History Denied as Publisher Buckles to Pressure

St. Martin's Press has canceled publication of British historian David Irving's long-awaited biography of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels due to growing criticism from several Jewish groups.

The American publisher had been standing up to the extreme pressure and gave statements in March that Mr. Irving's critics were using Nazi-like tactics that would have pleased Hitler's propaganda chief.

St. Martin's Press publisher Thomas Dunne issued the following angry statement after receiving dozens of protests against his plans to publish David Irving's Goebbels: Mastermind of the Third Reich in May.

“A number of the calls we have received have expressed fury that we would publish a book by 'a man like David Irving' and have questioned our moral right to do so. I can only say that Joseph Goebbels must be laughing in hell. He, after all, was the man who loved nothing better than burning books, threatening publishers, suppressing ideas and judging the merits of ideas based not on their content but by their author's racial, ethnic or political purity. That is indeed a sad irony.”

Though the campaign to ban the book had built for several weeks, St. Martins editors had stood by their decision and insisted they found nothing wrong with the way Irving wrote about Goebbels.

Pressure however increased from Jewish writers and leaders finally causing Thomas McCormack, the publisher's chief executive officer to give in and reverse the company's earlier statements.

“Do we wish we knew back then what we know now? Yes, My feeling was that this is at base an effectively anti-Semitic book, an insidious piece of Goebbels-like propaganda and we should have nothing to do with it.”

McCormack said that St. Martin's originally defended the book because he felt its critics were using heavy-handed tactics to quash a book they had not read.

From his home in London, Irving told the Daily News an “organized and orchestrated campaign” had forced St. Martin's to cancel publication.

The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, which had repudiated the book, was extremely pleased with St. Martin's decision. ADL Director Abraham Foxman told the press, “I think they finally made the right decision.”

The book has been published in England.