Editing David Irving (section)

{{short description|British author and Holocaust denier (born 1938)}}
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{{Use British English|date=April 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox writer
| embed            =
| honorific_prefix =
| name             = David Irving
| honorific_suffix =
| image            = David Irving 1.jpg
| image_size       =
| caption          = Irving in 2012
| pseudonym        =
| birth_name       =
| birth_date       = {{Birth date and age|df=y|1938|03|24}}
| birth_place      = [[Hutton, Essex|Hutton]], [[Essex]], England
| death_date       =
| death_place      =
| resting_place    =
| occupation       = {{hlist|Author}}
| language         = {{hlist|English|German}}
| nationality      =
| education        = [[Brentwood School, Essex]]
| alma_mater       = {{plainlist|
* [[Imperial College London]]
* [[University College London]]
}}
| period           = 
| genre            = <!-- or: | genres = -->
| subject          = <!-- or: | subjects = -->
| movement         =
| notable_works    = {{plainlist|
* ''[[The Destruction of Dresden]]''
* ''[[The Mare's Nest]]''
* ''[[Hitler's War]]''
}}
| spouse           = {{marriage|María del Pilar Stuyck|1961|1981|end=divorce}}
| partner          = Bente Hogh (since 1992)
| children         = 5
| relatives        =
| awards           =
| signature        =
| signature_alt    =
| years_active     = 1962–present
| module           =
| website          = <!-- {{URL|example.org}} -->
}}
'''David John Cawdell Irving''' (born 24 March 1938) is an English author<!--NOTE: The consensus from talk page discussions has been that modern reliable sources generally do not state that David Irving is a "historian" and as a result the term "author" is used. Please do not change this without first obtaining consensus on the article's talk page --> and [[Holocaust denier]] who has written on the military and political history of [[World War II]], especially [[Nazi Germany]]. He was found to be a Holocaust denier in a British court in 2000 as a result of a failed libel case.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hare |first1=Ivan |last2=Weinstein |first2=James |name-list-style=amp|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F6d08lrIYNQC&pg=PA553 |page=553 |title=Extreme Speech and Democracy |location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0199601790}}</ref>

Irving's works include ''[[The Destruction of Dresden]]'' (1963), ''[[Hitler's War]]'' (1977), ''Churchill's War'' (1987) and ''Goebbels: Mastermind of the Third Reich'' (1996). In his works, he falsely claimed that [[Adolf Hitler]] did not know of the [[Final Solution|extermination of Jews]], or, if he did, he opposed it.<ref>{{Harvnb|Evans|2001|p=101}}.</ref> Irving's [[Historical negationism|negationist]] claims and views of [[German war crimes#World War II|German war crimes in World War II]] (and Hitler's responsibility for them) were denounced by historians.
 
He was once recognised for his knowledge of Nazi Germany and his ability to unearth new historical documents, which he held closely but stated were fully supportive of his conclusions.<ref>{{Harvnb|Guttenplan|2001|pp=91, 277, 278}}</ref> His 1964 book ''[[The Mare's Nest]]'' about Germany's [[V-weapons]] campaign of 1944–45 was praised for its deep research but criticised for minimising [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|Nazi slave labour programmes]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Neufeld |first=Michael J. |title=Remembering the Space Age |publisher=Government Printing Office |year=2009 |isbn=9780160867118 |editor-last=Dick |editor-first=Steven J. |chapter=Creating a Memory of the German Rocket Program for the Cold War |page=81}}</ref>

By the late 1980s, Irving had placed himself in the fringes of the study of history, and had begun to turn to further extremes, possibly influenced by the 1988 trial of the Holocaust denier [[Ernst Zündel]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Evans|2002|pp=119–23}}</ref> That trial, and his reading of the [[pseudoscientific]]<ref group=Note>[[Leuchter Report]] dismissed as pseudoscientific:
* "Leuchter and Rudolf have published pseudoscientific reports purporting to show that chemical residues present in the gas chambers of [[Auschwitz-Birkenau]] are incompatible with homicidal gassings." {{cite web |last=Green |first=Richard J. |url=http://www.holocaust-history.org/auschwitz/chemistry/blue/ |title=Leuchter, Rudolf, and the Iron Blues |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517043351/http://www.holocaust-history.org/auschwitz/chemistry/blue/ |archive-date=17 May 2008 |access-date=11 September 2008}}
* "The Leuchter Report, a pseudo-scientific document which allegedly proves that Zyklon B was not used to exterminate human beings, was translated into Arabic and sold at the International Book Fair in Cairo in January 2001." {{cite book |last=Roth |first=Stephen |title=Antisemitism Worldwide, 2000/1 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2002 |page=228}}
* "The turning point came in 1989, when Irving launched Fred Leuchter's pseudo-scientific Leuchter Report, which made the spurious claim that the absence of cyanide residues in the walls of the gas chambers at Auschwitz and other camps proved that they could not have functioned as mass extermination centres." {{cite book |last1=Brinks |first1=Jan Herman |last2=Timms |first2=Edward |last3=Rock |first3=Stella |title=Nationalist Myths and Modern Media |publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]] |year=2006 |page=72}}
* "The Leuchter report, was, indeed, an amateurish report produced by a man with no expertise, either historical or forensic." {{cite book |last=Hirsh |first=David |title=Law Against Genocide |publisher=Routledge Cavendish |year=2003 |page=134}}
* "Another common tactic of the deniers is to engage in historical inquiries that on the surface appear legitimate but upon close examination prove to be based on pseudo-science. One prominent example was the investigation of the Auschwitz gas chambers by [[Fred Leuchter]] [...] Detailed study of the 'Leuchter Report' revealed that it was based on erroneous assumptions (cyanide does not penetrate deeply into concrete). It also emerged that Leuchter had falsified his credentials and overstated his expertise. Despite this, his report is still cited by deniers." {{cite book |last1=Cull |first1=Nicholas John |last2=Culbert |first2=David Holbrook |last3=Welch |first3=David |title=Propaganda and Mass Persuasion: A Historical Encyclopedia, 1500 to the Present |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2003 |page=168}}
* "...{{nbsp}}the institute relied primarily on the talents of a California-based publicist named Bradley Smith who packaged and promoted Leuchter's discredited material as if it were the very essence of 'scientific research' or at least a tenable 'point of view', intrinsically worthy of inclusion in the academic agenda{{nbsp}}..." {{cite book |last=Churchill |first=Ward |title=A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas, 1492 to the Present |publisher=City Lights Books |year=1997 |page=24}}
* "After the trial, both Irving and Zündel published the results of Leuchter's trial research as ''The Leuchter Report: The End of a Myth,'' despite the fact that the court rejected both the report and Leuchter's testimony.{{nbsp}}... The discredited report is popular in the Holocaust denial movement and one edition features a foreword by Irving." {{cite book |last1=Gerstenfeld |first1=Phyllis B. |last2=Grant |first2=Diana R. |title=Crimes of Hate: Selected Readings |publisher=SAGE |year=2003 |page=201}}
* "Leuchter's report contained a considerable amount of scientific, or, as it turned out, pseudo-scientific analysis of chemical residues on the gas chamber walls and similar matters. It was quickly discredited, not least on the basis of Leuchter's failure adequately to defend his findings on the witness stand." {{cite book |last=Evans |first=Richard J. |title=David Irving, Hitler and Holocaust Denial |edition=electronic |url=http://www.hdot.org/en/trial/defense/evans/330c.html |url-status=dead |chapter=The 1991 Edition of ''Hitler's War'' |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314040112/http://hdot.org/en/trial/defense/evans/330c.html |archive-date=14 March 2016 |at=Section 3.3c, Paragraph 13 |access-date=12 September 2008}}</ref> [[Leuchter report]], led him to openly espouse Holocaust denial, specifically denying that Jews were murdered by gassing at the [[Auschwitz concentration camp]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=van Pelt|first1=Robert Jan |title=The Case for Auschwitz: Evidence from the Irving Trial|date=2002|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington, Indiana|isbn=0-253-34016-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/caseforauschwitz00pelt/page/15 15]|edition=First|url=https://archive.org/details/caseforauschwitz00pelt/page/15}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Evans|2001|p=125}}.</ref>

Irving's reputation as a historical author was further discredited<ref group=Note>Irving is discredited as a historian in a number of sources:
* "Conclusion on meaning 2.15 (vi): that Irving is discredited as a historian." [[s:David Irving v Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt/II|''David Irving v Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt'']] [2000] EWHC QB 115 (11 April 2000).
* "Deborah Lipstadt is Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies and director of The Rabbi Donald A. Tam Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University. She is the author of two books about the Holocaust. Her book ''Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory'' led to the 2000 court case in which she defeated and discredited Holocaust denier David Irving." {{cite web |url= https://www.pbs.org/auschwitz/understanding/justice.html |title= Task of Justice & Danger of Holocaust Deniers |work= Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State – Understanding Auschwitz Today |publisher= [[PBS]] |access-date= 26 August 2017 |archive-date= 19 October 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171019230608/https://www.pbs.org/auschwitz/understanding/justice.html |url-status= live }}
* "If the case for competence applies to those who lack specialist knowledge, it applies even further to those who have been discredited as incompetent. For example, why ought we include David Irving in a debate aiming to establish the truth about the Holocaust, after a court has found that he manipulates and misinterprets history?" {{cite book |last= Long |first= Graham |title= Relativism and the Foundations of Liberalism |publisher= Imprint Academic |year= 2004 |isbn= 1-84540-004-6 |page=80}}
* "[Irving] claimed that Lipstadt's book accuses him of falsifying historical facts in order to support his theory that the Holocaust never happened. This of course discredited his reputation as a historian&nbsp;... On 11 April, High Court judge Charles Gray ruled against Irving, concluding that he indeed qualified as a Holocaust denier and anti-Semite and that as such he has distorted history in order to defend his hero, Adolf Hitler." {{Harvnb|Wyden|2001|p=164}}.
* "In Britain, which does not have a Holocaust denial law, Irving had already been thoroughly discredited when he unsuccessfully sued historian Deborah Lipstadt in 2000 for describing him as a Holocaust denier." {{cite magazine |last= Callamard |first= Agnès |title= Debate: can we say what we want? |magazine= [[Le Monde diplomatique]] |date=April 2007}}</ref> in 2000, when, in the course of an [[Irving v Penguin Books Ltd|unsuccessful libel case]] he filed against the American historian [[Deborah Lipstadt]] and [[Penguin Books]], High Court Judge [[Charles Gray (judge)|Charles Gray]] determined in his ruling that Irving wilfully misrepresented historical evidence to promote Holocaust denial and [[whitewashing (censorship)|whitewash]] the Nazis, a view shared by many prominent historians.<ref group="Note">Shown to have misrepresented historical evidence:
* "In 1969, after David Irving's support for [[Rolf Hochhuth]], the German playwright who accused Winston Churchill of murdering the Polish wartime leader General Sikorski, ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' issued a memo to all its correspondents. 'It is incorrect', it said, 'to describe David Irving as a historian. In future we should describe him as an author.{{'"}} {{cite news|url=http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article347567.ece|title=Irving was the author of his own downfall|last=Ingrams|first=Richard|date=25 February 2006|work=[[The Independent]]|access-date=27 March 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071220125920/http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article347567.ece|archive-date=20 December 2007|url-status=dead|location=London}}
* "It may seem an absurd semantic dispute to deny the appellation of 'historian' to someone who has written two dozen books or more about historical subjects. But if we mean by historian someone who is concerned to discover the truth about the past, and to give as accurate a representation of it as possible, then Irving is not a historian. Those in the know, indeed, are accustomed to avoid the term altogether when referring to him and use some circumlocution such as 'historical writer' instead. Irving is essentially an ideologue who uses history for his own political purposes; he is not primarily concerned with discovering and interpreting what happened in the past, he is concerned merely to give a selective and tendentious account of it to further his own ideological ends in the present. The true historian's primary concern, however, is with the past. That is why, in the end, Irving is not a historian." ''Irving v Lipstadt'' and ''Irving v Penguin Books'', [http://hdot.org/en/trial/defense/evans/6.html expert witness report]by {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206151336/http://www.hdot.org/en/trial/defense/evans/6.html |date=6 December 2013 }} [[Richard J. Evans]] FBA, Professor of Modern History, [[University of Cambridge]], 2000, Chapter 6.
* "State prosecutor Michael Klackl said: 'He's not a historian, he's a falsifier of history.{{'"}} {{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/farright/story/0,,1714403,00.html|title=Irving jailed for denying Holocaust|last=Traynor|first=Ian|date=21 February 2006|work=The Guardian|access-date=27 March 2010|location=London}}
* "Irving has never examined and interpreted facts for the simple reason that he is not a historian. He twists or suppresses evidence to fit a foregone conclusion—the opposite of what any reputable historian does." {{cite web|url=http://archive.salon.com/books/feature/2001/05/23/irving/index4.html|title=Evil takes the stand|last=Taylor|first=Charles|date=24 May 2001|work=[[Salon (website)|Salon]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012175133/http://archive.salon.com/books/feature/2001/05/23/irving/index4.html|archive-date=12 October 2007|url-status=dead|access-date=30 May 2007}}
* [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]]: "But I don't regard him as an historian. I don't think he has any historical sense. He is a propagandist who uses efficiently collected and arranged material to support a propagandist line." Cited in {{harvnb|Evans|2002|p=261}}; and {{cite magazine |author-link=Michael Shermer |first=Michael |last=Shermer |url=http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/05-05-03/ |title=''Enigma'': The Faustian Bargain of David Irving |magazine=[[Skeptical Inquirer]] |date=3 May 2005 |access-date=30 October 2011 |archive-date=19 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111019020113/http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/05-05-03/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The court found that Irving was an active Holocaust denier, [[antisemite]] and [[racist]],<ref name="Guardian ruling">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/irving/article/0,,181049,00.html |title=The ruling against David Irving |work=The Guardian |date=11 April 2000 |location=London |access-date=27 March 2010 |archive-date=2 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702031010/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/apr/11/irving1 |url-status=live }}</ref> who "for his own ideological reasons persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence".<ref name="Guardian ruling" /><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/709128.stm |title=Hitler historian loses libel case |work=BBC News |date=11 April 2000 |access-date=2 January 2010 |archive-date=28 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228075443/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/709128.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> In addition, the court found that Irving's books had distorted the history of [[Responsibility for the Holocaust#Adolf Hitler|Hitler's role in the Holocaust]] to depict Hitler in a favourable light.