viewing footage of actual proceedings,
the technique creates a minimal but
somewhat distracting sense of distance
from the trial.
Nevertheless, Holocaust on Trial suc-
'nor more than three months earlier
JIIE this year, Emory University
Professor
Deborah
Lipstadt bat-
tled with the
forces of
Holocaust
denial in the
form of a libel
suit brought
against her
Deborah Lipstadt
by British
leaving court a er
historian
David Irving. being vindicated.
Holocaust
on Trial, air-
ing Tuesday, Oct. 31, on PBS, drama-
tizes key exchanges from the trial and
interweaves interviews with historians
and archival footage showing the
relentless progress of the Nazis' war
against the Jews.
What follows is a reprint of a con-
versation Lipstadt had with the pro-
ducers of NOVA.
NOVA: Why was David Irving suing
you, and why in British court?
DL: In my book, Denying The
Holocaust, I made some reference to
him. The book is about 300 pages
long, and I would say maybe five
pages deal with Irving, if that many.
But I refer to him as the most dan-
gerous Holocaust denier around and a
Hitler partisan, someone who, moti-
vated by a right-wing ideology, knows
what the facts are and then twists
them to conform to his ideology. In
short, he is a liar.
He could sue me in British courts
because the book was published in
Britain.
NOVA: 'What do you think he was
trying to get out of this suit?
DL: First of all, I think he thought I
wouldn't fight it. That would have
been a victory for him because he then
would have won. I think he was trying
to get publicity and vindication. He
wanted me to apologize to him.
tvIN
10/27
2000
96
NOVA: What do you make of
Irving's reputation for being a metic-
ulous researcher in Nazi archives?
DL: Until this trial no one had fol-
lowed his footnotes, so no one
really knew.
ceeds admirably. From the opening
frames, it tells a riveting story about
the frightening passion of a man
whose "scholarship" derives from his
cloaked bigotry. As we watch the actor
playing Irving make his case from the
stand, he comes across as a distin-
guished professor: confident, digni-
fied; well spoken; proud; sometimes
witty, sometimes snide.
However, as we begin to learn more
about his undisputed right-wing con-
nections, Irving's agenda is revealed to
us in a videotaped speech included in
the documentary. We have access to
the real Irving as he recounts a
response he once made to a Jewish
man who challenged him.
Irving sardonically quips, "You are
disliked, your people. You have been
disliked for 3,000 years. You have been
disliked so much that you have been
hounded from country to country
from pogrom to purge, from purge
back to pogrom, and yet you never ask
yourselves why you are disliked .... It
never occurs to you to look in a mirror
and say, 'Why am I disliked? What is it
the rest of humanity doesn't like about
libel?
What
constitutes
historical
proof?
the Jewish people?'"
AUDREY BECKER
Whose
interpretation
of
history
should
Irving concludes his anecdote by
Special to the Jewish News
be legitimized? How can we distinguish
describing the reaction of the Jewish
between scholarship and propaganda?
man who had posed the challenge. "He
hen Deborah Lipstadt
The legal proceedings were unusual
went berserk. He said, 'Are you trying
published her book
on several levels:
to say that we are responsible for
Denying the Holocaust:
Because
the
action
was
brought
Auschwitz
ourselves?'"
The Growing Assault on
against
a
British
publisher,
the
trial
was
Irving
pauses
with a rhetorical
in
1994,
her
Truth and Memory
held in London under British libel law
flourish. "I said, Well, the short
remarks about English historian David
— that in contrast to U.S. libel law pre-
answer is yes."
Irving prompted what would
sumes the defendant guilty
As followers of the trial already know,
become one of the most
"Holocaus t on Trial" until proven innocent. To be Lipstadt was ultimately and unambigu-
controversial trials of recent
intersperse s archival acquitted, Lipstadt and
ously vindicated by Justice Charles Gray.
years.
footage
wi th the trial Penguin Books Ltd. had to
He firmly concluded the accuracy of her
After the publication of
re-enac
tment.
prove
the
validity
of
her
claims and publicly discredited the once-
Lipstadt's book, Irving, who
claims that Irving had
respected Irving.
had been known by many as
manipulated, distorted and mistranslat-
The fact of Gray's verdict is crucial in
a reputable scholar of Hitler, the Third
ed the historical record.
itself. The process of adjudicating truth
Reich and the Nazi archives, launched a
Next, Lipstadt, who occupies the
is unquestionably fraught with danger, a
solo libel action against Lipstadt and her
Dorot
Chair in Modern Jewish and
fundamental danger that makes
publisher, Penguin Books Ltd.
Holocaust Studies at Emory University
Holocaust on Trial a significant television
On Tuesday, Oct. 31, PBS will air
in Atlanta, refused to debate with Irving
document. ❑
NOVA's Holocaust on Trial, a new docu-
on the grounds that doing so would
mentary about this politically charged
mean, to some degree, legitimizing his
case. Directed by Leslie Woodhead, the
NOVA's Holocaust on Trial airs 9
work. In the documentary, we only get a
hour-long program offers a fascinating
p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, on PBS
brief
glimpse
of
Lipstadt,
but
she
doesn't
look at this unusual legal proceeding.
(WTVS-Channel 56 in Detroit).
speak
in
her
own
defense.
In
one
sense,
In the abstract, it is not just the
Deborah Lipstadt will speak 7:30
it's
like
a
courtroom
drama
with
no
pro-
Holocaust that is on trial but the very
p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 5, at Temple
tagonist.
understanding of what constitutes histo-
Israel in a talk co-sponsored by the
Finally, because there were no cameras
ry and the historical record.
Jewish
Community Center and
in the courtroom, Holocaust on Trial
While the documentary explicitly tells
Anti-Defamation
League. For more
makes use of staged reenactments. While
the story of the lawsuit, it also raises
information,
call
(248) 661-5725.
the reenactments are tasteful, to
numerous implicit questions: What is
American
audiences
accustomed
to
the relationship between free speech and
NOVA re-enacts the courtroom drama
that tested the evidence for the most
heinous crime in Jewish history.