UK: NEWSMAKER-Hitler historian Irving branded by judge.

By Kate Kelland

04/11/2000 Reuters English News Service

(C) Reuters Limited 2000.

LONDON, April 11 (Reuters) - David Irving does not see it as his
job to be liked. The British historian's claims that Adolf Hitler
did not mastermind any extermination of Jews and that the
Auschwitz Nazi death camp is a fake built by Polish communists in
1948 to lure in Holocaust tourists are, he says, the historical
truth.

Those who brand him an anti-semite, a racist and a falsifier of
history are "enemies of the truth" who are trying to weave a vast
conspiracy to ensure that Jews go down in history as the people
more sinned against than any other. "They (the Jews) want their
atrocity to be unique. They want it to be bigger, and they want it
to be unique," he told Reuters in a recent interview.

But in losing a High Court libel action on Tuesday against an
American professor who claimed he was a "Holocaust denier", Irving
has put his future as a historian in grave doubt.

He had asserted that Professor Deborah Lipstadt's claims,
published by Penguin in her book "Denying the Holocaust: The
Growing Assault on Truth and Memory", had done "very real damage"
to his professional existence.

Judge Charles Gray, delivered a blistering verdict on Irving,
branding him "an active Holocaust denier...anti-semitic and
racist" who associates with rightwing extremists who promote neo-
Nazism.

"He has portrayed Hitler in an unwarrantedly favourable light,
principly in relation to his attitude towards and responsibility
for the treatment of the Jews," Gray said.

Irving, 62, the author of more than 20 controversial books
including Hitler's War and a biography of Goebbels, was born in
Essex, southern England just before the start of World War Two.

His father, a naval officer, once stood for election as a
candidate for Britain's left-of-centre Labour Party, but was
unsuccessful. His mother was a commercial artist.

He went to London University, originally to study physics, then
switched to political science, then, as he puts it, "copped out"
before he managed to complete a degree course in either.

THIRD REICH EXPERT

Despite this, he is viewed even by those who obviously profoundly
dislike him as one of the leading experts on the Third Reich.

But his claim that all the buildings that can now be seen at
Auschwitz - including the giant chimney stack and the iron gate
carrying the slogan "Work Makes Free" - are fakes built after the
end of the World War Two have not gained him any friends.

"In 1948 they built this kind of Disneyland for tourists as a
money spinner. Everything they show the tourists is fake," he told
Reuters.

Irving is banned from going to Germany after a 1992 conviction for
denying the Holocaust and has also been refused entry to Canada,
Italy, Austria and Australia.

He says such actions are proof of a global campaign to discredit
him.

He claims he alone is telling the historical truth when he
questions whether six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust
and claims the gas chambers at the notorious Auschwitz Nazi death
camp in Poland did not exist.

"There were no gas chambers - certainly not on the scale that is
now propogated. And I think the scale is an important point to
make," he told Reuters.

"I've always maintained that what I wrote was the historical truth
and that I alone have been getting it right."

But then Irving has never liked to disguise his opinions,
unpopular or otherwise.

He talks of his friendship with David Duke, once national director
of the U.S. extremist group Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and he
despairs at an "obsession with race" which he says has taken hold
of the world.

Irving maintains that he does not look down on any section of
humanity. Yet he adds: "I can't say I applaud uncontrolled
coloured immigration."

And he defends himself against any personal charge of racism,
claiming his "domestic staff" over the years have included a
Barbadian, a Punjabi, a Sri Lankan and a Pakistani, who, he adds,
were "all very attractive girls with very nice breasts".

As he says: "It is not a historian's job to be liked."

UK: UPDATE 1-Historian Irving loses Holocaust libel case.

By Kate Kelland

04/11/2000 Reuters English News Service

(C) Reuters Limited 2000.

LONDON, April 11 (Reuters) - British Hitler historian David Irving
lost a libel action on Tuesday against a U.S. professor and her
publishers over claims that he was a "Holocaust denier" and
"falsifier of history". Irving claims Adolf Hitler did not
mastermind mass slaughter of Jews and says the Auschwitz Nazi
death camp is little more than a "Disneyland for tourists" built
after the war in 1948.

The historian, who conducted his own case in the eight-week trial
at London's High Court, lost his action against Penguin Books, a
subsidiary of media giant Pearson Plc, and professor Deborah
Lipstadt of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. The judge,
Charles Gray, criticised Irving's handling of the historical
facts.

He told the court that Irving had "significantly misrepresented
what the evidence... reveals".

Gray added: "The charges which I have found substantially true
include the charges that Irving has for his own ideological
reasons persistently and deliberately misrepresented and
manipulated historical evidence."

The case was heard by Gray sitting alone since the details were
considered too complex for a jury.

The verdict was welcomed by Britain's main Jewish group, the Board
of Deputies of British Jews.

"The decision shows that David Irving is a falsifier of history
and a Nazi sympathiser, whose aim has been to sanitise Nazism and
to absolve Hitler of the guilt of the Holocaust," the Board's
president, Eldred Tabachnik, said in a statement.

Irving sued Lipstadt and her publishers, Penguin Books, after
Lipstadt said Irving was a Hitler partisan who "prostituted his
reputation" as a historian to prove Adolf Hitler had no part in
Nazi persecution of the Jews.

NO APPEAL

Irving has already made clear that he will not appeal against the
verdict.

"I would have to represent myself again and I don't think I have
the legal expertise to fight an action in a court of appeal," he
said in a BBC radio interview before the verdict was announced.

Irving said a ruling against him would leave him no worse off than
he was before the court case and he did not regret taking the
action.

"You can't have fewer publishers than you do when they've all been
intimidated and frightened away from you," he said.

Irving said he assumed he had a 70 percent chance of winning the
case, which was "a matter of personal prestige and reputation".

"I'm not really interested in money," he said.

The ruling on the eight-week long trial is of profound
significance both to survivors of what many term "the worst crime
in human history" and to history itself.

The judge heard that Irving claims Hitler knew nothing until 1943
of Nazi plans to exterminate Jews during World War Two.

Irving "distorts, misstates, misquotes and falsifies" the
historical record to deny the Holocaust and back up his right-wing
views, according to Lipstadt's lawyers.

==

Judge rules against historian who challenges scope of Holocaust

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press Writer

04/11/2000 Associated Press Newswires

Copyright 2000. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

LONDON (AP) - Historian David Irving, who has outraged survivors
of Nazi death camps by challenging the scope of the Holocaust,
today lost the libel suit that he launched to save his academic
reputation. Irving sued American scholar and Emory University
professor Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher, Penguin Books, in
Britain's High Court. He said their 1994 book branded him a
"Holocaust denier" and accused him of distorting the truth of what
happened in Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany.

The verdict was greeted in near-silence by a courtroom packed with
Holocaust survivors and others. "The decision proves that David
Irving is a falsifier of history," said Eldred Tabachnik,
president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. "Although the
Holocaust itself was not an issue at the trial, we welcome the
fact that attempts to manipulate the truth about the tragic events
of that time have been shown to be baseless."

Irving, whose books include "Hitler's War," said he does not deny
Jews were killed by the Nazis, but challenges the number and
manner of Jewish concentration camp deaths.

He claimed that after the publication of Lipstadt's book, "Denying
the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory," his
academic work was increasingly shunned by publishers and agents.

But Judge Charles Gray said he failed to prove his reputation had
been damaged. Under British law, Lipstadt and Penguin were not
able to rely solely on truth as a defense.

Shortly before the ruling, Irving said that whatever the outcome
"my reputation is bound to be enhanced because of my ability to
stand up to the experts ... to take them all on single-handed."

He said he will not appeal.

Irving, who represented himself during the nine-week, non-jury
trial, is not new to controversy. His comments - some made while
addressing neo-Nazi groups - have drawn fire from Jewish
organizations around the world, and he has been banned from
Germany, Canada and Australia.

Irving told the court he had been the victim of a 30-year
international campaign to destroy his reputation "as a human
being, as an historian of integrity."

Richard Rampton, the lawyer representing Penguin and Lipstadt, who
holds the Dorot Chair in Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at
Emory University in Atlanta, said during the trial that Irving
perpetuated falsifications "for the sake of a bogus rehabilitation
of Hitler and dissemination of virulent anti-Semitic propaganda."

Irving conceded he had made some "mistakes of copying, mistakes of
omission," but said he corrected those errors. He claimed that
rather than deny the Holocaust, he drew attention to major aspects
of the tragedy.

Irving questioned the use of large-scale gas chambers to
exterminate the Jews, and claimed that the numbers of those who
perished are far lower than those generally accepted. He said most
Jews who died at Auschwitz did so from diseases such as typhus,
not gas poisoning.

In a sign of the international outrage directed at Irving, Israel
even agreed to release the previously secret memoirs of Nazi war
criminal Adolf Eichmann for use by Lipstadt and Penguin's legal
team, saying it was morally obliged to help them.

In the 1,300 handwritten pages penned in an Israeli prison,
Eichmann plays down his own role in the mass killing but also
provides methodical descriptions of the genocide, including
timetables of death transports.

==

Hitler historian Irving loses libel case

04/11/2000 Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Copyright (c) 2000, dpa

London (dpa) - Historian David Irving Tuesday lost his long-
running libel battle in the British High Court to defend his
controversial views on Nazi Germany. The court ruled in favour of
the defendants, saying Irving could be portrayed as a "Holocaust
denier".

Irving, 62, had sued author Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books
over claims he was a "Holocaust denier" who manipulated historical
material to refute Adolf Hitler's participation in the mass
extermination of Jews during World War II. The author of "Hitler's
War" and a biography of Goebbels was attacked by Lipstadt, an
American academic, in her 1995 book "Denying the Holocaust".

Both Penguin and Dr Lipstadt, 53, holder of the Dorot chair in
Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University in
Atlanta, Georgia, denied libel and pleaded justification.

Analysts had predicted that, if the court ruled against Irving,
his reputation as an authority on Hitler's Germany will be
undermined and his work will face further criticism. He will also
face a huge legal bill.

Irving told the BBC earlier Tuesday that even if he lost, the case
was bound to improve his standing because he had taken on the
academic establishment "single-handed".

"It's a matter of personal prestige and reputation, I'm not really
interested in money," he told Radio 4's "Today" programme.

"But I think that whatever the outcome of the trial, my reputation
was bound to be enhanced because of my ability to stand up to 30
of the experts - the world's leading law experts, Britain's so-
called leading historians and scholars.

"I have been able to take them all on single-handed and give them
a very good run for their money."

The historian added that while he had revised some of his views
during the trial, his overall opinion on the Holocaust and
Hitler's role in it had not changed.

Irving says he has already been dropped by one publisher as a
result of attacks on his work.

During the High Court trial the judge was told that Irving, who
represented himself, claimed Hitler knew nothing of Nazi plans to
exterminate Jews during World War II until 1943.

Irving also told the court he believed the existence of genocidal
gas chambers at Auschwitz was completely fictitious and claimed
trains said to be part of the extermination programme were
actually used to help Jews start new lives in eastern Europe.

He said he did not deny the Holocaust but did question the numbers
involved.

But Lipstadt's lawyers said Irving "distorts, mis-states,
misquotes and falsifies" historical records to discount the
Holocaust and justify his "right-wing views".

Her defence lawyer, Richard Rampton, said he was a "right-wing
extremist, a racist and, in particular, a rabid anti-Semite" who
had prostituted his reputation as a serious historian in pursuit
of his obsessive desire to exonerate Hitler.

Copyright (c) 2000, dpa

11-04-00 0558EDT

==

Judge rules against historian who challenges scope of Holocaust

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press Writer

04/11/2000 Associated Press Newswires

Copyright 2000. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

LONDON (AP) - Historian David Irving, who has outraged survivors
of Nazi death camps by challenging the scope of the Holocaust,
today lost the libel suit that he launched to save his academic
reputation. Irving sued American scholar and Emory University
professor Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher, Penguin Books, in
Britain's High Court. He said their 1994 book branded him a
"Holocaust denier" and accused him of distorting the truth of what
happened in Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany.

The verdict was greeted in near-silence by a courtroom packed with
Holocaust survivors and others. "The decision proves that David
Irving is a falsifier of history," said Eldred Tabachnik,
president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. "Although the
Holocaust itself was not an issue at the trial, we welcome the
fact that attempts to manipulate the truth about the tragic events
of that time have been shown to be baseless."

Irving, whose books include "Hitler's War," said he does not deny
Jews were killed by the Nazis, but challenges the number and
manner of Jewish concentration camp deaths.

He claimed that after the publication of Lipstadt's book, "Denying
the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory," his
academic work was increasingly shunned by publishers and agents.

But Judge Charles Gray said he failed to prove his reputation had
been damaged. Under British law, Lipstadt and Penguin were not
able to rely solely on truth as a defense.

Shortly before the ruling, Irving said that whatever the outcome
"my reputation is bound to be enhanced because of my ability to
stand up to the experts ... to take them all on single-handed."

He said he will not appeal.

Irving, who represented himself during the nine-week, non-jury
trial, is not new to controversy. His comments - some made while
addressing neo-Nazi groups - have drawn fire from Jewish
organizations around the world, and he has been banned from
Germany, Canada and Australia.

Irving told the court he had been the victim of a 30-year
international campaign to destroy his reputation "as a human
being, as an historian of integrity."

Richard Rampton, the lawyer representing Penguin and Lipstadt, who
holds the Dorot Chair in Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at
Emory University in Atlanta, said during the trial that Irving
perpetuated falsifications "for the sake of a bogus rehabilitation
of Hitler and dissemination of virulent anti-Semitic propaganda."

Irving conceded he had made some "mistakes of copying, mistakes of
omission," but said he corrected those errors. He claimed that
rather than deny the Holocaust, he drew attention to major aspects
of the tragedy.

Irving questioned the use of large-scale gas chambers to
exterminate the Jews, and claimed that the numbers of those who
perished are far lower than those generally accepted. He said most
Jews who died at Auschwitz did so from diseases such as typhus,
not gas poisoning.

In a sign of the international outrage directed at Irving, Israel
even agreed to release the previously secret memoirs of Nazi war
criminal Adolf Eichmann for use by Lipstadt and Penguin's legal
team, saying it was morally obliged to help them.

In the 1,300 handwritten pages penned in an Israeli prison,
Eichmann plays down his own role in the mass killing but also
provides methodical descriptions of the genocide, including
timetables of death transports.

==

Hitler historian Irving loses libel case

04/11/2000 Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Copyright (c) 2000, dpa

London (dpa) - Historian David Irving Tuesday lost his long-
running libel battle in the British High Court to defend his
controversial views on Nazi Germany. The court ruled in favour of
the defendants, saying Irving could be portrayed as a "Holocaust
denier".

Irving, 62, had sued author Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books
over claims he was a "Holocaust denier" who manipulated historical
material to refute Adolf Hitler's participation in the mass
extermination of Jews during World War II. The author of "Hitler's
War" and a biography of Goebbels was attacked by Lipstadt, an
American academic, in her 1995 book "Denying the Holocaust".

Both Penguin and Dr Lipstadt, 53, holder of the Dorot chair in
Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University in
Atlanta, Georgia, denied libel and pleaded justification.

Analysts had predicted that, if the court ruled against Irving,
his reputation as an authority on Hitler's Germany will be
undermined and his work will face further criticism. He will also
face a huge legal bill.

Irving told the BBC earlier Tuesday that even if he lost, the case
was bound to improve his standing because he had taken on the
academic establishment "single-handed".

"It's a matter of personal prestige and reputation, I'm not really
interested in money," he told Radio 4's "Today" programme.

"But I think that whatever the outcome of the trial, my reputation
was bound to be enhanced because of my ability to stand up to 30
of the experts - the world's leading law experts, Britain's so-
called leading historians and scholars.

"I have been able to take them all on single-handed and give them
a very good run for their money."

The historian added that while he had revised some of his views
during the trial, his overall opinion on the Holocaust and
Hitler's role in it had not changed.

Irving says he has already been dropped by one publisher as a
result of attacks on his work.

During the High Court trial the judge was told that Irving, who
represented himself, claimed Hitler knew nothing of Nazi plans to
exterminate Jews during World War II until 1943.

Irving also told the court he believed the existence of genocidal
gas chambers at Auschwitz was completely fictitious and claimed
trains said to be part of the extermination programme were
actually used to help Jews start new lives in eastern Europe.

He said he did not deny the Holocaust but did question the numbers
involved.

But Lipstadt's lawyers said Irving "distorts, mis-states,
misquotes and falsifies" historical records to discount the
Holocaust and justify his "right-wing views".

Her defence lawyer, Richard Rampton, said he was a "right-wing
extremist, a racist and, in particular, a rabid anti-Semite" who
had prostituted his reputation as a serious historian in pursuit
of his obsessive desire to exonerate Hitler.

Copyright (c) 2000, dpa

==

GUARDIAN 04.11.00

Irving loses Holocaust libel case

http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/irving/article/0,2763,158314,00.htm
l

Steve Busfield Tuesday April 11, 2000

Historian David Irving has lost his emotive libel case against the
American academic who accused him of denying the scale of the
Holocaust.

After considering the case for almost four weeks, Judge Charles
Gray ruled against Irving, saying he failed to prove his
reputation had been damaged.

Mr Irving, who outraged survivors of Nazi death camps, was seeking
damages over Professor Deborah Lipstadt's 1994 book, Denying the
Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, which he
claimed had generated waves of hatred against him.

Professor Lipstadt and her publishers, Penguin Books, both denied
libelling Mr Irving by branding him "a Holocaust denier" in a book
which attacked revisionists alleged to have denied or downplayed
the slaughter of 6m Jews during the second world war.

Under British law, Lipstadt and her co-defendant were not able to
rely solely on truth as a defence. Irving has said he would not
appeal.

In his closing speech, Mr Irving, 62, said the book was the
culmination of a 30-year campaign against him that had left him
the most "vilified" historian ever.

Mr Irving said he had never claimed that the Holocaust did not
occur, but did question the number of Jewish dead and denied their
systematic extermination in concentration camp gas chambers.

Arguing that the killing of millions was logistically impossible,
he said that a judgment in his favour would not mean that the
Holocaust did not happen, but that discussion was still permitted
in England today.

Eldred Tabachnik QC, president of the Board of Deputies of British
Jews, welcomed the judgment.

He said: "The board is pleased that David Irving's action against
Professor Lipstadt and her publisher Penguin Books has been so
clearly rejected by the British courts. The decision proves that
David Irving is a falsifier of history. Irving follows the short
line of Holocaust deniers who aim to resurrect Nazism by denying
the planned destruction of the European Jews.

"Although the Holocaust itself was not an issue at the trial, we
welcome the fact that attempts to manipulate the truth about the
tragic events of that time have been shown to be baseless."

Both sides had been told the verdict yesterday, leaving the
announcement of the result in court today somewhat muted. Mr
Irving is now likely to face defence costs estimated at œ2m.

Mr Justice Gray said the charges he had found to be substantially
true were that "Irving had for his own ideological reasons
persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated
historical evidence".

That "for the same reasons, he had portrayed Hitler in an
unwarrantedly favourable light, principally in relation to his
attitude towards and responsibility for the treatment of the
Jews".

The judge said he found that Irving was "an active Holocaust
denier; that he was anti-semitic and racist and that he associated
with right-wing extremists who promoted neo-Nazism".

The judge said there were certain defamatory imputations which he
had found to be defamatory of Irving, but said that in his
judgment the charges against him which had been proved to be true
were of "sufficient gravity" for it to be clear that the failure
to prove the truth of other matters did not have any material
effect on Irving's reputation.

He said that "in the result therefore the defence of justification
succeeds".

==

Controversial Historian David Irving Loses UK Libel Case

04/11/2000 Dow Jones International News

(Copyright (c) 2000, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)

LONDON (AP)--Historian David Irving, who has outraged survivors of
Nazi death camps by challenging the scope of the Holocaust, on
Tuesday lost the libel suit he launched to save his academic
reputation. A High Court judge declared that the U.K. historian is
an "active Holocaust denier, that he is anti-Semitic and racist,
and that he associates with right-wing extremists who promote neo-
Nazism."

Judge Charles Gray ruled that American scholar Deborah Lipstad
and her publisher, Penguin Books, were justified in publishing a
1994 book, "Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth
and Memory." Irving said the book branded him a "Holocaust denier"
and accused him of distorting the truth of what happened in Adolf
Hitler's Nazi Germany.

But the judge said: "Irving has for his own ideological reasons
persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated
historical evidence."

"... He has portrayed Hitler in an unwarrantedly favorable light,
principally in relation to his attitude towards and responsibility
for the treatment of the Jews," he said, adding that he upheld
Lipstadt's argument that she was justified in making the charges.

Jewish groups expressed relief at the verdict against Irving, 62.

Eldred Tabachnik, president of the Board of Deputies of British
Jews,
said the judgment proved Irving "is a falsifier of history,"

Irving, who conducted his own case throughout the nine-week trial,
faces legal costs of some GBP2 million ($3.2 million) for Lipstadt
and Penguin's lawyers, Britain's Press Association news agency
said.

Irving, the author of several books, including "Hitler's War,"
said
he does not deny Jews were killed by the Nazis, but challenges
the number and manner of Jewish concentration camp deaths.

He claimed that after the publication of Lipstadt's book, his
academic work was increasingly shunned by publishers and agents.
He has been banned from Germany, Canada and Australia, and
maintained
he had been the victim of a 30-year international campaign to
destroy
his personal and professional reputation.

Shortly before the ruling, Irving said that whatever the outcome
"my reputation is bound to be enhanced because of my ability
to stand up to the experts."

He said he will not appeal.

ROUNDUP: Hitler historian Irving loses libel case
Adds Holocaust Memorial reaction (final three grafs)

04/11/2000 Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Copyright (c) 2000, dpa

London (dpa) - Historian David Irving Tuesday lost his long-
running
libel battle in the British High Court to defend his controversial
views on Nazi Germany. The court ruled in favour of the
defendants,
saying Irving could be portrayed as a "Holocaust denier".

Irving, 62, had sued author Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books
over claims he was a "Holocaust denier" who manipulated historical
material to refute Adolf Hitler's participation in the mass
extermination of Jews during World War II. The author of "Hitler's
War"
and a biography of Goebbels was attacked by Lipstadt, an American
academic, in her 1995 book "Denying the Holocaust".

Both Penguin and Dr Lipstadt, 53, holder of the Dorot chair in
Modern
Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University in Atlanta,
Georgia,
denied libel and pleaded justification.

Analysts had predicted that, if the court ruled against Irving,
his reputation as an authority on Hitler's Germany will be
undermined and his work will face further criticism. He will also
face a huge legal bill.

Irving told the BBC earlier Tuesday that even if he lost, the case
was bound to improve his standing because he had taken on the
academic establishment "single-handed".

"It's a matter of personal prestige and reputation, I'm not really
interested in money," he told Radio 4's "Today" programme.

"But I think that whatever the outcome of the trial, my reputation
was bound to be enhanced because of my ability to stand up to 30
of the experts - the world's leading law experts, Britain's so-
called
leading historians and scholars.

"I have been able to take them all on single-handed and give them
a
very good run for their money."

The historian added that while he had revised some of his views
during the trial, his overall opinion on the Holocaust and
Hitler's
role in it had not changed.

Irving says he has already been dropped by one publisher as a
result
of attacks on his work.

During the High Court trial the judge was told that Irving, who
represented himself, claimed Hitler knew nothing of Nazi plans
to exterminate Jews during World War II until 1943.

Irving also told the court he believed the existence of genocidal
gas chambers at Auschwitz was completely fictitious and claimed
trains said to be part of the extermination programme were
actually used to help Jews start new lives in eastern Europe.

He said he did not deny the Holocaust but did question the numbers
involved.

But Lipstadt's lawyers said Irving "distorts, mis-states,
misquotes
and falsifies" historical records to discount the Holocaust and
justify his "right-wing views".

Her defence lawyer, Richard Rampton, said he was a "right-wing
extremist, a racist and, in particular, a rabid anti-Semite"
who had prostituted his reputation as a serious historian
in pursuit of his obsessive desire to exonerate Hitler.

In Israel, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Authority welcomed
the verdict, calling it "gratifying" and "of great significance
to those involved in the fight against neo-Nazism and neo-
Fascism".

"The importance of the verdict is that it sets the line as to what
is reasonable and what is unreasonable discussion about the
Holocaust,"
Yad Vashem said in a statement.

The verdict, the statement said, "has sent a message to the entire
world, most significantly to young people, that the arguments
used by Irving and others to deny and diminish the events of
the Holocaust are not within the realm of acceptable or reasonable
discourse."

Copyright (c) 2000, dpa

11-04-00 0833EDT





Copyright 2000 PR Newswire Europe Limited Press Association Newsfile

April 11, 2000, Tuesday  06:36 AM Eastern Time

JUDGE BRANDS LIBEL LOSER IRVING A 'HOLOCAUST DENIER'

Jan Colley and Cathy Gordon, PA News

Historian David Irving was facing ruin today after a High Court judge
rejected his libel action and branded him a "Holocaust denier".

The 62-year-old author had sued American academic Deborah Lipstadt and
publishers Penguin over her 1994 book, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing
Assault on Truth and Memory.

Irving claimed the book had destroyed his livelihood and generated waves of
hatred against him.

But delivering judgment today, Mr Justice Gray said "Irving has for his own
ideological reasons persistently and deliberately misrepresented and
manipulated historical evidence".

The judge said that "for the same reasons he has portrayed Hitler in an
unwarrantedly favourable light, principally in relation to his attitude
towards and responsibility for the treatment of the Jews".

Irving sat red-faced and shirt-sleeved, staring at the desk in front of him,
as the judge said he also found that the author "is an active Holocaust
denier; that he is anti-Semitic and racist and that he associates with right
wing extremists who promote neo-Nazism".

The judge said there were certain defamatory imputations which he had found
to be defamatory of Irving, but said that in his judgment the charges
against him which have been proved to be true were of "sufficient gravity"
for it to be clear that the failure to prove the truth of other matters did
not have any material effect on Irving's reputation.

He said that "in the result therefore the defence of justification=
 succeeds".

The publishers and Professor Lipstadt, 53, holder of the Dorot chair in
Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia,
denied libel and pleaded justification.

Irving, of Duke Street, Mayfair, who represented himself in the 32-day
action, had told Mr Justice Gray that there was no basis for the book's
claim that he had distorted statistics and documents to serve his own
ideological purposes and reach historically untenable conclusions.

He said that he had never claimed that the Holocaust did not occur, but did
question the number of Jewish dead and denied their systematic extermination
in concentration camp gas chambers.

Arguing that the killing of millions was logistically impossible, he said
that a judgment in his favour did not mean that the Holocaust did not happen
but that discussion was still permitted in England today.

But Richard Rampton QC, for the defence, branded Irving a "right-wing
extremist, a racist and, in particular, a rabid anti-Semite" who had
prostituted his reputation as a serious historian in pursuit of his
obsessive desire to exonerate Hitler.

A down-cast Irving arrived one minute before the judge came into the
courtroom, which was packed with more than 200 people.

Professor Lipstadt hugged and kissed her supporters as the session began.

Irving, who claims he facing financial ruin and brought the action with the
help of 400 supporters worldwide, is now likely to face defence costs
estimated at =A32 million.

Eldred Tabachnik, QC, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews,
welcomed today's judgment.

He said: "The Board is pleased that David Irving's action against Professor
Lipstadt and her publisher Penguin Books, has been so clearly rejected by
the British courts

"The decision proves that David Irving is a falsifier of history.

"Irving follows the short line of Holocaust deniers who aim to resurrect
Nazism by denying the planned destruction of the European Jews.

"Although the Holocaust itself was not an issue at the trial, we welcome the
fact that attempts to manipulate the truth about the tragic events of that
time have been shown to be baseless."

Irving was accused of basing his rejection of the existence of homicidal gas
chambers at Auschwitz on a 1988 report by a man called Fred Leuchter which
he knew to be "rubbish".

Leuchter had taken samples from various parts of the remains at Auschwitz
and concluded that there were never homicidal gas chambers there.

The defendants said that the Leuchter report was "bunk" and Irving knew it
but ignored the "stupidities" of it because he wanted it to be true.

Irving, who dismissed eyewitness accounts of gassings as lies, argued that
the "broad trend" of the report was substantially borne out by later=
 reports.

He said that there were some gassings on a limited scale at Auschwitz, but
claimed that the gas chamber at the centre of the case was only used to
fumigate "objects and cadavers" of typhus lice or, alternatively, as an
air-raid shelter.

Mr Rampton submitted that Mr Irving's claims about the book were
"undoubtedly serious charges" and, if they had been untrue, he would clearly
have been entitled to a large sum of money.

"But, as it turns out on the evidence before the court, the accusations are
true, in every significant respect."

The defence argued that a convergence of testimony made it a "moral
certainty" that the Holocaust killed between five and six million people -
Jews, gypsies and others - between 1941 and late 1944.

Reliable estimates of the numbers gassed at Auschwitz-Birkenau give a figure
of 1.1 million dead.

It was orchestrated by Heinrich Himmler, a longtime, intimate associate of
Hitler, who he met two or three times a week.

It was "inconceivable", said the defence, that Himmler could or would have
concealed this "enormous systematic operation" from Hitler. It could not
possibly have happened without Hitler's knowledge and authority.

In 1988, after he learned of Leuchter report on Auschwitz, they said,
Irving's position changed to the extent that not only did Hitler not know -
but the Holocaust did not happen.

Copyright 2000 PR Newswire Europe Limited Press Association Newsfile

April 11, 2000, Tuesday  09:31 AM Eastern Time

LIBEL LOSER IRVING IS ANTI-SEMITIC AND RACIST - JUDGE

Jan Colley, Cathy Gordon and John Aston, PA News

Historian David Irving today lost his High Court libel action over claims
that is a Holocaust denier as the judge ruled that he was both anti-Semitic
and a racist.

The damning defeat was hailed as an "epic victory for truth and justice".

Lord Janner of Braunstone QC, chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust,
added: "The Irving case shows the crucial importance of educating our young
people in the tragedy of the Holocaust especially as a symbol of the dangers
of allowing racist dictatorships to rule."

Irving, the 62-year-old author of Hitler's War, is facing ruin over the
possibility of meeting a defence costs bill of =A32 million after Mr Justice
Gray ruled in the strongest terms that he was both anti-Semitic and a=
 racist.

American academic Deborah Lipstadt and publishers Penguin Books, who fought
the action over her 1994 work, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on
Truth and Memory, were jubilant after judgment was given at the High Court
in London.

Professor Lipstadt, 53, holder of the Dorot chair in Modern Jewish and
Holocaust Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, said she was
delighted and felt "exceptionally vindicated".

"I had argued that David Irving was partisan and an apologist for the Nazis
and anti-Semitic. The judge went further than I did in his ruling - and
called him a racist."

She added: "I hope that this victory will save other authors from having to
face such trials and tribulations.

"I see this not only as a personal victory but also as a victory for all
those who speak out against hate and prejudice."

Irving, who claimed that the book had destroyed his livelihood and generated
waves of hatred against him, would only say that the decision was=
 "perverse".

He is considering an appeal.

Grim-faced, he was ushered from the building to a waiting taxi by Law Courts
security staff in a bid to avoid a repetition of an incident upon his
arrival, when he was hit by an egg.

There were no demonstrations inside the courtroom, which was packed with
about 200 media and observers, as the judge took two hours to read a summary
of his 300-page judgment, concluding that the defence of justification
succeeded.

He said: "Irving has for his own ideological reasons persistently and
deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence."

He added that "for the same reasons he has portrayed Hitler in an
unwarrantedly favourable light, principally in relation to his attitude
towards and responsibility for the treatment of the Jews".

Mr Justice Gray ruled that the author was "an active Holocaust denier; that
he is anti-Semitic and racist and that he associates with right-wing
extremists who promote neo-Nazism".

Irving, of Duke Street, Mayfair, who represented himself in the 32-day
action, had told the judge that there was no basis for the book's claim that
he had distorted statistics and documents to serve his own ideological
purposes and reach historically untenable conclusions.

He said that he had never claimed that the Holocaust did not occur, but did
question the number of Jewish dead and denied their systematic extermination
in concentration camp gas chambers.

Arguing that the killing of millions was logistically impossible, he said
that a judgment in his favour did not mean that the Holocaust did not happen
but that discussion was still permitted in England today.

But Richard Rampton QC, for the defence, branded Irving a "right-wing
extremist, a racist and, in particular, a rabid anti-Semite" who had
prostituted his reputation as a serious historian in pursuit of his
obsessive desire to exonerate Hitler.

Eldred Tabachnik, QC, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews,
welcomed the judgment.

He said: "The Board is pleased that David Irving's action against Professor
Lipstadt and her publisher Penguin Books, has been so clearly rejected by
the British courts.

"The decision proves that David Irving is a falsifier of history.

"Irving follows the short line of Holocaust deniers who aim to resurrect
Nazism by denying the planned destruction of the European Jews.

"Although the Holocaust itself was not an issue at the trial, we welcome the
fact that attempts to manipulate the truth about the tragic events of that
time have been shown to be baseless."

A statement from Penguin Books said: "What today's judgment has proved is
that we were right to stand by the content of our book and that it was
entirely inappropriate of David Irving to seek to suppress the book by way
of a libel action."

Penguin said that it had been a "hugely expensive" case and that it would be
left significantly out of pocket even after taking active steps to recover
its costs.

Outside court, the Israeli ambassador Dror Zeigerman said he was very
pleased with the judgment.

"I hope it will stop those who are continuing to try to deny the Holocaust -
continuing with their behaviour which is racist and anti-Semitic."

He added: "The lesson for the new generation - my generation - is that we
have to continue the struggle.

"We cannot give up against these people who raise their voices, like=
 Irving."

Shadow Attorney General Edward Garnier QC said the judgment was couched in
"pretty draconian terms".

He told BBC Radio 4's The World At One: "I don't think I've heard of a
judgment or a judge speaking in such terms before, that the defence's case
against David Irving is made out.

"He is the most unattractive person that can have come in front of that
particular judge."

Copyright 2000 PR Newswire Europe Limited Press Association Newsfile

April 11, 2000, Tuesday  09:53 AM Eastern Time

QUOTES THAT PEPPERED DRAMATIC LIBEL TRIAL

Cathy Gordon, PA News

Here are some of the most memorable quotes from historian David Irving and
Richard Rampton QC, counsel for American academic Deborah Lipstadt and
Penguin Books, during the High Court libel trial.

Irving - "By virtue of the activities of the defendants... I have since 1996
seen one fearful publisher after another falling away from me, declining to
reprint my works, refusing to accept new commissions and turning their backs
on me when I approach. Such is the nature of the odium that has been
generated by the waves of hatred recklessly propagated against me by the
defendants."

Rampton - "Mr Irving calls himself an historian. The truth is, however, that
he is not an historian at all, but a falsifier of history. To put it
bluntly, he is a liar."

Irving, commenting on the phrase "Holocaust denier" - "It is a poison to
which there is virtually no antidote, less lethal than a hypodermic with
nerve gas jabbed in the neck, but deadly all the same: for the chosen victim
it is like being called a wife beater or a paedophile. It is enough for the
label to be attached, for the attachee to find himself designated as a
pariah, an outcast from normal society. It is a verbal Yellow Star."

Irving, on the same subject - "It has become one of the most potent phrases
in the arsenal of insult, replacing the N-word, the F-word, and a whole
alphabet of other slurs... If a writer, no matter how well reviewed and
received until then, has that phrase stuck to him, then he can regard his
career as rumbling off the edge of a precipice."

Rampton - "Mr Irving has used many different means to falsify history:
invention, misquotation, suppression, distortion, manipulation and - not
least - mistranslation. But all these techniques have the same ultimate
effect: falsification of the truth."

Irving - "We shall hear, indeed from the defence's own expert witnesses -
though perhaps the admission will have to be bludgeoned out of them - that
the gas chamber shown to the tourists at Auschwitz was indeed built by the
Polish Communists three years after the war was over."

Rampton, accusing Irving of falsifying history on a "massive" scale - "By
the defendants' estimate, there are, in relation to Hitler alone, as many as
25 major falsifications of history, as well as numerous subsidiary
inventions, suppressions, manipulations and mistranslations employed to
support the major falsifications. If those relating to Auschwitz, Dresden
and other matters are added in, the number goes well over thirty."

Rampton - "As the evidence in this court has shown, Mr Irving is a
right-wing extremist, a racist and, in particular, a rabid anti-Semite."

Irving - "A judgment in my favour does not mean that the Holocaust never
happened; it means only that in England today discussion is still=
 permitted."

Rampton, accusing Irving of teaching his baby daughter a "racist ditty",
read out the following poem from the historian's September 1994 personal
diary - "I am a Baby Aryan, Not Jewish or Sectarian. I have no plans to
marry an Ape or Rastafarian."

Irving, describing the "30-year international endeavour" he says has been
waged by a group of organisations to destroy his legitimacy as a historian -
"I have been subjected since at least 1973 and probably before then to what
would be called in warfare a campaign of interdiction. I know of no other
historian or writer who has been subjected to a campaign of vilification
even one tenth as intense. The book denying the Holocaust was the climax of
this campaign."

Irving, describing the "pressure" his family was under - "For twelve months
after our young child was born, we lived with a wicker Moses basket in the
furthest corner of our apartment, near a window, attached to a length of
wire rope in case the building was set on fire and we had to lower her to
safety... I have lived since then with a four-foot steel spike stowed in a
strategic point inside my apartment. No historian should have to live with
his family in a civilised city under such conditions."

Rampton - "For if it be right that Mr Irving, driven by his extremist views
and sympathies, has devoted his energies to the deliberate falsification of
this tragic episode in history, then, by exposing that dangerous fraud in
this court, the defendants may properly be applauded for having performed a
significant public service, not just in this country, but in all those
places in the world where anti-Semitism is waiting to be fed."

Copyright 2000 U.S. Newswire, Inc. U.S. Newswire

April 11, 2000, Tuesday  12:00 AM, Eastern Time

American Jewish Committee Applauds Court Condemnation of Holocaust Denier

The American Jewish Committee today called the verdict in David Irving vs.
Penguin Books Ltd. and Deborah Lipstadt a landmark victory for historical
truth.

"Truth prevailed and the anti-Semitism and historical fraud of Holocaust
deniers were exposed for all to see," said David A. Harris, executive
director of the American Jewish Committee. "The court has shown that the
insidious efforts of David Irving and other Holocaust deniers to manipulate
historical facts do have limits."

Harris commended Dr. Lipstadt for her "courageous defense" and Penguin Books
for standing by her. "Many publishing houses would have looked at the cost
of libel litigation and settled. Not Penguin, to its credit," Harris said.
"Penguins' steadfast support of Lipstadt has been a profile in courage."

Justice Charles Gray held that Lipstadt was justified in calling Irving a
Holocaust denier in her book "Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on
Truth and Memory," published in England by Penguin Books Ltd.

"This case was a true test of free speech," said Harris. "Real historians
settle differences in debates in academic settings and journals.  Irving
wanted to frighten those who would shine the light of truth on Holocaust
deniers. He failed."

Kenneth Bandler of the American Jewish Committee, 212-751-4000, ext. 271;
Web site: http://www.ajc.org

Copyright 2000 U.S. Newswire, Inc. U.S. Newswire

April 11, 2000, Tuesday  12:00 AM, Eastern Time

SECTION: NATIONAL DESK

LENGTH: 822 words

HEADLINE: ADL Says Verdict in Lipstadt Libel Case Reaffirms Irving's Status
as Holocaust Denier

DATELINE: NEW YORK, April 11

BODY: The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today applauded the ruling in the
British Courts exonerating historian Deborah Lipstadt of the libel charges
brought by Holocaust denier David Irving, saying the verdict "reaffirms
David Irving's status as a falsifier of history and Nazi sympathizer."

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director, issued the following statement:

We applaud the decision in the British Courts rejecting David Irving's case
against Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher Penguin Books.

The ruling vindicates the scholarship of a true historian while reaffirming
David Irving's status as a falsifier of history and a Nazi sympathizer.

It is unfortunate that David Irving was able even to bring such frivolous
charges into a courtroom.  At least the trial provided an opportunity to
reveal once again the reality of the Holocaust and the dangers of those who
seek to deny it or trivialize it. Although the Holocaust was never an issue
at the trial, we are gratified that the British Courts have rejected
attempts to distort and manipulate the tragic events of that period.

------

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading
organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that
counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry. Myrna Shinbaum, 212-885-7747, or
Todd Gutnick, 212-885-7755, both of the Anti-Defamation League; Web site:
http://www.adl.org

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: April 11, 2000 Copyright 2000 PR Newswire Europe Limited Press
Association Newsfile

April 11, 2000, Tuesday  10:51 AM Eastern Time

BROAD WELCOME FOR IRVING LIBEL TRIAL VERDICT

Holocaust survivors, relatives and campaigners today welcomed the David
Irving libel trial verdict after a judge ruled he had "deliberately
misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence".

Trude Levi, 76, who lived through Auschwitz and lost members of her family
to the gas chambers was "absolutely delighted" that Irving had lost the=
 case.

Hungarian-born Ms Levi, from north west London, said: "We travelled in
cattle trucks in searing heat with the dead and injured for five days.

"When we arrived my mother was taken away and gassed and I never saw her
again. My father also disappeared and I never found out what happened.

"I also lost nearly all of my friends.

"As you can imagine, I found Irving's views extremely insulting - those were
the facts and facts cannot be denied.

"I hope this case ruins him."

Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, the son of a Holocaust survivor and a spokesman
for the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain, said: "It is a victory for six
million voices that cannot speak for themselves.

"But even more important for the long term consequences, it is a defeat for
the Holocaust denial industry and the bigotry that lies behind it."

Eldred Tabachnik, QC, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews,
said: "The Board is pleased that David Irving's action against Professor
Lipstadt and her publisher Penguin Books has been so clearly rejected by the
British courts.

"The decision proves that David Irving is a falsifier of history.

"Irving follows the short line of Holocaust deniers who aim to resurrect
Nazism by denying the planned destruction of the European Jews.

"Although the Holocaust itself was not an issue at the trial, we welcome the
fact that attempts to manipulate the truth about the tragic events of that
time have been shown to be baseless."

Lord Janner of Braunstone, QC, chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust,
said: "It is an epic victory for truth and justice.

"The Irving case shows the crucial importance of educating our young people
in the tragedy of the Holocaust especially as a symbol of the dangers of
allowing racist dictatorships to rule."

Outside court, the Israeli ambassador Dror Zeigerman said he was very
pleased with the judgment.

"I hope it will stop those who are continuing to try to deny the Holocaust
continuing with their behaviour which is racist and anti-Semitic."

He added: "The lesson for the new generation - my generation - is that we
have to continue the struggle.

"We cannot give up against these people who raise their voices, like=
 Irving."

Shadow Attorney General Edward Garnier QC said the judgment was couched in
"pretty draconian terms".

He told BBC Radio 4's The World At One: "I don't think I've heard of a
judgment or a judge speaking in such terms before, that the defence's case
against David Irving is made out.

"He is the most unattractive person that can have come in front of that
particular judge."

Copyright 2000 Associated Press AP Worldstream

April 11, 2000; Tuesday  10:53 AM Eastern Time

Verdict against British historian helps uphold historical truth, Israel says

A British court helped uphold historical truth when it ruled against
historian David Irving, who has challenged the scope of the Holocaust,
Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial said Tuesday.

Irving had sued American scholar Deborah Lipstadt for libel, claiming she
had branded him a ''Holocaust denier'' and accused him of distorting the
truth of what happened in Nazi Germany.

But British Judge Judge Charles Gray said Tuesday that Irving failed to
prove his reputation had been damaged and called him ''anti-Semitic and
racist.''

The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, which had provided archive material for
Lipstadt's defense, said the verdict would help in the fight against
neo-Nazism.

''It has sent a message to the entire world, most significantly to young
people, that the arguments used by Irving and others to deny and diminish
the events of the Holocaust are not within the realm of acceptable or
reasonable discourse,'' Yad Vashem said in a statement.

''The issue is not of Irving's right to say or not to say ridiculous things,
but that people understand that the ideas of Irving and his ilk are based on
a political neo-Nazi ideology, and do not represent any form of historical
truth.''

However, Israeli author Tom Segev said he expected the verdict to have
little impact. Holocaust awareness is strong around the world and those
trying to deny or diminish the scope of the genocide are usually found on
the margins, said Segev.

''The Holocaust is considered a code for the ultimate evil in cultures that
have never even heard of a Jew,'' said Segev, who has written a book on the
impact of the Holocaust on Israeli society.

kl

Copyright 2000 PR Newswire Europe Limited Press Association Newsfile

April 11, 2000, Tuesday  11:10 PM Eastern Time

MAVERICK FIGHTS FOR HIS REPUTATION

Jan Colley, PA News

Demonised by many, David Irving has always regarded himself as a truly
independent historian and a defender of free speech.

He saw his lone libel battle against the academic and publishing
establishment as the last chance to salvage his reputation and livelihood
against a 30-year onslaught to which he had previously turned the other=
 cheek.

But it would be misleading to trot out cliches about David and Goliath when
this David is a powerfully-built 62-year-old of ferocious intellect and
consuming self-confidence.

A glance at Irving's own account of the 32-day action on his web site diary
shows that he, and his 4,000 supporters worldwide, had complete faith in his
action against American professor Deborah Lipstadt and her backers.

It is a self-belief forged by a wartime upbringing which left Irving with an
unshakeable nostalgia for old England and a bullish determination to see and
do things his way.

David John Cawdell Irving was born in Essex in March 1938. One of four
children, he has a twin brother, who changed his name by deed-poll to avoid
the family connection.

His parents, Beryl, a writer and illustrator, and John, a naval commander
who served in both wars, separated early on and Irving only got to know his
father, of whom he speaks with reverence, towards the end of his life.

The family lived in straitened circumstances and Irving attended a minor
public school, Sir Anthony Browne's in Brentwood, Essex - later attended by
Home Secretary Jack Straw.

He ultimately achieved 8 A-levels and 13 O-levels and read physics at
London's Imperial College but did not finish his degree for lack of money.

He then embarked on a rugged love-affair with Germany, working for a year in
the Ruhr steelworks, where he rose to the position of Third Smelter.

Back in England, he again began a degree, financing his studies by working
as a nightwatchman and writing articles.

The publication of his first book, about the Allied air raids on Dresden,
was followed by a score more with another three still in the pipeline.

Irving claims that envy for his early success and research methods turned to
malice after Hitler's War - with its claim that the Fuhrer did not know
about the mass killings until 1943 - appeared in the US in 1977.

In 1961, Irving married the daughter of a Spanish industrial chemist, who
was fiercely opposed to Franco.

Before their divorce in 1981, the couple raised four daughters - Pilar now
lives in Madrid, Paloma in London and Beatrice in Brisbane, Australia.

The eldest, Josephine, committed suicide last September aged 33 after a
period of mental illness and an accident which led to the loss of her legs.

Irving also has a daughter, Jessica, six, by his 36-year-old Danish partner,
Bente, who is reportedly blonde and beautiful but was not in court.

Although she has been openly critical of his views, her absence, said
Irving, was due to her "fighting a battle of her own for the last 12=
 months".

The trio live in Irving's apartment, just off London's Grosvenor Square,
where they once had a moses basket attached to a wire rope for baby Jessica
to escape in case the flat was torched.

Irving, who has been banned from the German state archives and expelled from
Austria, Italy, Canada and Germany, claims that he has suffered a barrage of
abuse and death threats on his unlisted phone number.

He agrees he once had swizzle sticks adorned with swastikas at a book party
- symptomatic of the in-your-face naughtiness of the gauche schoolboy he
often resembles - but denies Nazi sympathies.

And the tale of a portrait of Hitler over his desk is the stuff of legend,
he says - the only signed photo on display is one of Sir Winston Churchill.

In court, Irving, a bear of a man with craggy features and wiry hair, pumped
the air with his arms, sweeping himself along on his own rhetoric.

His band of followers formed a protective half-circle around his lectern as
the dozen or so lawyers for the other side spilled across the courtroom.

Squeezed in among the laptops and the box-files, about 100 observers -
media, students, survivors and revisionists - listened as history was=
 retold.

Most kept their own counsel but there were tears and audible hisses as
Irving, seemingly oblivious to their sensitivities, pounded home his views
on the horrors of Auschwitz with the fervour of a zealot.

Irving has denied having any politics other than a brief student adherence
to the Young Conservatives.

"My views are independent and sometimes unorthodox, but never
anti-democratic", he said, "I am not anti-Semitic."

He claims that he has lost three years preparing for the action and is not
interested in money - having waived his costs and asked only for a small
donation to a charity for the limbless.

The case and the furore it provoked worldwide was to one end - the tearing
of the "verbal Yellow Star" of Holocaust-denier from his pin-stripe suit.

==

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JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY  04.11.00

Scholars: Irving verdict exposes shoddy historian, marginal crank

By Douglas Davis

LONDON, April 11 (JTA) =97 For much of the past five years, Deborah=
 Lipstadt,
an American Holocaust scholar, and David Irving, a British Holocaust denier,
have been locked in a grotesque legal embrace.

That close encounter finally ended Tuesday, exactly three months after the
start of a libel trial in which Irving accused Lipstadt and her publisher of
ruining his career by labeling him a Holocaust denier.

Addressing a packed High Court in London, Justice Charles Grey ruled that
Lipstadt had proved the central charges she had leveled against Irving in
her 1994 book, "Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and
Memory." The judge also exonerated her publisher, Penguin Books.

The verdict against Irving was significant because of his former status as a
serious historian, said Omer Bartov, a history professor at Rutgers
University in New Jersey.

Irving was long highly regarded for his treasure trove of documents on
Hitler and other Nazi officials, he said.

Bartov added that it was important to expose people like Irving, "who has
been published by respectable publishers and been cited by scholars like me.
But in recent years, he'd become more extreme, and associated himself with
neo-Nazi circles."

Michael Berenbaum, Distinguished Professor of Holocaust Studies at Clark
University in Massachusetts, also said it is important for the court to help
set professional standards for historians.

"Instead of going down into the gutter with Irving, we elevated the question
into what is the obligation of a historian to interpret evidence and
translate material. And Irving was found wanting," said Berenbaum, a former
director of research at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

"In a way, Holocaust denial has been defeated over and over and over again,"
he said.

"A Holocaust museum is built in Washington. Sixty-five million people watch
=91Schindler's List.' The German president apologizes to Israel.

"Then what can you say about these guys who say the Holocaust never
happened? They're a fringe movement of charlatans."

Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, an associate at the Center for European Studies at
Harvard and author of the controversial best-seller, "Hitler's Willing
Executioners," said that Tuesday's verdict sent a clear message about how to
view Holocaust deniers like Irving.

The verdict "should go out as a message" to everyone "that the people who
deny the Holocaust are engaging in fraud."

Judge Grey =97 the quintessence of British correctness, courtesy and
understatement =97 did not mince words when he declared Tuesday that Irving
was indeed, as Lipstadt had charged, "an active Holocaust denier."

The judge also called Irving "anti-Semitic and racist," saying he has
"portrayed Hitler in an unwarrantedly favorable light."

Referring to Irving's political activities, the judge said, "the content of
his speeches and interviews often display a distinctly pro-Nazi and
anti-Jewish bias."

"He makes surprising and often unfounded assertions about the Nazi regime
which tend to exonerate the Nazis for the appalling atrocities they
inflicted on the Jews.

"The picture of Irving that emerges revealed him to be a right-wing pro-Nazi
polemicist," the judge said.

Grey found that, "for the most part, the falsification of the historical
record was deliberate.

"Irving was motivated by a desire to present events in a manner consistent
with his own ideological beliefs, even if that involved distortion and
manipulation of historical evidence."

He ruled that Lipstadt had failed to prove some of her claims about Irving,
including that he has a self-portrait of Hitler above his desk.

But he added that the unproved charges would not have "any material effect
on Irving's reputation."

Irving, who lives in a $1.5 million apartment in London's smart Mayfair
district but says he has no other assets, now faces a bill for legal costs
estimated at some $5 million.

Pelted with eggs as he entered the court building Tuesday, Irving also faces
public humiliation and bankruptcy.

In court for the verdict, Lipstadt and Irving were in a state of active
confrontation and conflict =97 as they were for each of the 32 days that the
trial lasted.

But at no point did they either lock eyes or exchange words.

While welcoming the verdict, some observers are sorry that the trial ever
took place.

"The facts of the Holocaust are the facts," said Sara Bloomfield, director
of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. "We didn't need a trial to prove that
the Holocaust happened."

She described Irving as a "pretty frivolous and mean-spirited individual
seeking a lot of public attention" and bemoaned the fact that Lipstadt "had
to take months out of her life and her scholarly work" to deal with Irving's
lawsuit.

For his part, Bartov of Rutgers University admitted that he hadn't closely
followed the Irving trial.

"Personally, I'm rather ambivalent about the whole public debate about
Holocaust denial," he said. "It's a rather marginal phenomenon, and most of
the people who use this rhetoric are marginal people.

"Arguments that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz are for cranks. It's
as if someone said, =91I am Napoleon.' It's somewhat bizarre to have to=
 debate
it. It places cranks in the center of a public debate, rather than where
they belong, which is at the margins."

Even with the verdict against Irving, the assault on historical truth is far
from over.

A greater threat than Holocaust deniers are mainstream, nationalist leaders
in Europe, said Randolph Braham, director of the Rosenthal Institute for
Holocaust Studies at the City University of New York.

"They are respectable, believable leaders who don't deny the Holocaust, but
distort it or denigrate it to cleanse a particular history," said Braham, an
expert on Hungarian and Romanian Jewry.

The threat from such leaders should not be underestimated, he added.

"As George Orwell said, =91Those who control the present control the past;
those who control the past control the future.' "

(JTA staff writers Peter Ephross and Michael J. Jordan in New York also
contributed to this report.)

==

Copyright 2000 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse

April 11, 2000, Tuesday

Israel to invite US historian after victory in Holocaust libel case

Jerusalem

Israel announced Tuesday that it would extend an invitation to US historian
Deborah Lipstadt to visit the Jewish state after she won a libel action
filed in London by a British revisionist historian.

Rabbi Michael Melchior, the Israeli minister in charge of relations between
Israel and the world Jewish community, announced Lipstadt would be asked to
address a forum on anti-Semitism.

David Irving earlier Tuesday lost his libel case against Lipstadt, who
dubbed him a "Holocaust denier" after he claimed Jews were not
systematically exterminated by the Nazis during World War II.

Irving, 62, had sued Lipstadt and publisher Penguin over her 1994 book
"Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory".

"Holocaust deniers like David Irving ... use pseudo-scientific manipulation
to prepare the ground for new crimes against humanity," Melchior said in a
statement.

He said the ruling "delivers a message to the entire world that the fact of
the Holocaust is not a historical or philosophical debate, and that the
place of Holocaust deniers is alongside the worst of the Nazis themselves."

ms/mc

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