The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

David Irving, Holocaust denial, and his connections to right-wing extremists and Neo-National Socialism (Neo-Nazism) In Germany

OPC observations 1990


5.6.24. Irving also asked Ulrich Harder if he could arrange anything at short notice. Harder regretted he could do nothing.

I'm sorry that I can't give you any better news. You know that l have always made a great effort for you because I think you are simply fantastic and indispensable to Germany. And I certainly also have some contacts. Nevertheless not sufficient in central Germany, [as] we from the NPD are still in the process of initially building them up and this will still take a little time.<360>

5.5.25. Philipp likewise replied in the negative.<361> Zündel wrote that he had contacted Carl Arthur Bühring, Michael Schönborn, and had tried to contact Walendy for Irving.<362>

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5.5.26. Between Philipp, Althans, Harder, and Zündel the tour managed to go ahead.<363> Irving toured accompanied by Susanne Töpler.<364> Diary entries 21 - 24 July 1991 are missing, but Zündel had suggested a book-signing at the AVÖ bookshop in Munich on the 23 July, which he suggested he also attend `as an additional drawing card. '.<365> Irving had been booked to speak in Augsburg, as arranged by Althans..<366> This is possibly a meeting arranged with Michael Swierczek..<367> There is no record of whether the meeting took place, but alone Irving's willingness is indicative. Irving had originally planned to stay overnight with Althans..<368>

5.5.27. On 24 July Irving spoke in Stuttgart (Degerloch) at the invitation of Carl-Arthur Bühring on `German history seen today' ['Deutsche Geschichte aus heutiger Sicht.'].<369> Irving thanked Klaus Ewald for the meeting..<370> On 25 July Irving visited Philipp in Frankfurt. Once again the milieu in which Irving operated is clear. `He [Philipp] showed us [Irving and Töpler] the latest paste up of the Remer Depesche on which he is working. It is good. I asked if Otto Ernst Remer is not fearful of being prosecuted: Ph.[ilipp] said that is what Remer wants.'<371>

5.5.28. On 26 July Irving spoke at an NPD meeting in Hamburg (Harburg) arranged by Ulrich Harder. The meeting obviously produced a lot of resonance. Harder wrote to Irving over two months later, `Your speech in Hamburg in July is still being discussed. It was

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magnificent and you really. are. an outstanding contemporary.'<372> On 27 July Irving attended a garden party thrown by Dietmar Munier of the Arndt Verlag.<373> On 30 July Irving spoke at a meeting at Bonn University given by Andreas Jahrow and organised by Althans.<374>

5.5.29. On 17 August Irving was to have spoken at Wunsiedel at the annual Rudolf Hess Memorial March.<375> Remembering that 1) Irving had refused to appear on the same platform as Kühnen at Wunsiedel the year before, 2) that Worch had chosen Kühnen over Irving because the movement owed more to Kühnen (implying that Irving was nevertheless a contender), and 3) that in the meantime Kühnen had died, it is important to remember exactly what the march was. Worch's NL had played an important part in Rudolf Hess Memorial marches in Wunsiedel since 1989, and it constituted one of the main organisational focusus of the NL.<376> The 1991 march (and the . replacement demonstration) was organised together with the NO. The NA was likewise to have taken part in 1991.<377> This made the march one of the annual highlights of the German neo-Nazi calendar.

5.5.30. A flyer for the meeting, under the title `National Collective in need!'[`Nationale Sammlung tut not!'] give the tenor of the meeting.

We won't put up with it any more! Don't be deterred [.]Should a ban be made public again this year by the press and television, don't be deterred by it.! Let's fight together! In August 1990 we showed the anarchists what for - they ran like hares - ! The reds and anarchists must be driven from the streets! Comrades, the streets have to be ours again, because the right is coming again[.].<378>

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5.5.31. Worch writing to Irving in 1990 had justified his choice of Kühnen with the words. `Especially - and this needs to be stressed here - because from the beginning Wunsiedel marches have been political events and not about historical revisionism.<379> Presumably nothing had changed in the meantime. The march was ultimately banned and 2,000 people demonstrated in Bayreuth against the ban.<380> It is not clear up to what point Irving remained ready to appear.

5.5.32. On.8. September Irving had been asked to hold a speech in Neuss a meeting of the Neuss branch of the Association of Expellecs [Bund der Vertriebenen], an invitation he accepted. The invitation was cancelled when the city hall in Neuss threatened to cancel the contract for the hall if Irving appeared as a speaker.<381>

5.5.33. Irving's November tour had been originally planned for 1 -7 November.<382> On 5 November Zündel was tried in Munich and a demonstration was planned by the AVÖ..<383> Irving had recorded in his diary that he `...phoned Zündel.- Using' codenames, it turns out he and Leuchter will be in Munich for Z[ündel]'s trial Nov 5; that we shall all confer in Pforzheim, Nov 6.'.<384> On 29 October Zündel had asked Irving if he could arrive earlier in Germany. `No change [chance?] of being in Muenchen for a press conference on the 4 and or 5th evenings? French National T.V. will send a crew and Bavarian T.V. as well..<385> The diary entries for 4 and 5 November are missing.

5.5.34. On 6 November the town hall in Pforzheim was booked for Irving's lecture on `New Europe' [`Neues Europa'], but an advertisement in the Pforzheimer Zeitung led the hall to cancel, supported by the city administration [Stadthallenverwaltung]..<386> Instead

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the meeting took place in the restaurant Adler in Büchenbron outside Pforzheim. Both venues were organised by Christian Democratic Union [CDU] politician Dr. Manfrid Dreher. Dreher had contacted Irving through Zündel..<387> Dreher and Irving had met in London previous to the meeting, and Irving had even persuaded Dreher to buy surplus stocks of his books in Germany on his behalf, the money to be repaid later..<388> Irving described the meeting.

We left for Dreher's factory, and waited there interminably. Dreher there. eventually joined by Zündel and Leuchter. Dreher has lost the town hall, moved the venue to a restaurant in nearby village. Spoke there, late, for two hours. British (Thames) and Danish, French and WDR TV there. Good atmosphere ... .<389 & 390>

5.5.35. The television teams Irving had unexpectedly brought with him, the presence of Zündel and Leuchter, Irving's deviation from the advertised topic, and Irving's notoriety all contributed to the subsequent scandal.'.<391> Over the next two years Dreher, a highly respected member of the CDU, had to fight off several attempts to have him expelled from the party. Moreover, as a result of Irving's appearance, Dreher was stripped of the FRG's highest civil order [Bundesverdienstkreuz], an almost unique event in the history of the country. <392> Although Dreher was later keen to distance himself from the content of Irving's speech it would appear that this was a cosmetic measure. On 12 July 1991 he had written to Irving saying `I have already been thinking about how we can hold the event from a "neutral stand point".'<393> Dreher also

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later dictated Irving's expected explanation. of events. to him.<394>

5.5.35. On 7 November 1991: Irving spoke in Hamburg (Harburg) organised by the NPD's Ulrich Harder who was present at the meeting.<395> On 8 November Irving spoke in Lentförden [Segeberg] to the `Friends Circle "A Heart for Germany"' [Freundeskreis "Ein Herz fuer Deutschland"], again organised by Harder.<396> The Minister of the Interior of Schleswig Holstein ordered a partial speaking ban [`eingeschranktes Redeverbot'] which was handed to Irving at the meeting.<397> The ban demonstratively failed to deter Irving, who proceeded to read out its contents to the audience.<398> Neither did the ban do anything to dampen Irving's feelings of success. He later thanked the Worchs for their efforts `which lead to a successful event in Lentfoerden' [`...die zur erfolgreichen Veranstaltung in Lentförden führten.'].<399>

5.5.36. The constellation of neo-Nazis Irving had failed to speak to at Wunsiedel were addressed by Irving on 9 November in Halle, an open-air rally he attended at the suggestion of Ursula Wosch `as the meeting planned-for Aachen has fallen through.'<400> The rally had been organised by Thomas Dienel, in co-operation with Christian and Ursula Worch, as a nationwide affair. This well co-ordinated demonstration included groups and members of various neo-Nazi groups within the GdNF including the NL, `Deutsches Hessen', the DA, and was attended by, amongst others, prominent neo-Nazis Gottfried Küssel of the Austrian VAPO and Otto Riehs.

5.5.37. Amid a sea of waving Reich war-flags and NL and DA banners Irving addressed a

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prominently skin-head audience. During the speeches given by Irving, Worch., and, Dienel, the audience at times broke into rhythmic cries of `Germany for the Germans' ['Deutschland den Deutschen'], `Foreigners out' [`Ausländer Raus'] and made the illegal Nazi salute `Sieg Heil'. Irving himself recorded that `I spoke first, a rabble rousing ten or fifteen minutes, with loud cheering, and alas some shouts of Sieg Heil to which I admonished, "Let's have no calls from the past; it's the [illegible word] that counts".<401> The video record of the meeting shows Irving merely making a weak gesture of disapproval..<402>

5.5.38. As if Irving's presence on a neo-Nazi platform were not enough, the rally took place at a time when Germany was in the grips of a vicious wave of attacks against foreigners.

5.5.39. Irving returned to Germany in December. On 6 December he spoke at the first `nationale Grosskundgebung' of the DVU in Passau.<403> From 9 - 11 December Irving was in Hamburg apparently in connection with a court case with the German publisher Rowohlt.<404>


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