This Week

The Denier Denied

Judge rules for Atlanta historian who exposed David Irving.

DOUGLAS DAVIS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Scholars applauded the verdict.
Omer Bartov, a history pro-
London
fessor
at Rutgers University in
he day before she
New
Jersey,
said it was signifi-
emerged victorious
cant
because
of Irving's former
from a libel lawsuit
status
as
a
serious
historian who
against a Holocaust
had
been
highly
regarded
for his
denier, Passover preparations
treasure
trove
of
documents
on
occupied Deborah Lipstadt's
Hitler
and
other
Nazi
officials.
mind.
Bartov added that it was
She had just arrived back in
important
to expose people like
London from her home in
Irving,
"who
has been published
Atlanta, where she had spent 10
by respectable publishers and
days cleaning for Passover and
been cited by scholars like me.
preparing for the annual influx
But in recent years, he'd become
of family for her second seder.
more extreme, and associated
"Here we are on the eve of
himself with neo-Nazi circles."
Pesach, and what is Pesach all
Michael Berenbaum,
about: To teach your children,"
Distinguished
Professor of
she said Monday.
Holocaust
Studies
at Clark
That, in essence, is how the
University in Massachusetts,
Holocaust scholar perceives the
also said it is important for the
significance of the legal ordeal
court to help set professional
she has endured.
standards for historians.
US. author Deborah Lipstadt celebrates outside London's High court on April 11, after she won
Borrowing from the
"Instead of going down into the
the case brought against her and her publisher, Penguin Books, by British historian David Irving
Haggada, which will be used in
gutter with Irving, we elevated
over
his
allegations
on
the
Holocaust.
millions of Jewish homes next
the question into what is the
week to retell the story of the
obligation of a historian to
demolish
Holocaust
revisionism,
ing
the
hearings
to
thank
her
for
her
Exodus from Egypt, Lipstadt declared
interpret
evidence and translate mate-
Lipstadt
said
she
was
not
looking
for
a
stand
against
Irving.
that "if, in the future, I can use this
rial. And Irving was found wanting,"
fight.
Her contempt for Irving was
experience to teach and to write more
said Berenbaum, a former director of
"But once it came within the para-
boundless: "He is a liar and he is a
history, then, in the spirit of the
research at the U.S. Holocaust
meters of my life, there was only one
bully," she said almost matter of factly.
approaching holiday, dayeinu — it
Memorial Museum in Washington.
way I knew how to respond — and
In his ruling Judge Charles Gray
will be enough for me."
"In .a way, Holocaust denial has
that
was
to
fight
back,"
she
said.
agreed. Irving, he said, is an active
On Tuesday, a British judge ruled
been
defeated over and over and over
She
did
not
seek
a
court
battle
that
Holocaust
denier...antisemitic
and
that David Irving, who claims the
again,"
he said.
would
overwhelm
her
professional
and
racist
...
a
right-wing
pro-Nazi
polemi-
Nazis did not use gas chambers to
"Still,
Holocaust denial continues
personal
life:
"I
never
would
have
cist."
exterminate Jews and that Hitler had
to be a major interest to a wide range
gone into court with these people — I
"It appears to me to be incontro-
no plan for genocide, failed to prove
of antisemitic groups, particularly on
don't think it's productive," she said.
vertible that Irving qualifies as a
his reputation had been damaged by
the Internet, and I don't see this ver-
"But once they came after me, I had
Holocaust denier. Not only has he
Lipstadt and her publisher in a book
dict having any impact on them," said
no option but to fight with all my
denied the existence of gas chambers
that branded him a Holocaust denier.
Donald Cohen, director, Anti-
strength
and
with
all
my
might."
Her
at Auschwitz and asserted that no Jew
"I see this not only as a personal
Defamation League Michigan region.
only
regret
was
that
Holocaust
sur-
was
gassed
there,
he
has
done
so
on
victory, but also as a victory for all
"Antisemites rally around denial
vivors
who
had
attended
the
trial
were
frequent
occasions
and
sometimes
in
those who speak out against hate and
because
it helps them advance their
compelled
to
endure
Irving's
court-
the
most
offensive
terms."
prejudice," Lipstadt said after the ver-
theories of Jewish conspiracies and
room taunts.
Irving, the judge concluded, "has
dict was read.
strongly offends Jews, particularly sur-
She came close to tears when she
for his own ideological reasons persis-
While she had set out in her book,
vivors.
They'll feel Jewish power pre-
recalled being "enveloped by sur-
tently and deliberately misrepresented
Denying the Holocaust: The Growing
vented
a fair hearing. What it might
vivors" who had approached her dur-
and manipulated historical evidence."
Assault on Truth and Memory," to
do is help respectable individuals and

T

4/14

2000

38

Sigh Of relief

