Buchanan has written about
the Holocaust and engaged in the defense of some accused of Nazi war crimes. For example, Buchanan wrote that it was impossible for 850,000 Jews to be killed by diesel exhaust fed into the gas chamber at Treblinka. When
George Will challenged him about it on TV, Buchanan failed to reply. In 1983 he criticized the U.S. Government for expressing regret over its postwar protection of
Klaus Barbie. In 1985, Buchanan advocated restoring the citizenship of
Arthur Rudolph, an ex-Nazi rocket scientist accused of employing slave labor at a V-2 plant. In 1987, Buchanan lobbied to stop deportation of
Karl Linnas, accused of atrocities in Estonia. In 1991
William F. Buckley, Jr. wrote a 40,000-word
National Review article discussing anti-Semitism amongst conservative commentators focused largely on Buchanan; the article and many responses to it were collected in the book
In Search of Anti-Semitism (1992). He concluded: "I find it impossible to defend Pat Buchanan against the charge that what he did and said during the period under examination amounted to anti-Semitism."
[18][19] The
Anti-Defamation League has called Buchanan an "unrepentant bigot" who "repeatedly demonizes Jews and minorities and openly affiliates with white supremacists."
[20] Neo-conservative columnist
Charles Krauthammer said about Buchanan that "There's no doubt he makes subliminal appeals to prejudice."
[21]
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