Wednesday, August 14, 1996 ~

North Shore News -- 7

ie’s knickers to warm Irving’s book

THERE may have
been other writers
who have been
hounded as much
-as historian David
Irving but I can’t
think of any. A fas-
-cinating book could
be written on the
‘subject — if it
could find a pub-
“lisher,

That would not be easy. A
lot of powerful people don’t
want to hear what he has to
say. He digs up unwanted

ny material.

- He used to believe in the
six million “holocaust” story,
for instance, But after going
through tons of original
records it dawned on him
that he had found no docu-
‘ments relating to a planned,
mass extermination of the
Jews.

“He does not deny that
‘thousands of them died in
the camps, as did many oth-,
ers, Or that thousands were
slaughtered, especially in
Eastern Europe during the
sar with Russia, But he had

Dear ‘iditor:

So, photo radar would appear
to-be here to stay. This is really
annoying to its opponents, who
view it as nothing more than a way

broken a taboo,

The resule was that he
condemned himself to the
literary rack, the latest exam-
ple being the cancellation by
St. Martin's Press in New
York of his book Gaehbels,
Mastermind of the Third
Reich.

The work contains
extracts from the Nazi propa-
ganda minister's diaries, held
by the Russians. It has b
published in England to,
many favorable reviews, °
including one by historian
Hugh Trevor Roper (Lord
Dacre) an expert on the Nazi
regime. But the moment it
became known that it was to
be published in the U.S. the
American Book Police got
into action.

Jewish critics led the
atrack. The New York Times,
the Washington Post, Time

ete., gave it the full treat-

for our fiscally challenged govern-

ment to rake in a bunch of money.
Now, P’'m no expert on ‘pear

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ment, Most of them took the
view that Irving condemns
Goebbels, whom he
describes as an evil man,
while excusing Adolf Hitler.

We shall All I can say
is that some writers have

xcused Joe Stalin while con-
demning Beria and Co. The
New York Times itself was
soft on Joe for decades, and
apologized for it only three
years ago.

Initially, St. Martin's
resisted. But the pressure
increased. Elie Wiesel, a
“holocaust survivor” who has

de a fortune writing about
it was quoted as saying he
“wanted nothing to do with
a tirm that published Irving.”
Other Jewish authors threat-
ened to pull their books.

St. Martin's collapsed. As
one of its top editors stated,
“There’s been all this mud-
slinging on inndcent people,
horrible phone calls and
death threats.”

Irving may be a contro-
versial figure but some com-
mentators could hardly
believe what was going.on in
the land of the free and the
brave. Any publisher has the
right to cancel a book, of
course. But. in this case
things were beiag done that

ing, but J.do think it’s a bad thing.
The best way for the opponents of
this alleged ¢:
that the government doesn’t make
a_cent from it is simple. Don’t

sh-grab to make sure

T mean, isn’t that the point?

( Colin Thom
North Vancou’er

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Goebbels himself might hav
been proud of,

Even some U.S. critics
had second thoughts.
Richard Cohen of the
Washington Post was on
To him, “Irving is a thor-
oughly repulsive character,”
but “this book is worth read-
ing.

inving’s comment on that:

“They stand by politely
applauding, while You-
Know-Who terrorizes St.
Martin’s, and then they salve
their liberal consciences...
Christopher Hitchins of

Vanity Fair magazine
declared that Irving has
“never and not once called
the Holocaust ‘a hoax” and
that “unless you have read

s studies on the Churchill-
Roosevelt relationship, the
Rommel campaigns and the
bombing of Dresden you
gan't say you know such sub-

vy jects at ‘alll.” (His emphasis.)

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The Goebbels book, says
Hitchins, “contains amazing
new material and was chosen
by the Military Book Club as
a main selection.” It too h
now cancelled. As for the
critics, “they can’t rake the
idea of a debate with David
Irving?”

In Hitchins’ view, Irving
is a great historian of Fascism
and St. Martin's has dis-
graced the business of pub-
lishing.

No writer has been libeled
as much as Irving. It has
often been reported, for
instance, that he describes
himself as “a mild Fascist.”
But he has explained how a
British journalist put those
words into his mouth.

“It seems to me, you're

some kind of mild fascist,”
the man said, To which
Irving replied, contemptu-
ously, “You can call me what
vou like.”

You can bet that the
Canadian Book Police will
keep Goebbels out of Canada,
just as Irving himself has
been banned. Bur this is one
book I am going to get even
if my old Aunt Maud has to
stick it in her knickers for
me.

— The North Shore News
believes strongly in freedom of
speech and the right of all sides
tn a debate to be heard, The
columnists published in the
‘News present differing points
of view, but those views are not
necessarily those of the newspa-
per itsel

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