Diary: November 26, 2002

Real History and Judges, Cannibals, and History

An odd breed (Judges). Judges in the
Queen’s Bench, like Mr Justice
Gray, wear a red sash, the only
High Court judges to do so, as they were traditionally the only judges able to pronounce the death sentence.

November
21, 2002 (Thursday), London

THIS goes to our barrister, Adrian
Davies: “Thank you for your encouraging words last night. I have on an afterthought gone through the entire transcripts digitally today looking for the various references where [… etc].” I send them to Adrian with, as a belly laugh, this little exchange during the trial’s Day
28:

MR IRVING: My Lord, you have
considerable more experience than I do
in cross-examination; and some of your
clients have ended up in prison and
some of them, no doubt, have been
acquitted and
[sic.
or] have been awarded large sums in
damages.

MR JUSTICE GRAY: That is kind of
you to put it like that. Now let us get
on with the cross-examination.

There was loud but not unkind laughter in court from those in the know. The references are to Jonathan Aitken
and Lord Aldington respectively, both of whom the Judge, then Sir
Charles Gray QC, had represented in court.

Of course scoring points off the Judge is not always a good idea (if indeed at all) There is a law story about the noted criminal barrister F E Smith KC, later Lord Birkenhead, who was rebuked by a judge, after a lengthy defence of his client, who was accused of murder, in these terms: “Mr Smith, I have listened to what you have had to say, and
I must confess that I find myself not much the wiser –” “– but very much better informed, if I may respectfully say

so, M’lud,” replied Smith.

Adrian
Davies (right), who has prepared our new Opinion , knows more of the famous incident. The judge was the famous Mr
Justice Darling. The case was in the
Twenties. Darling, furious at Smith’s clever jibe, got his revenge a few days later when he donned the black cap and pronounced the death sentence on the man, who was manifestly innocent.

A fellow judge who knew Davies told him that afterwards, meeting Darling in his
Club, he had remarked diffidently, “I say, that was a bit steep wasn’t it, old chap
— to top a defendant just because his
Silk scored a point off you?” “I disagree,” said Darling. “The man was a
Polish Jew, and no great loss to humanity.”

An odd breed (Judges). Judges in the
Queen’s Bench, like Mr Justice Gray, wear a red sash, the only High Court judges to do so, as they were traditionally the only judges able to pronounce the death sentence.

.
ROLF Hochhuth, the playwright, once advised me: “David, whatever you do, never reply to fan mail. It just encourages them to write to to you again.” (He showed me a cupboard that was bulging with unopened letters.)

A student, Tom Mahler, who wrote a long list of questions, which I answered, now comes with another: “Do you think of yourself as a historical figure?
and, What do you think your place in history will be, what is your legacy?” I answer: “Yes, alas; my fame will come after I am gone, and the books I have written will be preferred over the time-serving works of the copyists and conformists. Of that I have no doubt.

They are written with future fame in mind, not with current profit.” I hope I have not encouraged him.

November
23, 2002 (Saturday), London

Linda N. of Chicago, who has valiantly and selflessly produced the pdf files of most of my books’ Internet editions, inquires: “May I please have the latest password? It used to be skunkwatch, but that no longer works.” Then she asks,
“Have you ever read In the Footsteps of
Livingstone?”

And have I! I reply: “My father published it in 1920. I read it on my first overnight flight down to South
Africa in 1986. Alfred Dolman, the diary’s author, my ancestor, was eaten by his native Hottentot bearer on the second trip he made to visit Dr Livingston
in Bechuanaland. ‘He was brought up at
Eton in England, and eaten and brought up in South Africa’ — that was always my best opening story on my South African tour. I want to republish the book.

My brother showed me last week all the original water-colour illustrations, they are beautiful.”

November
25, 2002 (Monday), London

Linda has responded:

Thanks for the password. I
recently found a copy of In the
Footsteps of Livingstone. Very
interesting! There’s only one gorgeous
color plate in the book; the other
illustrations are b/w. The most
remarkable thing is how very young
Dolman was when he began his
adventures. The concept of an extended
adolescence, with even dimwits expected
to attend college, is a newfangled
thing.

Would you like a scan of
Livingstone? Or would you like
The War Path first?

I send this considered reply:

Linda, I think The War
Path is more cogent. Let me reveal
my thinking: I have recently looked at
the first editions (1978, 1978) of
Hitler’s War and The War
Path and I feel that they lost
style and readability in the abridging,
which I partly did myself and partly
subcontracted to others.

I am therefore
planning in 2-3 years’ time to produce
an expanded two-volume edition of the
book, beautifully illustrated, using
the original 1977, 1978 texts, and
including the new materials that have
been brought into the 2001 edition.

I found myself being criticised by the Court in the Lipstadt trial for having cut out what they considered to be key sentences or paragraphs (in the abridging process); of course they were not deliberately cut for political, slanting reasons, but that is what the Court maintained.

This task will involve producing clean text scans of both the 1977 and
1978 volumes, which we do not yet have, which can then also be posted as pdfs, of course using the original indices; and then embarking on the delicate task of prising them apart and inserting the implants. For which I may hire a suitable brainy person, as it will involve only surgery.

I would then edit the resulting two volumes, and perhaps even insert the annotations on a numbered basis, which is what students always look for.

Somebody writes that The Los Angeles
Times a few days ago carried an article by Robert
Van Pelt, one of those Court critics, on the current Hitler madness:
The article ” WHAT’S BEHIND
THIS UGLY HITLER-FEST?” isn’t in the internet edition, but here are the relevant paragraphs.

“….In the 1960’s a young and
engergetic British Writer named
David Irving believed that the
time had come to make a case for
Hitler. Irving argued that in
the court of history, Hitler had had
too many prosecutors, and no serious
defender. So he tracked down people who
remembered “the other Hitler,” and
found Hitler’s secretary, Traudl
Junge, who taught him to see the
war through Hitler’s eyes, to champion
his perspective.

The result was
“Hitler’s War” (1977). In it, Irving
argued that the Holocaust had been
enacted by “criminal elements” behind
Hitler’s back and without his knowledge
or approval. According to Irving,
“Hitler was the best friend the Jews
had in the Third Reich.” The puppet
tyrant syndrome. Poor, misunderstood
Hitler.”

November
26, 2002 (Tuesday), London

The mailman rings the doorbell at 7:30
with a registered package, 1,500 kroner from a Danish supporter, for the coming legal Endkampf. Then with Jessica by No.
36 bus to school., and off to the Public
Record Office.

[Previous
Radical’s Diary]

on this website:

Dossier
on The Final
Gavel
(password protected)

[This
is the early draft of a publication being
prepared on the international campaign mounted
to silence to author David Irving since 1989. In
its final form it will be longer, illustrated,
and have links to key documents on which the
narrative is based]

[Download
a different and better printed form as a pdf
file]co.uk> write
to David Irving