The University of Kentucky has removed Holocaust studies-Fiction!

The University of Kentucky has Removed Holocaust Studies from Its Curriculum-Fiction!

Summary of the eRumor:
The eRumor claims that the University of Kentucky has removed the Holocaust from its curriculum because it offended Muslims.

The Truth:
This is a hoax.

The original email, which started circulating in 2007, claimed that the University of Kentucky had removed the Holocaust from its curriculum.

The University of Kentucky told TruthOrFiction.com that no such decision had been made about removing studies about the Holocaust.

Then in 2008 another version of the University of Kentucky eRumor started circulating that included a picture of General Dwight Eisenhower and a caption that said it was him visiting the Dachau death camp in Germany. It also said that Eisenhower anticipated a day when people would deny that such atrocities took place and not only ordered a lot of photographs to be taken but for local citizens to be given tours of the camp and even help bury the dead.

First, the picture circulated with the email is from Dachau but is not a photo of Dwight Eisenhower. The picture was included in a report on Dachau prepared by the Office of Strategic Services Section of the Seventh Army and is depicted as a photo during liberation of the camp.

Eisenhower's first view of the horrors of the Holocaust was not at Dachau, but at another prisoner camp in Germany known as Ohrdruf. He was accompanied by Generals Omar Bradley and George Patton. In a letter to General George Marshall on April 15, 1945 (preserved in the Eisenhower Presidential Library), Eisenhower describes his experience. He told Marshall, "I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to 'propaganda'". On April 18, Eisenhower sent pictures taken during his visit at Ohrdruf to English Prime Minister Winston Churchill with a short note that said "I think they tell their own story."

The eRumor is identical to one that circulated about the reported removal of Holocaust studies from schools in Great Britain, which was also false. Click here for details on that story

Updated 4/8/08

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

Version #1

IN MEMORIAM -- This week the University of Kentucky removed The
Holocaust from its school curriculum because it "offended" the Muslim
population, which claims it never occurred. This is a frightening
portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each
country is giving into it. It is now more than 60 years since the
Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a
memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million
Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were
murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated with the
German and Russian peoples looking the other way! Now more than ever,
with Iran among others claiming the Holocaust to be "a myth", it is
imperative to make sure the world never forgets. This e-mail is
intended to reach 40 million people worldwide! Join us and be a link
in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world.

Pleas e send this e-mail to 10 people you know and ask them to
continue the memorial chain. Please don't just delete it. It will only
take you a minute to pass this along - Thanks!

Version #2

If you don't forward anything else, forward this!!!!

IT'S WORTH REPEATING OVER AND OVER AGAIN......

EISENHOWER IN DACHAU

It is a matter of history that when Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps, he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead..

He did this because he said in words to this effect:
'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the track of history some one will get up and say that this never happened.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing'.

This week, the University of Kentucky removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offended' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred.

This is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended.

This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated with the German and Russian peoples looking the other way!

Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.

This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide!
Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world.

Don't just delete this.
It will only take a minute to pass this along.