Arthur Butz is a tenured associate professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Northwestern University, where he has taught at the McCormick School of Engineering since the 1970s. He received three degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1965. In 1974, Northwestern granted him tenure, just two years before he published his infamous Holocaust denial book. Despite decades of controversy and international condemnation, Butz has retained his position at the university, giving him continued academic legitimacy and access to institutional resources even as he spreads antisemitic propaganda.
Holocaust Denial and Publications
Butz is best known for his 1976 book The Hoax of the Twentieth Century — The Case Against the Presumed Extermination of European Jewry. In it, he falsely claimed that the Holocaust never happened and that the extermination of millions of Jews was a “hoax.” The Anti-Defamation League described the book as “one of the first major works of Holocaust denial in the English language.” Butz has continued to republish the book, with later editions distributed through Holocaust denial publishers such as Theses and Dissertations Press. His writings include grotesque claims that “missing” Jews after World War II may have simply abandoned their families, trivializing mass murder with offensive distortions.
He has repeatedly attempted to discredit eyewitness testimonies of Holocaust survivors, dismissing them as fabrications or exaggerations, and even defended leading Nazi figures such as Heinrich Himmler. In speeches and articles for denialist outlets, Butz has described Holocaust memory as “holocaustomania” and mocked survivors’ accounts as “fantastic concoctions.”
Affiliations with Holocaust Denial Networks
Butz has been a contributor to organizations and publications dedicated to Holocaust denial, including the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH) and the Institute for Historical Review (IHR). Both groups are notorious for whitewashing or defending Nazi crimes. CODOH has defended Josef Mengele, while IHR has defended Hitler himself. In 2016, Butz published a eulogy for CODOH founder Bradley Smith, praising him for “making a difference” in spreading Holocaust denial, despite Smith’s record of openly targeting students to radicalize them into accepting denialist propaganda.
Use of Northwestern Resources
Butz has also used Northwestern’s resources to amplify his antisemitic views. From at least 1996 until 2006, he maintained a Holocaust denial website hosted on Northwestern’s servers, where he applauded figures such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for calling the Holocaust a “myth.” This use of a university platform to promote denialist content sparked outrage, though Northwestern leadership defended his continued employment on the grounds of academic freedom, even while acknowledging that his views were an “embarrassment” to the institution.
Public Antisemitism and Conspiracy Theories
Butz’s antisemitism extends beyond denial of the Holocaust itself. He has repeatedly argued that “Zionist circles” fabricated the Holocaust to achieve political goals, claiming it was a deliberately contrived falsehood. He has described Zionists as controlling governments and media, echoing classic antisemitic conspiracy theories of Jewish global power. Butz’s social media presence reflects the same obsessions: he follows numerous neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and Holocaust denial accounts, though he does not actively tweet. His online affiliations include accounts openly posting antisemitic caricatures, slogans such as “The 1% is 99% Jewish,” and Holocaust mockery.
Campus Impact
Arthur Butz’s decades-long career at Northwestern University is one of the most notorious examples of a faculty member abusing the protection of tenure to promote antisemitism. His writings deny the reality of the Holocaust, defame its survivors, and recycle conspiracy theories that place Jews at the center of supposed global manipulation. His continued presence on Northwestern’s faculty undermines the safety of Jewish students, normalizes extremist ideology, and damages the university’s reputation as an academic institution.
