Deborah Lipstadt
Encyclopedia
Deborah Esther Lipstadt, Ph.D. (born March 18, 1947, New York City) is an American historian
and author of the book Denying the Holocaust
and The Eichmann Trial. She is the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University
. She received her BA from City College of New York
and her MA and PhD from Brandeis University
.
Lipstadt was a consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
. In 1994, she was appointed by Bill Clinton
to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, on which she served two terms.
sued her and her publisher, Penguin Books
, for libel in an English court, after she characterized some of his writings and public statements as Holocaust denial
in her book Denying the Holocaust.
Lipstadt's legal defence team was led by Anthony Julius
of Mishcon de Reya
while Penguin's was led by Kevin Bays and Mark Bateman of Davenport Lyons. Both defendant
s instructed Richard Rampton
QC
while Penguin also instructed Heather Rogers as junior counsel. The expert witness for the defence was Cambridge
historian Richard J. Evans
, assisted by Christopher Browning
, Robert Jan van Pelt
and Peter Longerich
.
Although English libel law puts the burden of proof on the defendant rather than the plaintiff, Lipstadt and Penguin won the case using the justification defence, viz. by demonstrating in court that Lipstadt's accusations against Irving were substantially true and therefore not libelous. The case was argued as a bench trial
before Mr Justice Gray, who produced a written judgment 334 pages long detailing Irving
's systematic distortion of the historical record of World War II
. The Times
(April 14, 2000, p. 23) said of Lipstadt's victory, "History has had its day in court and scored a crushing victory."
- she was banned not only from testifying in court but also speaking to the press - because they knew full well that a single word from this know-nothing's mouth would sink the ship. In her account of the trial Lipstadt can barely conceal the lawyer's contempt for her, yet she is too thick-headed to notice the absurdity of her smug two thumbs-up after the jury announced its verdict. She had as much to do with the victory as I [Finkelstein] did with last night's performance of the Bolshoi."
, she has stated that she is personally opposed to the three-year prison sentence of Irving in Austria for two speeches he made in 1989, during which he allegedly claimed there had been no gas chambers at Auschwitz, as minimizing the atrocities of the Third Reich is a crime punishable with up to 10 years imprisonment in Austria. "I am uncomfortable with imprisoning people for speech. Let him go and let him fade from everyone's radar screens...Generally, I don't think Holocaust denial should be a crime. I am a free speech person, I am against censorship."
" at the Zionist Federation's annual fundraising dinner in London. Referring to groups such as the Muslim Council of Britain
, reportedly she stated: "When groups of people refuse to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day
unless equal time is given to anti-Muslim prejudice, this is soft-core denial
." According to Paul, "She received huge applause when she asked how former United States President Jimmy Carter
could omit the years 1939-1947 from a chronology in his book"; referring to his recently-published and controversial book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, she said: "When a former president of the United States writes a book on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis
and writes a chronology at the beginning of the book in order to help them understand the emergence of the situation and in that chronology lists nothing of importance between 1939 and 1947, that is soft-core denial
."
Along the same lines, Lipstadt has criticized the German philosopher and historian Ernst Nolte
for engaging in what she calls "soft-core denial" of the Holocaust, arguing that Nolte practises an even more dangerous form of negationism
than the Holocaust-deniers. Speaking of Nolte in a 2003 interview, Lipstadt stated:
, especially that of Richard Williamson, saying that the Vatican "has made itself look like it is living in the darkest of ages."
teaching award for excellence in teaching.
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and author of the book Denying the Holocaust
Denying the Holocaust
Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth & Memory is a 1993 book by Deborah Lipstadt which led to a libel action when David Irving objected to Lipstadt calling him a Holocaust denier, see Irving v Penguin Books and Lipstadt. The book gives a detailed and perceptive explanation of how...
and The Eichmann Trial. She is the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
. She received her BA from City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
and her MA and PhD from Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
.
Lipstadt was a consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history...
. In 1994, she was appointed by Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, on which she served two terms.
Irving sues for libel
David IrvingDavid Irving
David John Cawdell Irving is an English writer,best known for his denial of the Holocaust, who specialises in the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany...
sued her and her publisher, Penguin Books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
, for libel in an English court, after she characterized some of his writings and public statements as Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
in her book Denying the Holocaust.
Lipstadt's legal defence team was led by Anthony Julius
Anthony Julius
Anthony Julius is a prominent British lawyer and academic, best known for his actions on behalf of Diana, Princess of Wales, Deborah Lipstadt and more recently Heather Mills...
of Mishcon de Reya
Mishcon de Reya
Mishcon de Reya is an international law firm with offices in London offering a range of legal and advocacy services for businesses and individuals...
while Penguin's was led by Kevin Bays and Mark Bateman of Davenport Lyons. Both defendant
Defendant
A defendant or defender is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff or pursuer in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute...
s instructed Richard Rampton
Richard Rampton
Richard Rampton QC is a leading British libel lawyer. He has been involved in several high profile cases, with his defence of Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books against David Irving among the most famous. In Irving v. Penguin Books and Lipstadt, he represented them against false accusations of...
QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
while Penguin also instructed Heather Rogers as junior counsel. The expert witness for the defence was Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
historian Richard J. Evans
Richard J. Evans
Richard John Evans is a British academic and historian, prominently known for his history of Germany.-Life:Evans was born in London, of Welsh parentage, and is now Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge and President of Wolfson College...
, assisted by Christopher Browning
Christopher Browning
Christopher Robert Browning is an American historian of the Holocaust.-Education:Browning received his bachelor's degree from Oberlin College in 1968 and his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1975. He taught at Pacific Lutheran University from 1974 to 1999, eventually becoming...
, Robert Jan van Pelt
Robert Jan van Pelt
Robert Jan van Pelt is an author, architectural historian, professor at the University of Waterloo and University of Toronto in Ontario and a Holocaust scholar. One of the world's leading experts on Auschwitz, he regularly speaks on Holocaust related topics, through which he has come to address...
and Peter Longerich
Peter Longerich
Professor Peter Longerich is a German historian.In 2002-03, Professor Longerich was the third holder of the Visiting Chair at the Fritz Bauer Institute in Frankfurt. In 2003-04, he was J.B...
.
Although English libel law puts the burden of proof on the defendant rather than the plaintiff, Lipstadt and Penguin won the case using the justification defence, viz. by demonstrating in court that Lipstadt's accusations against Irving were substantially true and therefore not libelous. The case was argued as a bench trial
Bench trial
A bench trial is a trial held before a judge sitting without a jury. The term is chiefly used in common law jurisdictions to describe exceptions from jury trial, as most other legal systems do not use juries to any great extent....
before Mr Justice Gray, who produced a written judgment 334 pages long detailing Irving
David Irving
David John Cawdell Irving is an English writer,best known for his denial of the Holocaust, who specialises in the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany...
's systematic distortion of the historical record of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
(April 14, 2000, p. 23) said of Lipstadt's victory, "History has had its day in court and scored a crushing victory."
Reaction to Irving trial and criticism
Norman G. Finkelstein openly criticized Lipstadt for her role in the Irving trial, stating "Her [Lipstadt] lawyers imposed a gag rule on Deborah Lipstadt during her trial with David IrvingDavid Irving
David John Cawdell Irving is an English writer,best known for his denial of the Holocaust, who specialises in the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany...
- she was banned not only from testifying in court but also speaking to the press - because they knew full well that a single word from this know-nothing's mouth would sink the ship. In her account of the trial Lipstadt can barely conceal the lawyer's contempt for her, yet she is too thick-headed to notice the absurdity of her smug two thumbs-up after the jury announced its verdict. She had as much to do with the victory as I [Finkelstein] did with last night's performance of the Bolshoi."
Free speech
Despite her acrimonious history with Holocaust denier David IrvingDavid Irving
David John Cawdell Irving is an English writer,best known for his denial of the Holocaust, who specialises in the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany...
, she has stated that she is personally opposed to the three-year prison sentence of Irving in Austria for two speeches he made in 1989, during which he allegedly claimed there had been no gas chambers at Auschwitz, as minimizing the atrocities of the Third Reich is a crime punishable with up to 10 years imprisonment in Austria. "I am uncomfortable with imprisoning people for speech. Let him go and let him fade from everyone's radar screens...Generally, I don't think Holocaust denial should be a crime. I am a free speech person, I am against censorship."
"Soft-core denial" of the Holocaust
In February 2007, Lipstadt used the neologism "soft-core denialHolocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
" at the Zionist Federation's annual fundraising dinner in London. Referring to groups such as the Muslim Council of Britain
Muslim Council of Britain
The Muslim Council of Britain is a self-appointed umbrella body for national, regional, local and specialist organisations and institutions from different ethnic and sectarian backgrounds within British Islamic society. It was established in 1997 to help Muslims, to increase education about the...
, reportedly she stated: "When groups of people refuse to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day
Holocaust Memorial Day
Holocaust Memorial Day or Holocaust Remembrance Day may refer to one of several commemorations of the Holocaust.-See also:* United Nations Holocaust Memorial* List of Holocaust memorials and museums...
unless equal time is given to anti-Muslim prejudice, this is soft-core denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
." According to Paul, "She received huge applause when she asked how former United States President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
could omit the years 1939-1947 from a chronology in his book"; referring to his recently-published and controversial book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, she said: "When a former president of the United States writes a book on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
and writes a chronology at the beginning of the book in order to help them understand the emergence of the situation and in that chronology lists nothing of importance between 1939 and 1947, that is soft-core denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
."
Along the same lines, Lipstadt has criticized the German philosopher and historian Ernst Nolte
Ernst Nolte
Ernst Nolte is a German historian and philosopher. Nolte’s major interest is the comparative studies of Fascism and Communism. He is Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the Free University of Berlin, where he taught from 1973 to 1991. He was previously a Professor at the University of Marburg...
for engaging in what she calls "soft-core denial" of the Holocaust, arguing that Nolte practises an even more dangerous form of negationism
Historical revisionism (negationism)
Historical revisionism is either the legitimate scholastic re-examination of existing knowledge about a historical event, or the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favourable light. For the former, i.e. the academic pursuit, see...
than the Holocaust-deniers. Speaking of Nolte in a 2003 interview, Lipstadt stated:
"Historians such as the German Ernst Nolte are, in some ways, even more dangerous than the deniers. Nolte is an anti-Semite of the first order, who attempts to rehabilitate Hitler by saying that he was no worse than Stalin; but he is careful not to deny the Holocaust. Holocaust-deniers make Nolte's life more comfortable. They have, with their radical argumentation, pulled the center a little more to their side. Consequently, a less radical extremist, such as Nolte, finds himself closer to the middle ground, which makes him more dangerous".
Criticism of the Catholic Church
In 2009, she strongly criticized the lifting of the excommunications on the bishops of the Society of Saint Pius XSociety of St. Pius X
The Society of Saint Pius X is an international Traditionalist Catholic organisation, founded in 1970 by the French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre...
, especially that of Richard Williamson, saying that the Vatican "has made itself look like it is living in the darkest of ages."
Awards
In 1997 Lipstadt received the Emory WilliamsEmory Williams
Emory Williams, Sr is an American businessman and former chairman and chief executive officer of the Sears Bank & Trust Company. Williams was born in Falco, Alabama, and grew up in Quitman, Mississippi. He was a member of the graduating class of 1932 from Emory University, where there is now a...
teaching award for excellence in teaching.
External links
- Deborah Lipstadt Faculty biography at Emory UniversityEmory UniversityEmory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
. - Deborah Lipstadt's blog.
- Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Deborah Lipstadt from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Holocaust Denial on Trial, a project of the Rabbi Donald A. Tam Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory UniversityEmory UniversityEmory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
. - David Irving case, report by The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. - Deborah Lipstadt in Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia.