Books
Review: Denial: Holocaust History on Trial, by Deborah Lipstadt
To coincide with the release of Mick Jackson's film Denial, the book that sparked the story has been republished in a new edition.
January 24, 2017 17:37
By, Robert Low
1 min read
To coincide with the release of Mick Jackson's film Denial, the book that sparked the story has been republished in a new edition.
January 24, 2017 17:37ByRobert Low, Robert Low
Seventeen years after Deborah Lipstadt's resounding High Court libel victory over David Irving, which destroyed the Holocaust-denying writer's reputation once and for all, Denial, the film based on that historic trial has arrived in Britain.
To coincide with the movies release here, Professor Lipstadt's account of the trial and the events leading up to it, History on Trial, first published in 2005, has been reissued in paperback with a new title and a foreword by David Hare, who wrote the film script.
To recap for those unfamiliar with the story, Irving sued Lipstadt for libel over a short passage in an earlier book in which she accused him of Holocaust denial. He chose to sue her in England, where it is up to the person accused of libel to justify what they have written. Such an action would never have got off the ground in Lipstadt’s native United States, where the burden of proof lies with the accuser.
After a four-year battle and a four-month trial in London, Mr Justice Gray (inaccurately termed Judge Gray throughout the book) ruled in favour of Lipstadt in a devastating 355-page judgment.
The book reads as well as it did when it first came out. You can see why the producers thought it would make a good movie, with two historians (if Irving can be described as such) pitted against each other over the truth of the 20th century’s worst genocide, the saga climaxing in an epic courtroom confrontation between Richard Rampton QC, representing Lipstadt, and Irving, who represented himself, a possibly fatal mistake along with agreeing to have the trial heard by a judge and not a jury.
Who knows, perhaps a jury would have been swayed by Irving’s preposterous attempt to portray himself as the victim, the little man battling against a well-funded “Jewish conspiracy” to silence him. It is as well to remember that it was Irving who chose to sue Lipstadt, not vice versa, and was therefore the author of his own destruction.
It is also good to be reminded what a terrific writer Lipstadt is, as well as a courageous fighter for truth and an engaging speaker, as those who have attended her Limmud lectures can attest. Witty, too: at the latest Limmud she made an amused reference to the fact that in the movie she is played by Rachel Weisz – “of course”.
But it is a pity that the publishers did not ask her to provide a new chapter detailing developments since 2000. The trial may have put paid to Irving’s career but did little to halt the juggernaut of Holocaust denial that continues to roll along, particularly in the Arab world, fuelled by the uncontrolled and seemingly uncontrollable Internet.
Robert Low is consultant editor of ‘Standpoint’ magazine
