Denial [Movie Tie-in]

by Deborah E. Lipstadt

  6.IvP&DL, Third Supplemental Discovery List: Tape 190: Irving at Bayerische Hof, Milton, Ontario, October 5, 1991 as cited in Richard Evans, David Irving, Hitler, and Holocaust Denial, Expert Opinion, IvP&DL (hereafter Evans Report), 1.5.5, p. 15. Evans Report available at www.hdot.org, “Evidence” (accessed February 20, 2004).

  CHAPTER 1: A PERSONAL AND SCHOLARLY ODYSSEY

  1.Deborah E. Lipstadt, Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust (New York: Free Press, 1985), 172ff.

  2.Institute for Historical Review (IHR) Newsletter (October 1988), p. 7; Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust, Chapter 8.

  3.Michael A. Hoffmann II, “The Psychology and Epistemology of ‘Holocaust’ New-speak,”JHR, vol. 6 (1985–86), pp. 267–78. IHR Newsletter (April 1988), p. 1. Evans Report, 3.5(a), pp. 174–89.

  4.The IHR was also associated with Noontide Press and the Legion for the Survival of Freedom, Inc., all of which were linked to Willis A. Carto. Mark Hosenball, “Spotlight on the Hill,” New Republic, September 9, 1981, p. 13.

  5.For a more thorough discussion of Holocaust denial and political extremism in Germany, see Hajo Funke, David Irving, Holocaust Denial, and His Connections to Right-Wing Extremists and Neo-National Socialism (Neo-Nazism) in Germany, Expert Opinion, IvP&DL (hereafter Funke Report) available at www.hdot.org, “Evidence,” (accessed August 28, 2004).

  6.The deniers’ attempt to drape themselves in scholarly respectability is illustrated by Arthur Butz’s The Hoax of the Twentieth Century. In this heavily footnoted academic-looking book, the Northwestern University professor of electrical engineering contended that gas chambers were an impossibility and described the Holocaust as “a myth perpetrated upon the world by the most powerful group on earth” for Zionist ends. Arthur Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century (Newport Beach, Calif.: 1976), pp. 247–48.

  7.For Irving’s version of his youth and his legal travails, see www.fpp.co.uk/Legal/PQ17Libel/Backfround220170html (accessed August 27, 2004); David Irving and Kai Bird, “Reviewed vs. Reviewer,” New Statesman, May 8, 1981, pp. 23–26. From 1977, Irving claimed that there were a chain of documents proving that Hitler repeatedly intervened to help the Jews. David Irving, “On Contemporary History and Historiography. Remarks Delivered at the 1983 International Revisionist Conference,” JHR, vol. 5, nos. 2, 3, 4 (winter 1984), pp. 251–88. Evans Report, 4.3(a), pp. 220–22.

  8.The prominent historian Hugh Trevor-Roper first thought the diaries genuine. Other scholars were dubious, but Stern did not allow them to closely inspect the diaries. By the time of the press conference Trevor-Roper also had developed doubts. Harris, Selling Hitler (New York: Pantheon, 1986), pp. 323, 327, 338–59.

  9.Evans Report, 3.4(a)31, p. 125.

  10.Second Zündel Trial (“The Irving testimony”), Her Majesty the Queen vs. Ernst Zündel, District Court of Ontario, 1988, 9471ff.

  11.Interview with David Irving on Radio Ulster, June 23, 1989, Evans Report, 3.3(c)12, p. 99. David Irving, “Preface,” Auschwitz: The End of the Line: The Leuchter Report—The First Forensic Examination of Auschwitz, Fred Leuchter (London: Focal Point, 1989). Evans Report, 3.4(d)33, p. 164.

  12.David Irving, Hitler’s War (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1977); idem. Hitler’s War (London: Focal Point, 1991). For a comparison of the 1977 and 1991 editions of Hitler’s War, see Evans Report, 3.3(a), 3.3(b), pp. 89–99.

  13.“History’s Cache and Carry,” Guardian, July 7, 1992.

  14.Nigel Jackson, The Case for David Irving (Cranbrook, Australia: Veritas, 1994), p. 85; “This Week,” November 28, 1991, IvP&DL, K3, Tab. 12, pp. 7–8. Irving’s speeches, articles, diaries, and letters regarding his political activities and sentiments were compiled and submitted to the court by the Defense. They are available in “David Irving: A Political Self Portrait” (hereafter Irving: Self Portrait) 1.2/G, www.hdot.org, “Evidence” (accessed June 25, 2004).

  15.A. J. P. Taylor, “Hitler the Opportunist,” Observer, June 18, 1978; Hugh Trevor-Roper, “Hitler: does history offer a defence?” Sunday Times (London), June 12, 1977; Paul Addison, “The Burden of Proof,” New Statesman (London), July 1, 1977, p. 46 as cited in Evans Report, 2.5.8, p. 44.

  16.John Charmley, Churchill: The End of Glory (London: Knopf, 1993), p. 675, note 51 as cited in Evans Report, 2.5.13, p. 47. John Lukacs, The Hitler of History (New York: Knopf, 1997), pp. 28n, 229.

  17.Die Zeit, October 6, 1989 as cited in Lukacs, Hitler of History, p. 181. For examples of other historians’ evaluations of Irving’s work see Evans Report, 2.5.8–23, pp. 44–65.

  18.IvP&DL, Day 16 (February 7, 2000), p. 4.

  19.Lukacs, Hitler of History, pp. 229–30.

  20.Charles W. Sydnor Jr., “The Selling of Adolf Hitler: David Irving’s Hitler’s War,” Central European History, vol XII, no. 2 (June 1979), pp. 169–99.

  21.Christopher R. Browning, “Beyond ‘Intentionalism’ and ‘Functionalism’: The Decision for the Final Solution Reconsidered,” The Path to Genocide: Essays on Launching the Final Solution, ed. Christopher R. Browning (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 86–121. For a summary of these two positions see Michael Marrus, The Holocaust in History (New York: Meridian, 1989), pp. 34–51.

  22.Douglas Wilson, “Thomas Jefferson and the Character Issue,” The Atlantic, pp. 57–74, November 1992.

  23.David Kranzler, Thy Brother’s Blood (Brooklyn: Mesorah, 1987), pp. 68–69. M. J. Nurenberger, The Scared and the Doomed: The Jewish Establishment vs. the Six Million (Oakville, New York: Mosaic Press, 1985), p. 31.

  CHAPTER 2: THE DEFENSE STRATEGY

  1.“Eliot v. Julius,” The New Yorker, May 20, 1996, pp. 29–30.

  2.Gordon A. Craig, “The Devil in the Details,” New York Review of Books, September 19, 1996.

  3.The public figure defense is based on New York Times v. Sullivan, which the Supreme Court heard in 1964. Four black ministers placed a full-page ad in the New York Times that claimed that the arrest of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Alabama for perjury was part of an effort to destroy King’s efforts to integrate public facilities and encourage African-Americans to vote. The Montgomery city commissioner, L. B. Sullivan, filed a libel action against the Times and against the ministers, who were listed as endorsers of the ad, for defamation. Though the Alabama courts decided in his favor, the Supreme Court reversed the ruling. It held that the First Amendment protected the publication of all statements, even false ones, about the conduct of public officials except when statements are made with actual malice (with knowledge that they are false or in reckless disregard of their truth or falsity). New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), Docket Number: 39. Argued: January 6, 1964. Decided: March 9, 1964 http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/277/(accessed September 16, 2004).

  4.David Swarbrick, “Defamation,” February 24, 2002, http://www.swarb.co.uk/lawb/defGeneral.html (December 2, 2003).

  5.Edwards v Bell (1824) 1 Bing 40–3 at 409, as cited in The Hon. Mr Charles Gray, “Judgment,” IvP&DL (London, 2000), 4.7 available at www.hdot.org (accessed June 15, 2004).

  6.David Irving at Tampa, Florida, October 6, 1995, as cited in Irving: Self Portrait, 1.4/A.

  7.Errol Morris to Deborah Lipstadt, email, “Fred Leuchter/Holocaust Denial,” August 16, 1997.

  8.Anthony Kaufman, “Errol Morris and the Accidental Nazi,” www.indiewire.com/film/people/int_morris_990127.html (accessed September 15, 2004).

  9.Mark Singer, “The Friendly Executioner,” New Yorker, February 1, 1999.

  10.Tony Rogers, Associated Press, October 24, 1990.

  11.Memorandum from Ed Carnes, Alabama Assistant Attorney General, to all Capital Punishment States, July 20, 1990; Shelly Shapiro, Truth Prevails, (New York: The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation and Holocaust Survivors & Friends in Pursuit of Justice, 1990), pp. 17, 21, 22; Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust, p. 170.

  12.The paper had accused her of pocketing the proceeds from the auction of her designer dresses. Anthony proved that the funds went to charity and
won Diana the biggest cash settlement ever given to a member of the royal family. The princess had placed her note so that it became part of another headline. The composite headline now read: “Chief Rabbi Says: Another Victory for the Eminent Lawyer!”

  13.Richard Evans, In Defense of History (New York: W. W. Norton, 1999), p. 290.

  14.Lukacs, Hitler of History, pp. 26, 132, 178, 229–30.

  15.Sawoniuk was charged with hiding his role in the murder of Jews in the village of Domachevo in Nazi-occupied Belarus in 1942. The prosecution alleged that Sawoniuk led “search and kill” police squads that hunted down those who escaped the massacre of the town’s two thousand nine hundred Jews in September 1942. According to the prosecuting QC, Sawoniuk not only did the “Nazi’s bidding, but carried out their genocidal policy with enthusiasm.” At the trial, Sawoniuk’s attorney tried to get Browning to confirm that his client had no choice but to act as he did. Browning offered a number of possible ways in which he could have behaved otherwise, but made clear that he could do no more than speculate about Sawoniuk. What was important was the testimony of witnesses who were there and knew him. Jay Rayner, “Painful History Lessons Begin in Court 12,” Guardian, February 14, 1999. http://www.guardian.co.uk/nazis/article/0,2763,191260,00.html (accessed March 22, 2004).

  16.Daniel J. Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners (New York: Knopf, 1996); Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 (New York: HarperPerennial, 1998).

  17.Richard Evans, conversation with author, London, May 27, 1998.

  CHAPTER 3: AUSCHWITZ: A FORENSIC TOUR

  1.Timothy Daniell, A Literary Excursion to the Inns of Court in London (London: Wildy & Sons Ltd, 1971).

  2.Documents on the Holocaust: Selected Sources on the Destruction of the Jews of Germany and Austria, Poland and the Soviet Union, ed. Y. Arad, Y. Gutman, and A. Margaliot (Jerusalem: Ktav, 1981), pp. 249–61. Christopher Browning, “Wannsee Conference,” Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (New York: Facts on File, 1990), pp. 1591–94.

  3.John T. Pawlikowski, “The Auschwitz Convent Controversy: Mutual Misperceptions,” Memory Offended, ed. Carol Rittner and John K. Roth (New York: Praeger, 1991), pp. 65–66.

  4.Wladyslaw T. Bartoszewski, The Covenant at Auschwitz (New York: G. Braziller, Inc., 1990), p. 50.

  5.In fact, during the early years of German occupation, French Communists were relatively silent about antisemitism, treating it as a by-product of capitalism. During the war they were active resistance fighters and, in that capacity, did help some Jews escape deportation. Susan Zuccotti, The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews (New York: Basic Books, 1993), pp. 139–40.

  6.Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz (New York: Touchstone, 1993), p. 42.

  7.Debórah Dwork and Robert Jan van Pelt, Auschwitz: 1270 to the Present (New York: W. W. Norton, 1996), page after p. 320.

  8.Ibid. p. 334.

  9.Copies of those documents were also stored in Berlin at the SS headquarters. When the Allies bombed that structure, they were destroyed. Ibid. page after p. 320.

  10.Ibid. p. 324.

  11.Ibid. plate 18.

  12.Polish authorities conducted various studies on the Auschwitz killing apparatus. In 1945, they found traces of cyanide in crematorium ventilation covers and bags of hair. In 1994, they found traces in the delousing room and gas chambers. They also tested areas of the camp where no Zyklon B had been introduced. They wanted to ascertain whether there was random cyanide content in the walls or, because the camp had been fumigated, cyanide residue remained. They found none. Jan Markiewicz, Wojciech Gubala, Jerzy Labedz, “A Study of the Cyanide Compounds Content in the Walls of the Gas Chambers in the Former Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camp,” Problems of Forensic Science, vol. 30 (1994), p. 19ff. as cited in Robert Jan van Pelt, Expert Opinion, IvP&DL (hereafter Van Pelt Report), part 4, sec. 9, pp. 545–50. Van Pelt Report available at www.hdot.org, “Evidence” (accessed February 20, 2004).

  13.New York Times, June 26, 1999; D. D. Guttenplan to author, London, October 12, 1999.

  CHAPTER 4: OUR OBJECTIVE CHANGES

  1.Evans Report, 1.6.1–1.6.2, 6.2.1, pp. 19–20, 739.

  2.David Irving, Action Report, 1999, http://www.fpp.co.uk/Inner/Circle.html (accessed September 15, 2004).

  3.The penultimate version of Browning’s report referred to the report by Kurt Gerstein, who served as the head of the Technical Disinfection Department of the Waffen SS, where he worked with various toxic gases, including Zyklon B. In his report, Gerstein described a gassing he had witnessed in the summer of 1942. Browning included the disclaimer that aspects of Gerstein’s report were clearly exaggerated and provided one such example. He contended, however, that the exaggerations did not invalidate other confirmable aspects of the report, which were, in fact, far more important. The final version of Browning’s report, the version that should have been given to Irving, contained a more complete listing of Gerstein’s exaggerations. Browning wished to deprive Irving of the opportunity to suggest that he was being selective or repressive in his use of this evidence. Christopher R. Browning, Evidence for the Implementation of the Final Solution, Expert Opinion, IvP&DL (hereafter Browning Report), 5.4.1.3ff, pp. 50–52. Browning Report available at www.hdot.org, “Evidence” (accessed July 5, 2004).

  CHAPTER 5: “ALL RISE!”

  1.IvP&DL, Day 1 (January 11, 2000), p. 5.

  2.IvP&DL, Day 1 (January 11, 2000), pp. 14, 16, 20–22.

  3.IvP&DL, Day 1 (January 11, 2000), pp. 22, 26.

  4.IvP&DL, Day 1 (January 11, 2000), pp. 49, 51–52, 62.

  5.IvP&DL, Day 1 (January 11, 2000), pp. 28–30.

  6.IvP&DL, Day 1 (January 11, 2000), pp. 42–46.

  7.IvP&DL, Day 1 (January 11, 2000), pp. 86–88.

  8.IvP&DL, Day 1 (January 11, 2000), pp. 89–90.

  9.IvP&DL, Day 1 (January 11, 2000), pp. 91–94. David Irving, Hitler’s War (1977), pp. xiv, 332; idem. Hitler’s War (1991), p. 427; Evans, Lying about Hitler, pp. 78–82.

  10.IvP&DL, Day 1 (January 11, 2000), pp. 95–98.

  11.IvP&DL, Day 1 (January 11, 2000), pp. 98–101.

  CHAPTER 6: IRVING IN THE BOX: NOT A DENIER BUT A VICTIM

  1.The Times (London), January 12, 2000; New York Times, January 12, 2000, p. 1.

  2.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), pp. 111–13.

  3.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), p. 114.

  4.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), p. 117.

  5.IvP&DL, Audiocassette 88: Irving press conference in Brisbane, Queensland, March 20, 1986, side 2 no. 107–126 as cited in Evans Report, 1.6.7, pp. 22–23.

  6.David Irving, “David Irving on Freedom of Speech,” Victoria, British Columbia, October 28, 1992, http://www.fpp.co.uk/speeches/speech281092.html (accessed September 12, 2004).

  7.David Irving, Hitler’s War, pp. xii, xxii, 6–7 as cited in Evans Report, 2.32–2.3.3, pp. 30–31.

  8.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), pp. 147–50.

  9.Publishers Weekly, March 25, 1996, pp. 25, 75, April 8, 1996, p. 17; Library Journal, April 15, 1996, p. 70.

  10.Washington Post, March 25, April 3, 4, 1996.

  11.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), pp. 133–34, 150.

  12.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), pp. 154–55.

  13.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), pp. 156–58.

  14.David Irving at Clarendon Club, London, November 15, 1991, K3/11; David Irving to Tom Marcellus, January 16, 1992, K3; 11th IHR Conference, October 11, 1992, p. 22, K3/13. IvP&DL, Defendants’ Closing Statement (hereafter Closing Statement), 5.iv.a.l.2–9, pp. 1–5. Closing Statement available at www.hdot.org (accessed March 21, 2004).

  15.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), pp. 158, 164, 168.

  16.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), pp. 174, 175, 179.

  17.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), pp. 201–2.

  18.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), pp. 204–6.

  19.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), pp. 207–8, 214.

  20.IvP&DL, Day 2 (Janu
ary 12, 2000), pp. 215–17.

  21.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), p. 217. Helen Darville, “Irving’s Berlin,” Australian Style, March 2000, pp. 83–91 http://www.uq.net.au/~enhdemid/irving.html (accessed November 15, 2003).

  22.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), p. 217.

  CHAPTER 7: THE CHAIN OF DOCUMENTS

  1.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), pp. 218–19.

  2.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), p. 219.

  3.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), p. 225; David Irving at Calgary, Canada, September 29, 1991, IvP&DL, K3/9 as cited in Closing Statements, 5.iv.a.l.1, p. 2.

  4.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), p. 229. David Irving at Clarendon Club, London, November 15, 1991, IvP&DL, K3/11, as cited in Closing Statements, 5.iv.a.l.2, p. 2.

  5.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), pp. 225–26, 230, 239–46.

  6.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), pp. 232–34.

  7.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), pp. 264–65.

  8.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), pp. 266, 276.

  9.IvP&DL, Day 2 (January 12, 2000), pp. 289–91.

  10.IvP&DL, Day 3 (January 13, 2000), pp. 7–8.

  11.IvP&DL, Day 3 (January 13, 2000), p. 30.

  12.IvP&DL, Day 3 (January 13, 2000), pp. 34–37.

  13.IvP&DL, Day 3 (January 13, 2000), pp. 37–42.

  14.IvP&DL, Day 3 (January 13, 2000), p. 17.

  15.IvP&DL, Day 3 (January 13, 2000), p. 74.

  16.IvP&DL, Day 1 (January 11, 2000), pp. 46–47.

  17.IvP&DL, Day 3 (January 13, 2000), pp. 83–88, 101.

  18.David Irving, “Speech to IHR Conference,” October 1992, IvP&DL, K3/13/24 as cited in Closing Statements 5(i)d.2, pp. 20–24. See also David Irving, “Introduction to the American Edition of Hitler’s War,” JHR, pp. 415, n. 7 as cited in Closing Statements, 5(i)d.2, p. 22.

  19.IvP&DL, Day 3 (January 13, 2000), pp. 91–93.