Adelaide Institute

Since its foundation in 1994, the Adelaide Institute has quickly become the leading Holocaust denial group in Australia, despite the fact that it is essentially the personal crusade of its founder Fredrick Toben.

Toben's own personal account of his interest in the Holocaust reveals knowledge of Holocaust denial arguments since the early 1970s; however, it was not until the 1990s that his views started to become expressed publicly. Having demonstrated against war crimes trials in the early 1990s in Adelaide, in 1993, Toben founded a group called "Truth Missions" (of no relation to that of David McCalden's similarly-named body. In 1994, Truth Missions became the Adelaide Institute - so named in response to the Sydney Institute of Gerard Henderson, and formed to provide a more cohesive face to a small group of like-minded individuals.

The Adelaide Institute is essentially a one-person operation that seeks to give legitimacy to Toben's activities. Consequently, the group's activities and fate mirror closely those of Toben. For instance, whilst Toben was incarcerated in Germany for much of 1999, the group was headed by Geoffrey Muirden, who is also a member of John Bennet's Australian Civil Liberties Union. During this time, the Adelaide Insitute became less active, other than the notable exception of Richard Krege's trip to the site of the Treblinka death camp.

Toben is not the only individual involved with the group, even if the Adelaide Institute is essentially his operation. Until early 2000, Toben's sidekick was David Brockschmidt, whose parents helped Oskar Schindler save Jews during the Second World War. Indeed, Brockschmidt demonstrated against the Spielberg film Schindler's List for neglecting to mention the role that his parents played. Brockschmidt has recently become active once more in the Adelaide Institute's activities.

Another Adelaide Institute is the Tasmanian Olga Scully, who has faced legal proceedings for her distribution of Holocaust denial propaganda in her local Launceston community.