San Jose Mercury News on History on Trial
'History on Trial,'Deborah Lipstadt's compelling account of her court battle with David Irving, is a timely book, appearing as it does amid news not only of commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, but also of resurgent anti-Semitism in Europe and elsewhere," writes the San Jose Mercury News in its review yesterday:
San Jose Mercury News (California)
February 6, 2005 Sunday MO1 EDITION
SECTION: BO; Pg. 6
LENGTH: 1355 words
HEADLINE: Judging the Past
BYLINE: By Charles Matthews; Mercury News
BODY:
''History on Trial,'' Deborah Lipstadt's compelling account of her court battle with David Irving, is a timely book, appearing as it does amid news not only of commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, but also of resurgent anti-Semitism in Europe and elsewhere. But the issues it raises -- of how we learn about the past and what use we make of that knowledge, and of the limits of free speech and critical inquiry -- are timeless.
Lipstadt is a professor at Emory University and director of its Institute for Jewish Studies. In the '80s and early '90s she found herself increasingly troubled by the phenomenon of Holocaust denial. There had always been anti-Semitic cranks who expressed their doubts about the testimony of survivors of the Nazi death camps. But denial groups like the Institute for Historical Review were growing more sophisticated, putting what Lipstadt calls a ''scholarly veneer'' on their publications to attract gullible readers and attention from the mainstream media.
''I did not consider Holocaust denial a 'clear and presentdanger,' but rather a future danger,'' Lipstadt writes. ''Surveys revealed that more people in the United States believed Elvis Presley was alive than believed the Holocaust was a myth.'' But in an effort to keep the deniers in check, she wrote a book, ''Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory,'' which was published in 1993 to laudatory reviews.
In the book there were, by Lipstadt's estimate, ''a couple of hundred words'' about Irving, a British historian who had written numerous books about World War II and the Third Reich. Despite an obvious pro-Hitler bias, Irving's books had been favorably reviewed by such prominent historians as A.J.P. Taylor, Hugh Trevor-Roper, the late Stanford professor Gordon Craig and military historian John Keegan. Even when they took note of Irving's bias, such reviewers praised the thoroughness of his research.
But Irving was more than a historian. He also frequently made speeches before ultra-rightist groups in Europe and the United States. In a speech in Canada in 1991, Irving claimed that ''more women died on the back seat of Edward Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz.'' And in the German city of Halle, he addressed a neo-Nazi rally; his speech was interrupted by shouts of ''Sieg Heil!''
When Lipstadt's book was published by Penguin UK in Great Britain, Irving sued both author and publisher, charging them with libel. Under British libel law, which differs significantly from U.S. laws, the defendant must prove that the statements in question are true. ''In the United States Irving would have to prove I lied,'' Lipstadt explains. ''In the United Kingdom I had to prove I told the truth.'' She was faced with defending her assertions ''that Irving had lied about the Holocaust and had done so out of antisemitic motives.''
San Jose Mercury News (California)
February 6, 2005 Sunday MO1 EDITION
SECTION: BO; Pg. 6
LENGTH: 1355 words
HEADLINE: Judging the Past
BYLINE: By Charles Matthews; Mercury News
BODY:
''History on Trial,'' Deborah Lipstadt's compelling account of her court battle with David Irving, is a timely book, appearing as it does amid news not only of commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, but also of resurgent anti-Semitism in Europe and elsewhere. But the issues it raises -- of how we learn about the past and what use we make of that knowledge, and of the limits of free speech and critical inquiry -- are timeless.
Lipstadt is a professor at Emory University and director of its Institute for Jewish Studies. In the '80s and early '90s she found herself increasingly troubled by the phenomenon of Holocaust denial. There had always been anti-Semitic cranks who expressed their doubts about the testimony of survivors of the Nazi death camps. But denial groups like the Institute for Historical Review were growing more sophisticated, putting what Lipstadt calls a ''scholarly veneer'' on their publications to attract gullible readers and attention from the mainstream media.
''I did not consider Holocaust denial a 'clear and presentdanger,' but rather a future danger,'' Lipstadt writes. ''Surveys revealed that more people in the United States believed Elvis Presley was alive than believed the Holocaust was a myth.'' But in an effort to keep the deniers in check, she wrote a book, ''Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory,'' which was published in 1993 to laudatory reviews.
In the book there were, by Lipstadt's estimate, ''a couple of hundred words'' about Irving, a British historian who had written numerous books about World War II and the Third Reich. Despite an obvious pro-Hitler bias, Irving's books had been favorably reviewed by such prominent historians as A.J.P. Taylor, Hugh Trevor-Roper, the late Stanford professor Gordon Craig and military historian John Keegan. Even when they took note of Irving's bias, such reviewers praised the thoroughness of his research.
But Irving was more than a historian. He also frequently made speeches before ultra-rightist groups in Europe and the United States. In a speech in Canada in 1991, Irving claimed that ''more women died on the back seat of Edward Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz.'' And in the German city of Halle, he addressed a neo-Nazi rally; his speech was interrupted by shouts of ''Sieg Heil!''
When Lipstadt's book was published by Penguin UK in Great Britain, Irving sued both author and publisher, charging them with libel. Under British libel law, which differs significantly from U.S. laws, the defendant must prove that the statements in question are true. ''In the United States Irving would have to prove I lied,'' Lipstadt explains. ''In the United Kingdom I had to prove I told the truth.'' She was faced with defending her assertions ''that Irving had lied about the Holocaust and had done so out of antisemitic motives.''
