumar Murshid otherwise I will be deleted as Mr Newman doesn’t like like the truth about Ken’s cronies.

  32. Nick never denied the holocaust he denied the gas chambers this page is a pathetic anti-BNP page full of the usual lies.

  33. Nick never denied the holocaust he denied the gas chambers this page is a pathetic anti-BNP page full of the usual lies.

  34. green socialist on said:

    I am neither Kumar Murshid nor Larry O’Hara (in the same party as the controversial Doctor)!

    I’m just a Green leftie in Bristol!

  35. Jayne on said:

    There are good reasons why we should all be anti BNP! Having been to Auschwitz and read countless books written by brave survivors I am appalled. I am also disgusted to find myself living in a part of the country that was responsible for electing this evil man as an MEP. Evil too strong a word? I don’t think so. It’s exactly this sort of attitude that led to the holocaust in the first place. I don’t think Griffin should be allowed to remain an MEP- democracy or no democracy. His view are racist, illegal and frankly, embarrassing for the whole country. He does not speak for me, and millions of others in the UK.