A Holocaust denier is running for a school board election in Minnesota.
Vaughn Klingenberg, who is a candidate for Roseville Area Schools board, has made several comments discussing his beliefs that the Nazis did not want the Holocaust and that they were actually trying to "save" Jewish people.
In a July appearance on VT Radio's "Uncensored Alternative Foreign Policy Talk" podcast, Klingenberg described the Holocaust being orchestrated by "big Zionist Jews" to persecute "little Jews" and claimed that "the Jewish religion is an ideology based on victimization."
The Holocaust has been recognized as the genocide of European Jews by Nazi Germany and described by the National WWII Museum as the "deliberate, organized, state-sponsored persecution and machinelike murder of approximately six million European Jews and at least five million Soviet prisoners of war, Romany, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and other victims."
Klingenberg's name appears on a list of individuals who have filed affidavits of candidacy for the Roseville Area Schools board election, according to the district website. Information from the Minnesota Secretary of State's office shows that Klingenberg filed his candidacy on August 14.
The November 7 election will elect six members to the board that oversees education policy decisions for the Twin Cities suburbs. The 2020 U.S. Census states that 36,254 people live in Roseville. The bureau estimates that children under 18 represent 24 percent of the population.
"Roseville Area Schools strongly rejects any language or stance that denies the truth of the Holocaust and its devastating impact not only Jewish people but our world," Roseville Area Schools Superintendent Dr. Jenny Loeck told Newsweek. "We stand for truth, human rights, and human dignity."
"The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum said it best: 'The denial or distortion of history is an assault on truth and understanding,'" Loeck said. "Comprehension and memory of the past are crucial to how we understand ourselves, our society, and our goals for the future.'"
On the VT podcast, Klingenberg said that "Holocaust truthers are doing the Jews a favor" by giving them "facts" about the genocide that they don't want to face.
"I think there's profound cognitive dissidence in the Jewish community," he said, adding that, "Jews, systematically, in particular, don't want to know history if it contradicts their orthodox framework for the Holocaust."
"There's absolutely no evidence whatsoever that Jews were gassed in the concentration camps and you tell that to someone who's Jewish and, like I said, they're not even going to have that conversation because I don't know if they know they'll lose the conversation or what," Klingenberg said.
Between 1943 and 1944, an average of 6,000 Jews were gassed each day at Auschwitz, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Witnesses who testified about the Nazi's euthanasia program, both inmates and Nazis, have confirmed reports of the gas chambers.
Klingenerg has also authored a book titled "The Big Lie: The Holocaust (An Introduction to the Greatest Fraud of the 20th Century)" and done other interviews promoting his views.
His comments come amid the nation's rise in antisemitism. A report released by the Anti-Defamation League in April found that antisemitism incidents in the U.S. increased by more than 35 percent in 2022. The year before, the annual report found that 2021 set a new high for antisemitic incidents.
Update 09/27/23 2:45 p.m. ET This story was updated with comments from Loeck.
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