The Holocaust Historiography Project

Prof. Joel Hayward’s website archive

Joel Hayward, ZDaF, BA, MA Hons, PhD, FRSA, FRHistS

Read the Thesis?

I hope that visitors to this website will not form any fixed and final conclusions without having read the key document that lies at the heart of this free-speech controversy. Please don't accept any explanations of events — even mine — without having obtained and studied the 1991 thesis with an open mind.

I am aware that some web sites are posting what they claim is an exact copy of my thesis with no changes or alterations.

Given that these web sites are posting the thesis in violation of my rights as an author, and against my often-expressed wishes, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the text they are posting.

I cannot guarantee that the thesis is, word-for-word, exactly and completely what I researched and wrote in 1991 and submitted to the University of Canterbury in 1993.

Moreover, some of the web sites posting what they claim is my thesis are, in my own view, antisemitic or otherwise racially motivated websites. It seems most unfortunate that my thesis is introduced and analysed on these sites by conspiracy theorists and cranks, whose explanations of events are far from accurate.

I therefore recommend that if anyone wants to read my old thesis in order to make sense of this New Zealand controversy, he or she should obtain a copy on loan directly from the University of Canterbury Library. From this library they will get an exact copy of the thesis as originally submitted. It is true that they will also get the Working Party Report, but at least the text of the thesis and my 2000 addendum will be genuine and unaltered.

The University of Canterbury's website address is:

http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/

Its postal address is:

The Library

The University of Canterbury

Private Bag 4800

Christchurch

New Zealand

Please note:

I have observed that many websites — including the following five web sites — are improperly posting versions of my thesis that are different to the one I wrote in 1991 and submitted to the University of Canterbury as ½ of my M.A. degree.

That is, these websites are not posting an entirely accurate copy of my thesis.

Moreover, the versions they are posting are illegal; they are on the internet without my permission and, indeed, in violation of my expressed wishes. Do not trust these versions:

Those sites are not affiliated or associated with this website, or with me in ANY way. I fully support those web sites' rights of free speech, but also state, using my own free speech, that I do not support their web sites, agree with the websites, or wish them to post their altered versions of my old thesis.