Hopefully, it will never happen here, but Europe has recently shown itself for it's much vaunted andhyped and for that matter relatively recent views on democracy and freedom of the press and speech. David Irving is a British (and it is important to note this) historian, who has recently been charged in an AUSTRIAN court for the unthinkable crime of denying the Holocaust.
No matter what you might think abour Mr. Irving, or for that matter no matter how you may feel about the Holocaust, Nazism, or any so-called "Jewish conspiracies"-or lack thereof-no person who respects freedom in any of it's cerebral forms, that of thought, of speech, of assembly, or any kind of freedom, could be happy with this.
Yet, such is the world we live in, and I fear the precedent this might set. Should the World Court ever become an accepted reality in everyday life, is this an example of the result that might ensue, for not only America, but for any of the signatories?
Irving has had a long and at times distinquished, at other times controversial, career as a historian who worships at the altar of research. He once offerred a rspectable sum of money to any researcher who could prove that Hitler ordered the extermination of Jewish prisoners. In fact, Irving asserted that not only di dHitler not order the Holocaust, he did not even know of any atrocities committed agaisnt jewish prisoners before 1943. He even went so far as to refute the existence of ovens (for the destruction of Jews) in Nazi death camps.
Irving is no stranger to litigation. He was successfully sued by a Captain J.S. Broome, who commanded the escort of a convoy Irving wrote critically about in "The Destruction of Convoy PQ 17". He also lost a suit filed agaisnt an American academic, Deborah Lipstadt, who criticized him in her "Denying The Holocaust: The Growing Assault On Truth And Memory". She had asserted that Irving was a "Holocaust Denier", to which Irving took exception.
Of course, Irving did, in addition to his doubts about the ovens, assert serious doubts about the veracity of the numbers of Jews killed in the Holocaust. The official number-6,000,000-does seem questionable, and it has been stated that the Jews "fudged the numbers" out of some type of mystical need to assert their spiritual identity in a way prophesied many centuries ago. The number 6,000,000, in other words, has prohetical significance, so it has been said.
Whatever the truth of the assertions and the counter allegations, however,that is not the point, and frankly I could care less (which at the rate things are going will probably one day turn out to be a crime as well) . My concern is with freedom of all kinds, mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual. If a person has a theory, that person has very right to present that theory, and all others have a right to agree, disagree, support, or ridicule, as they see fit. No one has a right to assault or in any manner marginalize a person for their beliefs.
But it would seem as though the Austrian court has every intention of becomming the very Nazis they so pretend to despise. Which of course would be asppropriate, as Hitler was, after all, an Austrian. I don't have any idea how this will all turn out, but if this is the standard for European justice and freedom, I want no part of it, and sincerely hope the U.S. never becomes a signatory to the World Court, or anything remotely similar to it.
As for Mr. Irving, it is impossible now for him to find a publisher for his works, and spends his time on the lecture circuit, in fact he recently returned from the U.S. where he embarked on a lecture tour. As for his writings, they are availiable for free on the Internet. Monster that I am, I will in the future provide a link to them, probably on this post. I will provide a link to this post then in a future one, if a significant amount of posts have been added by then.
Mr. Irvings previous books include:
"The Destuction of Dresden"-in which Mr. Irving stated his view that the bombing of that city was the greatest atrocity ever visited upon a European city.
"The Mare's Nest"
"The Virus House"
He is currently working on a biography of SS Chief Heinrich Himmler.
7 comments:
What bothers me though is his lack of academic education as a historian. Could I call myself one too, as it no longer requires a degree? I could run my research by offering people money to come up with data that supports my views and not give up until I have the results I want. I could write my books by ignoring what everyone else has ever written before, by refusing to use any other sources but archive material, and "do science" in a vacuum.
You are probably right, but my main concern is the idea that a person can be prosecuted for espousing and publishing controversial, unpopular, and heretical views. I think it sets a horrible precedent.
Glad you stopped by, by the way.
That was me that said the preceeding, by the way, I don't know how it come out as Anonymous, guess I forgot I'd signed out.
That's true. But me being such an asshole, I don't really care how rough it gets for people like him.
Well nah, I do. Though HE sued Lipstadt for slander. Is it slander to call someone a "denyer of the Holocaust", really? More so than tell people they're pretty much lying about their holocaust past?
Yeah, you might have a point htere too, though I would have to know what the context of the lawsuit was before I would know for sure. At any rate, this was a private lawsuit, and if you are right it was decided correctly, though I would affirmthe lawsuit perhaps should not have been heard inthe first place. At any rate, the suit against him seems to have been brought by the government due to his breaking of some, in my opinion, very ill-advised law.
By the way, I forgot to tell you before-
Happy Birthday.
Yeah, 1 hour and 12 minutes and I'm officially an old maid.
I was going to try to hold off until the exact minute cos I'm a sentimental type, but can't, I gotta fly. But anyway, Happy Official Birthday-
And I ain't buyin' that old maid crap for a second.
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