Now considerably agitated, Goldfarb responded: "But the man must be totally crazy because he killed forty million human beings." The first time he threw out this figure, I let it pass, but the second time round, I stopped him, saying: "Forty million? Excuse me, where does THIS figure come from then?" Goldfarb then said: "A person who kills even one man is a criminal." In this case, then, I said, President Bush is a major criminal because of the damage he did in the Gulf War this very February.

At this point, the interview was dramatically cut short. And the very next day, all the other interviews that had been lined up by my publisher in Argentina were cancelled. Newspaper and television interviews, and a Belgrano University appearance--all were cancelled. It was an object lesson on the influence that certain people have. The day after that (October 18, 1991), a major daily newspaper, La Nacion, published a communique issued by Argentina's Jewish governing agency, with a headline calling me an "International Agitator." Well, I'm sorry that the Jews get so easily agitated. But it's not my fault. My job is to go there and lecture on the historical truth as I see it.

The Right to be Wrong

I admit that we may be wrong. Each of us in this room may be wrong on this or that matter. But I demand the Right to be Wrong! That is the essence of freedom of speech in any country.

No one is going to define for us what the received version of history is or should be. But that is what they are trying to do now in Germany, and all around the world.

Every other aspect of world history is open to debate and dispute-- except one. Anyone who challenges this one aspect of history is automatically, IPSO FACTO, described as an anti-Semite. Jewish leaders are now saying that anyone who questions any aspect of the Holocaust is an anti-Semite. Of course, that's not true. We are just lovers of the truth, and determined to get to the bottom of what actually did and did not happen.

I do not insist that what I tell you here is necessarily the only version of the truth, and that thou shalt have no other truth than this. I'm not as arrogant as that. I do say that this is the best that I can do, given limited resources, and against the harassment that I've come up against in the last few years.

That harassment has gotten worse and worse, particularly with the recent Focal Point publication of the new edition of Hitler's War. This new edition contains material never seen before. If you want to see a photograph showing what it looks like when 17,500 people are killed in 30 minutes, here it is. Everyone's heard about Hiroshima and Dresden, but no one knows about what happened in Pforzheim, a small German town in Baden-Wurttemberg, where one person in four was killed in the most horrible manner in mid-February 1945. We have photos of that crime. I've shown this photograph to audience after audience.

On the previous page of Hitler's War are the well-known photographs of Dresden, where a hundred thousand people were killed in a period of twelve hours by the British and Americans. So many were killed so quickly that there weren't enough living left to bury the dead. So the corpses had to be burned on these huge funeral pyres in the Dresden Altmarkt. I published the photographs in 1963 in my first book, The Destruction of Dresden and, now, in Hitler's War, I publish them for the first time in color.

Window Smashing

There are 60 color photographs in this book, a work that no other publisher could have published so lavishly. Of course, our traditional enemies are absolutely livid because of this book, which is very sought-after in Britain. We published it ourselves, and personally delivered 5,000 copies to 800 book shops up and down the country and around the world.

Our traditional enemies have been fighting back. Their local cells, branches and agents have been visiting--patiently and methodically, one by one--every book shop that stocked this book, demanding that it be "unstocked." Because most book shop managers are not open to intimidation in the way newspapers are, they get their windows smashed. As result, there's been a campaign of window smashing throughout Britain during the last three or four months.

During the night, the big plate-glass windows of the book stores are smashed, and the next morning the stores receive a letter on letterhead of the local synagogue, or the local Jewish Board of Deputies. The letters say "we are very sorry that your windows were smashed, but what can you expect? We promise that if you stop stocking David Irving's books, you will find that this kind of problem ceases."

This campaign--smashing the windows of book stores, big and small, including chain book stores in Britain such as Waterstone's and Dillon's-- has been reported in all the local newspapers. I subscribe to a press clipping service, so I get all these clippings. But there's been nothing in the British national newspapers.

And why not? Well, the answer is that these are a different caliber of journalists. I've often wondered where these journalists come from, these spineless, nasty little creeps such as Bernard Levin of The Times of London.

I am philosophical about newspapers. I remember one Monday morning ten years ago when my secretary came tome, saying: "David, how can you stand for it? Have you read what they've written about you yesterday in the Sunday Times? It's only a short thing, but you now might as well pack up. You're finished." He read from the article: " David Irving, who appears substantially to have over-estimated his mental stability this time . . ." "They're calling you mad!"

Recycled Lies

I responded by saying, "Okay, so what? Are they going to assign me to some kind of psychiatric gulag archipelago? That's from the Sunday Times, and this is Monday." That's the difference between being an author and being a journalist. When I write a book it goes into a library and stays there--especially if it's on acid-free paper. What a journalist writes for the Sunday Times appears on Sunday, but by Monday it's wrapping fish 'n chips! So, who cares? Or if it's not wrapping fish 'n chips, the paper's being recycled to be made into new newsprint for new lies.

One South African journalist wrote to me during the height of my South African tour in March 1992. I was speaking at meeting after meeting, addressing packed halls. In Pretoria, as usual, 2,000 people came to hear me. In Cape Town, another huge audience turned out to hear me at the Goodwood Civic Centre. The next day, I received a fax letter from a Cape Times journalist named Claire Bisseker who earlier had bombarded me with questions about what I thought about President de Klerk, the prospects for South Africa, the ANC, and all the rest of it. This time her letter was quite brief:

Mr. Irving, the Cape Times would like to have your response to the following allegations made by a Capetonian who attended your meeting at Goodwood [Centre] on March 8. The source said that the meeting was of a neo-Nazi nature. Complete with Nazi banners and Nazi salutes. We would appreciate it very much if you could fax back to us your response as soon as you are able.

So I turned this over in my mind. "Remember," I told myself, "you're dealing with a journalist--a journalist who will twist whatever you say. If I say that I have no comment, they will print the lies and say that Mr. Irving had no comment. If I deny it, they will print the lies and say that Irving denied it. They will print the lies whatever you do." So after some thought, I sent this brief letter to Claire Bisseker:

Dear Clair, Thank you for your fax, and I appreciate your inquiry. Yes, you do have excellent sources. Neo-Nazi nature, Nazi banners, and Nazi salutes--the lot. As I marched in, an orchestra struck up the Slaves' Chorus from Verdi's opera, "Aida." Later, the orchestra played the first bars of Franz Liszt's "Les Preludes," and it concluded with Liszt's Opus 63 String Quartet. Meanwhile, searchlight batteries stationed around the Goodwood Civic Centre lit up, their crystal beams joining in a cathedral of ice ten thousand feet above the site; a thousand hands were once more flung aloft in the holy salute, and a thousand throats roared the Horst Wessel anthem. A video is available, directed by Leni Riefenstahl. I hope the above material suffices for what you have in mind.

That's the way to deal with journalists! I have developed my own techniques in dealing with them.

[end of second article]

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