How a Republican state lawmaker tried to let Holocaust deniers hijack history lessons

Investigations How a Republican state lawmaker tried to let Holocaust deniers hijack history lessons April 29, 20265:00 AM ET Tom Dreisbach AFP via Getty Images and U.S. National Archives/Collage by Emily Bogle This January, in a drab committee room of the New Hampshire state legislature, a Republican state lawmaker teamed up with a German Holocaust denier to propose that the state's public schools incorporate a conspiracy theory when developing their lesson plans: namely, that the Nazis' murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust was a hoax. Investigations Multiple Trump White House officials have ties to antisemitic extremists Investigations A Pentagon press secretary has history of pushing antisemitic, extremist theories Though their effort failed, the incident was just the latest example of antisemitic extremism creeping further into the American political mainstream, to the point that prominent conservative voices have warned of a "cancer" destroying the pro-Trump MAGA movement from within. And in a sign of just how normalized these incidents of anti-Jewish bigotry have become, the state lawmaker responsible for the effort, Rep. Matt Sabourin dit Choinière, appears to have faced no consequences and minimal backlash from Republican leadership in New Hampshire. Sponsor Message The proposal has not been widely reported until now. "It's extremely concerning," said Deborah Lipstadt, an expert on Holocaust denial at Emory University, who served in the Biden administration as a special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. A new investigation from NPR's Consider This tracks down the key players, digs into their backgrounds going back to the 1990s, and uncovers a surprising criminal case involving a Holocaust denier and a suspicious bottle of baby oil. Here are four takeaways from our reporting: An attempt to hijack Holocaust education exposed a pattern of antisemitism The New Hampshire Commission on Holocaust and Genocide Education helps set educational stand...