 Robert
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
| | 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
CommissionThe "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. |
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