Friday 17 April 2015

How To Criticize Holocaust Denial

"4. Irving's writings on Hitler
  • 4.1 Admiration
  • 4.2 Exculpation
4.3 Historical method: case-studies
  • (a) Irving's 'chain of documents'
  • (b) Evidence at Hitler's trial in 1924
    • (i) Historical background
    • (ii) David Irving's argument
    • (iii) Inconsistencies and omission of references
    • (iv) Misrepresentation of documents; invention and falsification.
    • (v) Use of unreliable sources
    • (vi) Skewing reliable sources
    • (vii) Conclusion
(c) 'Reichskristallnacht' November 1938.
  • (i) Background
  • (ii) Irving's Account of the Events of the Night of 9-10 November 1938
    • (A) Misquotation and Skewing of Documents: The Goebbels Diary
    • (B) Suppression of relevant evidence: the Eberstein testimony and the Goebbels speech in the Old Town Hall
    • (C) Manipulation of evidence: The involvement of the SA in the pogrom
    • (D) Invention and manipulation of evidence: the Eberstein testimony
    • (E) Use of unreliable evidence, suppression of reliable testimony, and invention: von Below and Schaub
    • (F) False attribution of conclusions to reliable sources: the Heydrich telex
    • (G) Bending a reliable source to fit the argument: the Hess order
    • (H) Manipulation of evidence (Wiedemann testimony, Hederich testimony) and suppression of reliable documentation (Goebbels diary, Supreme Party Court Report)
    • (I) Use of insignificant evidence and suppression of important evidence: the Groscurth and von Hassell diaries
    • (J) Conclusion
  • (iii) Irving's Account of Events After the Night of 9-10 November 1938
    • (A) Misquotation, manipulation, and discounting of reliable evidence to fit a preconceived argument: the Goebbels diary
    • (B) Suppression of important aspects and concentration on insignificant aspects of reliable evidence to divert attention from its significance
    • (C) Suppression of evidence: Memoirs of Hans Kehrl and Correspondence of Carl Burckhardt
    • (D) Misquotation and suppression of evidence: the von Hassell diaries
    • (E) Misrepresentation of reliable documents: the Communication of the SA Leadership
    • (F) Misconstrual of books that directly contradict Irving's arguments: the Goebbels diary
    • (G) Invention of evidence: the Ribbentrop memoirs
    • (H) Misrepresentation and presentation of irrelevant evidence: the Wolff memoirs
    • (I) False attribution of a conclusion to a reliable source: the Goebbels diary
    • (J) Misrepresentation of reliable sources: the reports to the British Foreign Office
    • (K) Use of a discredited and disreputable source: Ingrid Weckert
    • (L) Invention of evidence: testimony of Schirmeister and Fritzsche
  • (iv) Conclusion"
"In dealing with Irving as a Holocaust denier, this Report has already noted a number of instances of Irving's misinterpretation and misconstrual of the sources, and subjected his inconsistent and unprofessional methods of dealing with historical evidence to critical scrutiny. However, the following case-studies, some of which are very extensive and extremely detailed, will show beyond all doubt that Lipstadt is correct in claiming that Irving misstates, misquotes, falsifies statistics, falsely attributes conclusions to reliable sources, relies on books and sources that directly contradict his arguments, quoting in a manner that completely distorts the authors' objectives, manipulates documents to serve his own purposes, skews documents and misrepresents data in order to reach historically untenable conclusions, bends historical evidence until it conforms with his ideological leanings and political agenda, takes accurate information and shapes it to confirm his conclusions, and - a vital point not mentioned by Lipstadt - constantly suppresses or deliberately overlooks sources with which he is familiar because they contradict the line of argument he wishes to advance." (source)

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