Copyright 2000 PR Newswire Europe Limited Press Association Newsfile February 3, 2000, Thursday 08:03 AM Eastern Time BLACKS 'DIFFERENT BUT NOT INFERIOR' SAYS IRVING BY: Jan Colley and Cathy Gordon, PA News Historian David Irving today denied that it was racist to say that it made him feel "queasy" to see black people playing cricket for England. "Blacks are different from us but not inferior," the 62-year-old author of Hitler's War told the High Court in London. Mr Irving added that in an interview with an Australian journalist, he also said that it was a pity that England had to have blacks in the team and that they were better than "we whites". "I say it's a pity because I am English," he told Richard Rampton QC, defending American academic Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books in a libel action brought by Mr Irving over claims that he is a "Holocaust denier". Asked by Mr Rampton when the Irvings first arrived in this country, the author put them as far back as Robert the Bruce in the 14th century. Mr Rampton said that the Irvings were then Normans - "beastly foreigners". Asked if origins really mattered, Mr Irving said that someone like him, born in the England of 1938 and imbued with all its values, regretted what had happened to "our country". Mr Rampton: "And that is characteristic of people who might properly and legitimately be called racist" Mr Irving: "Or patriotic. Patriotism is respecting the country that was handed down to you by your fathers. "I don't think there is anything despicable or disreputable about patriotism - respect and love for the country that I grew up in, the England I was born into." He said that he felt sorry that "my England" was unable to produce enough good cricketers. "I'm saying it's regrettable that blacks and people of certain races are superior athletes to whites. "If this is a racist attitude, then so be it. It's a recognition that some people are different at different things. "You may wish to legislate it away or describe it as despicable but it's a recognition of how things are." Mr Rampton: "You would like it if this country was a pure white Aryan race of people who went back as far as Robert the Bruce." Mr Irving said that it was "just an old-fashioned attitude" to want to go back to the England of "Jack Warner and no chewing gum on the pavement". He added that 90% of Englishmen of his vintage probably thought much the same. Mr Irving is seeking damages over a 1994 book, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, which he says has generated waves of hatred against him. The defendants, who deny libel, claim that Mr Irving is a "liar and falsifier of history". == Copyright 2000 PR Newswire Europe Limited Press Association Newsfile February 3, 2000, Thursday BLACKS 'DIFFERENT BUT NOT INFERIOR' SAYS IRVING Jan Colley and Cathy Gordon, PA News Historian David Irving today denied that it was racist to say that it made him feel "queasy" to see black people playing cricket for England. "Blacks are different from us but not inferior," the 62-year-old author of Hitler's War told the High Court in London. Mr Irving added that in an interview with an Australian journalist, he also said that it was a pity that England had to have blacks in the team and that they were better than "we whites". "I say it's a pity because I am English," he told Richard Rampton QC, defending American academic Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books in a libel action brought by Mr Irving over claims that he is a "Holocaust denier". Asked by Mr Rampton when the Irvings first arrived in this country, the author put them as far back as Robert the Bruce in the 14th century. Mr Rampton said that the Irvings were then Normans - "beastly foreigners". Asked if origins really mattered, Mr Irving said that someone like him, born in the England of 1938 and imbued with all its values, regretted what had happened to "our country". Mr Rampton: "And that is characteristic of people who might properly and legitimately be called racist" Mr Irving: "Or patriotic. Patriotism is respecting the country that was handed down to you by your fathers. "I don't think there is anything despicable or disreputable about patriotism - respect and love for the country that I grew up in, the England I was born into." He said that he felt sorry that "my England" was unable to produce enough good cricketers. "I'm saying it's regrettable that blacks and people of certain races are superior athletes to whites. "If this is a racist attitude, then so be it. It's a recognition that some people are different at different things. "You may wish to legislate it away or describe it as despicable but it's a recognition of how things are." Mr Rampton: "You would like it if this country was a pure white Aryan race of people who went back as far as Robert the Bruce." Mr Irving said that it was "just an old-fashioned attitude" to want to go back to the England of "Jack Warner and no chewing gum on the pavement". He added that 90% of Englishmen of his vintage probably thought much the same. Mr Irving is seeking damages over a 1994 book, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, which he says has generated waves of hatred against him. The defendants, who deny libel, claim that Mr Irving is a "liar and falsifier of history". Copyright 2000 Telegraph Group Limited THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON) February 03, 2000, Thursday Irving 'sang racist poem to daughter in her pram' By Sandra Laville DAVID Irving, the historian, was accused in the High Court yesterday of being a perverted racist who taught his daughter a "poisonous" poem about children of other races. The verse, which he wrote in a personal diary, was labelled a "racist ditty" by the defence QC, who said Mr Irving sang it to his nine-month-old daughter when "half-breed" children were wheeled by in prams. Richard Rampton, defending Deborah Lipstadt, an American academic, and Penguin Books, produced the entry from September 1994, as he cross-examined Mr Irving. The verse read: I am a Baby Aryan Not Jewish or Sectarian I have no plans to marry an Ape or Rastafarian. In an increasingly heated exchange Mr Rampton asked: "Racist, Mr Irving? Anti-Semitic, Mr Irving?" Mr Irving replied: "I don't think so." Mr Rampton: "Teaching your little child this kind of poison?" Mr Irving: "Do you think a nine-month-old can understand?" To laughter in the courtroom, Mr Rampton said that when he was six months old the only kind of ditty he sang was "pussy's in the apple tree until she thinks it's time for tea". "The poor little child is being taught a racist ditty by her perverted racist father," he said. Mr Irving replied: "I am not a racist." The historian and author of Hitler's War is suing Prof Lipstadt and Penguin Books for libel over a claim in her book, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, that he is a "Holocaust denier" who falsified history. The defendants deny libel. Mr Irving, 62, who is representing himself, told the court that he had employed "coloured people and ethnic minorities" and that Mr Rampton's legal team did not employ "one such person". But Mr Justice Gray, who is hearing the trial without a jury, told Mr Irving the comment was "not helpful". Mr Rampton went on to refer to speeches made by Mr Irving. In September 1992, he told his audience: "For a transitional period I'd be prepared to accept that the BBC should have a dinner-jacketed gentleman reading the important news to us, followed by a lady reading all the less important news, followed by Trevor McDonald giving us all the latest news about the muggings and the drug busts . . ." "Are you not appalled by that?" Mr Rampton said. "Not in the least," replied Mr Irving. Addressing a meeting of the National Alliance, a Right-wing organisation in America in October 1995, Mr Irving referred to the "legend" of the Holocaust, the court heard. Asked why he had told the audience he found the Holocaust "boring", Mr Irving said: "What other expression is there for the fact that it's all they [Jews] go on about now." Referring to his suggestion that a survivor may have faked her Auschwitz tattoo, Mr Irving said his comments were not anti-Semitic but were critical of those Jewish survivors who turned "their suffering into profit". The case continues. Copyright 2000 Guardian Newspapers Limited The Guardian (London) February 3, 2000 Irving taught his nine-month-old daughter racist ditty, libel trial told The historian David Irving was yesterday accused in the high court holocaust libel trial of being a racist. Mr Irving, who is seeking damages over claims that he is a 'holocaust denier', rejected the allegation. The accusation was made during cross-examination of the 62-year-old author of Hitler's War by Richard Rampton QC, defending the Ameri can academi, Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books. Mr Rampton, questioning Mr Irving on his various 'utterances both in public and private on the subject of Jews, blacks etc', accused him of teaching his daughter aged nine months a 'racist ditty' when he took her out for a walk. The QC read out a September 1994 extract from Mr Irv ing's personal diaries in which the historian referred to a poem he had sung to his daughter when 'half -breed children' were wheeled past: 'I am a Baby Aryan, 'Not Jewish or Sectarian. 'I have no plans to marry-an 'Ape or Rastafarian.' Mr Rampton asked: 'Racist, Mr Irving? Anti-Semitic, Mr Irving?' Mr Irving, who is represent ing himself, replied: 'I don't think so.' Mr Rampton: 'Teaching your little child this kind of poison?' Mr Irving: 'Do you think a nine-month-old can understand . . .' Mr Rampton: 'The poor little child is being taught a racist ditty by her perverted racist father.' Mr Irving replied firmly: 'I am not a racist.' The author is suing Profes sor Lipstadt and Penguin Books over her 1994 book Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, which he says has generated hatred against him. The defendants, who deny libel, have accused him of being a liar and a falisfier of history. Mr Rampton also referred to a speech made by Mr Irving in September 1992. The author had said: 'For the time being, for a transitional period I'd be prepared to accept that the BBC should have a dinner-jacketed gentleman reading the important news to us, followed by a lady reading all the less important news, followed by Trevor McDonald giving us all the latest news about the muggings and the drug busts . . .' Mr Rampton, who said the rest was lost in laughter and applause, asked Mr Irving: 'Are you not appalled by that?' Mr Irving replied: 'Not in the least.' It was the same kind of speech, he said, which would be given by a stand-up comic at the end of Brighton pier. The court was shown a video of Mr Irving addressing a meeting of the rightwing American organisation the National Alliance, in Tampa, Florida, in October, 1995, in which he talked of the 'leg end' of the holocaust. Mr Rampton said that Mr Irving had spoken at eight National Alliance events between 1990 and 1998. Mr Irving said that he had no association with the alliance, had no idea what it was and had not attended events which 'to his knowledge' had been organised by it. The hearing was adjourned until today. Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Limited The Times (London) February 3, 2000, Thursday Diary reveals Irving's ode to Aryans Michael Horsnell SIR TREVOR McDONALD, the black ITN newscaster, should be restricted to reading news about muggings and drug busts, according to the Hitler historian David Irving. His words were quoted back at him in court yesterday as he faced allegations of unvarnished racism. He agreed that in a speech to the Clarendon Club, he had yearned for the old days when newsreaders wore dinner jackets on air. He had said: "For a transitional period, I'd be prepared to accept that the BBC should have a dinner-jacketed gentleman reading the important news to us, followed by a lady reading all the less important news, followed by Trevor McDonald giving us all the latest news about the muggings and the drug busts." Mr Irving, who is suing the American academic Deborah Lipstadt for libel over a book in which she describes him as a "holocaust denier", was taken through a passage from his private diary by her counsel, Richard Rampton, QC. It concerned a day when he took his baby daughter Jessica out for a walk near their home in London. According to the diary, he had been singing her a ditty beginning "My name is Baby Jessica" when "half-breed" children were wheeled past them in their prams, and he changed the words to something more "scurrilous" which began: "I am a Baby Aryan." Mr Irving agreed that he had recorded the ditties in his diary on September 17, 1994, after returning from the walk with his "fine little lady" of a daughter. But on a day of heated exchanges with Mr Rampton, he denied a suggestion that the diary entry was one of many examples of his alleged racism. Mr Irving said that what he had written was a private response to a smear in the magazine Searchlight in which he said that his family was described as a "perfect Aryan family". Mr Irving was obliged to hand over his diaries before the hearing as part of the normal exchange of documents. Irving's diary, page 6 IRVING'S 'DITTY' I am a Baby Aryan Not Jewish or Sectarian I have no plans to marry an Ape or Rastafarian. Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Limited The Times (London) Irving is accused of 'unvarnished' racism Michael Horsnell THE Hitler historian David Irving was accused of "unvarnished racism" at his High Court libel trial yesterday as he was taken through his private diary, which he never thought anyone else would read. Millions of words, both unpublished and contained in speeches he made to right-wing audiences, came under scrutiny along with damaging allegations made about how he had poisoned his daughter's mind with racism. He was also cross-examined about a book he published in which he attacked the Jews for their greed. He agreed that in July 1997 he wrote in A Radical's Diary: "They clammer 'Ours! Ours! Ours!' when hoards of gold are uncovered. And then when anti-Semitism increases and the inevitable mindless pogroms occur, they ask with genuine surprise 'Why us?'" In a series of heated exchanges with Richard Rampton, QC, he was taken through a series of utterances he has made about the Jews, but denied that he is a racist. Mr Irving, 62, who said he strongly objected to the "kind of excerpting" exercise on which Mr Rampton embarked, was taken through an interview he had given to the journalist Errol Morris on November 8, 1998, in which he analysed anti-Semitism and suggested that money lay at its root. The historian, who has denied that Jews were exterminated in the concentration camp gas chambers during the Second World War, said that the Jewish community had only to be called liars for their accusers to be thrown into jail. He said: "The question which would concern me, if I was a Jew, is not who pulled the trigger, but why? Why are we disliked? Is it something we are doing? "You people are disliked on a global scale. You have been disliked for 3,000 years and yet you never seem to ask what is at the root of this dislike ... no sooner do you arrive as a people in a new country, then within 50 years you are already being disliked all over again. "Now, what is it? And I don't know the answer to this. Is it built into our microchip?" He questioned whether it could be because non-Jews did not like the way they looked or whether it was down to envy because they were more successful. "It was not just a 'nudge, nudge, wink, wink' dislike but on a 'visceral, guts-wrenching, murderous level, that no sooner do we arrive than we are being massacred, and beaten, and brutalised and imprisoned, until we have to move on somewhere else." He added: "I would say that they're a clever race. I would say that as a race they are better at making money than I am. That's a racist remark, of course. But they appear to be better at making money than I am. If I was going to be crude, I would say not only are they better at making money, but they are greedy." Asked about such remarks by Mr Rampton, Mr Irving said: "In my own clumsy way I am trying to find out why we don't like them. It's a very coherent expression of the antiSemitic tragedy. I am putting myself in the skin of a person asking questions about a clever people." Mr Irving is suing Deborah Lipstadt, an American academic, and Penguin Books, over her book Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, in which she claims that he is a denier of the Holocaust. Mr Rampton, for the defence, put the question: "Every time there is a pogrom or gassing or machinegunning into a pit it's entirely the Jews' fault because some of them are very good at playing the piano and making money?" Mr Irving: "That's a childish over-simplification." Mr Irving, who is representing himself, said: "I am not a racist. I haven't seen a single coloured person on your team behind you." The historian, who said he employed people regardless of their race, was reprimanded by Mr Justice Grey when he twice repeated the accusation. The High Court was shown a video of Mr Irving addressing the National Alliance, a right-wing American organisation, in Tampa, Florida, in October 1995 in which he spoke of what he called the "legend of the Holocaust". Mr Irving denied any association with the NA but it was put to him he had spoken at eight of their events between 1990 and 1998. Asked why he had said in his Tampa speech that he found the Holocaust story "boring", Mr Irving said: "I think 95 per cent of the thinking public find the Holocaust boring by now but don't say it because it's politically incorrect. What other expression is there for the fact that it's all the Jews go on about now? There have been the most incredible episodes in Jewish history but all you hear of in films and so on of late is the Holocaust." Asked to account for a suggestion that a Holocaust survivor may have faked her Auschwitz tattoo, Mr Irving said that Jewish people were not immune from criticism. The hearing continues. Copyright 2000 The Press Association Limited Press Association Newsfile February 2, 2000, Wednesday I'M NO RACIST, IRVING TELLS LIBEL TRIAL Cathy Gordon and Jan Colley, PA News Historian David Irving was today accused in the High Court Holocaust libel trial of being a "racist". Mr Irving, who is seeking damages over claims that he is a 'Holocaust denier', rejected the allegation. The accusation was made during cross-examination of the 62-year-old author of Hitler's War by Mr Richard Rampton QC, defending American academic Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books in the case at London's Law Courts. Mr Rampton, questioning Mr Irving on his various "utterances both in public and private on the subject of Jews, blacks etc", accused him of teaching his nine-month old daughter a "racist ditty" when he took her out for a walk. The QC read out a September 1994 extract from Mr Irving's personal diaries in which the historian referred to a poem he had sung to his daughter when "half-breed children" were wheeled past: "I am a Baby Aryan, "Not Jewish or Sectarian. "I have no plans to marry-an "Ape or Rastafarian." Mr Rampton asked: "Racist, Mr Irving? Anti-Semitic, Mr Irving?" Mr Irving, who is representing himself, replied: "I don't think so." Mr Rampton: "Teaching your little child this kind of poison?" Mr Irving: "Do you think a nine-month old can understand ..." To laughter in the packed courtroom, Mr Rampton commented that when he was six months old the only kind of ditty he sang was "pussy's in the apple tree until she thinks it's time for tea". Mr Rampton said: "The poor little child is being taught a racist ditty by her perverted racist father." Mr Irving replied firmly: "I am not a racist." He said he had employed "coloured people and ethnic minorities" on his staff and said that Mr Rampton's defence team did not employ "one such person". Mr Justice Gray, who is hearing the lengthy trial without a jury, intervened after Mr Irving repeated the comment and told him it was "not helpful". The author is suing Professor Lipstadt and Penguin Books over her 1994 book Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, which he says has generated waves of hatred against him. The defendants, who deny libel, have accused him of being a liar and a falisfier of history. He said the author told the audience: "For the time being, for a transitional period I'd be prepared to accept that the BBC should have a dinner-jacketed gentleman reading the important news to us, followed by a lady reading all the less important news, followed by Trevor McDonald giving us all the latest news about the muggings and the drug busts ..." Mr Rampton, who said the rest was lost in laughter and applause, asked Mr Irving: "Are you not appalled by that?" Mr Irving replied: "Not in the least." He said it was the same kind of speech which would be given by a stand-up comic at the end of Brighton pier. "Even a black audience would not find that offensive, believe me," he commented. The court was shown a video of Mr Irving addressing a meeting of the right-wing American organisation, the National Alliance, in Tampa, Florida, in October 1995, in which he talked of the "legend" of the Holocaust. Mr Rampton said that Mr Irving had spoken at eight NA events between 1990 and 1998. Mr Irving said that he had no association with the NA, had no idea what they were and had not attended events which "to his knowledge" had been organised by them. Asked why he had said in his Tampa speech that he found the whole Holocaust story "boring", Mr Irving said: "I think 95% of the thinking public find the Holocaust boring by now but don't say it because it's politically incorrect." He added: "What other expression is there for the fact that it's all they (Jews) go on about now ... "There have been the most incredible episodes in Jewish history but all you hear of in films and so on of late is the Holocaust - and people are thoroughly bored by it." Mr Irving said that he based his view on people he spoke to from all walks of life. Referring to a suggestion in his speech that a Holocaust survivor may have faked her Auschwitz tattoo, Mr Irving said that the Jewish people were not "immune from criticism". He said that his comments were not anti-Semitic but were critical of those Jewish survivors who turned "their suffering into profit". "Those who suffered most, died ... they didn't get a bent nickel." Mr Rampton referred Mr Irving to comments he made about an incident in July 1992 when a crowd opposed to his views had to be held back from his family home for two days behind barricades. Mr Irving was quoted as saying that "the whole rabble" were made up of "all the scum of humanity ... the homosexuals, the gypsies, the lesbians, the Jews, the criminals, the communists, the left-wing extremists..." Mr Rampton said that he was sure Mr Irving was under pressure at the time, perhaps a little frightened and angry. Mr Irving said that he was not easily frightened but he did get angry about such "nightmare" events. "I would use exactly the same phrase now." Mr Rampton said that when a man was angry or under stress, his mask might slip. Mr Irving said that the words he used were a literal description of those outside his home waving placards saying "Gas Irving". Mr Rampton said: "This is the plain language of a plain unvarnished racist, isn't it?" Mr Irving: "On the contrary. It is the language of someone who can see the evidence with his own eyes ... people being held back by the forces of law and order." He added that an example of the "conditions of terror" he was then living under was that a wire rope was attached to his daughter's Moses basket so that she could be lowered from a window if the house was set on fire. The hearing was adjourned until tomorrow. Copyright 2000 AAP Information Services Pty. Ltd. AAP NEWSFEED February 1, 2000, Tuesday UK: Irving plans renewed bid for Australia visa Irving Second Nightlead By Trevor Marshallsea and Max Blenkin LONDON, Feb 1 AAP - Controversial British historian David Irving today said Prime Minister John Howard would have to change Australia's immigration laws to bar him from the country again. After Mr Howard said his government was still determined to keep the Holocaust revisionist out because he was an undesirable, Mr Irving said he was stiabout two months to change the law again," Mr Irving told AAP. Mr Irving, denied entry to Australia on four previous occasions, announced he would make a new bid after learning his youngest daughter Beatrice, who lives in Brisbane, had acquired Australian citizenship. He said he had strong legal advice the government could not bar him from visiting a family member who was an Australian citizen. Asked if he was confident of success if he took his fresh application to court, Mr Irving said: "I think so, yes. It will be out of his (Mr Howard's) hands. It will be in the hands of a totally different tribunal if he does refuse me." Mr Irving, who rejects claims he is a Holocaust denier, said changes made to the Immigration Act under the Howard government - to make "bad character" a sufficient reason to refuse a visa - had been made with him in mind. The condition had been used only twice - to block visits by himself and Gerry Adams, president of the IRA's political wing Sinn Fein, who was eventually allowed entry last year. "Gerry Adams, an IRA terrorist, has since been let into Australia, so his character is evidently considered good enough by the Australians and John Howard," said Mr Irving, 62. He said Australia had also recently "welcomed with open arms" alleged Nazi war criminal Konrad Kalejs. "Yet there's something still about historians they don't like," he said. Mr Howard said Mr Irving remained an undesirable. "We have a view that because of his record he should not come to Australia," he told reporters in Dubbo in central western NSW. Mr Irving has been convicted under German law for denying the magnitude of the holocaust and subsequently refused entry for speaking tours in Canada, Australia and other countries. In 1996, the former Labor government refused him a business visa on grounds of his conviction in Germany. Government sources said any application from Mr Irving for a visitor visa would be considered on its merits and all relevant matters taken into consideration. "An application for a visitor's visa does not give any extra rights. It is not a rubber stamp for automatic entry," Mr Howard said. It is possible Mr Irving may argue to be reunited with his daughter on compassionate grounds, since her sister Josephine Tucker fell to her death from her London flat last September. Mr Irving declined to say whether he would apply for a tourist or business visa or what his intentions would be in Australia. But he said he was not planning a speaking tour at this stage. "Let's cross that bridge when we get to it," he said. A scholar of World War II and prolific author, Mr Irving has attracted worldwide controversy for disputing Nazi Germany was responsible for the systematic murder of six million Jews and others or that Adolf Hitler was personally culpable. He is suing American academic Deborah Lipstadt and publisher Penguin Books for libel damages for being called a "Holocaust denier". Earlier today, Mr Irving told ABC Radio: "I have a lot of friends in Australia. I would like to shake a lot of hands of a lot of people who have given me a lot of support over the last few years ever since the ban was first engineered under the Keating government. "We all know who was behind that. I would like to come and speak a few blunt words to the people who opposed me at those times and shake the hands of those who supported me." Copyright 2000 Guardian Newspapers Limited The Guardian (London) February 1, 2000 Author not anti-Semite, court told A Judaism authority yesterday told the Holocaust libel trial at the high court in London that he did not consider historian David Irving to be anti-Semitic. Author Kevin MacDonald, professor of psychology at California state university, was giving evidence on Mr Irving's behalf during his damages action against American academic Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books over a claim that he is a 'Holocaust denier'. Mr Irving, 62, the author of Hitler's War, asked Prof MacDonald, who has written books on Judaism and anti-Semitism: 'Do you consider me to be an anti -Semite?' Prof MacDonald replied: 'I do not consider you to be an anti-Semite. I have had quite a few discussions with you and you almost never men tioned Jews, never in the general negative way.' Mr Irving has denied an allegation by the defendants that he has made statements 'designed to feed the virulent anti-Semitism' still present throughout the world. The case continues Copyright 2000 The Press Association Limited Press Association Newsfile February 1, 2000, Tuesday HISTORIAN ACCUSED OF EXAGGERATION OVER DRESDEN TOLL Cathy Gordon, PA News Historian David Irving was accused in the High Court today of having a "gigantic appetite for distortion and exaggeration". The allegation was made by the QC representing American academic Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin books, who are being sued for libel by Mr Irving over claims that he is a "Holocaust denier". Richard Rampton QC, cross-examining the 62-year-old author of Hitler's War, said he had exaggerated the number of dead in the World War Two Allied bombing of Dresden "for your own base political purposes". Mr Irving, who is representing himself, rejected the accusation. He said of the 1945 bombings: "It was a war crime. There is no way round it. I am deeply ashamed of what we did." He is seeking damages against Prof Lipstadt and Penguin Books over her 1994 book, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, which he says has generated waves of hatred against him. The defendants, who deny libel, claim that Mr Irving is a "liar and falsifier of history". Mr Rampton told the packed London court and Mr Justice Gray, who is hearing the lengthy case without a jury, that his cross-examination of Mr Irving on the topic of Dresden was not to establish what had happened, or the death toll, but to investigate his "bona fides as an historian". Mr Irving, whose first book was The Destruction of Dresden, was questioned by Mr Rampton about a document he had obtained during a visit to the German city in November 1964, which put the number of dead at 202,040 with an expected final toll of 250,000. Counsel pointed out that at the time Mr Irving wrote that he was personally in no doubt about the document's general authenticity and that it was of some importance to determine whether it was genuine and, if it was genuine, whether the 202,040 figure was an accurate or true detail "or whether it was deliberately falsified at the time". Mr Irving agreed with Mr Rampton - who told the court the document turned out to be fake - that he knew from the beginning that there was doubt about the figures. He also agreed that he thought the document was genuine at that time, but that the 202,040 figure might be suspect. Counsel said Mr Irving's doubts "seemed to have evaporated" by the time he wrote in December 1964 to the Provost of Coventry Cathedral suggesting he use the text of the "sensational" document in an exhibition planned to raise funds for the "DresdenCoventry link". The court heard that Mr Irving had written that the casualties mentioned in the document "have a shattering impact", telling the Provost: "I am myself in no doubt as to the authenticity of the document." Mr Irving said that he had been carrying out "proper inquiries" into the figures. Mr Rampton said he accepted that at the time Mr Irving did not know the document was a fake, but emphasised the doubts he had expressed about the reliability of the figures. Mr Irving said he now estimated the number of dead at Dresden to be between 60,000 and 100,000. Mr Rampton, who pointed out that other estimates included those of between 25,000 and 30,000 dead, said Mr Irving's figures were "pie-in-the-sky". He said: "I suggest that your figures are fantasy. The reason you have done it is you want to make a false equivalence between the numbers of people who died in Dresden and the number of people killed by the SS in Auschwitz." Mr Irving said that was not true. The hearing continues tomorrow. == Copyright 2000 News World Communications, Inc. The Washington Times February 03, 2000 Neo-Nazis have short memories; But the rest of us shouldn't have BY: Suzanne Fields; THE WASHINGTON TIMES Dateline: Washington, DC What a curious people we've become. In the midst of an explosion of learning and knowledge, some of us nevertheless try to rewrite history with a boldness the old Russian communists no doubt envy. If history embarrasses, wipe it out. If there aren't any facts to support an argument, make 'em up. If certain facts make someone, or a group of people, uncomfortable, change 'em. Blowing the whistle on such shoddy enterprise can be costly. Deborah Lipstadt, a history scholar at Emory University in Atlanta, is learning that in a London court room. She and her British publisher, Penguin Books, are defending themselves against the charge that she libeled David Irving, 62, the author of "Hitler's War" and other books on Nazi Germany and World War II, when she accused him of being a Holocaust denier. A casual reader of Mr. Irving's ideas might easily agree that that's what he is. Mr. Irving writes that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz, that "only" 100,000 Jews died at Auschwitz (most of them from natural causes like typhus), that Hitler was let down by his subordinates and suggests that on the whole Der Fuhrer wasn't such a bad chap. If Hitler had known what was going on, Mr. Irving writes, he would have shaped up a "totally ramshackle operation." Miss Lipstadt catalogued some of Mr. Irving's assertions in a book of her own, "Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory." She describes him as "a falsifier of history," of being a "Hitler partisan." American newspapers are paying little attention, which is unfortunate because it's a chilling reminder of continuing anti-Semitism. (The best coverage I've found is in Slate, the online magazine, in which Judith Shulevitz debates those who lend prestige to David Irving.) The stakes are high because libel law in England is much tougher than libel law in the United States. Deborah Lipstadt must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that what she said was true. Most legal observers in London think she will prevail, but it's no foregone conclusion. David Irving says he doesn't deny the Holocaust so much as to "redefine" it. He has a lot of data in his head, enabling him to confuse others with half-lies and half-truths. He argues that Hitler did not know anything about a plot to kill the Jews until 1943, that no document identifies him as ordering the Final Solution, or linking him to the extermination goals. Had Hitler known, the Nazis would have been more competent killers, but he had lost control over those who carried out the murder of Jews. "If the killing had been systematic, it would have been done with more efficient means," he told the court. "It was a totally ramshackle operation, a total lack of system." (In "Hitler's War," he wrote that the diary of Anne Frank was a forgery, and his German publisher later apologized to the Frank family for printing it and paid compensation.) Neo-Nazi movements are increasingly visible in certain nations of the European Union. Fourteen leaders of the Union threatened to isolate Austria if the Freedom Party of Joerg Haider succeeds in becoming part of the coalition government. Mr. Haider has praised the Waffen SS and policies of the Third Reich and made the ritual apologies. Not since Kurt Waldheim, president of Austria for six years (1986-1992) was revealed to have been compliant with Nazi villainy in mass deportations of Jews has Austria seemed so threatening to democracy and decency. Jews in Brussels protested at the Austrian Embassy by wearing yellow stars of David. Over the weekend, hundreds of neo-Nazis in Berlin, commemorating the 67th anniversary of the Nazi assumption of power, marched through the Brandenburg Gate for the first time since World War II, protesting the erection of a monument to the Holocaust dead. An equal number of Berliners protested the protesters. Only this week the world learned of another Nazi atrocity, this one in Russia, 55 years ago. Nazi SS guards massacred thousands of Jews, including women and children, who had survived a brutal 25-mile death march. Auschwitz had been liberated only four days before. Deborah Lipstadt does not worry that the Holocaust will be forgotten as long as survivors are alive to tell their story. "To me this is not a clear and present danger," she says. "To me this is a clear and future danger." Suzanne Fields, a columnist for The Washington Times, is nationally syndicated. Her column appears here Monday and Thursday. GRAPHIC: Photo, NO CAPTION, From The Stroop Report, compliments of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum ###
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.