American Holocaust denier (1926?2015)
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
Holocaust denial
.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
Carto was known for the
Liberty Lobby
and successor racial extremist organizations which he helped create.
[5]
Carto ran a group supporting
segregationist
George Wallace
's
1968 presidential campaign
and reorganized the group into the
National Youth Alliance
, which promoted
Francis Parker Yockey
's ideology. Carto helped found the
Populist Party
, which served as an electoral vehicle for
white supremacist
group and
Ku Klux Klan
members, such as
David Duke
in the
1988 presidential election
and
Christian Identity
supporter
Bo Gritz
in
1992
. Carto ran the
American Free Press
newspaper which publishes antisemitic and racist books and features columns by
Joe Sobran
,
James Traficant
,
Paul Craig Roberts
, and others. The organization promotes
9/11 conspiracy theories
.
[6]
Carto's many other projects included the
Institute for Historical Review
, which promotes
Holocaust denial
.
Biography
[
edit
]
Early life
[
edit
]
Willis Carto was born in
Fort Wayne, Indiana
. He served in the United States Army in the
Philippines
in
World War II
and earned the
Purple Heart
when he was shot in the shoulder by an enemy sniper.
[7]
After leaving the military, he lived with his parents in
Mansfield, Ohio
. He studied law for a semester at the
University of Cincinnati Law School
.
[1]
He later worked for
Procter & Gamble
and moved west to
San Francisco, California
where he worked for the
Household Finance Company
.
[8]
Liberty Lobby and publications
[
edit
]
In 1955, Carto founded an organization called
Liberty Lobby
, which remained in operation under his control until 2001, when the organization was forced into
bankruptcy
as a result of a
lawsuit
.
[1]
Liberty Lobby published
The Spotlight
newspaper between 1975 and 2001.
[1]
Carto
[9]
and several
Spotlight
staff members and writers subsequently founded a new newspaper called
American Free Press
. The paper includes articles from syndicated columnists who have no direct ties to Carto or his organizations.
In 1966, Carto acquired control of
The American Mercury
via the Legion for the Survival of Freedom organization. It was published until 1980.
[
citation needed
]
Political activism in the 1960s and 1970s
[
edit
]
Carto ran a group called "Youth for George Wallace" to aid the
third party
presidential campaign
of
George Wallace
in
1968
.
[10]
When the campaign failed, he converted what remained of the Youth for George Wallace organization into the
National Youth Alliance
. As National Chairman for the group, Carto recruited
William Luther Pierce
, who later became known for writing
The Turner Diaries
.
[10]
Carto eventually lost control of the National Youth Alliance to Pierce who transformed it into the
National Alliance
, a
white nationalist
and
white separatist
political organization.
[
citation needed
]
On September 10, 1971, the conservative magazine
National Review
published a detailed critique of Carto's activities up to that point. It was titled "Liberty Lobby - Willis Carto and his Fronts".
[11]
Historical revisionism and Holocaust denial
[
edit
]
Carto founded the
Institute for Historical Review
in 1979.
[12]
He was also the founder of a publishing company called
Noontide Press
, which published books on white
racialism
, including Yockey's
Imperium
and
David Hoggan
's
The Myth of the Six Million
, one of the first books to
deny the Holocaust
.
[13]
Noontide Press later became closely associated with the IHR, and fell out of Carto's hands at the same time as the IHR did.
[1]
The IHR and Carto were sued in 1981 by public interest attorney
William John Cox
on behalf of Auschwitz survivor
Mel Mermelstein
. In that case, which was to eventually last eleven years, the court took "
judicial notice
of the fact that
Jews
were gassed to death at
Auschwitz concentration camp
in
Poland
during the summer of 1944."
[14]
The court went on to state, "It is simply a fact."
[15]
[16]
[17]
The law firm of Robert Von Esch, Jr., representing the defendants, settled with the plaintiff to remove themselves from the case by agreeing to pay $100,000 and an explicit apology for having filed an August 1986 libel suit by the IHR against Mermelstein. The Von Esches also formally acknowledged that Jews had been gassed at Auschwitz and that millions of Jews had perished in
German wartime camps
.
[14]
On September 19, 1991, the plaintiffs withdrew complaints of libel, conspiracy to inflict emotional distress and intentional infliction of emotional distress, following
Los Angeles Superior Court
Judge
Stephen M. Lachs
' dismissal of the malicious prosecution portion of the case.
[14]
After losing control of Noontide Press and the IHR in a
hostile takeover
by former associates, Carto started another publication,
The Barnes Review
, with the focus also on Holocaust denial.
[18]
Populist Party (1984–1996)
[
edit
]
In 1984, Carto was involved in starting a new political party called the
Populist Party
.
[1]
It quickly fell out of his hands in a hostile takeover by disgruntled former associates. Critics asserted that this Populist Party (not to be confused with the 19th-century
People's Party
, commonly known as "Populists") was little more than an electoral vehicle for current and former
Ku Klux Klan
and
Christian Identity
members.
Olympic
athlete
Bob Richards
(
1984
),
David Duke
(a founder of the
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
and a future
Louisiana state representative
,
1988
) and former
Green Beret
Bo Gritz
(
1992
) were the Populist Party's only three presidential candidates. It folded before it could nominate a candidate for the
1996 elections
.
[
citation needed
]
Radio and other activism
[
edit
]
Carto's Liberty Lobby acquired the Sun Radio Network in December 1989, and attempted to use
talk radio
as a vehicle for espousing his views. It was eventually a financial failure.
[
citation needed
]
Liberty Lobby and
American Free Press
also sponsored the
Radio Free America
talk show. Carto also formed the Foundation to Defend the First Amendment, one of several nonprofits Carto used to spread money to like-minded individuals and groups.
[19]
[20]
Carto's Liberty Lobby also published
The Barnes Review
from 1994.
[21]
In 2004, Carto joined in signing
David Duke
's
New Orleans Protocol
on behalf of
American Free Press
. The New Orleans Protocol sought to "mainstream our cause" by reducing internecine warfare.
[22]
Carto was featured as a guest on
The Political Cesspool
, which represents "a philosophy that is pro-White." He spoke at meetings conducted by "Pastor"
Thomas Robb
, a Ku Klux Klan leader and Christian Identity advocate, and in 2015 participated in the ground breaking ceremony for the Christian Revival Research and Development Center being built on Robb's compound in
Arkansas
, along with Edward Fields and Canadian white supremacist
Paul Fromm
.
[
citation needed
]
In 2007, Carto condemned the "genocidal maniacs like Vice President
Cheney
and commentator
Bill O'Reilly
" in their support of the
Bush administration's
attack on Iraq
,
[23]
and warned that "now the crooks are prodding America to attack
Iran
".
[23]
[
third-party source needed
]
His media outlets supported presidential candidate and congressman
Ron Paul
.
[
citation needed
]
Death
[
edit
]
Carto died on October 26, 2015, at the age of 89, reportedly from
cardiac arrest
.
[8]
In February 2016, he was buried at
Arlington National Cemetery
(which the family had the right to request because he had earned a
Purple Heart
).
Far-right
and white nationalist Pastor
Thomas A. Robb
presided at the funeral.
[18]
Influences
[
edit
]
Willis Carto was a devotee of the writings of
Francis Parker Yockey
,
[12]
a far-rightist who heralded
Adolf Hitler
's
Third Reich
as the "European Imperium" against both
Bolshevism
and the United States, which he considered Jewish-controlled.
[24]
Carto adopted Yockey's book
Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics
as his own guiding ideology,
[25]
and he obtained a 15-minute interview with Yockey on June 10, 1960, while the latter was held in prison for passport fraud. Yockey committed suicide six days later on June 16.
[24]
Scholars have asserted that Yockey would have probably been forgotten without Carto's marketing of
Imperium
to the American audience.
[26]
[24]
Later, Carto would define his ideology as
Jeffersonian
and
populist
rather than National Socialist, particularly in Carto's 1982 book,
Profiles in Populism
.
[27]
That book presented sympathetic profiles of several United States political figures including
Thomas Jefferson
,
Andrew Jackson
, and
Henry Ford
, as well as
Catholic priest
Father
Charles Coughlin
, who used radio to support of the policies of Adolf Hitler and
Benito Mussolini
.
[27]
[28]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"Willis Carto"
(PDF)
.
Anti-Defamation League
. 2009
. Retrieved
September 15,
2009
.
- ^
Kaplan, Jeffrey, ed. (2000).
Encyclopedia of White Power: A Sourcebook on the Radical Racist Right
. AltaMira Press. p. 42.
ISBN
978-0742503403
.
- ^
Levy, Richard, ed. (2005).
Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution, Volume
. ABC-CLIO. p. 107.
ISBN
978-1851094394
.
- ^
Michael, George (2012).
Confronting Right Wing Extremism and Terrorism in the USA
. Routledge. p. 15.
ISBN
978-0415628440
.
- ^
"Willis Carto"
.
Southern Poverty Law Center
. Retrieved
June 20,
2022
.
- ^
"Paul Disowns Extremists' Views but Doesn't Disavow the Support"
by Jim Rutenberg & Serge F. Kovaleski,
The New York Times
, December 25, 2011
- ^
Marans, Daniel (November 2, 2015).
"Famed Holocaust Denier Could Be Buried In Arlington National Cemetery"
.
Huffington Post
. Retrieved
November 3,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
Martin, Douglas (November 1, 2015).
"Willis Carto, Far-Right Figure and Holocaust Denier, Dies at 89"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
July 28,
2020
.
- ^
Aaronovitch, David
(2010).
Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History
. Riverhead Books.
ISBN
9781101185216
. Retrieved
July 7,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
Kaplan, Jeffrey (editor).
Encyclopedia of White Power: A Sourcebook on the Radical Racist Right
; AltaMira Press; June 14, 2000;
ISBN
978-0742503403
; page 43.
- ^
Simonds, C.H. (September 10, 1971). "Liberty Lobby - Willis Carto and his Fronts".
National Review
.
- ^
a
b
Beirich, Heidi (November 30, 2008).
"Willis Carto: The First Major Biography"
.
Intelligence Report
. No. Winter 2008. Southern Poverty Law Center
. Retrieved
December 24,
2018
.
- ^
"Willis A. Carto: Fabricating History"
.
Anti-Defamation League
. 2009. Archived from
the original
on January 30, 2012
. Retrieved
September 15,
2009
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Doubters of Holocaust Win a Round in Court : Litigation: Portions of an Auschwitz survivor's suit are dismissed. Revisionist historians claim a victory."
,
Los Angeles Times
, September 25, 1991
- ^
Transcript
Archived
July 17, 2011, at the
Wayback Machine
,
Nizkor Project
- ^
"Mermelstein Victory",
Heritage
, October 23, 1981.
- ^
"Footnote to the Holocaust" by Melinda Beck,
Newsweek
, October 19, 1981, p. 73.
- ^
a
b
Jacobs, Steven Leonard (June 29, 2020).
Antisemitism: Exploring the Issues
. ABC-CLIO. p. 23.
ISBN
978-1-4408-6874-0
. Retrieved
April 11,
2022
.
- ^
"Judge Roy Moore Got $1,000 from OC Holocaust Denial Group's Co-Founder ? OC Weekly"
. October 19, 2017.
- ^
"Foundation to Defend the First Amendment | About Us"
.
- ^
"Willis A. Carto: Fabricating History"
.
Anti-Defamation League
. Archived from
the original
on November 17, 2008
. Retrieved
November 17,
2008
.
The Spotlight
announced in August 1994 that Liberty Lobby was launching a new publication devoted to historical revisionism called
The Barnes Review
(after the 20th century revisionist historian Harry Elmer Barnes).
- ^
"Freed from prison, David Duke mounts a comeback"
.
Southern Poverty Law Center
Intelligence Report, Summer 2004. Archived from
the original
on September 27, 2007
. Retrieved
September 21,
2007
.
- ^
a
b
:U.S. Takes More Steps Toward War With Iran
" by Willis Carto;
American Free Press
; issue #45; November 5, 2007
- ^
a
b
c
Michael, George (2019). "Useful Idiots or Fellow Travelers? The Relationship between the American Far Right and Russia".
Terrorism and Political Violence
.
31
(1): 64?83.
doi
:
10.1080/09546553.2018.1555996
.
ISSN
0954-6553
.
S2CID
150938479
.
- ^
"Willis Carto and the IHR"
Archived
September 28, 2010, at the
Wayback Machine
,
Nizkor Project
- ^
Coogan, Kevin. (1999).
Dreamer of the day : Francis Parker Yockey and the postwar fascist international
. Autonomedia. pp. 562 n. 16.
ISBN
1-57027-039-2
.
OCLC
38884251
.
- ^
a
b
Lyons, Matthew N. & Chip Berlet.
Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort
; The Guilford Press; 2000;
ISBN
978-1572305625
; p. 188
- ^
Lawrence, John Shelton
& Robert Jewett.
The Myth of the American Superhero
; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.; June 1, 2002;
ISBN
978-0802825735
, p. 132
Publications
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Cox, William John. (2015)
The Holocaust Case: Defeat of Denial
. Little Elm, TX: eLectio Publishing.
- Coogan, Kevin. (1999)
Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International
. Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia.
- Michael, George. (2008)
Willis Carto and the American Far Right
. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
- Mintz, Frank P. (1985)
The Liberty Lobby and the American Right: Race, Conspiracy, and Culture
. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
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[
edit
]
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