BBC 0300 GMT 01.21.00

http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid%5F612000/612336.stm

Historian David Irving has told London's High Court the number of Jews who 
died during the Holocaust has been overstated, and that Auschwitz did not 
contain gas chambers.

The 62-year-old author of Hitler's War and Goebbels: Mastermind of the 
Third Reich is seeking libel damages against academic Deborah Lipstadt and 
Penguin Books, over a claim that he is a "Holocaust denier".

Professor Lipstadt made her remarks in her book Denying the Holocaust: The 
Growing Assault on Truth and Memory.

Mr Irving says the book has blackened his academic reputation and generated 
hatred against him.

He vehemently denied the charge levelled at him by defence barrister 
Richard Rampton, describing it as as a "slur".

The barrister told Mr Irving: "Our case is that you consort with people who 
are deeply anti-semitic and do it quite frequently."

But the historian, who is representing himself, cut the QC off saying: "It 
is a very serious charge to make."

Mr Rampton said the "charge" was that Mr Irving made statements 
"deliberately designed to feed the virulent anti-semitism which, alas, in 
the world is still alive and kicking".

"Some of the observations you made on these occasions are themselves 
grossly anti-semitic," he added.

Mr Rampton said Mr Irving had stated at a press conference in 1989 that he 
could not accept there had been gas chambers at the concentration camp and 
that Jews could not have been killed in them there.

"For a man to do that and glorify himself as a serious historian is morally 
wrong," he said, adding the author had done so "because of his political 
sympathies and attitudes".

Mr Irving, who rejects all their claims against him, told the court he 
denied that the buildings seen by tourists at Auschwitz "are or have ever 
been gas chambers".

The case is not being heard in front a jury as both sides felt the mass of 
documentation made it more appropriate for a judge alone.

The hearing continues. It is expected to last up to three months.


The Times, London 01.21.00
http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/Times/frontpage.html?999

Historian accused of right-wing extremism

BY TIM JONES

DAVID IRVING, the historian, was accused yesterday of being a right-wing 
extremist who made statements deliberately designed to feed virulent 
anti-Semitism still prevalent in the world.

During highly charged exchanges in the High Court, Richard Rampton, QC, 
accused Mr Irving of being a holocaust denier who based statements on the 
flimsiest evidence.

Mr Irving is suing Deborah Lipstadt, an American academic, and Penguin 
Books for claiming in her book Denying the Holocaust: the growing assault 
on truth and memory that he is a "Hitler partisan" who has twisted history.

Wounded by Mr Rampton's allegation, Mr Irving, conducting his own case, 
accused him of playing to the press by making slurs. Ignoring Mr Irving's 
protest that the allegation was serious, Mr Rampton continued: "Our case 
against you is that you consort with deeply anti-Semitic people."

Mr Irving, he said, had dignified himself as an historian who had lent his 
considerable weight to making statements denying that the Holocaust had 
taken place. "He has done so," he said, "because of his sympathies and 
attitudes. He is a right-wing extremist."

The hearing continues.



Associated Press 01.20.00

Copyright 2000 Associated Press
AP Worldstream
January 20, 2000; Thursday 4:29 PM Eastern Time

DISTRIBUTION: Europe;Britian;Scandinavia;Middle East;Africa;India;England;Asia

Nazi writer compares his Auschwitz comments to Churchill on Hitler

DATELINE: LONDON  Accused of making offensive comments about survivors of 
the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, British writer David Irving retorted 
during a libel hearing Thursday that Winston Churchill had similarly 
castigated Adolf Hitler during World War II.

''I have the utmost sympathy for people who genuinely suffered the torments 
and horrors of Auschwitz and the other camps,'' Irving told the High Court.

''But spurious survivors who tried to cash in and say they, too, were there 
I have the greatest contempt for these people trying to climb on the 
Holocaust bandwagon,'' he said.

Irving is suing American academic Deborah Lipstadt over her 1994 book, 
''Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory,'' which 
he says maintains he denies the Holocaust and distorted statistics.

Lipstadt, holder of the Dorot Chair in Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies 
at Emory University in Atlanta, and the publishers Penguin deny libel. The 
hearing is in its second week.

Irving says he doesn't deny the Holocaust, but says it has been exaggerated 
and he challenges the number and manner of Jewish deaths in concentration 
camps.

In acerbic exchanges, Lipstadt's lawyer, Richard Rampton, said Irving made 
statements ''deliberately designed to feed the virulent anti-Semitism 
which, alas, in the world is still alive and kicking.''

Rampton cited a talk at Calgary in Alberta, Canada, in September 1991 when 
Irving amused the audience with joking comments suggesting few women died 
in the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

''The whole passage is redolent of animosity, hostility, contempt, spite, 
malignity just like Dr. Goebbels' articles in Das Reich,'' said Rampton, 
referring to Hitler's propaganda chief.

Irving: ''Just like Winston Churchill talking about Adolf Hitler.''

Rampton: ''Sure enough ... the difference is that, unlike Dr. Goebbels, he 
had a very good reason.''

Earlier, Rampton said that Irving had charged that the ''Holocaust 
industry'' was created to protect Jews against criticism, including charges 
of financial crimes.

Irving said some Jewish people held the same view.

''They can't be insulated from criticism just because of the Holocaust. I 
think most members of the Jewish community would find it repugnant to find 
that they were or they should be,'' he said.

The hearing continues on Monday.

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