The Holocaust Case: Defeat of Denial

by William John Cox

Publisher:

Histria Books

, 2015

Overview

The Holocaust Case, which ruled the gassing of Jews by Hitler was “simply a fact” and “not reasonably subject to dispute,” was featured in the movie, Never Forget, but the real story has never been told.

Now, for the first time, the true facts are revealed by William John Cox, the public-interest lawyer who represented a Nazi death camp survivor and sued the radical organizations that denied the Holocaust. In retaliation, Cox was sued for defamation by the reclusive leader of a shadowy consortium that earned millions peddling historical lies and bizarre theories of racial superiority. His recollection of these matters is supplemented by official court records.

In a poignant personal memoir, the author details his path from an orphan named “Billy Jack” to a police officer to a representative of a secret client in the publication of the suppressed Dead Sea Scrolls.

Along his circuitous life path, Cox meets another orphan−one who could never forget the extermination of his entire family by the Nazis. The survivor had been taunted by the deniers to prove the truth of the Holocaust. Together, the two accept the challenge and make history.

Cox discusses his unconventional practice of law, in which he undertook these landmark cases without charging a fee, and tells why he did it. He derives lessons from the Holocaust and explains how the insights relate to current social and political conditions.

Key Features

• Serves as an exposé of the organizations behind the denial movement in the 1980s.
• Chronicles the landmark lawsuit between Auschwitz survivor Mel Mermelstein and the Institute for Historical Review (IHR).
• Weaves the author’s legal narrative with his personal history as an orphan, which he uses to explain his deep-seated empathy for Mermelstein (who was also orphaned by the Nazis).

Praise for The Holocaust Case

While many of us have met Mel Mermelstein and knew of his stubborn stand against the Institute for Historical Review’s bigotry paraded as scholarship, few of us knew of William Cox’s vital, self-sacrificial role in the long struggle to silence the IHR. Nor did most of us understand how critical was the judge’s judicial notice that the Holocaust was simply a fact—an opinion he skillfully elicited in his brief. There are many unsung heroes in the fight against the bigotry implicit in Holocaust denial.

—Solomon Littman, Visiting Scholar, Judaic Studies, University of Arizona, and author of Holocaust Denial: Bigotry in the Guise of Scholarship

The Holocaust Case tells about one groundbreaking court case that shows where freedom of speech gives way to deliberately hurtful hate-speech. It shows that adversarial processes have a place in airing history and establishing the truth.

—David Brin, Futurist and author of The Transparent Society

Product Details

• Title: The Holocaust Case: Defeat of Denial
• Author: William John Cox
• Publisher: Histria Books
• Print Publication Date: 2015
• Pages: 192
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• ISBNs: 9781632131607, 1632131609
• Resource ID: LLS:HOLOCAUSTCASE
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2026-03-09T20:44:30Z

About William John Cox

For more than 50 years, William John Cox has written extensively on law, politics, philosophy and the human condition. During that time, he vigorously pursued a career in law enforcement, public policy and the law.

As a police officer, Cox was an early leader in the New Breed movement to professionalize law enforcement. He wrote the Policy Manual of the Los Angeles Police Department and the role of the police in America for the Nixon administration.

As an attorney, Cox worked for the U.S. Department of Justice to implement national criminal justice standards and goals, prosecuted cases for the Los Angeles County District Attorney s Office, and operated a public interest law practice.

In 1979, Cox filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all citizens directly in the U.S. Supreme Court alleging the government no longer represented the People who elected it. In 1981, representing a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz, Cox investigated and successfully sued a group of radical right-wing organizations which denied the Holocaust. He published the suppressed Dead Sea Scrolls in 1991 on behalf of a secret client.

Cox retired in 2007 as a Supervising Trial Counsel for the State Bar of California, where he led a team of attorneys and investigators which prosecuted attorneys accused of serious misconduct and criminal gangs engaged in the illegal practice of law.