- Oct 17, 2011
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This January, in a drab committee room of the New Hampshire state legislature, a Republican state lawmaker teamed up with a German Holocaust denier to propose that the state's public schools incorporate a conspiracy theory when developing their lesson plans: namely, that the Nazis' murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust was a hoax.
Though their effort failed, the incident was just the latest example of antisemitic extremism creeping further into the American political mainstream, to the point that prominent conservative voices have warned of a "cancer" destroying the pro-Trump MAGA movement from within. And in a sign of just how normalized these incidents of anti-Jewish bigotry have become, the state lawmaker responsible for the effort, Rep. Matt Sabourin dit Choinière, appears to have faced no consequences and minimal backlash from Republican leadership in New Hampshire.
The New Hampshire Commission on Holocaust and Genocide Education helps set educational standards and connect public schools with teaching resources.
Sabourin dit Choinière, who was elected in 2024, proposed an amendment to add a new member to the commission from an extremist group led by Germar Rudolf, a longtime Holocaust denial activist, whose claims have been repeatedly debunked. Rudolf contends — despite overwhelming evidence — that the Nazis never used gas chambers to commit mass murder.
At the invitation of Sabourin dit Choiniere, Rudolf testified at the hearing along with two other men known for their antisemitic activism.
[Commission member and lawmaker] Selig, who is Jewish, was horrified.
"Shocked would be an understatement," she later said. "I could barely speak."
Sabourin dit Choinière's amendment failed to attract any support, but was nonetheless seen as a "breakthrough" for the Holocaust denial movement.
--More about Rudolf, not that it's relevant to the Holocaust, but I really can't just skip this bit.
In 2020, Rudolf was convicted of open lewdness and indecent exposure in Pennsylvania after a police officer found him naked from the waist down at a children's playground around 4 a.m.
In 2022, he was again charged with trespassing on school grounds and disorderly conduct. He later pleaded guilty to resolve those charges.
Though their effort failed, the incident was just the latest example of antisemitic extremism creeping further into the American political mainstream, to the point that prominent conservative voices have warned of a "cancer" destroying the pro-Trump MAGA movement from within. And in a sign of just how normalized these incidents of anti-Jewish bigotry have become, the state lawmaker responsible for the effort, Rep. Matt Sabourin dit Choinière, appears to have faced no consequences and minimal backlash from Republican leadership in New Hampshire.
The New Hampshire Commission on Holocaust and Genocide Education helps set educational standards and connect public schools with teaching resources.
Sabourin dit Choinière, who was elected in 2024, proposed an amendment to add a new member to the commission from an extremist group led by Germar Rudolf, a longtime Holocaust denial activist, whose claims have been repeatedly debunked. Rudolf contends — despite overwhelming evidence — that the Nazis never used gas chambers to commit mass murder.
At the invitation of Sabourin dit Choiniere, Rudolf testified at the hearing along with two other men known for their antisemitic activism.
[Commission member and lawmaker] Selig, who is Jewish, was horrified.
"Shocked would be an understatement," she later said. "I could barely speak."
Sabourin dit Choinière's amendment failed to attract any support, but was nonetheless seen as a "breakthrough" for the Holocaust denial movement.
--More about Rudolf, not that it's relevant to the Holocaust, but I really can't just skip this bit.
In 2020, Rudolf was convicted of open lewdness and indecent exposure in Pennsylvania after a police officer found him naked from the waist down at a children's playground around 4 a.m.
In 2022, he was again charged with trespassing on school grounds and disorderly conduct. He later pleaded guilty to resolve those charges.
