Willis Carto

Willis Carto (1926-2015) was one of the most virulent antisemitic propagandists in the U.S. in the second half of the twentieth century. After emerging as a right-wing organizer in San Francisco in the early 1950s, he was associated with nearly every significant far-right movement in the country, from neo-Nazism to militias, and segregationism to Holocaust denial. He spread Holocaust denial and hatred against Jews through antisemitic, conspiracy-oriented publications such as The Spotlight, The Barnes Review and American Free Press. In 1979 Carto founded the Institute for Historical Review, which was the foremost Holocaust denial organization in the world for two decades. In speeches at IHR conferences, Carto called the Holocaust "atrocity propaganda"10 and a “malicious lie.”11 In 1969, one of the publishing companies that grew out of Carto’s far-right group, Liberty Lobby, published a book entitled The Myth of the Six Million. He also held conferences that featured well-known antisemites and Holocaust deniers. 

In his words: 

• “The most pervasive and harmful myth today, of course, is that of the so-called "Holocaust," and all of its attendant fables… The Holocaust Myth has benefited its propagators as has few lies in history. We taxpayers in Western nations have shipped untold billions to Israel because of this myth.” - Spring 1982 issue of Journal of Historical Review
• “These records show that no more than 120,000 persons of all religions and ethnicity died at Auschwitz during the war...The cause of death of these persons was old age. But many died from disease, such as typhus, which the Germans combatted with an insecticide, Zyklon B.” - February 6, 1995 issue of Spotlight