⚠️ Historical Documentation Notice
Historical Documentation Notice

This document is part of a historical archive and is presented for scholarly research and educational purposes.

The content reflects historical perspectives and should be understood within its historical context.

Posted
Monday,
April 16, 2001

Alphabetical index (text)

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

Denver, Colorado, March 2, 2001,
Friday

[All images added by this
website]

HOLOCAUST
HISTORIAN DESCRIBES LEGAL FIGHT

By Dahlia Jean Weinstein, News Society
Writer

TISSUES were a hot commodity at the recent Choices luncheon, called “The Truth on Trial.” More than 900
attendees, mostly Jewish women, fought back tears as they listened to Dr.
Deborah Lipstadt, a professor of modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies from
Emory University, who spent most of the past five years in a British courtroom fighting
Holocaust denier David
Irving.

Irving sued
Lipstadt and her British publisher,
Penguin Books, for libel in 1994 after she accused him of distorting the history of the Holocaust in her book, Denying the
Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory.

“I got the letter (regarding the lawsuit) and laughed,” she said, not expecting the suit to hold water.
Unfortunately, British libel laws say you’re guilty until you prove you’re innocent. Her legal team decided not to try to prove the Holocaust occurred, but to prove instead that Irving was a manipulator of the truth – a liar.

“This is a man who said, ‘Auschwitz is like a Disneyland for tourists,'” Lipstadt said. “I never decided to fight. I just fought.”

Irving lost
that battle and two appeals. Another
appeal
will be
heard March
19 in Britain, but Lipstadt has already
won the war. Her dedication honors the
6 million Jews who lost their lives in
Nazi concentration camps.

Event chairwomen Cindy Attias,
Michelle Hepner and Artis
Silverman welcomed the guests to the luncheon, the annual Allied Jewish
Federation Women’s Department fund-raiser benefiting its annual campaign.

In addition to raising funds, many guests brought new clothing and personal items for the Joint Distribution
Committee, which donates them to Holocaust survivors living in Romania. Centerpieces of school supplies will be sent to Jewish children in Russia.

Then, a video presentation and tearful plea from AJF campaign director Ellen
Finer brought out the tissues once more as guests got a glimpse of the people they were helping around the world.[…]

Related
items on this website:

Lipstadt
trial index
Trial
transcripts
Charges
of bigotry backfire, ADL loses Denver
appeal against $10.5m libel
award

The
above news item is reproduced without editing other
than typographical
to go on the Mailing List to receive©
Focal Point
2001 write to David
Irving

See Also