David Irving on Trial

An Apologist for the Unthinkable

by J. A.

A student essay from Dr. Elliot Neaman's History 210 class (historical methods - fall 2001)

© Elliot Neaman / PHDN
Reproduction interdite par quelque moyen que ce soit / no reproduction allowed

It is estimated that 1 million people died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. David Irving on the other hand will tell you that those gas chambers were built after the war, by the Poles, to be used as tourist attractions. David Irving has no academic standing at any colleges or universities. For sometime he attended Imperial College at the University of London, but he never graduated. He does however call himself a historian (Shallit 1), and he has been called, “One of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocausts denial” by Deborah Lipstadt. The reason she called him this was that he gives the appearance of a true scholar. Irving uses historically correct information to prove his points. How then is it possible that by using correct information his conclusions are still wrong? The reason he is incorrect is that he takes only the evidence that supports his claim. He is a master at bending the truth to fit his needs. Evidence that may seem to support Irving’s arguments becomes concrete proof once he has analyzed it. Conversely, evidence that refutes his arguments he would deem to be inconclusive, as seen in that he demands “absolute documentary proof” of Hitler’s orders to liquidate the Jews (Lipstadt 181). It is for this reason, Irving presenting himself as a scholar, that he must be addressed and his arguments dissected in order to show their falsehood. To do this some facts must first be set down.

David Irving’s claims about the Holocaust challenge a number of socially accepted facts, and it is important to know what these facts are, and what challenges Irving poses to them, before proceeding. First fact, it is estimated that somewhere around six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. This leads to the second fact, that the primary method used to kill Jews was Gas chambers in the Death Camps (ADL 1). Irving does not believe that the gas chambers existed. He argues that the Poles built the gas chambers after the war (Shallit 1). Another fact that must be understood is that there was no written order by Hitler to liquidate the Jews. This is a main point used by David Irving when he makes the claim that Hitler was innocent, that the murder of the Jews was carried out behind his back (Jackel 22). However, in understanding this fact we must also recognize that Hitler was a violent anti-Semite as seen in the second volume of Mein Kampf, “No people can free itself from that fist (the Jews’) other than by the sword” (Jackel 23). Now that these socially accepted facts have been set forth one can complete an examination of David Irving and his arguments.

In David Irving’s writing two specific arguments stand out. The first of these is that Hitler was a weak leader, and was not involved in the extermination of the Jews during World War II. He in fact argues that Hitler forbid the liquidation of the Jews (Hitler’s War Introduction 28). Irving then moved on to the second of these arguments, that the gas chambers were not used to exterminate the Jews (Forward of Leuchter Report 6). This paper will discuss whether or not Irving has presented scholarly arguments that must be considered or whether he is just an anti-Semite who falsely claims to be a historian and a scholar. It will also address the issue of Irving’s progression to more of a traditional Holocaust denier position with his move from the thesis that Hitler was a weak leader, uninvolved with the mass-murder of the Jews to his belief that the gas chambers did not exist. To do this these two reoccurring arguments by David Irving will be dissected, and then refuted. The truth of what happened concerning the gas chambers and Hitler’s involvement will also be recounted. Once the truth of what happened is describe, once Irving’s two major arguments are proven to be faulty, and once the scholarly front put up by Irving is put into question; it will be become evident that Irving is left comparable only to common anti-Semites, not to scholarly historians of which he claims to be a part. David Irving in this paper will be shown to be a common anti-Semite masquerading as a scholar, but in order to do this the first thing that must be examined are the claims and arguments of this particular denier of history.

As stated before David Irving’s body of work can be characterized by to arguments. One of these arguments concerns Hitler and his involvement in the “Final Solution” (Hitler’s War Introduction 28). The other argument is about the presences and use of gas chambers in the concentration camps (Forward of Leuchter Report 6). Both of these arguments must be addressed when dealing with David Irving.

The first of these arguments appears in his earlier work, more specifically his book Hitler’s War, which was first published in 1975 under the title Hitler and His Generals. In this version of the book Irving’s thesis that Hitler was uninvolved with the Holocaust did not appear. He claims that it was omitted from the book without his involvement in the process. However, Ullstein Publishing House claims that he was informed that if he wanted it published that his ideas on the extermination of the Jews would have to be taken out or he would have to go somewhere else with his book; Irving thus elected to go forward with the omission of such sections. British, American, and eventually German publishers would publish the book in whole (Jackel 18-19). In the complete version of the book Irving comes to a couple of conclusions. The first is that dictators during war are weak and unable to oversee all that administering organizations are doing. The second is that, “the burden of guilt for the bloody and mindless massacres of the Jews rest on a large number of Germans (and non- Germans), many of them alive today, and not just on one ‘mad dictator’” (Hitler’s War Introduction 31). What do these conclusions add up to? It adds up to Irving’s thesis being what Dr. Eberhard Jackel says was a thesis that “purports that Hitler, with such power as he wielded, tried, as well or rather as poorly as he could manage, to resist the mass murder of the Jews” (Jackel 20).  The first of these conclusions is very well conceived because there is no written order from Hitler to liquidate the Jews (Jackel 22). Knowing this fact Irving demands that any proof of Hitler’s involvement in the Holocaust be concrete documentation as can be seen with his 1977 offer of a thousand pounds to anyone who could provide documentation of this (Hitler’s War Introduction 28-29). The second conclusion on it’s own contains little that is controversial. Of course there were other guilt parties during the war, books such as Daniel Goldhagen’s Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and The Holocaust is constructed around the thesis that the Germans in general were perpetrators during the Holocaust (Goldhagen 6). However, when coupled with the first conclusion Irving creates the thesis of Hitler’s innocence (Jackel 20). He supports this thesis by using three major points as evidence (Jackel 21). The first is that as previously mentioned, there is no written documentation of the Fuhrer’s orders to exterminate the Jews (Hitler’s War Introduction 29). The second point he uses is that there was no mention of the “Final Solution” to any of those closest to Hitler such as house servants and secretaries. The last and most important piece of evidence that he uses is that Hitler gave a counter order. This order appears in Irving’s book, as “At 1:30 pm, from Hitler’s bunker, Himmler had to pass on to Heydrich the explicit order that Jews were not to be liquidated” (Jackel 21). Irving claims that as late as October of 1943 Hitler forbid the liquidation of the Jews (Hitler’s War Introduction 28). This argument was highly evident in Irving’s early works, but he would later progress to a view closer to that of outright Holocaust denial, in fact he would eventually pledge to remove all references to the Holocaust in upcoming editions of Hitler’s War (ADL Irving 2).

In April of 1988 David Irving was called as a witness to the trial of Ernst Zundel in Toronto. This is where he first was exposed to the laboratory findings in “The Leuchter Report”. The reports showed that there were no substantial traces of cyanide in the buildings that had been notorious gas chambers. He would claim that there was, “No doubt as to their integrity” (Forward of Leuchter Report 6). From this point on David Irving would claim that the gas chambers never existed. Where then would he claim the gas chambers came from? Eventually he would claim that they were built after the war had ended by the Poles to be used as tourist attractions (Shallit 1). This would lead to his increasing alignment with the Holocaust denial movement. In 1994 he appeared at a Liberty Lobby (Organization formed by Willis Carto after his break with the Institute for Historical Review) convention at which he shared a stage with former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. He would eventually claim that the Holocaust did not happen, and in his book Goebbels: Mastermind of the Third Reich would refer to Auschwitz as a “Slave labor camp… with the highest mortality rate.” (ADL Irving 1-2). This is the second of Irving’s major arguments and it appears in his later works after his introduction to “The Leuchter Report”, in April of 1988, which he would use as the basis for his argument against the gas chambers (Forward of Leuchter Report 6).

David Irving moved from one false argument to another. He moved from the argument of Hitler’s innocence (Jackel 20) in his early career to his argument that the gas chambers never existed in his later works (Forward of Leuchter Report 6). This progression shows how he came to accept more extreme views as he moved along in his career. In the following section these arguments will be refuted and eventually shown to be false. This will be done using factual evidence and primary source testimony.

Now that David Irving’s arguments have been laid out they must be refuted in order to show how dangerous they are. Again it is best to go in chronological order. Thus the argument of Hitler’s innocence during the Holocaust presents itself as a good starting point.

“Dictatorships are fundamentally weak- the dictator himself, however alert, is unable to oversee all the functions of his executives acting within’ the confines of his far-flung empire; and in this particular case, I concluded, the burden of guilt for the Jews rest on a large number of Germans” (Hitler’s War Introduction 31). This thesis in Hitler’s War is what Dr. Eberhard Jackel called, “more subtle and cunning than a revisionism that denies everything, and for that reason it may find ready believers” (Jackel 20). Because it “may find ready believers” Irving’s arguments for it must be deconstructed. The first of these arguments is the so-called counter-order that Hitler gave. During telephone calls that Himmler had November 30, 1941 Himmler recorded the note, “Jewish transport from Berlin, not to be liquidated.” Irving doing what he does best conformed this note until it fit as evidence for his thesis. He eventually interpreted this note, as, “At 1:30 pm, from Hitler’s bunker, Himmler had to pass on to Heydrich the explicit order that Jews were not to be liquidated.” Just by looking at Irving’s interpretation one can discard this as evidence. Irving took a simple note about a single transport and made it a counter order from Hitler for the entire annihilation of Jews during the Holocaust. As Dr. Jackel points out, “Actually, exactly the opposite is true. If Hitler had not ordered the general destruction of the Jews, it would have made no sense for him to have forbidden it in a single case” (Jackel 21). There was no counter-order from Hitler to stop the liquidation of the Jews. He never intended to stop the Final Solution, Irving’s counter-order was to stop the execution of a single transport, no more no less. Having shown that the counter-order never existed, what about the other order that never existed, the written order of the annihilation of the Jews.

“There was a code, Germans had a coded language. You never talk about extermination; you always talk about special action or special treatment. There was a very clear policy. Words like gas chamber would not be used.” (Mr. Death- Historian Robert Jan Van Pelt). True there was no direct written order from Hitler calling for the extermination of the Jews, but Hitler’s anti-Semitism had been chronicled since the before the 1920’s, no one disputes that he was an anti-Semite (Jackel 23). “If… the Jew is victorious over the other peoples of the world, his crown will be the funeral wreath of humanity… Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: By defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord” (Arad, Gutman, and Margaliot 22). This appeared in Hitler’s Mien Kampf and is a prime example of his documented anti-Semitism. Knowing that Hitler put into affect the policies that appeared in Mein Kampf, how can anyone believe that Hitler was not capable of the mass-murder of the Jews (Jackel 23)? Irving also interviewed servants as well as other that would have been close to Hitler. He uses the fact that they said Hitler never mentioned the Death Camps to them as evidence that Hitler did not know (Jackel 21). On July 10, 1977 in the “Sunday Times Weekly” Gitta Sereny wrote of her attempts to contact those that Irving interviewed. She located five of them, and all said that Hitler never mentioned the annihilation of the Jews to them, but that they believed there was no way he could not have known (Jackel 42). Here is another incidence that shows Irving took only what was applicable to his thesis, all other information was discarded.

Irving claims that since Hitler did not know what was happening, Himmler and Goebbels were the ones who directed the Holocaust. He ignores that Hitler was known to pay extreme attention to detail, and it is “therefore quite unthinkable that he would miss even a day of the Holocaust”. It is also quite implausible that Hitler’s secretary, Bormann, would have not informed him (Jackel 24). Lastly if Himmler had been behind the entire process why would he have referred to his own orders to complete the destruction of the Jews on May 5, 1944 when he said, “Perhaps you can feel with me how difficult it was to follow this soldierly order that had been given me and which I have fulfilled in obedience and good faith” (Jackel 27). Hitler was fully aware of what was happening.

Hitler was behind the Final Solution; the words to prove it came from his own mouth as well as others. When the war had ended the personal masseur for Himmler told a story. The story was that just after the campaign in France Himmler came into see him. Himmler told him that Hitler had informed him he would have to carry out the annihilation of European Jews.  To this Himmler supposedly objected only to have the Fuehrer insist upon the orders (Jackel 25). Early in the war Hitler had already shared his plans with many. On December 1, 1941 he spoke at a dinner party saying, “Many Jews are quite unaware of the destructive nature of their very existence. But whoever destroys life courts death, and that is exactly what is happening to them!” (Jackel 29). Hitler would also mention it in public speeches. On February 24, 1942 he said in a public speech, “my prophesy will be fulfilled, namely that this war will result not in the annihilation of the Aryan humanity, but in the extermination of the Jew” (Jackel 31). These were not just words shouted out to excite the people to kill Jews, they were actions as is seen in a diary entry by Goebbels on March 27, 1942 in which he uses the same word “prophesy” directly relating back to the words of the mastermind behind it all, Hitler; “Not much will remain of the Jews. On the whole it can be said that about 60 per cent of them will have to be liquidated whereas only about 40 per cent can be used for forced labor… The prophesy which the Fuehrer made about them for having brought on a new world was is beginning to come true in a most terrible manner” (Goebbels 147-148). Hitler was behind it all. Irving’s arguments in this regard are utterly false.

The second of David Irving’s equally false arguments is that the gas chambers never existed (Forward of Leuchter Report 6). He claims that the alleged gas chambers were built after the war as tourist attractions (Shallit 1). His main support for this is “The Leuchter Report”. It is best to first show that the gas chambers did exist prior to the end of the war, and then to address “The Leuchter Report”. The gas chambers were first used starting in early 1940, and they were used in Hitler’s “eugenics” program in which over 70,000 people were put to death mostly for mental and physical handicaps (ADL 3). Because of their effectiveness gas chambers were installed and operated in the Death camps between mid 1941 and late 1944 (ADL 4). This information shows that the gas chambers existed at the camps well before the end of the war. “The Leuchter Report” however claims not that they did not exist, but that they were not used for gassing prisoners.

After being asked to testify as an expert witness at the Ernst Zundel Trial in Toronto in 1988 Fred Leuchter went to Poland. Leuchter took samples out of the bricks of the gas chambers at a number of camps, including Auschwitz. When he returned on March 3rd Leuchter began writing his report on what he observed at the camps, and what the results were of test done on the samples. According to Leuchter there was no way they could have been used as gas chambers (Introduction to Leuchter Report 7). However, there were many faults in Leuchter’s study of the gas chambers. First the gas chambers had changed since the war. He made a point that exhaust systems, specially sealed doors, and other things to prevent leaking would have been necessary, but they were not present. According to historian Robert Jan Van Pelt had Leuchter looked into the building archives he would have found plans to build all of these things (Mr. Death- Historian Robert Jan Van Pelt). An example of plans to build such doors appears in letters from Auschwitz to the German Equipment Works. One specific letter which was date March 31, 1943 read, “We take this occasion to refer to another order of March 6, 1943, for the delivery of a gas door 100/192 for the corpse cellar I of crematory III, Bw 30a, which is to be built in the manner and according to the same measure as the cellar door of the opposite crematory II, with peep hole of double 8 millimeter glass encased in rubber” (Hilberg 208). Letters like this serve as the best evidence with which to refute Irving’s argument and “The Leuchter Report”. Another problem with the report is that the bricks Leuchter sampled have been moved all over since the end of the war. The surrounding farmhouses would be equally as good samples as they were built with the bricks of the camps after the war (Mr. Death- Historian Robert Jan Van Pelt). James Roth a chemist for Alpha Analytic Laboratories was a member of the group who did the actual test on the bricks. Though it is his findings that show no significant trace of cyanide on the brick chunks taken from the walls of the gas chambers, it is also his testimony that is most damaging to “The Leuchter Report”. He has said, “I don’t think the Leuchter results have any meaning”. Roth claims that Leuchter brought him samples of all different sizes, and those were broken up in order to be tested. The size of those samples coupled with their being broken up diluted the real sample of the cyanide by more than 10,000 maybe even 100,000 times. According to Roth cyanide would penetrate the wall up to about 1/10 the diameter of a human hair. If one were to test it the surface of the brick is the only part worth testing (Mr. Death- James Roth). “The Leuchter Report” was not a valid study, and David Irving’s claims about the gas chambers are wrong.

David Irving is either a fool or a liar or most likely both. If he did not find the evidence that has been presented that refutes his arguments that he so stubbornly stands by he is a fool. If he just ignored the evidence because it did not support his arguments he is a liar. I do not doubt that he is both; finding some of this information but using only what supported his preconceived notions. Either way the one thing we can be sure of is that David Irving is not a historian.

Hitler was involved in the implementation of the mass murder of Jews, and the gas chambers were the primary method of killing used. Hitler was no doubt an anti-Semite (Krueger 245-246) and gave many a warning and order to exterminate the Jews. It is estimated that around 1 million people were murdered at Auschwitz (ADL 4). If David Irving’s claims are shown to be wrong, what really happened must be presented.

Hitler knew the fate of the Jews in Europe, he was not the weak leader who had all of this happen behind his back as David Irving has suggested. Hitler set forth a warning on January 30, 1939. It was that if war were to be initiated by Jewish Financiers and Bolsheviks the result would be, “The Bolshevization of the earth, and this the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.” Hitler had been an advocate of ridding Europe of Jews throughout the 1920’s and 30’s. He had written in a letter on September 16, 1919 in reference to the “Jewish problem” that, “the final goal, however, must steadfastly remain the removal of the Jews altogether”. The Wannsee Conference, which took place on January 20, 1942, is another example of how all the top Nazi officials, including Hitler, were aware of what the “Final Solution” entailed. Though documentation from Hitler did not directly order or describe what was to happen to the Jews, the men at these conferences talked candidly about it as seen in the testimony of Adolph Eichmann, “These gentlemen… were discussing quite bluntly, quite differently from the language that I had to use later in the record. During the conversation they minced no words about it at all… they spoke about the methods of killing, about liquidation, about extermination” (ADL 2). During a speech on February 24, 1943 at the Sports Palace in Berlin Hitler made the most damning remark considering his involvement with the annihilation of the Jews during the Holocaust. He said, “This struggle will not end with the annihilation of Aryan mankind, but with the extermination of the Jewish people in Europe” (ADL 3). Hitler was not the only one to say such things that would be recorded. Others high up in the Third Reich chronicled the guilt of the Fuehrer. In the Goebbels Diaries 1942-1943 Goebbels recorded Hitler’s support for resolving the “Jewish Question” on February 14, 1942 when he wrote, “The Jews have deserved the catastrophe that has overtaken them. Their destruction will go hand and hand with the destruction of our enemies. We must hasten this process with cold ruthlessness. We shall thereby render an inestimable service to humanity tormented for thousands of years by the Jews. This uncompromising anti-Semitic attitude must prevail among our own people despite all objectors. The Fuehrer expressed this idea vigorously and repeated it afterward to a group of officers who can put that in their pipes and smoke it” (Goebbels 86). There was no final written order by Hitler, but instead a “culmination of a long evolution of Nazi Jewish policy”, as is pointed out in the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. Hitler was involved in the oversight and direction of the policies that “culminated” in the Final Solution (ADL 1). These statements made by the top officials in the Third Reich chronicle the truth of Hitler’s involvement. However, the truth of what happened with the gas chambers must also be shown.

The first estimates of the number murdered in the gas chambers at Auschwitz was 2 1/2-3 million, but that has since been revised to 1 million (ADL 4). The first use of the gas chambers was between January 1940 and August 1941. During that time the gas chambers were used for Hitler’s “eugenics” program in which 70,273 Germans made up mostly of the physically and mentally handicapped died. The start of gassing prisoners in the concentration camps started with gassing vans, which used the exhaust fumes to kill Jews. It is estimated that at least 320,000 prisoners from Chelmo and 870,000 from Treblinka were killed in this manner (ADL 3). Gas chambers were then installed at Belzec, Lublin, Sobibor, Majdanek, and Auschwitz- Birkenau. There first use was on September 3, 1941 at Auschwitz when an experiment was conducted on Soviet prisoners of war in order to test the chambers. The gas used at Auschwitz was hydrogen cyanide, or Zyklon B. Dessauer Works for Sugar and Chemical Industry produced the gas, and The German Corporation for Combating Vermin distributed it (Hilberg 219). Gassing continued to take place until November of 1944 (ADL 4). This gives a historical description of how the gas chambers came to be and what they did, but what was the experience for the victim, what happened to them?

Before the prisoners were gassed two doctors filed them, separating those who could work and those who could not. Those who were deemed unsuitable for work were sent to the gas chambers. Inmates who were not to be gassed were made to help undress those who were; all were stripped naked before they were forced into the chambers. Signs told them they were to be deloused, to bath, or to shower. All of this was done in order to try to keep those who were to be murdered calm by hiding from them what was really happening, but most were not fooled as is seen in the testimony of Rudolf Hoess (Heoss Testimony 1), the cc official and commandant of Auschwitz (Robinson and Sachs 90).

Question: “And they knew what was going to happen to them?”

Heoss Answer: “Yes, I assume so.”

Q: “Did they know what was going to happen to them?”

A: “Yes, they did.”

The women were also required to take their babies with them; children were in general all put to death. Those who were around 15 or 16 and could work were sent off to do so all others were gassed (Heoss Testimony 1). The dead were removed by other inmates who along with the SS men who came into contact with the canisters of gas wore gas masks with special filters (Hilberg 219). Sam Bankhalter, a survivor of Auschwitz, gave some insight into what some of the lasting effects of this policy were when he said, “Everyone that carried a child went automatically to the gas chamber, so my mother took the child. My sister survived, but she still suffers, feels she was a part of killing my mother” (Lewin 6). The valuables were taken from all and sorted by other Jews as seen in a statement by Auschwitz survivor Charlotte Hirsch, “very far away we saw silhouettes of women pushing baby carriages, but later we found out there were no babies in the carriages. They were sorting out valuable things to send to Germany” (Lewin 46). The Nazis sent 700 to 800 people to their death at a time, and at its most efficient as many as 20,000 people a day were murdered (ADL 4). The bodies of those who were gassed were taken out afterward and burned as seen by the description by survivor Edward Grosmann of what he observed when he arrived at Auschwitz, “We saw the chimneys and smelled the smell of burning flesh, and we knew what was going on” (Lewin 38). Who then was put to death in these gas chambers? Enemies of the State were executed as well as Jews. This group could include all of the following Gypsies, Serbians, Soviet prisoners, Polish Catholics, political prisoners (journalist, teachers, activist), Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, and the handicapped. European Jews were however far and away the majority (Buttonproject 6). Poland the country with the greatest population of Jews before the war lost 3 million or 90 percent of its Jewish population. In the Ukraine the pre-war population was 1.5 million, 900,000 of those were annihilated. 228,000 Jews from the Baltic countries were exterminated. In Hungary 450,000 Jews were murdered, that is 70 percent of its population. Between Germany and Austria 210,000 Jews out of the 240,000 pre-war populations were murdered. In Romania 300,000 Jews were murdered. These were not the only countries whose Jewish population was wiped out, but they had the largest losses. In total the pre-war Jewish population was estimated at 8,861,800. The Holocaust saw an estimated 5,933,900 of those murdered, or 67 percent of the total Jewish population (ADL 6-7). The gas chambers were the primary method of putting Jews to death during the war this is what really happened.

The truth is that Hitler was involved in the ordering of the Final Solution. The gas chambers were not simply a tourist attraction, they were machines built for mass murder. 5-6 million Jews died during the Holocaust, the suggestion that it did not happen is sickening.

David Irving has now been stripped down to what he really is. His arguments have been deconstructed, and he is left with no evidence to his claims. He is now left showing his true colors he is a common bigot. Comparisons can be drawn between David Irving and the most evil racists imaginable. For example, Tom Metzger is the head of a group called “White Aryan Resistance” who brags that they publish the most racist newspaper in the country (White Aryan Resistance 1). He has been quoted as saying, “Who but the shameless, scurvy Jews could open a chain of exhibits coast to coast which showcase the misery and grisly death of ‘beloved family members’…actually pimping the pain of their ancestors for a hefty admission fee!” (ADL Metzger 5). Irving denies that much of the Holocaust even happened, but what about in terms of attacking Jews for being greedy and so called making money off the Holocaust, like Metzger does. In an article that appeared in “The New Republic” Jacob Heilbrunn went to a luncheon where Irving was the guest of honor (Heilbrunn 1). When asked about Nazi confiscated gold in Swiss bank accounts that Jews are trying to reclaim he responded, “Now that the Jews have exhausted their lust and greed for animate object…they have turned them on inanimate objects” (Heilbrunn 2). Irving is no historian once his arguments are refuted and his scholarly front is broken down. He is the malignant mouthpiece of the Holocaust denial movement, and that is all he is. There is an obvious progression from Irving’s early thesis that Hitler was innocent to his later siding with such extreme arguments as that of that the gas chambers did not exist. It is a progression in the available evidence though, not in him. He always harbored anti-Semitist feelings that led to his arguments. He is regrettably good at conforming evidence to support his arguments and ignoring everything else. The so-called evidence that “The Leuchter Report” provide only gave him a reason to voice such opinions; it was something else he could ride on in his attempt to achieve his final goal. Irving is an anti-Semite, it can be said that World War II and the Holocaust made it socially unacceptable to speak of such feelings publicly (Heilbrunn 3). Jacob Heilbrunn describe perfectly what Irving’s motivation is when he wrote, “it has been taboo in the west to espouse anti-Semitism publicly. Irving’s project is to smash this taboo” (Heilbrunn 3). By destroying the taboo of which Heilbrunn writes Irving wins, his views become accepted and he is able to realize his anti-Semitic fantasies as reality. It is for this reason that people like Irving must be challenged. Let them be heard, because it is easy through the briefest of research into their arguments to find that they are fools. "'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt." - Abraham Lincoln (Stanford 1). Irving is a fool let him remove all doubt. People like Irving allow us all a chance to better discover what really happened during the Holocaust, let us not discard the chance to both destroy the arguments of deniers as well as learn.

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