It may be of interest to note that Irving sued Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin
books for libel a few years ago, when she cited David Irving's work as an
example of Holocaust denial, and questioned his historiographical methods.
David Irving's case was based on the plank that his statements were utterly
factual, and his historiographical methods were impeccable. Based on that
argument, and the fact that the trial was in an English court, where the
burden of proof in libel cases is on the defendant (yes, one is guilty until
proven innocent), Lipstadt's task was to prove that there was adequate
evidence for the Holocaust and that Irving was denying the facts.
She successfully did this- Irving must have regretted bringing her to court.
The defense started with tracking down the sources that David Irving was
claiming to have quoted (he had appended pages of citations in his books)
and went on to prove that he had misrepresented them, misquoted them,
ignored relevant material, and in some cases, made up stuff. If anyone's
interested in the details, the court transcripts are available online at
http://www.hdot.org/ieindex.html.
The substance of the results were as follows: Irving had repeatedly claimed,
in his books and his speeches, that there was a "chain of documents" which
showed that Hitler was innocent of the persecution of the Jews, and in
particular their mass-murder during the War; that he was, in fact, "the best
friend the Jews ever had in the Third Reich. The defense enlisted Professor
Richard Evans of Cambridge University, to investigate the evidence behind
Irving's claims. His findings were interesting. On examination, almost every
one of Irving's sources was revealed to be flawed. Irving had lied, and he
was caught lying. He had been engaging in falsification of history on a very
ambitious scale. Perhaps by curious coincidence, each of Irving's
falsifications led to the same result: the exoneration of Hitler.
Interesting, in light of Irving's continual denial of any political agenda
on his part.
As a side note, the trial occured in 2000, at which time, David Irving was
still defending his denail of the Holocaust - so he could certainly be held
accountable under a law passed in 1992. There's very little to justify the
assertion that he 'changed his views based on new evidence' - other than his
own statement to that effect, which actually goes against his very public
behaviour to the contrary. Irving seems to be lying - again.
cheers,
Divya
------------------------
lk] Yahoo! News Story - Holocaust Denier Gets Three Years inJail - Yahoo!
News
So this guy was convicted based on comments he made in 1989, under a law
that wasn't enacted until 1992, by which time his view had changed based on
'new evidence'.
He may be a moron (and does look like a nazi), but that's not a crime...
so - is he a criminal or victim of politics in a world where people like
Kurt Waldheim could become UN SecGen and President of Austria?
Indrajit Gupta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Frank,
Thanks to the vagaries of the virtual world, another news item I sent to the
list didn't get there. It reported that all seven accused in a case where a
young woman was shot to death in front of dozens of people have been
acquitted after a long-drawn out trial. All seven were political or
industrial barons' brats.
At least Austria jailed this particular bastard. We can't even get
murderers.
IG
Frank Pohlmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
So Irving is lucky again. If he had been Austrian or
German, he would have ended up in prison for a lot
longer.
Also, he will not be in prison for long, if at all.
-Frank
--- bonobashi wrote:
bonobashi ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent you a
news article.
(Email address has not been verified.)
------------------------------------------------------------
Personal message:
But then again...
Holocaust Denier Gets Three Years in Jail - Yahoo!
News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060220/ap_on_re_eu/austria_holocaust_denial
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