Nizkor Project

The website was founded by Ken McVay{{cite web|title=Community Directory - The Nizkor Project|url=http://www.mvjf.org/IR/community-directory.aspx?id=3025&category=637|access-date=28 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808043116/http://www.mvjf.org/IR/community-directory.aspx?id=3025&category=637|archive-date=8 August 2014|url-status=dead}} as a central Web-based archive for the large numbers of documents made publicly available by the users of the newsgroup alt.revisionism and gifted to B'nai Brith Canada in 2010.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}}

The site also archives numerous postings made to the newsgroup since the early 1990s. It does not archive every single posting ever made to the newsgroup; rather, the maintainers of the web site have selected various messages for display that are seen as presenting factual information about the Holocaust;{{cite web|title=Nizkor Project holocaust web crawler|url=http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/nizkor-search.html|publisher=University of Pennsylvania|access-date=16 February 2014}} or, in the case of some posters, about the authors of the messages themselves.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}}

In addition to providing an extensive archive of documents regarding the Holocaust, including the transcripts of the 1st Nuremberg Tribunal,{{cite web|title=The International Military Tribunal Nuremberg|url=http://www.nizkor.com/hweb/imt/|work=Nizkor|access-date=16 February 2014}} the Nizkor Project also seeks to expose the activities of Holocaust deniers themselves.{{cite news|title=Newslink|url=http://edition.cnn.com/almanac/9605/10/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010723105917/http://edition.cnn.com/almanac/9605/10/|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 23, 2001|access-date=16 February 2014|newspaper=CNN|date=May 10, 1996}} Based on the postings to the newsgroup over the years, it has compiled extensive writings from self-proclaimed revisionists, including David Irving,{{cite web|title=David Irving|url=http://www.nizkor.org/irving-david/|work=Nizkor|access-date=16 February 2014}} Ernst Zündel,{{cite web|title=Ernst Zündel|url=http://www.nizkor.org/zundel-ernst/|work=Nizkor|access-date=16 February 2014}} Michael A. Hoffman II, and others.

Among the various pieces of information stored at Nizkor is a sound recording of an answering machine message allegedly made by white supremacist Tom Metzger, encouraging various individuals to "take action" against "Zinkor {{sic}} on the Internet."{{cite web|title=W.A.R. Targets Nizkor|url=http://www.nizkor.com/hweb/orgs/american/war/war-targets-nizkor.html|work=Nizkor Project|access-date=16 February 2014}}

In 2009, the Simon Wiesenthal Center congratulated the Nizkor Project for having initiated an effort which led to the successful prosecution of three Nazi war criminals.{{cite web|url=http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=5711841&ct=7499875|title=Wiesenthal Center Praises Indictment by Spanish Court of Three Nazi War Criminals Denaturalized and Ordered Deported From the United States - Simon Wiesenthal Center|access-date=2017-01-12|archive-date=2017-01-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113165559/http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=5711841&ct=7499875|url-status=dead}}

Holocaust denial web sites and spokespersons challenged McVay's neutrality and attacked him personally.{{cite web|title=How much of Nizkor's material is truth?|url=http://codoh.com/library/document/1056|work=codoh|access-date=28 September 2013}} The original Nizkor web site was accused by self-proclaimed "Holocaust revisionists" and neo-Nazi Web sites as being funded by Israel and other Zionist sources, though McVay consistently denied these charges. He stated that the Nizkor Project was funded solely by donations from the general public, as well as his own personal finances.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}}

In the late 1990s, the Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized the Nizkor Project for increasing the visibility of hate groups and Holocaust deniers, even as it sought to debunk them.{{cite web|title=The Littman Letter|url=http://www.nizkor.com/hweb/people/l/littman-sol/littman-letter.html|work=Nizkor|access-date=16 February 2014}} This debate between free speech advocates such as McVay and those who favor the suppression of speech with hate crime laws continued throughout the late 1990s, but has now mostly been resolved with the two sides agreeing on the common goal of confronting Holocaust deniers and keeping their disagreements over specific tactics private. In 1996, McVay spoke out against Internet hate crime laws in Canada in front of a committee of the Canadian parliament, stating that it is better to address the false claims of Holocaust deniers, rather than to censor them.{{cite web|url=https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Archives/Committee/352/huso/evidence/05_96-04-30/huso-05-cover-e.html |title=Committee Evidence, House of Commons of Canada}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.spectacle.org/695/mcvay.html Interview with McVay]
• [http://www.york.cuny.edu/~drobnick/nizkor.html Article about Nizkor from CUNY]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140222125052/http://www.jewishfederations.org/IR/community-directory.aspx?id=3025&category=637 The Nizkor Project] on The Jewish Federations of North America
• [http://nizkor.com/ The original website created by Ken McVay]

{{Hate in Canada}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Canadian digital libraries

Category:Discipline-oriented digital libraries

Category:Holocaust denial in Canada

Category:Anti-fascism in Canada