Courage and the IHR
By Joseph Sobran
Joseph Sobran, who died in 2010, was for years was a nationally syndicated columnist and a National Review senior editor, He spoke about the IHR and its director at the 2002 IHR Conference. He said:
“…If I’m ‘courageous,’ what do you call Mark Weber and the Institute for Historical Review? They have been smeared far worse than I have; moreover, they have been seriously threatened with death. Their offices have been firebombed. Do they at least get credit for courage? Not at all. They remain almost universally vilified. When I met Mark, many years ago, I expected to meet a raving Jew-hating fanatic, such being the generic reputation of ‘Holocaust deniers.’ I was immediately and subsequently impressed to find that he was just the opposite: a mild-mannered, good-humored, witty, scholarly man who habitually spoke with restraint and measure, even about enemies who would love to see him dead. The same is true of other members of the Institute. In my many years of acquaintance with them, I have never heard any of them say anything that would strike an unprejudiced listener as unreasonable or bigoted.”