Editing David Irving (section)

===''Hitler's War''===
{{main|Hitler's War}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-C16768A, Hans Heinrich Lammers.jpg|thumb|200px|In ''Hitler's War'', Irving used an undated memo written by [[Hans Lammers]] (pictured), the Chief of the Reich Chancellery, to the Justice Minister, saying: "The Führer has repeatedly pronounced that he wants the solution of the Jewish Question put off until after the war is over."]]
In 1977 Irving published ''[[Hitler's War]]'', the first of his two-part biography of [[Adolf Hitler]]. Irving's intention in ''Hitler's War'' was to clean away the "years of grime and discoloration from the facade of a silent and forbidding monument" to reveal the real Hitler, whose reputation Irving argued had been slandered by historians.<ref name="Craig 72">{{Harvnb|Craig|1982|p=72}}.</ref> In ''Hitler's War'', Irving tried to "view the situation as far as possible through Hitler's eyes, from behind his desk".<ref name="Craig 72" /> He portrayed Hitler as a rational, intelligent politician, whose only goal was to increase Germany's prosperity and influence on the continent, and who was constantly let down by incompetent or treasonous subordinates.<ref name="Craig 72" /> Irving's book faulted the Allied leaders, especially [[Winston Churchill]], for the eventual escalation of war, and argued that the [[Operation Barbarossa|German invasion of the Soviet Union]] in 1941 was a "[[preventive war]]" forced on Hitler to avert an impending Soviet attack.<ref name="Evans 1989 166">{{Harvnb|Evans|1989|p=166 n. 20}}.</ref> Irving also argued that Hitler had no knowledge of [[the Holocaust]]: while not denying its occurrence, he argued that [[Heinrich Himmler]], the ''[[Reichsführer-SS|Reichsführer]]'' of the ''[[Schutzstaffel]]'' (SS), and his deputy [[Reinhard Heydrich]] were its originators and architects. Irving made much of the lack of any known written order from Hitler ordering the Holocaust; he offered to pay £1,000 to anyone who could find such an order.<ref name="Guttenplan 46">{{Harvnb|Guttenplan|2001|p=46}}.</ref>

==== Reception ====
Critical reaction to ''Hitler's War'' was generally negative. Reviewers took issue with Irving's factual claims as well as his conclusions.

In ''Hitler's War'', Irving quoted an undated memorandum by [[Hans Lammers]], the Chief of the Reich Chancellery, to the Reich Justice Minister [[Franz Schlegelberger]], saying: "the Führer has repeatedly pronounced that he wants the solution of the [[Jewish Question]] put off until after the war is over". Irving took this as proof that Hitler ordered not to exterminate the Jews.<ref name="Evans 2002 89">{{Harvnb|Evans|2002|p=89}}</ref> Later, Irving falsely claimed that "no other historians have quoted this document, possibly finding its content hard to reconcile with their obsessively held views" about Hitler's responsibility for the Holocaust.<ref name="Evans 2002 89"/> However, the interpretation of the document is not as simple as Irving made it out to be in his book.<ref name=Evans1>{{cite web |title=Evans: David Irving, Hitler and Holocaust Denial |website=Holocaust Denial on Trial |url=https://www.hdot.org/evans/ |access-date=28 October 2020 |archive-date=22 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221222031824/https://www.hdot.org/evans/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The memorandum has no date and no signature, although historians estimate that it was issued at some point between 1941 and 1942 by looking at the other documents where the memorandum is located. They have concluded that the memorandum was more than likely from late 1941 when Hitler was still advocating the expulsion of the Jews, rather than later when he advocated their extermination.<ref name=Evans1 />

The American historian [[Charles W. Sydnor Jr.]] noted numerous errors, such as Irving's incorrect statement that the Jews who fought in the [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]] of 1943 were well supplied with weapons from Germany's allies.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sydnor|1979| p=179}}</ref> Sydnor also pointed out that Hitler had received an SS report in November 1942 which contained a mention of 363,211 [[Russian Jews]] executed by the ''[[Einsatzgruppen]]'' between August and November 1942.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sydnor|1979| pp=182–183}}</ref> Sydnor remarked that Irving's statement that the ''Einsatzgruppen'' were in charge in the [[Extermination camp|death camps]] seemed to indicate that Irving was not even familiar with the history of the Holocaust, as the ''Einsatzgruppen'' were in fact mobile death squads who had nothing to do with the death camps.<ref>{{Harvnb|Sydnor|1979 |p=176}}</ref>

[[Martin Broszat]] wrote that: "He [Irving] is too eager to accept authenticity for objectivity, is overly hasty in interpreting superficial diagnoses and often seems insufficiently interested in complex historical interconnections and in structural problems that transcend the mere recording of historical facts, but are essential for their evaluation".<ref>Broszat, Martin "Hitler and the Genesis of the 'Final Solution': An Assessment of David Irving's Theses" pp. 390–429 from ''Aspects of the Third Reich'' edited by H.W. Koch pp. 392–393.</ref>  Broszat argued that in ''Hitler's War'', Irving was too concerned with the "antechamber aspects" of Hitler's headquarters, and had distorted historical facts in Hitler's favor.<ref>Broszat, Martin "Hitler and the Genesis of the 'Final Solution': An Assessment of David Irving's Theses" pp. 390–429 from ''Aspects of the Third Reich'' edited by H.W. Koch pp. 393, 413–419</ref> Broszat also exposed factually incorrect interpretations by Irving, such as accepting at face value the Nazi claim that the T4 "euthanasia" program was launched in September 1939 to free up hospital spaces for wounded German soldiers, when in fact, the [[Action T4]] program was launched in January 1939.<ref>Broszat, Martin "Hitler and the Genesis of the 'Final Solution': An Assessment of David Irving's Theses" pp. 390–429 from ''Aspects of the Third Reich'' edited by H.W. Koch p. 394.</ref> In particular, Broszat criticised Irving's claim that a single note written by Himmler, supposedly transcribing a telephone call from Hitler, stating "No liquidation" (with respect to a train convey of German Jews, passing through [[Berlin]] to [[Riga]] on November 30, 1941) was sufficient proof to establish that Hitler did not want the Holocaust to happen.<ref>Broszat, Martin "Hitler and the Genesis of the 'Final Solution': An Assessment of David Irving's Theses" pp. 390–429 from ''Aspects of the Third Reich'' edited by H.W. Koch pp. 413–415</ref>