Fighting Those
Who Deny The Horror
Deborah Lipstadt has captured national attention in her attempt to expose Holocaust deniers.
NEIL RUBIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
eborah Lipstadt is
known for pushing the
joys over the "oys" in Ju-
daism. But her recent
rise to national acclaim
has brought her a
strange mixture of both.
Her recently pub-
lished book, Denying the
Holocaust: The Growing
Assault on Truth And
emory, is being praised
from coast to coast. The 278-
page text, the result of a
decade of research, explores
the frightening rise of Holo-
caust deniers in this country
and elsewhere.
The book has already at-
tained what Dr. Lipstadt, pro-
fessor of modern Jewish and
Holocaust studies at Atlanta's
Emory University, called a
rare "grand slam" in publish-
ing: Both the New York Times
and Washington Post reviewed
Denying the Holocaust on the
front page of their book sec-
tions.
The former called the work
"important and impassioned"
and said that it "could not
have come at a better time."
The Los Angeles Times soon
followed with similar praise.
She has been featured on
National Public Radio's "Fresh
Air," and other shows. Last
fall, she appeared on the
"Charlie Rose Show."
Lost in some of the atten-
Neil Rubin is managing editor
of the Atlanta Jewish Times
lion, however, are the
four major network
appearances that she
has turned down be-
cause she refuses to
appear with the peo-
ple whom she writes
about.
"I tell them that I
can't debate with peo-
ple who lie, people
who have no fidelity
with the truth," Dr.
Lipstadt says with
characteristic blunt-
ness.
Dr. Lipstadt's book
comes at a turning
point in American
understanding of the
Holocaust. The open-
ing of the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial
Museum in Washing-
ton has heightened
awareness about the
Nazi genocide. At the same
time, a recent Roper Poll
found that 20 percent of
high school students in this
country and 22 percent of
the adults said that it was
"possible" that the Holo-
caust never happened.
"People are just amazed
that 50 years after the
Holocaust that anyone
would take this nonsense
seriously," says the 46-year-
old scholar.
Not that she believes all of
the Roper Poll's respondents
to be classic Holocaust deniers.
"We are fawn
very crafty, very slick
group of people.
— Deborah Lipstadt
"There will always be Ameri-
cans who believe that JFK is
alive and well and living in
Alaska and that we didn't land
on the moon," she
says. "All these peo-
ple who answered
are not necessarily
anti-Semites."
Also, she believes
that on a subliminal
level, members of
the media might be
reprimanding
themselves for not
having paid atten-
tion to the Holo-
caust deniers in
recent decades.
Writing Denying
the Holocaust was
not pleasant for Dr.
Lipstadt who, con-
trary to what many
believe, is not a
child of Holocaust
survivors.
"I feel on some
level as if I've spent
the past three to
four years in a mine
with the most noxious
fumes," she says. "It was
a mine filled with no re-
deeming social value.
This was the worst type
of pornography."
Dr. Lipstadt says that
the threat Holocaust de-
niers pose goes beyond
Jews. "This is not just an
assault on Jewish history,
because if this history is not safe,
no history is safe."
She adds after a pause, "I
don't think anybody has tried
FIGHTING page 92