Scholar Warns of Holocaust Denial, War on Facts and the Truth

Before author and historian Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt even entered the hall at Towson University last night, the leaders of Baltimore Hebrew Institute had to arrange to have the event moved into a larger room, due to the planned arrival of some 300 guests.

But even that lecture hall wasn’t large enough, according to BHI Director Jill Max; the event’s organizers needed to simulcast a live feed of the talk to another room on campus.

You might wonder, how is it that an academic of modern Jewish and Holocaust studies at Emory University in Atlanta attracted such a large crowd?

Part of the answer is that a period of Lipstadt’s life is being portrayed by Academy Award-winning actress Rachel Weisz in the new film “Denial,” with a screenplay by David Hare and directed by Mick Jackson.

The movie is based on Lipstadt’s highly-acclaimed 2005 book, “History On Trial: My Day In Court With A Holocaust Denier.” The book stemmed from a court case in which British author and Holocaust denier David Irving claimed that Lipstadt libeled him in her 1993 book, “Denying The Holocaust.”

In the trial, even though the court ruled that Irving’s claim of defamation was invalid, Lipstadt was made to prove her case as English libel law places the burden of proof on the defense.

The film has received good reviews and is being covered widely in media outlets as disparate as the sophisticated and urbane New Yorker to the celebrity-focused magazine People.

Another part of the reason for the receptive response worldwide and here in Baltimore is Lipstadt’s subject matter. Holocaust denial is perhaps more relevant today than ever before, given the rise of the Internet and the dwindling of the Holocaust survivor community.

In her 30-minute talk, Lipstadt explained how Holocaust denial is a contemporary form of anti-Semitism. She said denial is being swallowed up and spewed today on white supremacist websites and transmitted and shared by the many hate groups out there.

She declared that the way to combat Holocaust denial is with facts. And by revealing the degree to which Irving’s sources were distortions, she exposed with exactitude all of his falsehoods in her trial.

After her talk about the film, Lipstadt was asked by an audience member about how to find the truth in the sea of information out there today. Lipstadt referred to a magazine cover she’d seen that stated how Americans are living in a “post-factual era.” She also alluded to “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert, who famously calls this cultural phenomenon and development “truthiness.”

But Lipstadt was also quick to emphasize how the Internet is no different than books.

“There are good books and there are lousy books,” she said. “There are books that tell the truth and there are books that are lies.”

Building on that theme, she said, “We have to know things. And when someone says, ‘I read it on the Internet,’ say, ‘Where? Who said it? What’s the proof? What’s the evidence?’

“What the film shows so strongly is there are facts. There are opinions. And then there are outright lies, and what Holocaust deniers are trying to do is to take lies and move them into the realm of opinion so that they can encroach upon the facts.”

Lipstadt’s lecture was followed by a book signing, a chance to meet and greet the author, and a reception for attendees.

Abe Novick is a Baltimore-based freelance writer and communications consultant.