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Jerusalem Post
24 September 1999
, page 5B
HE FIGHT against Holocaust deniers is nearly as old as the Shoah itself, but come the first month of the 21st century the biggest battle ever will begin, one whose outcome will echo long after the survivors and perpetrators are no longer around.
‘It seems unlikely, but every time you go to court there is always the danger of losing a case. Any victory for Irving, any defeat for Deborah Lipstadt on any major point, will be a loss for truth and historical accuracy.’
Lipstadt, who maintains an absolute policy of never accepting an invitation to debate deniers and thereby give them legitimacy — ‘Would you ask someone who works for NASA to debate someone who believes that the earth is flat?’ — cited four reasons why Holocaust denial is accepted.
But this trial will dwarf all the others, because of its location, its adversaries, and what it portends for the future.
‘This is not a perpetrator saying it didn’t happen, nor a survivor saying it did happen — these are people who are historians, the people who deal with the events rather than the people who lived through the events. This is the beginning of the future. It would not be surprising if such cases don’t happen again and again.’