Sunday March 26, 2000

Letters

What makes a Nazi-lover tick?

 

Gerald Posner's interview with David Irving (News, last week) was certainly interesting, but what is it makes the man, and his fellow revisionists, tick? What driving force, or what psychological quirk, makes people who claim to be serious historians resist the current of so much evidence? What seeker after historical truth can credit any Nazi-defensive statement when the system was so largely based on Goebbels' principle that the bigger the lie the more it would be believed?

If such people have a nostalgic admiration for the Nazis, then they should celebrate what the Nazis did to the Jews rather than deny it. Let them be consistent. Then we would really know with whom we are dealing.

John Hale
Nice, France

David Irving is wrong about the eagerness of 'everyone' in wartime to hand over the Jews. The Italians evaded this by various stratagems; Denmark resisted, with considerable success; Bulgaria refused; the Greeks were tricked; and even the Romanians and Hungarians, despite strong anti-semitism, fluctuated in response. When a suspicious Admiral Horthy asked in 1943 what exactly would happen to deported Jews, however, Hitler told the Hungarian leader that the Jews would be forced to work, those who resisted would be killed, and those unable to work would succumb like animals who have to be put down. [see below]
Camile Watson
Gobernuisgach, NW Highlands

© Copyright Guardian Media Group plc. 2000

 

[Website note: Now see what actually was recorded during the Hitler/Horthy meeting of April 1943]

The Observer's notable contribution to a fair trial verdict. . .

 

Other examples, including The Guardian's special effort, an article entitled "The Bogeyman of the Nursery" illustrated by a whole page photo of Mr Irving, are not posted on this website; reference to them will be found in the court transcripts. Can newspapers have an "aggravated" death-wish?

HAVE YOU been wondering why the two best stallions in the Guardian Newspapers Ltd stable, The Observer and The Guardian, have had their knives out for David Irving throughout his lawsuit against Deborah Lipstadt?

Well, here's a hint. Coming shortly: The next High Court action: David Irving vs. Guardian Newspapers and Gitta Sereny (left).