Fake Television History

October 31, 2000

A
Halloween re-enactment where the dread is real JOHN
DOYLE

NOVA: Holocaust on
Trial (PBS, 9 p.m.) is an account of the libel trial brought by the English historian and Holocaust denier, David Irving, against an
American academic and her publisher. For three months last year, Irving, representing himself, sought to prove that
Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books had set out to ruin his reputation and livelihood.

Under British law, it was up to the writer and her publisher to show that what was published about Irving was true. They had to show that Irving had deliberately manipulated historical evidence to bolster his dangerous claim that no Jews were killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz.
What we see, for much of the program, is a chilling re-enactment of the trial.

Irving emerges as insanely provocative from the beginning, claiming that to be labelled a Holocaust denier is to be tainted by “a verbal yellow star.” Acting for Lipsadt and Penguin, the defence team had access to his private diaries and there is one horrifying scene in which a lawyer reads from them about Irving’s own joy in teaching his little daughter a racist rhyme.

These key moments in the trial are interspersed with film footage and photos to prove the very thing Irving denies. As much as there is pleasure to be had in the cross-examination of Irving that demolishes his absurd claims, the true pleasure comes at the end.

Both sides elected not to have a trial by jury and it is the words of Judge
Charles Gray that finally nail Irving, denying his libel claim. “He is an active
Holocaust denier. He is anti-Semitic and racist and he associates with right-wing extremists who promote new
Nazism.”

As part of Holocaust Education Week in Canada, which ends Nov. 9, Dr. Lipstadt lectured in Toronto on the weekend on Denying the
Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory.

Website note:

• Broadcast
  trancripts to PBS’ “Holocaust on
  Trial” movie

David
Irving writes: MANY PEOPLE
have pointed out to us that the Nova
version of the 4BM film The
Holocaust on Trial, as shown on PBS
television in North America, was only
50 minutes long, compared with the full
length of 90 minutes as shown in on

UK
Television (Channel 4) and at David
Irving’s Real History Cincinnati
2000
conference. Guess whose voice was in
the forty minutes that were cut? This
is the only way that the traditional
enemies of the truth can win their
argument. But not for
long….