Austin App

Austin Joseph App (May 24, 1902 – May 3, 1984) App defended Nazi Germany during World War II. He is known for his work denying the Holocaust, and he has been called the first major American Holocaust denier.

Early life and education App was born in Milwaukee, on May 24, 1902, to German immigrant parents who were farmers, he attended St. Francis Seminary near Milwaukee and graduated in 1923. He studied English Literature at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he received a Ph.D. in 1929.

Career App served as an instructor of English at Catholic University of America from 1929 to 1935. From 1935 to 1942 he served as the head of the English Department at the University of Scranton, publishing widely in scholarly and popular journals. He wrote for The Catholic Home Journal, Magnificat, Queen's Work, and The Victorian. By his own account, he was particularly devoted to the cultural value of good manners, well-developed public speaking, and chivalry.

App never married. He was a frequent public speaker. He wrote many letters to the editors of magazines and newspapers. He complained about the American declaration of war on Germany, and argued that without American intervention the Axis powers would have won World War II. He blamed Jews and communists for Germany's postwar problems. Few of his letters were published.

In a manner of criticism typical for his generation, App often examined literary aesthetics according to categories of virtue and truth. In a collection of essays printed in 1948, he argued for a Christian interpretation of literature in chapters titled “Presenting Sin and Temptation in Literature” and “How to Judge a Novel Ethically.”

He became president of the Federation of American Citizens of German Descent in 1945, serving in this position for several years. In the 1950s, App often wrote articles for Conde McGinley's antisemitic newspaper Common Sense. The article was later printed as a pamphlet.

App also published A Straight Look at the Third Reich, a defense of Nazi Germany, and The Curse of Anti-Anti-Semitism, arguing that the entire Jewish community is responsible for the death of Christ. App's work inspired the Institute for Historical Review, a Holocaust denial center in California, founded in 1978.

Selected works Lancelot in English Literature: His Role and Character, doctoral dissertation, Catholic University of America, 1929 Edwin Arlington Robinson’s Arthurian Poems, in: Thought 10.3 (1935), p. 468-479 History's Most Terrifying Peace. 1947 Ravishing the Women of Conquered Europe. Pamphlet, 1948 The Way to Creative Writing. Milwaukee: Bruce Publishers, 1954 Making the Later Years Count. For a healthy, well-provided, blessed Old Age. Milwaukee: Bruce Publishers, 1960 The Rooseveltian concentration camps for Japanese-Americans, 1942-46. Philadelphia: Boniface Press, 1967 A straight look at the Third Reich: Hitler and National Socialism, how right? how wrong? Takoma Park, Maryland: Boniface Press, 1974 The Six Million Swindle: Blackmailing the German People for Hard Marks with Fabricated Corpses. Takoma Park, Maryland: Boniface Press, 1973. Second edition printed in 1976. The Curse of Anti-Anti-Semitism. 1976 German-American Voice for Truth and Justice: Autobiography. Takoma Park, Maryland: Boniface Press, 1977 The Sudeten-German Tragedy. Takoma Park, Maryland: Boniface Press, 1979- (several volumes)