Newsgroups: alt.revisionism,soc.history
Subject: Holocaust Almanac - Lipstadt's Irving
Summary: Irving's Holocaust denial & double standard addressed 
Followup-To: alt.revisionism
Organization: The Nizkor Project (CANADA)
Keywords: Irving,Leuchter

Archive/File: people/l/lipstadt.deborah/citations/david.irving
Last-Modified: 1994/01/06

After discussing Fred Leuchter's fall from grace, and providing
examples of his abject dismissal as an "expert" from the Zu"ndel
trial's transcripts, Lipstadt turns her attention to David Irving,
the darling of the denial set:

   "...it was another major media instititution, London's 'Sunday
   Times,' that evenually gave the 'Leuchter Report' and its
   proponents another lease on life. David Irving, who during the
   Zundel trial declared himself converted by Leuchter's work to
   Holocaust denial and to the idea that the gas chambers were a myth,
   described himself as conducting a 'one-man intifada' against the
   official history of the Holocaust.<105>

   In his forward to his publication of the 'Leuchter Report,' Irving
   wrote that there was no doubt as to Leuchter's 'integrity' and
   'scrupulous methods.' He made no mention of Leuchter's lack of
   technical expertise or of the many holes that had been poked in his
   findings.  Most important, Irving wrote, 'Nobody likes to be
   swindled, still less where considerable sums of money are
   involved.' Irving identified Israel as the swindler, claiming that
   West Germany had given it more than ninety billion deutsche marks
   in voluntary reparations, 'essentially in atonement for `gas
   chambers of Auschwitz.`'

   According to Irving the problem was that the latter was a myth that
   would 'not die easily.'<106> He subsequently set off to promulgate
   Holocaust denial notions in various countries.  Fined for doing so
   in Germany, in his courtroom appeal against the fine he called on
   the court to 'fight a battle for the German people and put an end
   to the blood lie of the Holocaust which has been told against this
   country for fifty years.' He dismissed the memorial to the dead at
   Auachwitz as a 'tourist attraction.'<107> He traced the origins of
   the myth to an 'ingenious plan' of the British Psychological
   Warfare Executive, which decided in 1942 to spread the propaganda
   story that Germans were 'using gas chambers' to kill millions of
   Jews and other 'undesirables.'<108>

   Branding Irving and Leuchter `Hitler's heirs,` the British House of
   Commons denounced the former as a 'Nazi propagandist and longtime
   Hitler apologist' and the latter's report as a 'fascist
   publication.' One might have assumed that would have marked the end
   of Irving's reputation in England, but it did not. Condemned in the
   'Times' of London in 1989 as a 'man for whom Hitler is something of
   a hero and almost everything of an innocent and for whom Auschwitz
   is a Jewish deception,' Irving may have had his reputation revived
   in 1992 by the London 'Sunday Times.'<110> The paper hired Irving
   to translate the Goebbels diaries, which had been discovered in a
   Russian archive and, it was assumed, would shed light on the
   conduct of the Final Solution. The paper paid Irving a significant
   sum plus a percentage of the syndication fees. 

   ...

   Irving is one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust
   denial. Familiar with historical evidence, he bends it until it
   conforms with his ideological leanings and political agenda. A man
   who is convinced that Britain's great decline was accelerated by
   its decision to go to war with Germany, he is most facile at taking
   accurate information and shaping it to conform to his conclusions.
   A review of his recent book, `Churchill's War,` which appeared in
   the 'New York Review of Books,' accurately analyzed his practice of
   applying a double standard to evidence. He demands 'absolute
   documentary proof' when it comes to proving the Germans guilty, but
   he relies on highly circumstantial evidence to condemn the Allies.
   <114> This is an accurate description not only of Irving's tactics,
   but of those of deniers in general." (Lipstadt, 179-181)

Lipstadt's footnotes:

<105> Searchlight, August, 1989
<106> David Irving, "Foreword," Auschwitz the End of the Line: The
      Leuchter Report (London, 1989), p. 6
<107> Times (London), May 11, 1992
<108> Irving, "Foreword," p. 6.
<110> Times (London), May 14, 1990
<114> New York Review of Books, June 15, 1989

                             Work cited

Lipstadt, Deborah E.  Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on
   Truth and Memory.  New York: The Free Press (A division of
   Macmillan, Inc.), 1993.

Editor's note: Lipstadt's work is a worthwhile addition to the library
of anyone concerned about Holocaust denial. Copies may be ordered from
any bookstore, but internet users may wish to avail themselves of the
services of the internet bookstore, available from any Gopher site*, or
those of the Social Studies School Services. To obtain contact
information and pricing for the Social Studies School Services, send a
message to LISTSERV@ONEB.ALMANAC.BC.CA and use the commands:

GET HOLOCAUST/BIBLIOGRAPHY SSSS.BOOKS-1
GET HOLOCAUST/BIBLIOGRAPHY SSSS.BOOKS-2
GET HOLOCAUST/BIBLIOGRAPHY SSSS.VIDEO-1
GET HOLOCAUST/BIBLIOGRAPHY SSSS.VIDEO-2

* To reach the on-line service, Bookstacks Unlimited, internet users can
"telnet books.com" - once you've gone through a brief login procedure,
you can search the stacks in a variety of ways, and order books on the
spot. I have found this service faster than my local bookstores, which
is saying something, since I live in Canada, and I highly recommend it
as a primary source for Holocaust-related books. DISCLAIMER: I have no
financial or other association with the company, or anyone employed
there.

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