PALMERSTON NORTH - Massey University in Palmerston North has leapt to the defence of military historian Joel Hayward after he was accused of being a Holocaust apologist.
Pro vice-chancellor Barrie Macdonald said yesterday that Dr Hayward was "no longer involved in teaching, writing or research related to the Holocaust" and was a respected member of Massey's academic staff.
The New Zealand Jewish Council this week condemned Canterbury University for condoning publication of a master's thesis by Dr Hayward which questioned the extent of the Holocaust.
The New Zealand Jewish Chronicle reported that the thesis, written in 1991 and 1992, claimed there were no gas chambers, far fewer than six million Jews were slain and that there was no means to carry out a plan of mass murder. It reported that other revisionist historians who question the Holocaust, such as David Irving, tried to use the thesis.
The Chronicle published a letter from Dr Hayward saying that he made mistakes in the thesis, and had withdrawn its main conclusions. The university had refused his request to withdraw it from its library.
Professor Macdonald said Dr Hayward completed his master's thesis, on the historiography of Holocaust revisionism, at Canterbury in 1993.
"He subsequently chose to change his academic focus to military history, in which he completed a PhD."
Dr Hayward is programme coordinator of Massey's defence and strategic studies.
- NZPA
Varsity leader defends historian
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.