John Bennett
Full name: John Tuson Bennett With his entry into the Holocaust denial movement in the late 1970s, John Bennett is one of Australia's longest and most active Holocaust deniers. Whilst the most publicly significant activity occurred in the years immediately following his entry into the movement, Bennett nonetheless remains an important individual in the Ausrtalian context. A lawyer by qualification, who has been involved in civil libertarian issues since the mid-1960s, Bennett is somewhat of an exception in the Holocaust denial movement: whilst many of his colleagues espouse to be civil libertarians, Bennett was already prior to his public support of Holocaust denial propaganda. Until the late 1970s, Bennett was a leading member of the Victorian Civil Liberties Council; however, following his use of the group's name to promote his then-new Holocaust denial agenda, he was sacked from his position. Bennett then established the "Australian Civil Liberties Union" (no connection to the similarly-named American organisation). Bennett ascribes his entry into the movement to one individual. Bennett credits Arthur Butz's seminal - within the movement at least - Holocaust denial tract The Hoax of the Twentieth Century" with his entry, claiming it was "as if the blinkers had been lidted from my eyes". Following his acceptance of Holocaust denial propaganda, Bennett embarked on a publicity campaign for Butz's books, sending copies and texts about it to universities, politicians and academics across the country. Bennett has written articles that have appeared in the IHR's Journal of Historical Review (JHR); however, Bennett's primary publication is an annual booklet entitled Your Rights, which is sold throughout Australia in newsagents and is available in many libraries. Most of the booklet is designed to provide useful advice about legal and financial issues and is generally useful; however, some issues have featured extensive texts about Holocaust denial-related topics. For instance, recent issues have included articles, in which Bennett supports Irving and Toben in their legal cases, and Bennett has also reprinted articles straight from the JHR. In 2003, Toben enlisted Bennett's services to help his appeal against the Federal Court ruling against him. The case is due to be heard on May 19. |