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[Images added by this
website] The Christchurch
Press
Christchurch, New Zealand, July 29,
2003 ACADEMIC
FREEDOM  Sir--As
a foundation subscriber to History Now, and
having carefully read Thomas Fudge's article
in The Press, I agree with the University of
Canterbury that the two don't go together.
The purpose of History Now and its
predecessor has always been to keep non-university
readers in touch with what is going on in
historical writing. Fudge's article is not
historical writing. Fudge correctly evaluates academic freedom. So
far, so good. But then he drifts off into vague
insinuations about his colleagues, and gives a
tendentious account of Joel Hayward's
emotional breakdown, and then speculates about
witch-hunts. A historical journal is not the place
for such writing. Fudge suggests that Joel Hayward has been
martyred for daring to challenge the so-called
"Holocaust
industry". Hayward was not daring. His, in my
opinion, shoddy thesis
was embargoed in secret for six years while he got
the academic benefit of it. Now he is hoist with
his petard. HARRY EVISON
Redcliffs, July 26
The Christchurch Press, Aug. 9, 2003 'SHODDY' THESIS
FAILED TO PRESENT SOLID ARGUMENT Sir--In
reply to Vincent Orange (August 1), I have
two reasons for saying that I believe Joel
Hayward's Holocaust thesis
was shoddy. First, the essential purpose of a thesis (Greek
"proposition") has traditionally been to present a
proposition well founded on the available evidence.
Hayward's thesis failed this elementary
requirement. In the words of the independent working party's
audit, it was "seriously
deficient". Second, by lending
credence to the
notorious
David Irving and other Holocaust
revisionists, the thesis brought the medieval
smell of anti- semitism wafting into the
University of Canterbury for the first time in
living memory. Hayward's action in sending copies to
revisionists overseas, while the thesis was
embargoed here, strengthened the suspicion of an
ulterior purpose. Hayward's thesis was thoroughly discredited in
December 2000. That it is still being praised is a
standing reproach to the ambivalence of the
university authorities in allowing his first-class
degree to stand. HARRY EVISON
Redcliffs, August 3
The Christchurch Press, Aug. 12, 2003 QUESTIONS ABOUT
THE HOLOCAUST HONEST Sir--
Harry Evison (August 9) apparently doesn't want
people to know that a student can ask honest
questions about the Holocaust and arrive at
unconventional answers, even if only in a masters
thesis, while not
being a racist, a neo-Nazi, or an extremist. As a smoke-screen, Mr Evison even throws out a
suggestion of wafts of anti-Semitism. Mr Evison
ignores the Canterbury investigation's important
conclusion that I was not
motivated by any racism or malice, and that my
research, while flawed, was also honest. Not racist, not malicious, and I was honest.
That's what the working party concluded. I've written six books and scores of articles
since I wrote my 1991 MA thesis. And in not one
single place in the million words I've published
have I repeated any so-called heresy. So the choice becomes obvious: either I'm not a
heretic and never was, or I'm the world's most
uncommitted and unsuccessful heretic. DR JOEL HAYWARD
Palmerston North, August 10
Sir--May
I invite readers who think that Harry Evison's
assertions about Joel Hayward's thesis (August 9)
have merit to ask the Canterbury history department
to publish Thomas Fudge's article? That
article offers another side to this sad saga. May I
also invite them to read the thesis itself (in the
university library). They will find attached to it the working party
report, but not the documented reply I made to that
report. Why not? Harry Evison himself is a historian and I'm sure
he will agree that, in fairness to Hayward, the
case for his defence deserves the same exposure to
public scrutiny as the case against him. VINCENT ORANGE
Russley, August 10  
Our dossier on the Joel
Hayward case-
Mrs
Hayward writes: "Husband Joel Hayward, not Joel
Holocaust"
-
July 2003, NZ Herald: "Holocaust
thesis ruined my life says historian"
-
Report of the Working
Party established by University of Canterbury to
Inquire into Hayward Case | summary
-
Holocaust scholar
at heart of 'book burning' row | 'Book-burners'
feared libel suit
-
Joel Hayward thesis: 'The
Fate of Jews in German Hands' (zip
file)
-
The
Fate of Joel Hayward in New Zealand Hands: From
Holocaust Historian to Holocaust? Part I |
Part
II
-
Death
threats and breakdowns - the Holocaust thesis
destroyed my life
| 
write
to David Irving