Witness Statement of Daniel Levitas I, DANIEL LEVITAS of [address withheld by Website] Atlanta, Georgia, USA, WILL SAY as follows- 1. I am presently self-employed as a writer and researcher. The areas on which I focus are the Ku Klux Klan, the Skinhead movement, the Aryan Nations, white racist prison gangs, crossburning, hate-motivated violence, Holocaust revisionism, and the rural Posse Comitatus. 2. Since 1989, I have testified as an expert witness, or provided pre-trial consulting in 10 different States in the U.S and in Canada (for example; US. - v- McDermott 1993 and US.-v- J.H.H 1993). I have also drafted legislation and contributed to Amicus briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court and the Georgia Supreme Court on crossburning, mask laws and the First Amendment. 3. During my career I have also been cited as an expert on hate groups by several newspapers including the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Wall Street Journal and have also appeared as an expert on national news programs broadcast by ABC, CBS, CNN, and National Public Radio. 4. From 1989 to 1992. I served as executive director of the Atlanta-based Center for Democratic Renewal and Education, Inc. ("CDR"). CDR is a national, non-profit, civil rights agency dedicated to monitoring the activities of hate groups and incidents of bias crime, providing victim assistance, and offering training and education to, for example; schools, churches, synagogues and law enforcement agencies. The CDR was founded in 1979 as the National Anti-Klan Network. In addition to my managerial duties at CDR, I supervised and conducted research on my focus areas. 5. Sometime after 1 October 1992 but prior to 15 October 1992 (while serving as executive director of CDR), I received by mail a copy of an invitational flyer announcing that David Irving would be the keynote speaker at an event sponsored by the "Atlanta Committee for Historical Review" on 20 October 1992 at the Community Center in nearby Smyrna, Atlanta (please see Appendix, page 1). The flyer promoting this event inaccurately describes Mr. Irving as "the most widely read historian on World War Two in the English language today". 6. The Atlanta Committee for Historical Review, is a group that organises public and private meetings to promote the idea that the Holocaust of European Jewry that occurred during World War II never happened. The group's founder and its chairman at the time of Mr Irving's visit was Sam Dickson, an attorney. 7. Since at least 1985, Dickson has sponsored and helped organize international meetings of Holocaust deniers such as Mr Irving and white supremacists, for example British National Party leader John Tyndall (please see Appendix, pages 2 to 4). In 1990, Tyndall had sought to enter the United States but American immigration officials denied him admission, citing Tyndall's criminal record in Britain. In a letter dated 7 May 1991 (Appendix, page 4) that Dickson sent to his supporters in Georgia, Dickson promoted a meeting that he organised for Tyndall in Atlanta. Dickson advertised the meeting as "a rare opportunity to learn how our race is faring in our Mother Country and learn the lessons of the fight". Tyndall held several meetings throughout the United States in 1991, when he shared the podium with prominent leaders of the Ku Klux Klan. The meeting organised by Dickson in 1991 was also attended by Klan leader Dr Edward R Fields and a crowd of 200 other white supremacists and neo-Nazis (I have this information from the reports of those who attended on behalf of the Centre for Democratic Renewal). The meeting that I attended on 20 October 1992 attracted a similar crowd of well-known Klan leaders, hate group activists and others. 8. Sometime after 15 October 1992, but before 20 October 1992, I received a copy of a letter dated 15 October 1992 addressed "Dear Patriotic Friend" (see Appendix, page 5) and signed by Dr Fields. Dr Fields, besides being a chiropodist, is the editor of "The Truth at Last", an anti-Semitic, anti-black tabloid newspaper. The fact that Dr. Fields was promoting the Irving event was significant, given his involvement, since 1946, in anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi and white supremacist organizations, including being a leader, in the early 1980s, of the New Order Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. In addition to his involvement with the Ku Klux Klan, six years prior to the meeting on 20 October 1992, on 15 October 1986, Dr. Fields delivered the opening remarks at a similar meeting organized for Irving and held in Marietta, Georgia, near Atlanta. 9. Upon receiving the letter of invitation from Dr. Fields, I examined the archives of the CDR and reviewed files containing the articles and publications of Dr. Fields, among them a 1992 article written by Dr. Fields and published in "The Truth at Last", titled "My Awakening" (see Appendix, pages 6 to 13). 10. In another article written by Dr. Fields, titled "The Dangers of Interracial Marriage", he states that "History proves Negroes Are an Inferior Race (sic)", and declares that "two main groups...the Communists and the Zionists...work for a mongrelized (sic) America" (see Appendix, pages 14 to 19). 11. Upon receipt of the invitational flyer produced by the Atlanta Committee for Historical Review and the 15 October 1992 letter of Dr. Fields I examined the archives of the CDR and retrieved information about Mr Irving; his beliefs, writings, speeches and associates. I also consulted with colleagues and experts in the field of Holocaust revisionism. As a result, I prepared and disseminated a news release (Appendix, pages 20 to 21) that reveals that Mr Irving was a speaker at the 1990 annual conference of the Institute for Historical Review ("IHR"), the largest distributor of Holocaust-denial literature in the United States.

 

12. On 19 October 1992, I prepared and disseminated a second news release (Appendix, page 22) announcing that a "community-wide protest" would take place at the Smyrna Community Center, the site of the planned meeting of the Atlanta Committee for Historical Review featuring David Irving. Consistent with the mission of the Center for Democratic Renewal, which is to call attention to and protest bigotry, racism and anti-Semitism, I announced our intention to "peacefully protest" Mr. Irving's appearance because it was an "insult to the memory of the six million Jews and all others who died as a result of the Third Reich's deliberate policy of murder".

13. On 20 October 1992, I travelled to Smyrna, Georgia. Arriving there around 6 p.m., I met with representatives of trade unions, Jewish organizations, civil rights groups and others who had gathered with signs outside the Smyrna Community Center to peacefully picket the event. Around 7 p.m. I entered the Community Center Building, and paid an admission fee of $6.00 to the David Irving meeting.

14. Upon entering the room, I noticed approximately 75 people in the audience, including members of the Ku Klux Klan, the Atlanta Committee for Historical Review, and neo-Nazi groups, including approximately 5 to 10 individuals, who by their dress, tatoos and appearance were identifiable as neo-Nazi Skinheads. Dr. Fields was among those present.

15. As a result of my observation of Klan rallies throughout North Georgia prior to the 20. October 1992 meeting, I was able to recognize a number of white supremacists and neoNazis in the meeting hall in Smyrna, including Frank Shirley (a.k.a Marion Shirley, Frank Johnson). An active white supremacist, Shirley has had a long-time association with violent racist hate groups and been a leader of the Ku Klux Klan, for example:

a) In September 1981, Shirley spoke at a "unity rally" of four different Klan groups held in Montgomery, Alabama.

b) On 11 August 1984, Shirley spoke to a crowd of about 55 members of the "New Order Knights of the KKK" in Forsyth, County, Georgia.

c) In January 1986, Shirley was named as the defendant in a federal lawsuit alleging brass knuckles had been used in an attack by another Klansman on a black teenager in Cedartown, Georgia, in 1984 (please see Appendix pages 23 to 27). At the time of the alleged assault, Shirley had been active in the Ku Klux Klan.

d) On 17 January 1987, Shirley was among a mob of white racists and Klansmen that attacked a group of civil rights demonstrators in Forsyth County, Georgia.

e) On 24 January 1987, Shirley was among 60 whites who were arrested, along with former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, while protesting the presence of civil rights marchers in Forsyth County.

6. While attending the David Irving meeting in Smyrna on 20 October 1992, I also recognized Klan leader David Holland. The former Grand Dragon of the Southern White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Holland was subsequently convicted of perjury in U.S. federal court in Georgia in connection with testimony given by him in an attempt to avoid paying a monetary judgment, (that had been entered against him in Federal Court) as a result of his involvement in Klan violence (please see Appendix pages 28 to 36).

17. During his speech, on 20 October 1992, Mr Irving made the following statements:

a) That no gas chambers existed in the Nazi concentration camps;

b) That there was not "a single shred of evidence that Hitler ordered the death of six million Jews at Auschwitz";

c) That the "real victims" of World War II were German citizens who were killed in British bombing raids; and

d) "If the Holocaust collapses. which it will, if people no longer accept the gas chambers, then the US. taxpayer will show increasing unwillingness to pay the $3 billion" to Israel.

18. The October 1992 appearance of Mr Irving in Smyrna was his fourth such visit to the Atlanta area since the early 1980s. Prior to 1992, his last visit had been in April 1986. Like the 1992 meeting, the one in 1986 was hosted by the Atlanta Committee for Historica Review and was organized, promoted and attended by white supremacists. In addition to Dr. Fields, the 1986 meeting was also attended by Holland and Shirley.

The contents of this statement are true to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Dated: January 20, 1999

Daniel Levitas

36 pages of poorly reproduced appendices were annexed by Mr Levitas (right) to the above document, and are not reproduced here. Apart from a flier for the October 20, 1992 meeting, they concern John Tyndall, Sam Dickson, and Ed Fields, and include press releases by the Center for Democratic Renewal dated October 15 and October 19, 1992. There is also a transcript of an August 20 1986 hearing in the Georgia civil action Carey v Rudseal et al.