David Cole
Born1968 (age 55–56)[1]
Los Angeles[1]
NationalityAmerican
Other namesDavid Stein
Occupation(s)Journalist, documentary film director, writer

David Christopher Cole, also known as David Stein (born c. 1968), is an American film director. In the 1990s, he gained publicity as a Holocaust denier.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Much of the controversy Cole attracted resulted from the fact that he is Jewish. After changing his name to David Stein following death threats, he became known for his activism on behalf of the Republican Party.[1] He is the author of the book Republican Party Animal, published by Feral House in 2014.[11]

Life until 1998

Cole was raised in West Los Angeles as a secular Jew. His birth father, Leon Cole, was a USC medical research scientist who had a private practice that would prescribe lethal narcotics to celebrities, including Elvis Presley.[12] Leon Cole died from a methamphetamine overdose when Cole was an infant. His mother remarried, and Cole's legal name is David Harvey.[13] In his late teens, Cole embarked on a study of American political ideology. This led author Michael Shermer to coin the term "meta-ideologue" to describe Cole. In a 1994 article in Shermer's Skeptic magazine, Shermer wrote, "Where the other revisionists are political and/or racial ideologues, Cole's interests run at a deeper level. He is a meta-ideologue – an existentialist on a quest to understand how ideologues invent their realities."[14]

In the 1990s, Cole appeared on the Montel Williams Show, the Phil Donahue Show, 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, and The Morton Downey Jr. Show.[1] Ernest Hollander, the Auschwitz survivor who debated Cole on the Montel Williams Show, discovered after the show aired that the brother he thought was murdered after the two were separated upon arrival in Auschwitz was actually alive and well.[15] The brother's neighbor had seen the Montel episode, and recognized the resemblance between the two Hollanders. Both brothers had thought the other was dead (Williams hosted the reunion on his show).[16] In his autobiography,[11] Cole claimed that this supported his theory that many of the Jews deported to Auschwitz in 1944 were falsely believed to be dead.

In 1993, Cole was interviewed by Timothy Ryback for The New Yorker.[17] Other interviews from that time include the Jerusalem Report (which referred to Cole as "an unlikely media sensation" and "something of a media star"),[18] the Detroit Jewish News,[19] and Hustler.[20] He also penned op-eds for the Los Angeles Times under his own name,[21] and under the name Christopher Cole.[22][23][24][25] In the early 1990s, Cole lectured on college campuses throughout the U.S. During a lecture at UCLA, he was assaulted on-stage, resulting in security rushing him off campus for his own safety.[26]

According to The Guardian, Cole's main thesis is that "Auschwitz was not an extermination camp in the manner of Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec and Chelmno – which he (Cole) acknowledged were part of a genocidal programme against Polish Jews; that the Holocaust ended in 1943, when the Nazis realised they needed Jewish slave labour for factories; and that there was no overarching, genocidal plan, but an evolving, morphing policy which claimed perhaps 4 million, rather than 6 million, Jewish lives."[1] Gawker[27] In 1994, Professor Deborah Lipstadt, told the Detroit Jewish News that there was a lot of "joy and rejoicing" in "revisionist" camps because of Cole,[19] Detroit Jewish News editor Phil Jacobs listed Cole as a threat to the Jewish people alongside "Hitler, Hussein, and Arafat",[28] and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Jerusalem Report "I can't think of any other Jew who has gone so far in aiding and abetting the enemies of the Jewish people".[18]

In January 1998, Irv Rubin, chairman of the Jewish Defense League, offered a monetary reward for information regarding Cole's whereabouts. The Anti-Defamation League stated that the JDL's reward offer implied that "it was prepared to take immediate, possibly violent, action" in order to "get rid" of Cole.[29] In response to the threat, Cole entered into a deal with Rubin whereby he renounced his views and the JDL removed the "reward offer." The over-the-top "recantation" was met with widespread skepticism, with Michael Shermer writing in his 2000 book Denying History that Cole's retraction demanded "a healthy dose of skepticism" because it was "so unlike his earlier positions."[5] On the JDL website, Rubin bragged that Cole's recantation is "evidence of the power of the Jewish Defense League.[30] Cole would later admit in his autobiography that the "recantation" was false.[11]

1998–2013

Following the recantation, Cole changed his last name to Stein and began making mainstream Holocaust documentaries for a company he ran called the Tinbergen Archives.[31] His 2007 film Nuremberg: The 60th Anniversary Director's Cut[32] won the best feature-length documentary award and best score in a feature documentary at the 2008 Garden State Film Festival.[33] His films Liberation Day: Dachau,[34] Auschwitz: Silent Witness,[35] The Lost Gas Chamber, and War Crimes and Trials[36] are preserved in the Rosenblatt Holocaust Collection at Fordham University.

In 2004, Cole made an extensive on-camera interview with Hutton Gibson, the traditionalist Catholic father of filmmaker Mel Gibson, who was coming under criticism for perceived anti-semitism in the popular film, The Passion of The Christ. Although Cole had the rights to the interview, Gibson asked Cole to withhold the interview until after Hutton Gibson's death. After Hutton Gibson's death in May 2020, Cole began to fundraise to complete a documentary about Gibson, but as of 2023, no footage has been released.[37]

In 2008, Cole (as Stein) became active in mainstream conservative politics. As a blogger, his work appeared in or was cited by The Washington Times,[38] Commentary,[39] The Wall Street Journal,[40] the New York Daily News,[41] the L.A. Jewish Journal,[42] WorldNetDaily,[43] History News Network,[44] Gawker,[45] The New Republic,[46] and The Hollywood Reporter.[47] Cole (as Stein) appeared as a frequent guest on the Larry Elder Show on KABC Radio.[48][49] He also became a member and co-organizer of the "secret" organization of Hollywood Republicans, Friends of Abe, founded by actor Gary Sinise. Stein also ran an organization called the Republican Party Animals,[50] one of the largest Republican Party organizing operations on the West Coast.[51] It held regular events in and around Los Angeles from a libertarian, non-socially conservative perspective aimed at attracting young people to the GOP. In the words of The Guardian, "David Stein brought right-wing congressmen, celebrities, writers and entertainment industry figures together for shindigs, closed to outsiders, where they could scorn liberals and proclaim their true beliefs. Over the past five years Stein's organization, Republican Party Animals, drew hundreds to regular events in and around Los Angeles, making him a darling of conservative blogs and talkshows. That he made respected documentaries on the Holocaust added intellectual cachet and Jewish support to Stein's cocktail of politics, irreverence and rock and roll."[1]

After 2013

In April 2013, Stein was outed as Cole by an ex-girlfriend.[52] The L.A. County Republican Party sent out an email warning members about his history.[53]

In 2014, Cole's autobiography, Republican Party Animal, was published by Feral House.[11] Starting in 2015, he became a regular source in The Guardian for matters relating to Hollywood conservatives[54][55][56][57] (in that capacity he has also been interviewed by Variety,[58] and Truthdig).[59] He was briefly employed as a writer for The Times of Israel, until protests over his past led to his dismissal.[60] Since January 2015, he has been a staff writer and weekly columnist for Taki's Magazine.[54]

In October 2015, a taxi driver in Ennis, Ireland, was jailed for five months after going on a vandalism spree that he claimed was inspired by Cole's videos.[61]

Documents released as part of an ongoing lawsuit showed that Tucker Carlson was aware of Cole’s work and was sharing his articles with others. [62]

Books

  • David Cole (June 10, 2014). Republican Party Animal: The "Bad Boy of Holocaust History" Blows the Lid Off Hollywood's Secret Right-Wing Underground. Feral House. ISBN 978-1936239917.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1989 Zombie Party Annoying Party Guest Direct-To-Video[63]
1992 David Cole Interviews Dr. Franciszek Piper Writer/Producer/Narrator Self Produced Documentary[64]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Carroll, Rory (May 3, 2013). "Hollywood conservative unmasked as notorious Holocaust revisionist". The Guardian. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Who Is David Stein? A Strange Hollywood Republican Outs Himself as Holocaust Denier David Cole". TheWrap. May 4, 2013. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  3. ↑ Lott, Jeremy (May 10, 2013). "A Holocaust Denier Walks Into a Bar". The American Spectator.
  4. ↑ Holocaust Denial: David Cole and Roger Garaudy; ADL, via Archive.org
  5. 1 2 Shermer, Michael; Grobman, Alex (April 1, 2009). Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It?. University of California Press. pp. 69–74. ISBN 9780520944091.
  6. ↑ "Why did a congressman give a Holocaust denier a ticket to the State of the Union? The guest was polite". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. February 2, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2019. He also praised Holocaust deniers like David Irving and David Cole.
  7. ↑ Connolly, Daniel (April 30, 2019). "Memphis judge posts Facebook link to Holocaust denier's essay calling immigrants 'foreign mud'". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved May 22, 2019. Criminal Court Judge Jim Lammey recently went on Facebook and posted a link to an article by notorious Holocaust denier David Cole.
  8. ↑ Moritz-Rabson, Daniel (May 2, 2019). "MEMPHIS JUDGE UNDER FIRE FOR FACEBOOK POST OF HOLOCAUST DENIER'S ESSAY CALLING MUSLIMS 'FOREIGN MUD'". Newsweek. Retrieved May 22, 2019. "I don't know what to say. It's extremely embarrassing," Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Jim Lammey told WMC5 Action News, saying that he had intended for the posts to be private and he did not know that David Cole was a Holocaust denier.
  9. ↑ "Tennessee County Votes to Censure Judge Who Posted Article Saying Jews Should 'Get the F**k Over the Holocaust". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. May 15, 2019. Retrieved May 22, 2019. Cole, who also has gone by the name of David Stein, is considered by historians to be a Holocaust denier.
  10. ↑ Cassens Weiss, Debra (May 1, 2019). "Judge faces scrutiny over anti-immigrant articles he shared on Facebook, including one by Holocaust denier". ABA Journal. Retrieved May 22, 2019. The article by Holocaust denier David Cole said liberal Jewish people have supported Muslim immigration, acting like people in Jewish folklore who created mud monsters called golems that are dangerous and difficult to control.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Republican Party Animal". Feral House. Archived from the original on June 26, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  12. ↑ Carroll, Rory (June 17, 2016). "VIP syndrome: why do the doctors to the stars make fatal mistakes?". The Guardian.
  13. ↑ Sheli, Teitelbaum (May 6, 1995). "Interview jerusalem report, Cole David". The Nizkor Project.
  14. ↑ "Who Are The Holocaust Revisionists?". www.nizkor.org. Archived from the original on September 18, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  15. ↑ "Holocaust survivor-lecturer Ernie Hollander dies at 77 – J." J. July 26, 2002. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  16. ↑ Talia Hollander (March 6, 2013), Ernest Hollander reunited with his brother, archived from the original on January 27, 2019, retrieved July 14, 2018
  17. ↑ "Evidence of Evil". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on June 18, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  18. 1 2 "Who Needs Enemies?". The Jerusalem Report. October 21, 1993.
  19. 1 2 "Rebel Without a Cause". The Detroit Jewish News. January 21, 1994.
  20. ↑ magazine, WonderClub Hustler. "Hustler August 1993 Magazine Back Issue Hustler WonderClub". wonderclub.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  21. ↑ COLE, DAVID (December 18, 1995). "It's Not the Networks That Shy Away From Religion". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Archived from the original on November 2, 2015. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  22. ↑ Cole, Christopher (August 12, 2002). "Media Aren't Racially Biased; They're Just Busy". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  23. ↑ Cole, Christopher (October 12, 1998). "1st Amendment Means 'Pfeiffer' Too". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Archived from the original on December 10, 2015. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  24. ↑ Cole, Christopher (June 19, 2005). "Religion and Art in the Toilet". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Archived from the original on October 17, 2015. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  25. ↑ Cole, Christopher (February 19, 2001). "Using Epithet Isn't Bold, Fighting Censorship Is". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Archived from the original on August 5, 2016. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  26. ↑ UCLA daily Bruin. UCLA Library. Los Angeles. 1912. Archived from the original on January 20, 2012. Retrieved January 31, 2019.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  27. ↑ Berman, Taylor. "Hollywood Conservative Leader Turns Out to Be Holocaust Revisionist". Gawker. Archived from the original on April 6, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  28. ↑ "Why David Cole Was On Page 1". The Detroit Jewish News. January 28, 1994.
  29. ↑ "Holocaust Denial: David Cole and Roger Garaudy". Archived from the original on April 5, 2015.
  30. ↑ "JDL: Action: Jewish Holocaust Denier Asks for Forgiveness". archive.is. July 5, 2002. Archived from the original on July 5, 2002. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  31. ↑ Moss, Laurence S. (November 2001). "Why the Preaching Must Never Stop: Henry George's and Paul Krugman's Respective Contributions to the Free Trade Debate". American Journal of Economics and Sociology. 60 (5): 137–164. doi:10.1111/1536-7150.00141. ISSN 0002-9246.
  32. ↑ Stone, Sean; Lorentz, Pare (November 1, 2007), Nuremberg: The 60th Anniversary Director's Cut, Francis Biddle, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Jackson, archived from the original on April 7, 2017, retrieved July 14, 2018
  33. ↑ "7th Annual Garden State Film Festival". April 4, 2012. Archived from the original on April 4, 2012. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  34. ↑ Tinbergen, Caleb (April 15, 1999), Liberation Day: Dachau, Bernard Marks, George Stevens, Jack Terry, archived from the original on February 9, 2017, retrieved July 14, 2018
  35. ↑ Roel, Francisco (April 1, 1999), Auschwitz: Silent Witness, Adolf Eichmann, Adolf Hitler, Jan Karski, archived from the original on February 9, 2017, retrieved July 14, 2018
  36. ↑ Tinbergen, Caleb (October 15, 2001), War Crimes and Trials, Omar N. Bradley, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Hermann Göring, archived from the original on February 8, 2017, retrieved July 14, 2018
  37. ↑ Stark, Robert. "Robert Stark and David Cole about their upcoming Documentary on Hutton Gibson". YouTube.
  38. ↑ "EDITORIAL: The Pentagon's war on the American dream". The Washington Times. Archived from the original on July 14, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  39. ↑ Goodman, Alana (August 26, 2011). "Perry's "Pro-Sharia" Curriculum Debunked". Commentary Magazine. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  40. ↑ Cheney, Alexandra. "Assailed by Right, 'White House Down' Admits Military For Free". WSJ. Archived from the original on July 14, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  41. ↑ Sacks, Ethan. "'White House Down' under siege by conservative critics who call film 'unrelenting liberal propaganda,' '100% Obama porn' - NY Daily News". nydailynews.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  42. ↑ Animals, by David Stein, Co-Chair, The Republican Party (December 15, 2011). "A rebuttal to Mitch Paradise — Jewish Journal". Jewish Journal. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  43. ↑ "Holocaust-Denying Dude Has GREAT Idea: 'Nuremberg Trials' for Climate Scientists!". Wonkette. May 6, 2015.
  44. ↑ "Chomsky's Secret Letters to a Holocaust Denier". historynewsnetwork.org. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  45. ↑ Newell, Jim. "Anti-Islam Nut Sees an Enemy in Rick Perry". Gawker. Archived from the original on March 5, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  46. ↑ Chait, Jonathan. "Is Rick Perry A Secret Islamist?". The New Republic. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  47. ↑ "Conservatives Cheer Dismal Box Office Showing of 'White House Down'". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on July 14, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  48. ↑ David Cole (March 22, 2013), Larry Elder and the RPA's David Stein Expose DoD Scandal, archived from the original on March 25, 2013, retrieved July 14, 2018
  49. ↑ David Cole (February 20, 2013), L.A. Teachers Union Endorses Racist, Anti-Semitic Candidate, archived from the original on February 23, 2013, retrieved July 14, 2018
  50. ↑ Express, Tygrrrr (April 8, 2010). Ideological Idiocy: A Politically Conservative and Morally Liberal Hebrew Alpha Male Stumbles Upon Jihadists, Peace Activists, and Other Ridiculous Leftists and Trips over Their Heads Located up Their (Redacted). iUniverse. ISBN 9781450211734.
  51. ↑ David Cole (August 3, 2011), Larry Elder Raves About the RPA!, archived from the original on March 6, 2013, retrieved July 14, 2018
  52. ↑ "The GOP, the Holocaust Denier, and the Fashion Model". Daily Kos. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  53. ↑ Email to members titled "The HOLOCAUST DENIER you've met," Thursday, May 16, 2013
  54. 1 2 Carroll, Rory (June 13, 2017). "Club for Hollywood Republicans locked in dispute – caused in part by Trump". The Guardian. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  55. ↑ Carroll, Rory (December 27, 2016). "'Alt-right' groups will 'revolt' if Trump shuns white supremacy, leaders say". The Guardian. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  56. ↑ Carroll, Rory (April 1, 2016). "'It's a civil war in slow-mo': how Trump's rise is cracking Hollywood conservatives". The Guardian. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  57. ↑ Carroll, Rory (July 11, 2015). "Donald Trump and the Friends of Abe: tycoon brings immigration fight to LA". The Guardian. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  58. ↑ Lopez, Ricardo (July 12, 2017). "Hollywood Heavyweights Help ACLU Fight for Civil Liberties in Trump Era". Variety. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  59. ↑ "Friends of Abe, Hollywood Conservatives' Secret Society, Is Calling It Quits (Exclusive)". Truthdig: Expert Reporting, Current News, Provocative Columnists. Archived from the original on July 13, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  60. ↑ "Times of Israel Scrubs Revisionist David Cole's Work! : Big Infidel". www.countercontempt.com. Archived from the original on June 16, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  61. ↑ "Man who smashed TV with axe believed Holocaust was a hoax". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on June 11, 2017. Retrieved July 14, 2018.
  62. ↑ "Internal text reveals Tucker Carlson reads the work of a Holocaust denier at a white nationalist hub". Media Matters for America. March 9, 2023.
  63. ↑ "Zombie Party". www.IMDb.com. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  64. ↑ "David Cole Interviews Dr. Franciszek Piper". www.IMDb.com. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
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