Deborah Lipstadt: The Holocaust on Trial
April 11, 2002
UMass Amherst
In 1977, the publication of Hitler's War by British historian David Irving caused a stir with its sweeping revisionist claims about the Holocaust. According to Irving, Hitler did not command the murder of millions of European Jews; in fact, he was barely aware that the Holocaust had happened. In 1994, American historian Deborah Lipstadt refuted Irving's findings in her book, Denying the Holocaust.
Irving sued Lipstadt for libel in England, where there is no analog to the First Amendment; consequently the burden of proof fell on Lipstadt. In effect, she and her international team of Holocaust experts had to prove that the Holocaust did in fact happen, and that Irving had knowingly falsified or misrepresented the historical sources that proved it.
Lipstadt won.
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Background materials on the David Irving libel trial
Holocaust Denial on Trial
A project of Emory University's Witness to the Holocaust Program and the Institute for Jewish Studies (which Lipstadt directs)
Judgment of the High Court of Justice, London
The full text of the Court's judgment in the case of David John Cadwell Irving (Claimant) and Penguin Books Limited (1st Defendant) and Deborah E. Lipstadt (2nd Defendant),
April 11, 2000
The David Irving Libel Trial
The Guardian (London)
Irving's Tag as 'Holocaust Denier' Upheld
The Guardian (London)
July 21, 2001
Why History Matters
The Guardian (London)
April 15, 2000
Q & A on David Irving
Anti-Defamation League
June 4, 1996
David Irving: Propagandists' Poster Boy
Anti-Defamation League
ADL Says Verdict in Lipstadt Libel Case
Reaffirms Irving's Status as a Holocaust Denier
Anti-Defamation League
April 11, 2000
Burden of Proof
Emory University Magazine
Deborah Lipstadt's lecture was presented by the Office of Jewish Affairs,
and cosponsored by the Jewish Student Union, Dept. of Judaic & Near Eastern Studies, Office of ALANA Affairs, Legal Studies Dept., History Dept., UMass Hillel, Hampshire College Dean of Faculty and Jewish Studies Program, Mount Holyoke College Jewish Studies Program, Hillel at Smith and Amherst Colleges, Jewish Federation of Greater Springfield, Jewish Community Relations Council, and Hatikvah Holocaust Resource Center, with the support of the Five College Lecture Fund.
Arrangements for this lecture were made through the B’nai B’rith Lecture Bureau.
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