David Hoggan
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David Leslie Hoggan (March 23, 1923 – August 7, 1988) was an American professor of history, author of ''The Forced War: When Peaceful Revision Failed'' and other works in the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
and
English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...
s. He was antisemitic, maintained a close association with various neo-Nazi
groups A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...
, chose a publishing house run by an unregenerate Nazi, and engaged in
Holocaust denial Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: ...
.


Early life

Hoggan was born in
Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
,
Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...
, and received his education at
Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...
and
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
. At Harvard, Hoggan was awarded a PhD in 1948 for a dissertation on relations between
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
in the years 1938–1939. His adviser described his dissertation as "no more than a solid, conscientious piece of work, critical of Polish and British policies, but not beyond what the evidence would tolerate".Dawidowicz, Lucy "Lies About the Holocaust" pages 31-37 from ''Commentary'', Volume 70, Issue # 6, page 32. The American historian Peter Baldwin noted that Hoggan's dissertation, ''The Breakdown of German-Polish Relations in 1939: The Conflict Between the German New Order and the Polish Idea of Central Eastern Europe'', was easily the most reasonable and sane of all Hoggan's writings. During his time at Harvard, Hoggan befriended
Harry Elmer Barnes Harry Elmer Barnes (June 15, 1889 – August 25, 1968) was an American historian who, in his later years, was known for his historical revisionism and Holocaust denial. After receiving a PhD at Columbia University in 1918 Barnes became a prof ...
, whose thinking would have much influence on Hoggan. Subsequently, Hoggan had a series of teaching positions at the
University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...
,
San Francisco State College San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...
, the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...
at Berkeley, the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
, and Carthage College. When teaching at Munich between 1949 and 1952, Hoggan became fluent in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
and married a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
woman. Reflecting his pro-German tendencies, in a 1960 review of a book by an Austrian writer Hans Uebersberger, Hoggan claimed that the
assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated on 28 June 1914 by Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip. They were shot at close range whil ...
was a result of a conspiracy involving the governments of
Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
and
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
, and that as such,
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
and its ally
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
were the victims of a Russo-Serbian provocation designed to cause a world war.


''Der erzwungene Krieg''

In 1955, Barnes encouraged Hoggan to turn his dissertation into a book and it was published in
West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
as ''Der erzwungene Krieg'' (''The Forced War'').Lipstadt, Deborah ''Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory'', New York : Free Press ; Toronto : Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; New York ; Oxford : Maxwell Macmillan International, 1993 page 71 It blamed the outbreak of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
on an alleged
Anglo Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to peopl ...
-
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agre ...
to wage aggression against
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. Hoggan charged the alleged conspiracy was headed by the British Foreign Secretary
Lord Halifax Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, (16 April 1881 – 23 December 1959), known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was a senior British Conservative politician of the 19 ...
, who, Hoggan contended, had seized control of British foreign policy in October 1938 from Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who was allegedly assisted by Polish Foreign Minister Colonel
Józef Beck Józef Beck (; 4 October 1894 – 5 June 1944) was a Polish statesman who served the Second Republic of Poland as a diplomat and military officer. A close associate of Józef Piłsudski, Beck is most famous for being Polish foreign minister in ...
in what Hoggan called a monstrous anti-German plot. In Hoggan’s opinion, after the
Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...
, an obsessively anti-German Lord Halifax decided to wage a war of annihilation against the German people. Hoggan argued that
Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
's foreign policy was entirely peaceful and moderate, and that it was
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
that was in Hoggan's opinion an innocent victim of Anglo-Polish aggression in 1939:
itlerhad made more moderate demands on Poland than many leading American and British publicists had recommended in the years after Versailles. Moreover, Hitler had offered in return an amazing concession to Poland that the Weimar Republic would never even remotely countenance.
The crux of Hoggan's thesis was presented when he wrote:
In London, Halifax succeeded in forcing on the British Government a deliberate policy of war despite the fact that most of the prominent British experts on Germany argued for a policy of German-English friendship. In Warsaw, Beck was prepared to collaborate fully with Halifax's war plans despite the warnings from numerous Poles who were horrified by the prospect of seeing their land destroyed. German, Italian, French, and other European leaders did all they could to avert the great catastrophe, but in vain, while Halifax's war policy, accompanied by the secret blessings of Roosevelt and Stalin, carried the day... The Second World War arose from the attempt to destroy Germany.
Hoggan claimed that Britain was guilty of aggression against the German people. Moreover, Hoggan accused the Polish government of engaging in what he called hideous persecution of its German minority, and claimed that the Polish government's policies towards the ethnic German minority were far worse than the Nazi regime's policies towards the Jewish minority. Moreover, Hoggan charged that all of the German anti-Semitic laws were forced on the Germans by anti-Semitism in Poland as in Hoggan's opinion German anti-Semitic laws were the only thing that stopped the entire Jewish population of Poland from immigrating to the ''Reich''. Hoggan justified the huge one billion ''Reich''-mark fine imposed on the entire Jewish community in
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
after the 1938 ''
Kristallnacht () or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation fro ...
''
pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...
as a reasonable measure to prevent what he called "Jewish profiteering" at the expense of German insurance companies and alleged that no Jews were killed in the ''Kristallnacht'' (in fact, 91 German Jews died). A particular area of controversy centered around Hoggan’s claim that the situation of German Jewry before
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
was extremely favorable to the Jewish community in Germany, and that none of the various antisemitic laws and measures of the Nazis had any deleterious effects on German Jews. Hoggan argued that because German-Jewish doctors and dentists as late as 1938 could still participate in the German national insurance program that proved that Nazi anti-Semitism was not that harsh. Critics of Hoggan such as
Deborah Lipstadt Deborah Esther Lipstadt (born March 18, 1947) is an American historian, best known as author of the books '' Denying the Holocaust'' (1993), ''History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier'' (2005), ''The Eichmann Trial'' (2011), and ...
contend that Hoggan ignored the efforts on the part of the Nazi regime to stop "Aryan" Germans from seeing Jewish physicians and dentists throughout the 1930s, and that in July 1938 a law was passed withdrawing the licenses from Jewish doctors.Lipstadt, Deborah ''Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory'', New York : Free Press ; Toronto : Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; New York ; Oxford : Maxwell Macmillan International, 1993 page 72 Likewise, Hoggan argued that because in an American State Department cable of September 1938 from the American Embassy in Berlin mentioned that 10% of all German lawyers were Jews, that this proved the mildness of Nazi anti-Semitism. Lipstadt argued that Hoggan was guilty of selective quotation since the entire message concerns the discriminatory laws against German Jewish lawyers such as banning Jewish lawyers from serving as notaries. Moreover, Lipstadt noted that Hoggan ignored the reason for the message, namely that on September 27, 1938 German Jews were forbidden to practice law in Germany. Another area of criticism concerned Hoggan's treatment of the decision to end Judaism as an officially recognized religion in Germany.Lipstadt, Deborah ''Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory'', New York : Free Press ; Toronto : Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; New York ; Oxford : Maxwell Macmillan International, 1993 pages 72-73 In Germany, the government had traditionally imposed a religion tax in which the proceeds were turned over to one's faith organization.Lipstadt, Deborah ''Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory'', New York : Free Press ; Toronto : Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; New York ; Oxford : Maxwell Macmillan International, 1993 page 73 In the Nazi era, Jews continued to pay the tax, but synagogues no longer received the proceeds. Hoggan claimed that this meant that synagogues could not "profit" at the expense of non-Jewish Germans, and falsely presented this move as mere secularization measure (Christian churches continued to receive the proceeds of the religion tax in Nazi Germany). In the early 1960s, Hoggan's book attracted much attention, and was the subject of a cover story in '' Der Spiegel'' magazine in its May 13, 1964 edition. Hoggan's thesis of Germany as victim of aggression was widely attacked as simply wrong-headed. In regards to his sympathies, it was argued that Hoggan was an ardent
Germanophile A Germanophile, Teutonophile, or Teutophile is a person who is fond of German culture, German people and Germany in general, or who exhibits German patriotism in spite of not being either an ethnic German or a German citizen. The love of the ''Ge ...
and a compulsive Anglophobe, Polophobe, and an
anti-Semite Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
. Further fanning the flames of the criticism was the revelation that Hoggan had received his research funds from and that he himself was a member of several neo-Nazi groups in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and
West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
, and the charge that Hoggan had wilfully misinterpreted and falsified historical evidence to fit his argument. Another source of controversy with Hoggan's choice of publisher, the firm of
Grabert Verlag Grabert-Verlag together with its subsidiary Hohenrain-Verlag is one of the largest and best-known extreme-right publishing houses in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is notorious for publishing anti-Semitic works, for example those of Wilhelm ...
which was run by former Nazi named Herbert Grabert, who had led a neo-pagan cult before World War II, had served as an official in
Alfred Rosenberg Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government. He was the head o ...
's Ministry of the East during the war, and after the war made little secret of his beliefs about what he regarded as the rightness of Germany's cause during the war. When ''Der erzwungene Krieg'' was translated into
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
in 1989, it was published by the
Institute for Historical Review The Institute for Historical Review (IHR) is a United States-based nonprofit organization which promotes Holocaust denial. It is considered by many scholars to be central to the international Holocaust denial movement. Self-described as a " his ...
. In a critical review of Hoggan's book, the British historian Frank Spencer took issue with Hoggan's claim that all of the incidents that occurred in Danzig (modern Gdańsk,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
) in 1939 were Polish provocations of Germany egged on by Britain.Spencer, Frank Review of ''Der erzwungene Krieg'' pages 506-507 from ''International Affairs'', Volume 41, # 3 July 1965 page 506 Spencer noted that all of the incidents were cases of German provocations of Poland rather than vice versa, and that the Poles would have defended their rights in Danzig regardless of what British policy was. Likewise, Spencer took issue with Hoggan's claim that the ''Reich'' Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia was a generous German move to offer autonomy to the Czechs, and thought that Hoggan's complaint that it was most unjust that German minorities in Eastern Europe did not enjoy the same "autonomy" that Hitler offered to the Czechs in March 1939 to be simply laughable. Spencer noted that Hoggan's claim that Hitler's order on April 3, 1939 to begin planning for Fall Weiss was not a sign of moderation on the part of Hitler as Hoggan claimed, and noted Hoggan simply ignored the German Foreign Office's instructions to ensure that all German-Polish talks over Danzig issue failed by making unreasonable demands on the Poles. In particular, Spencer argued against Hoggan's claim that the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact was not designed to partition Poland, but was instead a thoughtful attempt on the part of Joachim von Ribbentrop to persuade
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
to abandon the idea of world revolution. The American historian Donald Detwiler wrote that for Hoggan, Hitler was a basically reasonable statesman who tried to undo an unjust
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
. Detwiler went on to write that Hoggan's book was "false" and "vicious" in its conclusion that Britain was the aggressor and Germany the victim in 1939.
Andreas Hillgruber Andreas Fritz Hillgruber (18 January 1925 – 8 May 1989) was a conservative German historian who was influential as a military and diplomatic historian who played a leading role in the ''Historikerstreit'' of the 1980s. In his controversial book ...
, one of Germany's leading military-diplomatic historians, noted that there was a certain "kernel of truth" to Hoggan's thesis, in that Hitler and Ribbentrop believed that attacking Poland in 1939 would not result in a British declaration of war against the ''Reich'', but went on to argue that the major point of Hoggan's argument that Britain was seeking a war to destroy Germany was simply a "preposterous" misreading of history. One of Hoggan's leading detractors was the historian Hans Rothfels, the director of the Institute for Contemporary History, who used the journal of the Institute, the ' to attack Hoggan and his work, which Rothfels saw as sub-standard pseudo-history attempting to masquerade as serious scholarship. In a lengthy letter to the editor of the ''
American Historical Review ''The American Historical Review'' is a quarterly academic history journal and the official publication of the American Historical Association. It targets readers interested in all periods and facets of history and has often been described as the ...
'' in 1964, Rothfels exposed the Nazi background of Hoggan's patrons. Another leading critic was the U.S. historian
Gerhard Weinberg Gerhard Ludwig Weinberg (born 1 January 1928) is a German-born American diplomatic and military historian noted for his studies in the history of Nazi Germany and World War II. Weinberg is the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of History ...
, who wrote a harsh book review in the October 1962 edition of the ''American Historical Review''. Weinberg noted that Hoggan's method involved taking of all Hitler's "peace speeches" at face value, and ignored evidence in favor of German intentions for aggression, such as the
Hossbach Memorandum The Hossbach Memorandum is a summary of a meeting in Berlin on 5 November 1937 attended by German dictator Adolf Hitler and his military and foreign policy leadership in which Hitler outlined his expansionist policies. The meeting marked the beginni ...
.Weinberg, Gerhard Review of ''Der erzwungene Krieg'' pages 104-105 from ''The American Historical Review,'' Volume 68, No. 1, October 1962 page 104 Moreover, Weinberg noted that Hoggan often rearranged events in a chronology to support his thesis, such as placing the Polish rejection of the German demand for the return of the Free City of Danzig (modern Gdańsk, Poland) to the ''Reich'' in October 1938 in 1939, thereby giving a false impression that the Polish refusal to consider changing the status of Danzig was due to British pressure. Finally, Weinberg noted that Hoggan had appeared to engage in forgery by manufacturing documents and attributing statements that were not found in documents in the archives. As an example, Weinberg noted during a meeting between Neville Chamberlain and
Adam von Trott zu Solz Friedrich Adam von Trott zu Solz (9 August 1909 – 26 August 1944) was a German lawyer and diplomat who was involved in the conservative resistance to Nazism. A declared opponent of the Nazi regime from the beginning, he actively participated in ...
in June 1939, Hoggan had Chamberlain saying that the British guarantee of Polish independence given in March 1939: "did not please him personally at all. He thereby gave the impression that Halifax was solely responsible for British policy". As Weinberg noted, what Chamberlain actually said in response to criticism from Trott zu Solz of the Polish guarantee was: "Do you rott zu Solzbelieve that I undertook these commitments gladly? Hitler forced me into them!" In response, Barnes and Hoggan wrote a series of letters attempting to rebut Weinberg's arguments, who in his turn wrote letters replying to and rebutting the arguments of Hoggan and Barnes. The exchanges between Hoggan and Barnes on one side and Weinberg on the other became increasingly rancorous and vitriolic to such an extent that in October 1963 the editors of the ''American Historical Review'' announced that they would cease publishing letters relating to Hoggan's book in the interest of decorum. In a 1963 article, the German historian Helmut Krausnick, who was one of the leading scholars associated with the Institute for Contemporary History, accused Hoggan of manufacturing much of his "evidence". Krausnick commented: "rarely have so many inane and unwarrented theses, allegations, and 'conclusions' ... been crammed into a volume written under the guise of history". Hoggan's former professors at Harvard described his book as bearing no resemblance to the PhD dissertation that he had submitted in 1948. Another point of criticism was the decision of two German historical societies to award Hoggan the
Leopold von Ranke Leopold von Ranke (; 21 December 1795 – 23 May 1886) was a German historian and a founder of modern source-based history. He was able to implement the seminar teaching method in his classroom and focused on archival research and the analysis of ...
and
Ulrich von Hutten Ulrich von Hutten (21 April 1488 – 29 August 1523) was a German knight, scholar, poet and satirist, who later became a follower of Martin Luther and a Protestant reformer. By 1519, he was an outspoken critic of the Roman Catholic Church. Hu ...
Prizes for outstanding scholarship; many, such as the historian
Gordon A. Craig Gordon Alexander Craig (November 13, 1913 – October 30, 2005) was a Scottish-American liberal historian of German history and of diplomatic history. Early life Craig was born in Glasgow. In 1925 he emigrated with his family to Toronto, Onta ...
felt that by honouring Hoggan, these societies had destroyed the value of the awards.Craig, Gordon ''The Germans'', New York, N.Y., U.S.A. : Meridian, 1991 pages 71-72 The ''Berliner Tagesspiegel'' newspaper criticized "these spectacular honors for a historical distortion". The German Trade Union Council and the Association of German Writers both passed resolutions condemning the awards, while the Minister of the Interior in the Bundestag called the awards a "crude impertinence". In a letter, Rothfels commented that most of the people associated with the two historical societies had a "clear-cut Nazi past". Support for Hoggan came from the historian Kurt Glaser, after examining ''The Forced War'' and its critics' arguments in ''Der Zweite Weltkrieg und die Kriegsschuldfrage'' (The Second World War and the Question of War Guilt), found, that while some criticisms had merit, "It is hardly necessary to repeat here that Hoggan was not attacked because he had erred here and there—albeit some of his errors are material—but because he had committed heresy against the creed of historical Orthodoxy." The German historian and philosopher
Ernst Nolte Ernst Nolte (11 January 1923 – 18 August 2016) was a German historian and philosopher. Nolte's major interest was the comparative studies of fascism and communism (cf. Comparison of Nazism and Stalinism). Originally trained in philosophy, he was ...
has often defended Hoggan as one of the great historians of World War II. The Italian historian Rosaria Quartararo praised ''Der erzwungene Krieg'' as "perhaps still ... the best general account from the German side" of the period immediately before World War II.Knox, MacGregor "The Fascist Regime, Its Foreign Policy and Its Wars: An 'Anti-anti-fascist' Orthodoxy?", pp. 148–168 from ''The Origins of the Second World War'' edited by Patrick Finney, London: Arnold, 1997, p. 166. Hoggan's mentor, Barnes, besides helping Hoggan turn his dissertation into the book ''Der erzwungene Krieg'' wrote a glowing blurb for the book's jacket. In 1976, the book ''March 1939: the British Guarantee to Poland'' by the British historian Simon K. Newman was published. Newman's thesis was somewhat similar to Hoggan's in that he argued that Britain was willing to risk a war with Germany in 1939, though Newman's book differed sharply from Hoggan's in that besides being based upon British archives that were closed in the 1950s, it was Neville Chamberlain rather than Lord Halifax who was seen as driving British foreign policy. Newman denied there was ever a policy of appeasement as popularly understood. Newman maintained that British foreign policy under Chamberlain aimed at denying Germany a "free hand" anywhere in Europe, and to the extent that concessions were offered they were due to military weaknesses, compounded by the economic problems of rearmament. Most controversially, Newman contended that the British guarantee to Poland in March 1939 was motivated by the desire to have Poland as a potential anti-German ally, thereby blocking the chance for a German-Polish settlement of the Danzig (modern Gdańsk, Poland) question by encouraging what Newman claimed was Polish obstinacy over the Danzig issue, and thus causing World War II. Newman argued that German-Polish talks on the question of returning Danzig had been going well until Chamberlain's guarantee, and that it was Chamberlain's intention to sabotage the talks as a way of causing an Anglo-German war. In Newman's opinion, the guarantee of Poland was meant by Chamberlain as a "deliberate challenge" to Germany in 1939. Newman wrote that World War II was not "Hitler's unique responsibility..." and rather contended that "Instead of a German war of aggrandizement, the war become one of Anglo-German rivalry for power and influence, the culmination of the struggle for the right to determine the future configuration of Europe". Newman's conclusions were controversial in their own right, and historians such as Anna Cienciala and Anita Prazmowska have published refutations of his conclusions. Based upon extensive interviews with the former French foreign minister Georges Bonnet, Hoggan followed up ''Der erzwungene Krieg'' with ''Frankreichs Widerstand gegen den Zweiten Weltkrieg'' (''France's Resistance to the Second World War'') in 1963. In that book, Hoggan argued that the Third Republic had no quarrel with the Third Reich and had been forced by British pressure to declare war on Germany in 1939.


''The Myth of the 'New History

In his 1965 book, ''The Myth of the 'New History': The Techniques and Tactics of the New Mythologists of American History'', Hoggan attacked all of the so-called "mythologist" historians who justified dragging America into unnecessary wars with Germany twice in the 20th century.Wish, Harvey Review of ''The Myth of the 'New History': The Techniques and Tactics of the New Mythologists of American History'' pages 658-659 from ''The American Historical Review'', Volume 71, Issue # 2, January 1966 page 658 According to Hoggan, the "mythologists" were Anglophiles, Liberals, internationalists, and "anti-Christians" (by which Hoggan apparently meant Jews). Repeating his argument from ''Der erzwungene Krieg'', Hoggan argued that Hitler was a man of peace who was "the victim of English Tory conspiracy in September 1939... Halifax conducted a single-minded campaign to plunge Germany into war and in such a way as to make Germany appear the guilty party". Hoggan again argued that, incited by Britain, Poland was planning to attack Germany in 1939, and went on to argue that
Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...
was a "preventive war" forced on Germany in 1941. Hoggan blamed the German defeat in World War II to Hitler's reluctance to rearm on the proper scale due to his alleged love of peace, and argued that Germany was defeated only because of overwhelming material odds, but praised the "grit and courage" of the Germans in resisting the Allied onslaught against them. In Hoggan's opinion, too many American historians were "slow to grasp the central British role in bringing about either the Second World War and the Cold War". In a review of ''The Myth of the 'New History, the American historian Harvey Wish commented that the book appeared to be little but an isolationist, pro-German Anglophobic rant about the fact that the United States in alliance with Britain had fought Germany in the two world wars.


Holocaust denial

In following years, author
Lucy Dawidowicz Lucy Dawidowicz ( Schildkret; June 16, 1915 – December 5, 1990) was an American historian and writer. She wrote books about modern Jewish history, in particular, she wrote books about the Holocaust. Life Dawidowicz was born in New York City a ...
wrote that Hoggan maintained a close association with various neo-Nazi and
Holocaust denial Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: ...
groups.Dawidowicz, Lucy.
Lies About the Holocaust
pages 31-37 from ''
Commentary Commentary or commentaries may refer to: Publications * ''Commentary'' (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee * Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works ...
'', December, 1980, Volume 70, Issue # 6, pages 33-34.
In 1969 a short book was published called ''The Myth of the Six Million'', denying the Holocaust. The book listed no author, but the work was by Hoggan, though published without his permission.Dawidowicz, Lucy. "Lies About the Holocaust" pages 31-37 from ''Commentary'', Volume 70, Issue # 6, page 33. This should not be confused with his earlier book of 1965 called ''The Myth of the 'New History, on America's wars. ''The Myth of the Six Million'' was published by the Noontide Press, a small Los Angeles-based publisher specializing in explicitly antisemitic literature owned and operated by
Willis Carto Willis Allison Carto (July 17, 1926 – October 26, 2015) was an American far-right political activist. He described himself as a Jeffersonian and a populist, but was primarily known for his promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories and ...
. Hoggan sued Carto in 1969 for publishing the book (written in 1960) without his permission; the case was settled out of court in 1973. ''The Myth of the Six Million'' was one of the first books, if not the first book, in the English language to promote
Holocaust denial Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: ...
. In ''The Myth of the Six Million'', Hoggan argued that all of the evidence for the Holocaust was manufactured after the war as a way of trying to justify what Hoggan called a war of aggression against Germany.Dawidowicz, Lucy. "Lies About the Holocaust" pages 31-37 from ''Commentary'', Volume 70, Issue # 6, page 34. ''The Myth of the Six Million'' was published with a foreword by "E.L. Anderson", which was apparently a pseudonym for Carto. Lipstadt, Deborah. ''Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory'', New York : Free Press ; Toronto : Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; New York ; Oxford: Maxwell Macmillan International, 1993 page 105 As part of ''The Myth of the Six Million'', there was an appendix comprising five articles first published in ''
The American Mercury ''The American Mercury'' was an American magazine published from 1924Staff (Dec. 31, 1923)"Bichloride of Mercury."''Time''. to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured wri ...
''. The five articles were "Zionist Fraud" by
Harry Elmer Barnes Harry Elmer Barnes (June 15, 1889 – August 25, 1968) was an American historian who, in his later years, was known for his historical revisionism and Holocaust denial. After receiving a PhD at Columbia University in 1918 Barnes became a prof ...
, "The Elusive Six Million" by
Austin App Austin Joseph App (24 May 1902 – 4 May 1984) was an American professor of medieval English literature who taught at the University of Scranton and La Salle University. App defended Nazi Germany during World War II. He is known for his work den ...
, "Was
Anne Frank's Diary ''The Diary of a Young Girl'', also known as ''The Diary of Anne Frank'', is a book of the writings from the Dutch-language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherl ...
a Hoax" by Teressa Hendry, "Paul Rassinier: Historical Revisionist" by Herbert C. Roseman, "The Jews that Aren't" by Leo Heiman, and a favorable review of
Paul Rassinier Paul Rassinier (18 March 1906 – 28 July 1967) was a political activist and writer who is viewed as "the father of Holocaust denial". Totten, Samuel; Bartrop, Paul Robert; Jacobs, Steven L. "Rassinier, Paul", ''Dictionary of Genocide'', Vo ...
's work by Barnes. Hoggan was accused in ''The Myth of the Six Million'' of re-arranging words from documents to support his contentions. One of Hoggan's critics,
Lucy Dawidowicz Lucy Dawidowicz ( Schildkret; June 16, 1915 – December 5, 1990) was an American historian and writer. She wrote books about modern Jewish history, in particular, she wrote books about the Holocaust. Life Dawidowicz was born in New York City a ...
, used the example of the memoirs of an Austrian Social Democrat named , imprisoned at
Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or sus ...
concentration camp and later at the Auschwitz death camp, who wrote: "I should now like briefly to refer to the gas chambers. Though I did not see them myself, they have been described to me by so many trustworthy people that I have no hesitation in reproducing their testimony". Dawidowicz accused Hoggan of re-arranging the sentence to make it sound like Kautsky declared they were no gas chambers at Auschwitz rather than declaring that he had not seen them but only heard of them by hearsay. In the 1970s, Hoggan turned to writing about
American history The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of Settlement of the Americas, the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Native American cultures in the United States, Numerous indigenous cultures formed ...
in German. Hoggan's books about American history, his ''Der unnötige Krieg'' (''The Unnecessary War'') and the ''Das blinde Jahrhundert'' (''The Blind Century'') series, have been described as "a massive and bizarre critique of the course of American history from a racialist and wildly anti-Semitic perspective".Baldwin, Peter. "The ''Histoikerstreit'' In Context" from ''Reworking The Past'' edited by Peter Baldwin, Boston : Beacon Press, 1990 page 23 In the 1980s, Hoggan was a leading member of the
Institute for Historical Review The Institute for Historical Review (IHR) is a United States-based nonprofit organization which promotes Holocaust denial. It is considered by many scholars to be central to the international Holocaust denial movement. Self-described as a " his ...
(IHR) and a featured speaker at the IHR's Sixth Conference in 1985. His work has remained popular with antisemitic groups.


Final years

During his final years David Hoggan lived with his wife in
Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south ...
. He died there of a heart attack on 7 August 1988. Hoggan's last book, published posthumously in 1990, was ''Meine Anmerkungen zu Deutschland: Der Anglo-amerikanische Kreuzzugsgedanke im 20. Jahrhundert'' (''My comments on Germany: The Anglo-American crusade idea in the 20th century'') which detailed what he claimed were Germany's innocence in and incredible suffering in both world wars due to an anti-German Anglo-American "crusader mentality" due to an "envy" of German economic success.


Work


Books

* ''Der erzwungene Krieg''. Tübingen: Grabert Verlag (1961). ** Translated into English as ''The Forced War : When Peaceful Revision Failed''. Costa Mesa, Calif.:
Institute for Historical Review The Institute for Historical Review (IHR) is a United States-based nonprofit organization which promotes Holocaust denial. It is considered by many scholars to be central to the international Holocaust denial movement. Self-described as a " his ...
(1989). . * ''Frankreichs Widerstand gegen den Zweiten Weltkrieg''. Tübingen: Verlag der Deutschen Hochschullehrer-Zeitung (1963). * ''The Myth of the Six Million''. Los Angeles, Calif.: Noontide Press (1969). . * ''Der unnötige Krieg''. Tübingen: Grabert Verlag (1976). * ''Das blinde Jahrhundert: Amerika—das messianische Unheil''. Tübingen: Grabert Verlag (1979). * ''Das blinde Jahrhundert: Europa—Die verlorene Weltmitte''. Tübingen: Grabert Verlag (1984). * ''The Myth of New History Techniques and Tactics of Mythologists''. Costa Mesa, Calif.:
Institute for Historical Review The Institute for Historical Review (IHR) is a United States-based nonprofit organization which promotes Holocaust denial. It is considered by many scholars to be central to the international Holocaust denial movement. Self-described as a " his ...
(1985). . * ''Meine Anmerkungen zu Deutschland: Der Anglo-amerikanische Kreuzzugsgedanke im 20. Jahrhundert''. Tübingen: Grabert Verlag (1990).


Articles


"President Roosevelt and the Origins of the 1939 War."
'' Journal of Historical Review'', vol. 4, no. 2, Special Issue: Roosevelt and War in Europe, 1938-1940 (Summer 1983)
pp. 205–255.


Reviews

* Review of ''Oesterreich Zwischen Russland und Serbien: Zur Suedslawischen Frage und der Entstehung des Ersten Weltkrieges'' by Hans Uebersberger. '' Journal of Modern History'', vol. 32, no. 1 (Mar. 1960), p. 87.


References

Notes Bibliography * Craig, Gordon (1991) ''The Germans'', New York: Meridian. * Dawidowicz, Lucy (December 1980) "Lies About the Holocaust" from ''Commentary'', Volume 70, Issue # 6, pp. 31–37; reprinted in ''What Is The Use of Jewish history? : Essays'', edited and with an introduction by Neal Kozodoy, New York : Schocken Books, 1992, pages 84–100. * Lipstadt, Deborah (1993) ''Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory'', New York : Free Press ; Toronto : Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; New York ; Oxford : Maxwell Macmillan International, *Spencer, Frank (July 1965) Review of ''Der erzwungene Krieg''in ''International Affairs'', Volume 41, #3, pp. 506–07 * Weinberg, Gerhard (October 1962) Review of ''Der erzwungene Krieg'' pages 104-105 from ''The American Historical Review'', Volume 68, No. 1, pp. 104–05 *Wish, Harvey (January 1966) Review of ''The Myth of the 'New History': The Techniques and Tactics of the New Mythologists of American History'' in ''The American Historical Review'', Volume 71, Issue #2, pages 658-659.


External links


The Forced War - When Peaceful Revision Failed''The Forced War''
from
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

A Brief History of Holocaust Denial
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoggan, David 1923 births 1988 deaths Reed College alumni Harvard University alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty American Holocaust deniers Carthage College faculty San Francisco State University faculty Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty People from Menlo Park, California 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers Activists from California Far-right politics in the United States American conspiracy theorists Historians from California American male non-fiction writers American expatriates in Germany