Outcry as Holocaust denier Irving speaks at secret event
Survivor condemns city visit by controversial author who lost libel case
JEWISH and anti-racist groups have voiced disgust after a prominent Holocaust denier was given a public platform in Birmingham.
And their anger over historian David Irving’s speaking engagement has been mirrored by concentration camp survivor Mindu Hornick, who gives school talks in her adopted home of Birmingham about history’s blackest chapter.
Irving, 80, appeared in the city centre on Saturday, but the times, venue and identity of those who offered the invitation remain secret.
Controversial author and historian Irving said that his talk was about how the Allies needlessly dropped atomic bombs on Japan – and said that critics who accuse him of denying the Holocaust had got it wrong.
“The problem is that what they call Holocaust is different to what I call Holocaust,” he told the Birmingham Post. “They have never read my books.”
Irving claims that Hitler knew nothing of plans to wipe out the Jewish race, and that Auschwitz was not a death camp.
In his 1977 book Hitler’s War, Irving peddled the theory that Hitler was kept in the dark about the Final Solution, but did not deny it happened.
A first edition footnote states: “There exists no document signed by Hitler, Himmler or Heydrich speaking of the extermination of the Jews.”
Instead, Hitler’s War paints the Führer as a rational individual, interested in Germany’s prosperity and let down by incompetent subordinates.
The controversial author lost a libel action taken against US historian Deborah Lipstadt, who dubbed him a “Holocaust denier” in her 1993 work
and publisher Pen- guin Books.
In that High Court action, he was described as an “anti-semitic and racist”. The libel defeat forever tarnished his reputation.
He was imprisoned in Austria 13 years ago for “trivialising, grossly playing down and denying the Holocaust”. And he was fined for “Holocaust denial” following a speech in Munich, and barred from Germany.
Irving stressed that his Birmingham lecture would not involve his views on the Jewish slaughter.
The sole topic, he said, would be “evidence” that the Allies knew Japan had repeatedly attempted to surrender – but dropped the atom bombs anyway.
That has done nothing to placate protesters. Mindu Hornick was just 13 when she was sent to Auschwitz with her mother, sister and two younger brothers.
Only Mindu and her sister survived. The Edgbaston 89-year-old, who recently attended Holocaust Memorial Day at Westminster, said: “It concerns me there is a core here in Birmingham who would invite David Irving to speak. That is very sad.
“The man is crazy, mad. I do not give him time,” added the Czech grandmother, “because there is so much evidence. I think it’s disgusting, I really do. He is obviously desperate for his voice to be heard.”
Ruth Jacobs, chairwoman of the Representative Council of Birmingham and West Midlands Jewry, said: “I understand about free speech, but I don’t understand how an organisation would be prepared to invite anyone who denies the Holocaust. We have people in Birmingham and the West Midlands who have seen for themselves.
“I do not comes from. understand where he I am not happy he is coming. There is no justification for Holocaust denial when it is a fact that it happened.
“David Irving’s disconcerting.”
Irving admitted he was attending the Birmingham engagement, but would did not give details.
Website Irvingbook states: “David Irving speaks privately in UK towns on Unusual History.”
The Birmingham speech was plugged by Stormfront.org, a website that carries the logo “White Pride Worldwide”. No venue is revealed but a ticket price of £15 is given.
Stormfront’s mission statement is: “We are a community of racial realists and idealists. We are White Nationalists who support true diversity and a homeland for all peoples, including ours.”
Irving was seemingly unmoved by the storm his visit had created.
He is aware, he said, that some individuals had a “bee in their bonnet”, but they had drawn incorrect conclusions without reading his work.
“I am 6ft 2ins and can handle myself,” he added. “I have been in physical danger for 40 years. I can live with it. I don’t think they want to listen, they have their own agenda.”
His Birmingham visit was slated by advocacy group Hope not Hate.
In a statement, it said: “David Irving is a long-discredited Holocaust denier and anti-semite, who is once again attempting to cash in by spreading hate across the UK.
“Whilst he has become increasingly irrelevant over the past few years, his poisonous anti-semitism must be challenged at all turns.
“People don’t want to hear the likes of Irving any more. He is a fallen figure. He is now forced to skulk around in secret meetings attended by a handful of people.”
visit
is
massively