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?

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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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