Lying about Hitler – History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial (2001)

[color=#a00000]Lying about Hitler – History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial
by Richard J. Evans, 2001

In ruling against the controversial historian David Irving in his libel suit against the American historian Deborah Lipstadt, last April 2000, the High Court in London labeled him a falsifier of history. No objective historian, declared the judge, would manipulate the documentary record in the way that Irving did. Richard J. Evans, a Cambridge historian and the chief advisor for the defense, uses this pivotal trial as a lens for exploring a range of difficult questions about the nature of the historians enterprise. For instance, don't all historians in the end bring a subjective agenda to bear on their reading of the evidence? Is it possible that Irving lost his case not because of his biased history but because his agenda was unacceptable? The central issue in the trialas for Evans in this book was not the past itself, but the way in which historians study the past. In a series of short, sharp chapters, Richard Evans sets David Irvings methods alongside the historical record in order to illuminate the difference between responsible and irresponsible history. The result is a cogent and deeply informed study in the nature of historical interpretation.

Review from Library Journal

As an expert witness for the defense in last year's Irving-Lipstadt trial, Evans (history, Cambridge Univ.) was charged with determining whether David Irving was, as Deborah Lipstadt asserted, a Holocaust denier. Evans spent two years researching Irving's work, tracing his sources, and then evaluating his publications and public speeches. Moving easily from analysis of Irving's abuse of primary documents to a discussion of what constitutes legitimate historical methodology, Evans presents compelling proof that Irving is a Holocaust denier and why he should not be considered a legitimate member of the historical profession. Evans's depiction of the trial and of Irving's behavior in court is followed by an assessment of the implications of the judgment in Lipstadt's favor. Evans's point that some commentators seemed to forget that it was Irving who was attempting to silence Lipstadt, rather than academic historians and "Jewish interest groups" attempting to stifle free speech, is well worth remembering. Evans eloquently argues that what was really on trial was history itself. Fortunately, history won. Ironically, Evans's carefully documented book has not yet been published in the U.K., as Irving's threats to bring a libel suit have already caused one company to drop publication. Highly recommended.

Review from Booklist

When Deborah Lipstadt's Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory (1993), a groundbreaking book about the disturbing movement to refute the reality of the Holocaust, was published, one of the writers identified as a Holocaust denier, the Englishman David Irving, sued Lipstadt and her publisher, Penguin, for libel. Although Irving never earned a degree, he has written nearly 30 books about Hitler and other related subjects. His contention, therefore, was that Lipstadt had denigrated his work as a historian by accusing him of distorting the historical record to support his extreme anti-Semitic politics. The defense had to prove that Irving, in fact, had deliberately misrepresented the contents of relevant documents to conform to his sympathetic view of Hitler and his belief that nothing on the order of genocide occurred under Nazi rule. Evans, a Cambridge-based historian who specializes in modern German history, was retained by the defense as an expert witness, and he chronicles his arduous research effort with impressive lucidity. At question was the very bedrock of history: Is there such a thing as historical objectivity? Or, as Evans writes, "How do we know when a historian is telling the truth? . . . Wasn't it all a matter of interpretation?" Sensitive to these conundrums and the high emotional valence attached to the Holocaust, Evans was scrupulous in his examination of thousands of pages of documents, assiduously evaluating Irving's interpretation of such primary sources as Goebbels' diaries, always on the lookout for evidence of inaccuracies and bias. He found plenty, and he describes his discoveries with quiet and contagious excitement. By sharing his vast insider's knowledge and recounting his surreal experiences on the stand as Irving, who represented himself, conducted his chaotic cross-examinations, Evans enables readers to fully appreciate the significance of both Lipstadt's victory and Irving's exposure as exactly what he claimed not to be. There is such a thing as truth, and history, responsibly practiced, will reveal it.

Related torrents on ConCen:

Denying History –
Who says the Holocaust never happened and why do they say it?
http://concen.org/tracker/torrents-details.php?id=25819

Denying The Holocaust –
The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory
http://concen.org/tracker/torrents-details.php?id=26364

Related links – confronting Holocaust denial:

Holocaust Educational Resource
http://www.nizkor.org/qar-complete.cgi
http://www.nizkor.org/

The Holocaust History Project Homepage
http://www.holocaust-history.org/questions/
http://www.holocaust-history.org/denial/revisionism-qa.shtml
http://www.holocaust-history.org/

Holocaust Denial on Trial: Using History to Confront Distortions
http://holocaust-denial-on-trial.com/en/learning/myth-fact
http://holocaust-denial-on-trial.com/
http://www.hdot.org/

Holocaust Controversies – What Part Of The Word Genocide Do You Not Understand?
http://holocaustcontroversies.blogspot.de

Rational Wiki: Holocaust denial
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Holocaust_denial
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Red_herrings_in_Holocaust_denial

Answers to the 66 Questions of Holocaust Deniers
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/denial1.html

Holocaust Denial & The Big Lie
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/biglie.html

How to Understand And Confront Holocaust Denial
http://www.unitedagainstracism.org/pages/thema02.htm

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/denial/

Responses to common Holocaust-denial claims
http://www.adl.org/holocaust/response.asp