Holocaust thesis investigated

by Michael Rentoul

Website picture: Dr Josel Hayward

The University of Canterbury will look into how a degree that questions key assumptions about the Jewish Holocaust was awarded.

The university's governing council decided yesterday that a working party should look into the affair.

In May, the Jewish Chronicle criticised a masters thesis by a former Canterbury student, Joel Hayward. The thesis alleges there were no gas chambers, that far fewer than six million Jews were killed, and there were no plans for mass murder

Dr Hayward, now a history lecturer at Massey University, wrote to the Jewish Chronicle withdrawing the main conclusions. He has also issued corrections to his thesis.

New Zealand Jewish Council president David Zwartz has asked the university to revoke Dr Hayward's degree and withdraw the thesis from its library.

He said the university should have raised questions about the thesis before it was completed and never allowed it to be published.

Citing the values of open scholarship and freedom of expression, the university declined.

In a memo to staff on April 20. Canterbury Vice-Chancellor Daryl Le Grew said the university needed to know what happened and why. The university did not endorse Holocaust revisionism.

Its scholarship was subject to criticism and peer review. When its scholarship was found to be wrong that should not be hidden.