3/7/05
U.S. News and World Report
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/050307/usnews/7lipstadt.peo.htm
The Week
Until a landmark libel case turned her world upside down, Deborah Lipstadt was known as a chronicler, not a maker, of history. In her acclaimed 1993 book, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, the Emory University professor cited widely read World War II writer David Irving--who referred to the Holocaust as a "legend" and refused to acknowledge Adolf Hitler's responsibility in the systematic killing of 6 million Jews--as one of the most prominent deniers. Irving sued Lipstadt for libel. Her new book, History on Trial: My Day in Court With David Irving, recounts the six-year legal battle that vindicated her.
In what way was history on trial?
We exposed as bogus virtually every argument and contention that Holocaust deniers, like Irving, make to supposedly prove that the Holocaust didn't happen. We showed that you can't take history and twist it any way you want. There is a historical record. There is a massive cache of documents, all of which prove quite clearly that there is evidence for every step of the killing process.
Besides debunking Irving, what else did the trial accomplish?
It was emblematic of the passing of the torch of memory from Holocaust survivors, the youngest of whom are in their 60s or 70s, to historians. Poet Paul Celan once asked, Who will be the witnesses for the witnesses? This trial showed historians can do that.
Why did you fight back?
The case was brought in Britain, where the defendant must prove the truth of what she wrote. This is the mirror image of libel law in the United States, where Irving would have had to prove that I lied. If I had not defended myself, Irving would have won by default and could have claimed that his description of the Holocaust was legitimate. I could not ignore this.
So the suit backfired on Irving.
The irony is that if he had not sued me, no one would have known the extent to which he distorted or misrepresented evidence.
Yet Holocaust denial goes on.
I'm no more amazed that Holocaust denial exists than I am that the Holocaust happened. -Diane Cole
Copyright © 2005 U.S.News & World Report, L.P. All rights reserved.
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7 comments:
DL states:
We exposed as bogus virtually every argument and contention that Holocaust deniers, like Irving, make to supposedly prove that the Holocaust didn't happen. We showed that you can't take history and twist it any way you want. There is a historical record. There is a massive cache of documents, all of which prove quite clearly that there is evidence for every step of the killing process.Interesting that DL's publicity campaign coincides with the deportation to Germany of revisionist historian and holocaust denier Ernst Zundel.
For his crimes, Zundel has been held in solitary confinement in a Toronto jail for the past two years, he's been detained on a national security certificate signed by Canada's solicitor general and the federal minister of citizenship and immigration.
The certificate allows the federal government to hold him indefinitely, pending deportation.
Cruel and unusual punishment in anyone's book.
Can you name five claims made by Irving that you demolished, and what evidence you provided to demolish them?
David, sorryI I've used the nizkor search facility and can't locate the transcript of Judge Grey's verdict. Can you give me a hypertext link?
If you want to use your free speech rights, then you should accept the accountability and responsibility for what you say.Maybe. But you don't get locked up for two years in solitary confinement nor do you get deported to the fatherland for telling people that Elvis is still alive.
We exposed as bogus virtually every argument and contention that Holocaust deniers, like Irving, make to supposedly prove that the Holocaust didn't happen.Once again Prof. Lipstadt repeats this demonstrably false assertion. It seems that not only Irving has problems with the truth.
"We exposed as bogus virtually every argument and contention that Holocaust deniers, like Irving, make to supposedly prove that the Holocaust didn't happen."
Once again Prof. Lipstadt repeats this demonstrably false assertion. It seems that not only Irving has problems with the truth.
Mr Gehrig seems to ignore the fact that there is no documentary evidence that suggests Hitler ordered the extermination of the Jews, while there is documentary evidence that suggests Hitler ordered a postponement of the "Jewish question" until after the war. The document in question reads :
"Herr Reichsminister Lammers teilte mir mit, der Fuehrer habe ihm gegenueber wiederholt erklaert, dass er die Loesung der Judenfrage bis nach dem Kriege zurueckgestellt wissen wolle."
The document is available in the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz, file R22/52.
The debate is still open. The evidence provided by Jewish sources regarding the other points listed by Mr Gehrig is similarly circumstantial.
Clearly, it is in the collective interest of Jews to manipulate historical discourse regarding the interpretation of the Second World War.
As far as "anti-semitism" is concerned, the long history of the Jewish people shows quite clearly that they have existed as segregated, alien communities within host populations from the times of ancient Babylonia until the present day. The Torah, the Talmud, the New Testament, the Koran, the writings of Seneca, Tacitus, Josephus, the Lateran councils, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther etc. make this irrefutably clear. The phenomenon of "Jewish emancipation" and the coeval coining of the term "anti-semitism" (a misnomer)in the 19th century are merely consequences of increasing Jewish power.
Ms Lipstadt, Mr Lippman, Mr Gehrig and other Jews can be expected to advocate a highly partial interpretation of history, but to suggest that they are interested in impartial truth is naive.
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