Leading Holocaust denier to speak in Billings
St. John said police would provide extra security at Cinco de Mayo events, which begin Thursday, in case any white supremacists decide to disrupt that celebration of Mexican heritage and culture.
Travis McAdam, director of the Montana Human Rights Network, said it was worth noting that Irving’s tour of the United States includes just two stops in Montana — Kalispell on Wednesday and Billings on Friday.
Those are the two Montana communities that saw “a real uptick in white supremacist recruiting activities” in recent years, he said.
A press release from the rights network made note of the activities of the Montana Creativity Movement and one of its ringleaders, Allen Goff, who was acquitted last spring of a felony weapons charge for shooting a Hispanic teenager and in November was arrested on charges of pointing a gun at and threatening to kill a Native American.
Whether or not the Creativity Movement is directly responsible for bringing Irving to Billings, McAdam said, it is significant that Irving considers Billings fertile ground for spreading his message.
Irving was generally well regarded at the start of his career as a historian, but he gradually veered more and more to the open advocacy of far-right, anti-Semitic beliefs, including his contention that gas chambers were not used at German extermination camps. He once said that only 30,000 Jews were killed at Auschwitz, as opposed to the commonly accepted figure of 1.5 million.