SPECIAL COMMENTARY
Was Wrong
To Laugh 20 Years Ago'
Hitler's biography because "if some-
Atlanta
thing didn't happen, then you don't
n 1995, when I opened a letter
informing me that David Irving even dignify it with a footnote."
That same year, he declared it his
was suing me for libel for call-
goal
to "sink the Battleship Auschwitz."
ing him a Holocaust denier, I
Given this record, how could
had precisely the same reac-
he claim that I libeled him
tion that I had 20 years earli-
by calling him a denier? This
er when I first heard that
was, I presumed, a nuisance
there were people who
lawsuit, full of sound and
denied the Holocaust. I
fury but signifying nothing.
laughed.
A couple of lawyers' letters, I
Why, I wondered, take
naively assumed, and all
this seriously? Holocaust
would
be resolved. But Irv-
deniers reminded me of flat-
ing
was
doing this in Eng-
earth theorists. The idea was
land where the laws favor
preposterous. Irving's charges
DEBO RAH E.
the plaintiff. I had to prove
seemed equally preposterous.
LIPST ADT
the truth of what I said. He
He had repeatedly denied
Specs al to
did not have to prove the
the Holocaust. At the trial of
the Jewis h News falsehood. •
Ernst Zundel, the Canadian
His talks are replete with
Holocaust denier, he said
references
to how he is being
there was no "Reich policy
persecuted
by
the
Jewish
community.
to kill the Jews" and "no documents
In 1992, he told an audience that "our
whatsoever show that a Holocaust had
old traditional enemies" are "the great
ever happened."
international merchant banks [which]
In Germany, Irving declared the
are controlled by people who are no
Holocaust a "blood lie [which] has
been pronounced on the German peo- friends of yours and mine."
In Baton Rogue, La., he told a
ple." In 1991, he dropped mention of
the Holocaust from his new edition of critic in the audience whom he
assumed was a Jew: "You people aren't
liked either. You are not just disliked in
Deborah E. Lipstadt is Dorot Profes-
the way that I am disliked in that you
sor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust
get bad reviews from the newspapers.
Studies at Emory University On April
You're disliked in the way that people
11, a British court ruled against David
put you in concentration camps and
Irving, who had sued Lipstadt and Pen-
line you up on the edge of tank pits
guin Books, the publisher of her book,
and machine gun you into them."
"Denying the Holocaust: The Growing
He talks not only about what has
Assault on Truth and Memory."
been done to Jews, but also what will
be done to them.
In 1984, he blamed the cancella-
tion of his book contract on Jewish
organizations and cautioned that "they
will live long to regret it."
In 1998, he compared American
Jews' professional success to Jews in
Weimar Germany and warned that
such success might give "rise to the . .
. same dire consequences as happened
in Nazi Germany."
Regarding a Holocaust memorial in
Baltimore, he asked, "Why do we
need a memorial . . . we haven't done
anything to the Jews yet."
I never anticipated the havoc this
fight would wreak with my professional
and personal life. At the post-verdict
news conference, I was asked: "Given
all that has happened, would you write
the same things about Irving?"
The answer was "No." Were I writ-
ing my book now, I would write even
more harshly about him. This legal
action, which he instigated, allowed
my lawyers to demand the release of
reams of his personal papers docu-
menting his activities. We know far
more about him than we ever did
before. We hoisted him on his own
petard.
I fought him because I could not
run from evil, even when the evil is
rooted in nonsense, for nonsense can
cause significant damage. The Protocols
of the Elders of Zion are proven forg-
eries that are based on a ludicrous
premise. Nonetheless, they continue
they serve. If
non-Jewish agencies and do
kosher food is
so with ease. She mentioned
required, we
our agency, the Food Bank
find kosher
of Oakland County, one of
food. In the
Yad Ezra's co-founders.
last several
We distribute thousands
months, we
of pounds of food each year
sent out let-
to Yad Ezra, the Jewish Asso-
ters to foun-
ciation for Residential Care,
dations
the Jewish Community
Food
Bank
of
Oakland
County
requesting
Adult Day Care Program,
cash assis-
IvIishkan Israel and Fleis-
tance so we can purchase kosher
chman Residence, either at no cost or
foods, bulk style, therefore saving
at 12 cents per pound, the shared
money in the long run and providing
maintenance fee. Why then, out of
this food to our Jewish agencies at no
155 agencies, with only five being
cost. A special thank you to the fol-
Jewish, would we work so hard on
lowing foundations that donated
their behalf?
thousands of dollars toward this
Because we care about the eating
cause: Maxine and Stewart Frankel
requirements of all of our agencies
Foundation, Nate S. and Ruth B.
and the men, women and children
Shapiro Foundation and Samuel and
Jean Frankel Foundation. Further-
more, we receive support from
Loewenstein Poultry, the Unique
Restaurant Corporation (Matt Pren-
tice), Temple Kol Ami, Steiner Mar-
ket,•Einstein Bagels, Ben B. Schwartz
and Sons, Howard Zoller, Irwin
Alterman, Buddy's Pizza and many
more.
As Lea indicated, the Jewish News has
been so supportive through the years to
the Food Bank of Oakland County This
collaborative exchange goes two ways.
The Jewish community bends over back-
wards to assist us, and we go the extra
mile to assist our Jewish friends. We see
no differences in the cries of the hungry
children, only the differences in what
types of food can be swallowed.
On behalf of the board and all the
to circulate. The Holocaust teaches
that evildoers must be stopped early,
before they can inflict much damage.
Hitler was far less of a foe in the early
1930s than in the 1940s.
So too, deniers must be stopped
now.
Though I would never have placed
myself in the arena with him, once
dragged in I had no option but to
fight. I have consistently refused to
debate deniers. I have declined appear-
ances on talk shows and news pro-
grams because they entailed appearing
with a denier, giving the notion that
there are two sides to this issue.
I have not yet fully unpacked what
it meant to be a defendant in a libel
suit that brought together the Holo-
caust, free speech and historiography. I
shall never forget as I entered the
court on the first day being told by
survivors: "We are counting on you."
Nor shall I forget being enveloped
after the trial by a man outside the
courtroom who said: "My parents
died in Auschwitz. In their name:
thank you."
An experienced litigant, Irving may
have assumed I would "settle," i.e.,
pay some symbolic figure, apologize to
him and agree to the withdrawal of
my book from publication.
Two years prior to my book's publi-
cation, Irving described what happens
to defendants in libel actions:
"There comes a very expensive stage
for both parties known as discovery ...
WRONG To LAUGH on page 42
agencies we serve, a special thank you
to the Jewish community for their
continued trust and support.
Helen Kozlowski
executive director,
Food Bank of Oakland County
Pontiac
Sheba Concert
Enlightening
I attended a very interesting concert
on April 9, Shlomo Gronich and the
Sheba Choir of Israel, at Congregation
Shaarey Zedek ("Getting Ready," April
14). Thirteen boys and girls were in a
program under Michal Adler, who was
the master of ceremonies.
The songs, in Hebrew and Ethiopi-
SHEBA CONCERT on page 43
4/24
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4'