Archive/File: people/i/irving.david/libel.suit/transcripts/day012.13 Last-Modified: 2000/07/20 MR RAMPTON: I am sorry. It is Mr Irving's fault, my Lord, I have to say. . P-109 MR JUSTICE GRAY: 378 of what? I have about four things open and none has a 378. A. It is printed page 378, my Lord, of the book. MR RAMPTON: It is an erroneous diversion. A. Nowhere on that page is it evident that it is sent by Heydrich. Q. Page 3 of what, Mr Irving? A. Of the bundle of documents, page 378. We are looking at the same document. Q. No, you are looking at the wrong document, Mr Irving. A. Page 378? Q. 377, 378 is the 11.55 telex from Muller. A. And 378, the next item is the 1.20 a.m. Q. If you would not mind, Mr Irving, if you turn over to page 4 of the bundle and then to page 5 of the bundle, you will see the whole text of the Heydrich telex. A. Very good. Q. And it is signed by Heydrich ----. A. This one is now the complete text, yes. Q. - on page 6, thank you. Do you agree that the essential guts of the Heydrich telex are set out in English on page 263 of Evans's report, (a), (b), (c) and (d). A. Yes. Q. Do you agree that the Heydrich telex again, whilst it makes some provision for protecting German property from the consequences of arson against Jewish property, and . P-110 while it makes a prohibition against looting whilst encouraging destruction ---- A. Yes. Q. - and provides some protection for foreign nationals, even if they happen to be Jewish, it also says, if you look at the text of the actual document, in the right hand column of page 5 of the bundle, once again that the demonstrations are not to be hindered by the police? A. Yes. But I am mystified as to how this takes us any further. Q. It is a developing tale of what happened in the hands, not of Dr Goebbels but of the other branch, if I may call it that, the Himmler branch of the hierarchy ---- A. The executive branch. Q. - in consequence of what Hitler had said to Goebbels earlier that evening. Are you following me? MR JUSTICE GRAY: So Himmler sends this order out? MR RAMPTON: Heydrich is Himmler's subordinate. MR JUSTICE GRAY: Rather, Heydrich does, in consequence of what Hitler said to Goebbels? Is that the proposition? MR RAMPTON: Yes, because Himmler and Hitler have spoken together before the dinner as well. A. I know it would have no effect whatsoever on you, Mr Rampton, but you will notice that nobody refers in any these telegrams to having received orders from Hitler. Q. The one we just looked at did, did it not? . P-111 A. Not the one we were looking at present, not the 1.20 one. Q. Here we go, page 5. Look at the file again, page 5, Mr Irving. A. Yes. Q. The paragraph before it starts (a), (b), (c) and (d). A. Yes. Q. Will you just read it to us in English? A. In this conference the political leadership is to be informed that the German police has received from Reichsfuhrer SS and Chief of the German police the following instructions, and that the political leadership is to adapt their measures to these. Q. Exactly. A. So the instructions came from Himmler. Q. They came from Himmler, and Himmler and Hitler, as we know, had already been in conversation at just before the dinner on the evening of the 9th, had they not? A. Yes. Q. Is it not really irresistible that -- this is nothing to do with Goebbels -- Himmler and Hitler had exactly the same sort of conversation as Goebbels had had with Hitler, and that Himmler had taken his orders from Hitler that this was to be allowed to go on and that the police were not to interfere, but that German property should be protected? A. Yes. . P-112 MR JUSTICE GRAY: The answer is yes? A. It is a reasonable inference. It is not in the document but it is a reasonable inference, up to this level of course. They are not talking about an immense nationwide pogrom which was subsequently developed overnight. At present they are talking just about a punitive measure from which the police were to be withdrawn. Adolf Hitler certainly gave instructions for that to be allowed, as I make quite plain in the Goebbels book. MR RAMPTON: I am going to persist in this chronological exercise because I promise we are coming to your famous order of Hitler's intervention. The next document I would like you to look at is on page 7 of this bundle. MR JUSTICE GRAY: Where is it in Evans? MR RAMPTON: It is 253, I think, my Lord. MR JUSTICE GRAY: Thank you very much. MR RAMPTON: The trouble is they do not run consecutively. MR JUSTICE GRAY: I can see why not. MR RAMPTON: They go backwards and forwards. There is, for the future, a helpful chronology prepared by Miss Rogers which is at the front of that little bundle. MR JUSTICE GRAY: Yes. MR RAMPTON: It does not have all the cross-references to Evans, but most of them. That is how she is managing to coach me. MR JUSTICE GRAY: Yes. . P-113 MR RAMPTON: Your Lordship will see an account of this document, it is rather a bad copy in the bundle, at paragraph 5 on page 253. This is to rebut something that we will see in a moment in Mr Irving's book. He says, does Professor Evans,. "Most importantly, if he (that is Eberstein) really had found Hitler 'livid with rage' about the pogrom, then why did Eberstein send a telex later the same night to the Gestapo in Augsburg, Nuremberg, Wurzburg and Neustadt, repeating the order that the police were not to interfere in the 'actions against the Jews' which were taking place all over Germany". Well, Mr Irving, what is the answer to that? A. Right. This telegram is signed by Eberstein, who is the police chief in Munich and it is signed to the police offices in Augsburg, Nuremberg, Wurzburg and Neustadt. The time on the copy we have is 2.10 in the morning. It is not an original. It is the time -- it is a copy which has been made in Augsburg by some police officers. Q. It does not get any reference in your book, does it? A. A lot of telegrams do not get any references in my book. Q. No, it is more important than that, Mr Irving. Can you look at page ---- A. The reason why is because this telegram repeats almost verbatim what the other igniting telegrams have repeated, and there is a limit to the number of times you can repeat . P-114 a telegram without your readers getting board. You can do it here in court because you have all the time in the world, but my readers do not. Q. It repeats what Muller had said in his telegram before midnight, had it not? A. Yes. In other words, this is already old hat. This is being rapidly overtaken by events, even as this telegram is going out. Q. Oh, yes, you say so. A. It is not just me who says so. All Adolf Hitler's staff say so. MR JUSTICE GRAY: I have not yet been told what is in the document we are looking at the moment. MR RAMPTON: It is what written in Evans essentially. MR JUSTICE GRAY: Evans does not actually quote it. It is repeating the order that the police were not to interfere with any action against the Jews. A. It is basically reiterating. MR RAMPTON: It is practically verbatim. A. It is reiterating the instructions from Berlin. Q. They are not to be interfered with, the demonstrations that is to say. A. What Eberstein is doing is repeating an order that has come to him from his superior headquarters in Berlin to his junior headquarters, to ones beneath him in Augsburg and the other cities. . P-115 Q. Absolutely? A. He is required to do that quite obviously, but in the meantime this is very rapidly being overtaken by orders from the boss himself. Q. So you say. Turn, please, to page 276 of your book, Goebbels, the Mastermind of the Third Reich. A. Yes. Q. Just scan -- well, I will read it: "What if, Himmler Hitler, both were totally unaware of what Goebbels had done until the synagogue next to Munich's Four Seasons Hotel was set on fire around 1 a.m." A. Not that time, "around 1 a.m." Q. Indeed I do. "Heydrich, Himmler's National Chief of Police, was relaxing down in the hotel bar. He hurried up to Himmler's room, then telexed instructions to all police authorities to restore law and order, protect Jews and Jewish property, and halt any ongoing incidents." A. There is a source for that. Q. That is your account of the Heydrich' telex, is it? A. Let us see what telex that is an account of perhaps. Q. It is one sent at 1.20. A. 276. Q. The footnotes are on 612 and following. A. I would not have invented that. I would definitely have had the telegram in front of me when I wrote that. Q. Really? Well, let us have a look. What is the reference . P-116 you give for it? A. Nuremberg document 3052 PS. Q. 30 -- well, if you look at page 4 of the bundle, maybe you have the number wrong, document ---- MR JUSTICE GRAY: Page 4 of which tab? MR RAMPTON: Tab 1, my Lord. We have looked at it already. This is the Heydrich telex to which you are referring I suspect, Mr Irving, I suspect, 3051 PS. This is a Nuremberg document. If this is the document to which you refer in the text, it says nothing like what you said? A. Well, quite clearly this is not the document because it has a different number. I have 3052 and you have 3051. Q. So you say. Do you have that document? A. No, I do not have it here, but it would have been in my discovery. MR JUSTICE GRAY: Where do you get 3052? A. From my footnotes in the book, my Lord. Q. You said they have 3051 and you have 3052. A. They challenge me with a different document. Q. Yes, but where do you get the number off the document that they have produced? MR RAMPTON: The number on our document is on page 4, my Lord, bottom of the right-hand column, document 3051 PS. My Lord, on page 362 of his report Professor Evans says: "The footnote in Goebbels mistakenly refers to Nuremberg document 3052 PS instead of 3051 PS." . P-117 A. On what page does he say that? Q. The bottom of 262, footnote 262. A. 262. MR JUSTICE GRAY: Are you going to want me -- I am finding this extraordinarily difficult to follow. A. I want to know on what basis Evans says that I have got the wrong document number. MR RAMPTON: Are you aware of another Heydrich telex of this date and time, Mr Irving? A. There was a whole flurry of telegrams that night. I mean I do not think how long we will be discussing this, but I certainly bring what I find from my files here for the court tomorrow. Q. I am going to have to leave it like this, Mr Irving, that you have deliberately misrepresented in your text, and one can tell this, if it be right, from looking at page 263 of Evans, where the guts of it are translated, you have deliberately misrepresented the text of this Heydrich telex. If you can lay hands on a different telex which says what you say in the text, well, then I shall climb down. A. But, with respect, Mr Rampton, you are being perverse. I have quoted a different telegram with a different file number, with a different content, and you are saying it is different from the one you are showing the court. Q. Mr Irving ---- . P-118 A. Nothing more and nothing less. Q. Mr Irving, it would not be the first time that you have given the wrong Nuremberg reference number, would it? I am not suggesting that is deliberate, but it can happen to anybody, can it not? A. I am still going to tell the court of other examples. MR JUSTICE GRAY: Do not let us go on to other examples.
Home ·
Site Map ·
What's New? ·
Search
Nizkor
© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012
This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and
to combat hatred.
Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.
As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may
include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and
provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist
and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.