Our Bad Actor of the Week Supports Holocaust Revisionist History

Rep. Sabourin dit Choiniere wants deniers of history on NH Holocaust Commission

Representative Matt Sabourin dit Choiniere (R) Seabrook

Bad Actor of the Week highlights conduct by public officials that undermines democratic norms, distorts truth, or abuses the public trust.

With appreciation to Rep. Paul Berch (D–Westmoreland), who brought this testimony to light.

Rep. Matt Sabourin dit Choiniere recently appeared before a House committee in support of HB 1162, a bill that, on its face, appeared entirely noncontroversial. The legislation simply proposed a three-year extension of the New Hampshire Commission on Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

That is where the routine nature of the hearing should have ended.

Instead, the representative from Seabrook introduced an amendment to add a 13th member to the Commission, specifically, a representative from the “Committee for the Open Debate on the Holocaust and Genocide Studies.”

Three witnesses were flown in from Michigan to testify in support of this amendment. They appeared to have been invited by Rep. Sabourin dit Choiniere. All three are known for promoting antisemitic rhetoric and Holocaust denial.

While the name Committee for the Open Debate on the Holocaust and Genocide Studies may sound like a legitimate academic organization, it is anything but. The group advocates for Holocaust “revisionism,” a practice that seeks to reject or minimize overwhelming historical evidence of the Holocaust. It questions the existence of Nazi extermination programs, casts doubt on gas chambers, disputes death tolls, and undermines the clear historical record of intent.

This was not a good-faith debate. And it was not scholarship.

So why does this hearing matter? Why should we care?

Because Holocaust denial is not a difference of opinion. It is inseparable from antisemitism. It is a political project designed to erase history, sanitize hate, and make room for its repetition.

This is not abstract for me.

I am the granddaughter of a man who came to the United States from what is now Poland at the age of 13 to escape antisemitism. Every other member of his family was later murdered by the precursors to the Nazi regime.

My grandfather, Max Fernhoff, was a remarkable human being. He would have given the shirt off his back to anyone in need. I lived with my grandparents until I was a teenager, and I was shaped by their love, kindness, and quiet moral clarity. I wish everyone could have had a grandparent like Max.

Ironically, I did not personally experience antisemitism until I entered the New Hampshire State House.

During my time serving, two fellow state representatives made antisemitic posts on social media. One of them served alongside me on the Commerce Committee, where I spent two years sitting across from her. At one point, she suggested that if we spent more time together, we might grow to like one another and “find common ground.”

I could not even stomach that idea without an apology for what she had written.

What happened at the HB 1162 hearing fits into this broader pattern. It reflects a willingness—by an elected official—to legitimize antisemitic ideology under the guise of “open debate.” To invite Holocaust denial into the people’s house and attempt to embed it within a commission created to study and remember genocide is not ignorance. It is reckless, dangerous, and disqualifying.

There are lines that should not be blurred in public service. The historical reality of the Holocaust is one of them.

New Hampshire can, and must, do better than this.

You can watch the committee hearing, which is the first one of the day here now.

Bad Actor of the Week is reserved for conduct that crosses a line no public official should approach, let alone step over.