International Campaign for Real History

PeltRobert Jan Van Pelt, "architect" and expert witness in the Libel Action between DJC Irving v Penguin Books Ltd and Deborah Lipstadt, hits the lecture road again
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Report on Van Pelt in Miami:

Dr. Robert Jan Van Pelt lectured in Miami Beach, Florida, on Thursday, January 10, 2002 at 7:30 p.m., at the Cuban-Hebrew Congregation, 1700 Michigan Avenue. Subject: "How do we know what we know about the Holocaust? Combating Holocaust Denial". The function was open to the public. [Details]

The event was sponsored in part by: State of Florida - Division of Cultural Affairs, Miami Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, Tropiculture Miami, City of Miami Beach Cultural Arrts Council.

One of our friends who attended reported this:

I had another engagement and got to the lecture toward the end. There was just a very brief question and answer period, just three questions, all from self-proclaimed "Holocaust survivors". In any event. It was more of a pseudo-religious event as opposed to a history lecture. The hall was full, maybe two hundred people.

If Van Pelt passed himself off as an independent, unbiased, objective expert at the Lipstadt trial, then he was kidding the judge. He even got off onto the Palestinian question, saying that the biggest danger of holocaust denial was the fact that the Palestinian Authority was now denying the Holocaust, and so Israel could no longer take the PA seriously as a negotiating partner, or some such nonsense.

In sum, Van Pelt is either an opportunist or shallow, and relying on the ignorance of his audience. He described himself as a kind of knight fighting a battle against the evil of holocaust denial. His battleground is Auschwitz.

He said the other side, the deniers, had thrown down the challenge with respect to Auschwitz and that "we," the good guys like himself and those in attendance presumably, had to fight this battle.

He showed a copy of his new book The Case for Auschwitz, evidence from the Irving Trial. [see advert] He had the only copy; it is not out yet. I did not get the name of the publisher.

He said the one thing he could not forgive Mr Irving for was when he, Van Pelt, was forced under cross-examination to add up the number of victims that could have been handled by the one available elevator [a small platform hoist between the basement Leichenkeller 1 in Krema II at Auschwitz and the crematory furnaces on the ground level] because some survivors were in the courtroom, and this put them through agony.[*]

My comment: I believe that bona fide Holocaust-debunkers like Robert Faurrison, Arthur Butz, Germar Rudolf, or Mark Weber would destroy this guy.

If Van Pelt will not debate or enter into a discussion with the people he is targeting, then he is guilty of intellectual cowardice. As a professor, he should be willing to defend his views in an open debate. He can't have it both ways. He can't say he is engaged in a battle and is fighting a battle against evil, but refuse to engage the other side. In this regard, I think the upcoming event at Manhattanville could be very significant for the revisionists, an excellent opportunity.

 

 


 

* Website note: The elevator is a well-known problem for the conformist Holocaust historians: how could the corpses of "450,000 gassed Hungarian Jews" have been hoisted by that one elevator from the basement morgue ("gas chamber") to the crematoria upstairs in three weeks in May 1944? It is an insuperable bottleneck, which Van Pelt "solved" in Court, so far as we remember, by asserting that the Nazis stacked the bodies on the hoist twenty at a time and achieved an improbably, almost comically, high turnaround time. The hoist was some 4 feet by three and had no walls or door...

 

Read the original Lipstadt trial transcripts
[Hint: Van Pelt was cross examined by Mr Irving on January 25, 26, 28, 31, February 1, 2000]
Download Mr Irving's Lipstadt Trial Diary
See how Van Pelt perjured himself
Advance notice: Westchester Holocaust Commission
The "architect" Dr Robert Jan Van Pelt will also speak on April 9, 2002 at Manhattanville College, New York State:

Robert Jan Van Pelt, major expert witness at the Irving-Lipstadt "Holocaust denial" trial, co-author with Deborah Dwork of three Holocaust studies including the prize-wining Auschwitz 1270 to the Present. Acknowledged as world leading authority on the construction and operation of Auschwitz. Professor of Architecture, University of Waterloo. Topic: The case for Auschwitz. Reflections on the Irving Trial.

The lecture begins at 8 p.m. at Reid Hall, Manhattanville College; admission is free, but "reservations are requested," 914 696 0738 or fax 914 696 0843.

Mr. Irving hopes to attend in person to enliven the proceedings. Please notify us of other future appearances by any member of Lipstadt's dog-and-pony circus.