David Irving

London, February 18, 1998

Sir,
I WAS angry to read your Editorial's reckless and hurtful reference to me (Feb. 12) as "the anti-Semitic British historian." That a handful of Australian Jews have agitated against my visiting your country does not make me ipso facto an anti-Semite, it makes them anti-Irving.
For the record, the most influential American Jewish agency, the Anti-Defamation League, reported secretly in April 1977, after my biography Hitler's War was published, "Irving is definitely not anti-Semitic." Even the Board of Deputies of British Jews admitted in a confidential Intelligence report sent in 1992 to various governments including no doubt your own - it was obtained by me from Ottawa under the Canadian Access to Information Act - that I have many professional friends who are Jewish, and that there is no evidence of any anti-Semitism on my part (other than a dislike of the policies of Israel).

(I attach photocopies of the pages concerned).

Yours faithfully,
David Irving