David Irving Takes a Novel Swing at “Der Spiegel”

[We received David Irving's Der Spiegel brochure (see below) just before we were to go to print with this issue of SR. He sent along a disk version, so it will go on CODOHWeb very shortly. We think the brochure will create a great scandal behind the scenes. “Meanwhile,” Irving writes, “I am spending the next four weeks putting the final polishing touches to volume II of my Churchill’s War biography.”]

The “brochure” just published by David Irving is a simulated Der Spiegel cover story detailing Irving’s persecution, by German authorities, and vindication, by the present custodians of the Auschwitz myth, for his claim that the alleged gas chamber in Auschwitz-I is a postwar fake. Done with the British historian’s usual flair and attention to verisimilitude, the story (Der 'ruinierte' Historiker hat Recht [The “ruined” historian is right]) is indistinguishable in design, typography and style from a typical story in Germany’s leading news magazine—only the story’s different from the usual fare: it tells the truth! This is one parody that will have German officials “chewing the carpet” and media kingpins—from Spiegel publisher Rudolf Augstein on down—paging their lawyers and hailing Germany’s busy idea police. But, as a diagonal little subhead on the “cover” announces: “Not a forgery. Only a reconstruction” (Keine Faelschung. Nur eine Rekonstruktion). Funny, that’s now the official line on the gas chamber at Auschwitz-I…

[SR readers can obtain a copy of this German-language account of Irving's fight for truth on the Auschwitz gas chamber, and how he and other revisionists have forced Auschwitz authorities one damaging concession after another, by sending us a one-dollar bill.]