Letter to Ashleigh

Hello Ashleigh–

I would like to be put on the waiting list to hear Professor Lipstadt speak. Is it possible to ask questions? May questions be submitted in writing?

Here are my questions:

1. Prof. Lipstadt has claimed that the trial “proved the Holocaust.” 

How can she claim this when Judge Gray specifically stated:

“It is no part of my function to attempt to make findings as to what actually happened during the Nazi regime.”

Irving opened the case telling the court:

“I have never held myself out to be a Holocaust expert, nor have I written books about what is now called the Holocaust.”

 2. Isn't the Trial better described as a wide-ranging questioning of Irving’s competence as a historian; an ex post facto effort to substantiate Lipstadt’s claim that Irving had falsified historical facts.

Judge Gray broke Irving's falsification of historical facts into 4 elements:

“(a) 19 specific individual criticisms of Irving's historiography…; items such as Hitler's trial in 1924 or a mistranslation of an entry in Himmler's log for December 1, 1941.

(b) his portrayal of Hitler…

(c) his claims in relation to Auschwitz

(d) the bombing of Dresden.

Please let me know if there is space for me tonight.

Thank you.

David Merlin

Member of Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust