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Unless correspondents ask us not to, this Website will post selected letters that it receives and invite open debate. |
IN THE EIGHT months since the launch of this FPP Website, there has, remarkably, been abusive mail only from one correspondent, a Mr David Katz of Johannesburg, writing in early 1998. After eight months' silence Katz has now written again.
In
this new letter Katz claims to have written a letter to Mr
Irving to which he has received no reply. Now read on
...
THANK YOU for your reply.
I deny that I uttered anti-Semitic remarks either
then or on any other occasion. Both the
Anti-Defamation
League (New York,
Washington) and the Board
of Deputies of British Jews
(in London) have gone on record in their private
memoranda, copies of which I have obtained under
legal processes, as stating that "regrettably" I
cannot be attacked as an anti-Semite (this is of
course normally their first line of attack). David Irving |
Katz now claims to have responded:
YOUR
ABOVE comment
can be equated with Lenin denying that he was a
Marxist. Your reputation for uttering distasteful
remarks about Jews precedes you. There cannot be smoke
without fire. I personally witnessed some of this "fire"
back in Johannesburg. What is your definition of "anti
Semitic"? (I prefer to call a spade a spade and use the term
anti Jew.)
[Right:
A smoke-without-fire-maker 
I have no doubt that you wish to defend your reputation. What are you defending? For one that is so sensitive to anti Jewish labels you certainly show very little circumspection or respect when talking about Jews and their relationship with the Germans. Your remarks about Jews are callous, and disrespectful and incredibly hurtful to those who lost relatives in the camps and at the hands of the Einsatz. You have chosen to use your considerable talents in the trenches of Holocaust denial.
The Holocaust, due to the immensity of the tragedy to European Jewry is central and dear to every Jew today. Your methods, and words, and the nature of the audiences that you preach to, all point to the very simple fact, that you are anti-Jewish.
You yourself said in Johannesburg that the Holocaust is a minefield. You have now entered that minefield of your own choice. Cowboys don't cry, Mr Irving.
It is also cowardly to utter remarks about Jew and other racial groups at meetings, but never to reduce the same to the written word for all to see. I am less bothered with your anti Jewishness than your constant denial of the words that you uttered in Johannesburg. It is important to me that any historian should have integrity no matter his political or racial outlook. In my opinion your blatant denial of what I know to be true has devalued the worth and impact of the many books you have written.
David
Katz
Johannesburg
David Irving
notes:
I AM SORRY to say that your reply as quoted by you [above] did not reach me. When did you send it? Please provide data: time, date, address sent to, etc. I shall of course post your reply, in fairness. I do not think it will help to lessen the hostility of the anti-Semites, in fact it may increase it.
No doubt you have now read my diary of my South Africa trip, and you will realise how impossible it is to reconcile my contemporary private diary note with the version from your recollection.
Dear Mr Irving.
Is there any good reason that your above reply differs substantially from that posted onto your Web site?
You
have left out the fact that your absence from the country or
your staff may have been to blame for your oversight in not
replying to my letter. I wouldn't like to think that you
engineered the Web reply so as to give the impression to
your readers that my letter was an eight month afterthought
designed to assist the defence council of Deborah
Lipstadt.
I think you owe it to your web visitors to show the complete
picture and not "engineer" your or my correspondence for the
sake of a cheap shot. For the record I deny that I have been
approached by Lipstadt's defence counsel at any time. I am
sure she has ample material to defend herself adequately
without my evidence. I am not particularly interested in
your little squabble with Lipstadt and others. These amount
to a feeble attempts to rehabilitate yourself in the eyes of
the mainstream historians, and once again be allowed access
to various historical archives. It does not take a rocket
scientist to see when I mailed the original message. This
information appears at the top of the page on the last
letter.
I have now read your diary several times, and in all honesty how does this help your case? Your diary FAILS to give any details as to the content of the speech that you delivered in South Africa. In your diary you admit to your association with [Clive] Derby-Lewis. Other than that NOTHING! Please spell it out ! What you are trying to prove by showing me this diary that contains nothing of relevace. I suspect your motive is a little too obtuse for those of us who enjoy hard fact. (A little bit of bullsh*t baffles brains perhaps?).
I have recently read [Ron] Rosenbaum's Explaining Hitler. He devotes a whole chapter to you. I strongly urge all your "truth seekers" to read this excellent book. The author certainly was able to answer most of my unresolved questions that I have about you. What was of particular interest to our current discussion was your little "OOPS" dilemma with the Eichman diaries. What was fascinating was your explaining away the clear "Führer Directive" alluded to in the Eichmann diaries by saying that the man wrote with the thought in mind that these very same diaries would one day be valuable evidence in his defence. If I understood it correctly you accuse Eichman of engineering a "Führer Directive" in his diary so as to cover himself in any future conviction. Now isn' t that something Mr. Irving? Your plot not mine. What an elaborate thing to do. I hope that you do not write your diaries with the same intention in mind.
Your replies to my correspondence on your web site have become increasingly shrill. I appeal to you to try and retain a little composure in this matter. May I also take this opportunity to state that I do not give a damm what effect my replies are having on the anti-Semites of this world. I am only interested in stating the truth of the events that took place at your Johannesburg speech 1987 no matter the consequences.
   write
to David Irving |
