Content Warning: This story contains mentions of racial violence and sexual assault.

Though it is fashionable to protest ills far removed from campus life, there is one in Northwestern’s midst that lingers on with little fanfare.

His name is McCormick Prof. Arthur Butz. He is best known not for anything from the world of engineering, but rather from the world of hate and deceit. In short, Butz is a “Holocaust denier.” 

I repeat, a learned professor on campus is a “Holocaust denier.”

In 1976, he penned a book titled “The Hoax of the Twentieth Century” denying that the Holocaust took place. Denying that six million Jewish girls, men, grandmothers, babies, uncles, neighbors, women, fathers, friends, sisters, colleagues, cousins, lovers, boys, mothers and aunts — six million human beings — were murdered. 

For perspective, consider this: If you read each victim’s name — taking just two seconds per name — it would take you 139 days to complete the task. Start today and you will not finish until September. But that is only if you never stop to eat, drink or sleep — much like the conditions the victims endured.

In 2006, former University President Henry Bienen condemned Butz, saying, “Butz’s opinions are his own and in no way represent the views of the University.” 

But let’s be clear: These are not “opinions” — these are historical facts.  

If a mathematician claimed two plus two is five, we would not call him a “mathematical revisionist” or criticize his “opinions.” We would call him an idiot. As a University, we would be embarrassed to associate with him.

Hiding behind tenure policies and “the right to free speech” is equal parts cowardly and dumb.  The First Amendment prevents the government from limiting your speech; it does not prevent a private university from firing a professor.

To put things in perspective, what would the reaction be on campus if a group of “antebellum revisionists” claimed African Americans were never slaves? That Black people were never sold, lynched, beaten, raped and bartered? Suppose these “scholars” claimed the whole idea of a slave trade was simply a hoax devised by Black people to garner sympathy. How would we respond?

I would like to think I would be joined by everyone, no matter their ethnicity, in obliterating such a lie. I would like to think that the “revisionists” would be called racists. And I am pretty sure such a “professor” would be — rightly — run off campus.

Yet, Butz persists in your midst. No protests. Intellectual hypocrisy at its worst.

As today marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, take a moment to remember the victims, lest they died in vain. Better yet, in the spirit of the mantra “fight speech with more speech,” if Butz can freely exercise his right of expression, why not take five minutes and peacefully exercise yours by telling him and others what you think?

William Choslovsky is a former Evanston resident and NU summer student. He can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.