Irving v. Lipstadt

    Leucther's report recorded very small traces of
 1required to kill humans was approximately 22 times lower
 2than that required to kill lice, 300 parts per million as
 3against 6,666 parts per million for lice. This was
 4internal evidence obvious to any interested reader, which
 5Mr Irving certainly was, that the Leuchter report was
 6rubbish.
 7     So why did Mr Irving ignore this and all other
 8stupidities in the Leuchter report? Why did he embrace it
 9with such wholehearted enthusiasm? The answer must be
10that he wanted it to be true. After all, if the Holocaust
11never happened, then Hitler cannot have ordered it or
12known about it. Thus, as Mr Irving himself said of the
13second edition of Hitler's War, "You won't find the
14Holocaust mentioned in one line, not even in a footnote.
15Why should you? If something didn't happen, then you
16don't even dignify it with a footnote."
17     So, finally, my Lord, why has Mr Irving resorted
18to these lies, distortions and misrepresentations and
19deceptions in pursuit of his exoneration of Adolf Hitler
20and his denial of the Holocaust? One can often derive a
21fair picture of a man's true attitudes and motives from
22what he says and from the kind of people he associates
23with and speaks to. Mr Irving has done a lot of public
24speaking over the years. The evidence for the Defendants
25in this case will show that his audiences will often
26consist of radical right-wing neo-facist, neo-Nazi groups

.           P-98

---

 1of people, groups like the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi,
 2white supremacist organisation in the USA, the DVU,
 3perhaps the most radical right-wing party in Germany,
 4gatherings of so-called revisionists, in truth largely
 5Holocaust deniers, the extreme right-wing British National
 6Party and so on.
 7     What sorts of things has Mr Irving said on these
 8occasions which might be thought to betray his underlying
 9motives and attitudes? It is not possible in a relatively
10short statement of this kind to catalogue all the most
11telling instances of this kind, but it is perhaps possible
12to give the flavour of some of Mr Irving's thinking by
13reference to two short examples from the same speech.
14     In September 1991 Mr Irving spoke to an audience
15in Calgary, Alberto. He complained about pressure from
16Jewish people and Jewish bodies designed to prevent him
17from speaking. He said:
18     "And it's happening now. They're zeroing in on
19the university, 'Nazism not welcome here, self-professed
20moderate facist'". Mr Irving went on: "I strongly object
21to that word "moderate". That remarked provoked some
22laughter and it may be that it was not meant to be
23entirely serious.
24     On the same occasion, however, he said something
25which, though somewhat facetiously worded, conveys a
26message about his true views and attitudes which can only

.           P-99

---

 1be taken seriously. It was this:
 2     "I don't see any reason to be tasteful about
 3Auschwitz. It's baloney. It's a legend. Once we admit
 4the fact that it was a brutal slave labour camp and large
 5numbers of people did die, as large numbers of innocent
 6people died elsewhere in the war, why believe the rest of
 7the baloney? I say quite tastelessly in fact that more
 8women died on the back seat of Edward Kennedy's car at
 9Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber in
10Auschwitz. Oh, you think that's tasteless. How about
11this. There are so many Auschwitz survivors going around,
12in fact the number increases as the years go past which is
13biologically very odd to say the least, because I am going
14to form an Association of Auschwitz survivors, survivors
15of the Holocaust and other liars for the A-S-S-H-O-L-S",
16pronounced no doubt "asshols".
17     This last inspiration was also greeted by
18laughter, but it was laughter of an altogether different
19kind. It was the laughter of mockery, mockery of the
20suffering of others, people whom on this and other
21occasions Mr Irving has accused of lying about their
22Holocaust experiences, of forging Auschwitz tattoos on
23their arms, of deserving both contempt and the attention
24of psychiatrists.
25     My Lord, this is obviously an important case,
26but that is not however because it is primarily concerned

.           P-100

---

 1with whether or not the Holocaust took place or the degree
 2of Hitler's responsibility for it. On the contrary, the
 3essence of the case is Mr Irving's honesty and integrity
 4of as a chronicler -- I shy away from the word
 5"historian" -- of these matters, for if it be right that
 6Mr Irving, driven by his extremist views and sympathies,
 7has devoted his energies to the deliberate falsification
 8of this tragic episode in history, then by exposing that
 9dangerous fraud in this court the Defendants may properly
10be applauded for having performed a significant public
11service not just in this country, but in all those places
12in the world where anti-Semitism is waiting to be fed.
13 MR JUSTICE GRAY:      Mr Irving, I would have suggested -- that is
14the opening statements out of the way, as it were --
15I would have suggested we might viewed those two videos
16but we do not have the equipment.
17 MR IRVING:      We do not have the equipment unfortunately.
18I think we will have the equipment first thing tomorrow.
19 MR JUSTICE GRAY:      Whenever. The fact is we cannot do it now.
20 MR RAMPTON:      No, we cannot, my Lord.
21 MR JUSTICE GRAY:      I am just wondering where we go immediately.
22 MR RAMPTON:      Perhaps the answer might be home.
23 MR JUSTICE GRAY:      If needs be, yes. It seems to me rather
24difficult to start on the evidence without knowing whether
25we are taking Auschwitz separately and first, or whether
26it is going to be the other way round. You have not

.           P-101

---

 1obviously resolved that.
 2 MR RAMPTON:      Can we usefully, and I mean usefully, use a little
 3bit of time now, perhaps your Lordship would adjourn until
 4tomorrow. We can then try to work out something a little
 5less jelly like than we offered your Lordship this morning
 6so far as scheduling is concerned.
 7 MR JUSTICE GRAY:      Certainly.
 8 MR RAMPTON:      And give a report tomorrow morning?
 9 MR JUSTICE GRAY:      Yes. I have a fairly short statement from
10you, Mr Irving.
11 MR IRVING:      As required under the new rules.
12 MR JUSTICE GRAY:      Yes. We will have to discuss how far one
13needs to deal with all the issues in oral evidence.
14I hope not by any means all of them. I think I am right
15in saying that really I perhaps know rather less of your
16specific answers to some of the specific criticisms than
17I would like and at some stage I would like to be provided
18with the answers.
19 MR IRVING:      I appreciate that, my Lord, and I know
20that -- I intend not to offer very much answer to the name
21calling.
22 MR JUSTICE GRAY:      No, I agree with you about that. What is at
23the heart of the case is the manipulation allegation and
24that involves looking, to a degree anyway, at what the
25historical documents actually say and mean.
26 MR IRVING:      I am grateful, my Lord. Our documentation on both

.           P-102

---

 1sides is very extensive.
 2 MR JUSTICE GRAY:      Yes. If there is nothing else we need to do
 3now, then perhaps it would be sensible to adjourn. If you
 4could let me know through the usual channels what you have
 5decided, that would help me, if you reach agreement.
 6 MR RAMPTON:      I know it would. At the moment I do not see a
 7problem with the existing plan which is to bring Professor
 8van Pelt over for the beginning of the last week in
 9January.
10 MR IRVING:      There is a problem, my Lord, and that is we have
11also arranged for our gentleman to come from California.
12We will have to iron that one out.
13 MR JUSTICE GRAY:      This cannot be done in open court. So I will
14leave it to you and we will resume at 10.30.
15 MR IRVING:      Thank you very much, my Lord.
16 (The court adjourned until the following day)
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26

.           P-103

---