ANTHROPOLOGY 4580

This is a role playing assignment based on a true story that took place recently. You are a consultant who is an expert on the Holocaust. You have been asked to advise Deborah Lipstadt, the author of Denying the Holocaust. Lipstadt has received some unwanted attention in the form of a multi-million dollar libel suit brought against her in England by British historian David Irving. In her book, Lipstadt labeled Irving a Holocaust denier, indeed a particularly "dangerous" Holocaust denier because, unlike virtually all other deniers, Irving has some academic credibility. He is a historian (although he does not have a degree in the subject) and his books, like Hitler’s War and Churchill’s War, have received academic attention. He speaks and reads German, and he has used primary German sources to which few scholars have access. Believing that his reputation as a historian has been tarnished by Lipstadt , he has sued her for libel.

Irving has also challenged Lipstadt to show that the Holocaust had actually occurred. Using a "revisionist" approach, he has argued that there was no intent by Hitler to kill Jews and no actual policy to exterminate the Jewish people; there was no order given by Hitler or anyone else to annihilate the Jews; and there were no extermination gas chambers used to kill Jews and others. Therefore there was no Holocaust, at least as commonly portrayed.

Irving has stated that: "There were never any gas chambers at Auschwitz." In a speech delivered in 1991, he said that "I don’t see any reason to be tasteful about Auschwitz. It’s baloney. It’s a legend…I say, quite tastelessly in fact, that more women died on the back seat of Edward Kennedy’s car at Chappaquidick than ever died in a gas chamber at Auschwitz." Irving does admit that Jews were "enemies of the state" and that they were transported to the East to work in slave labor camps like Auschwitz, but they were not exterminated. Some Jews were treated brutally and shot, but not gassed, according to Irving. He cites the Leucther Report, a document written by an expert on executions, as demonstrating that the so-called "gas chambers" could not have been used to kill people. Therefore he believes that just over 1 million Jews died during the Holocaust – nowhere near the 6 million figure usually cited. And their deaths were not the result of a deliberate genocidal policy by the German government under Nazi control; instead they were due to wartime shortages of food and medicine that were endured by everyone on the German side at the end of the war. According to Irving’s research, the Holocaust as it is usually conceived never happened.

Is this just a publicity stunt by Irving, or perhaps an amusing legal sideshow? Apparently not. Important players in the Middle East have supported Irving. For example, the leading state newspaper in Syria published an editorial during a recent round of Middle East peace talks asking, "Why does Israel insist on bringing up this alleged Holocaust policy? It’s just to get money and reinforce the myth of the Holocaust in the face of credible voices questioning it, including that of controversial British historian David Irving." In fact, Holocaust denial has found a most receptive audience in the Middle East where conferences on Holocaust denial were recently planned in Lebanon and Syria.

Irving is serious, and the stakes are high. If he loses the case, he could be financially ruined and no reputable publisher would touch his work. If Lipstadt loses, the same would be true for her and her work. More important, the Holocaust -- the best documented genocide of the 20^th century -- would be discredited. The results of sixty years of accumulated knowledge on the Nazis and the Third Reich, including numerous war crimes trials, would be in historical limbo.

Lipstadt faces two questions. One question is whether she should go to trial or, if Irving is willing, settle out-of-court? And second, can she, her lawyers, and a team of expert witnesses demonstrate to the satisfaction of a court of law that the Holocaust occurred? Was there a genocidal policy that led millions of deaths? Did the gas chambers exist, and were they used to annihilate Jews and others? As one of Lipstadt's expert consultants, what will you recommend?

Some of Lipstadt's advisors recommend settling out-of-court. They believe that a trial will simply give Irving free publicity for a cause that does not deserve attention. Irving will play the underdog, even though he is the one who initiated the lawsuit. By claiming victim status, Irving believes that he cannot lose, regardless of the actual court verdict. So some of her advisors suggest paying Irving a sum of money and issuing a retraction of the label "Holocaust denier." But other Lipstadt advisors believe that settling out-of-court would give Irving legitimacy in the public eye, as well as giving Holocaust denial credibility. It would also provide Irving and other deniers with the opportunity to say that so-called experts are afraid of the truth about the Holocaust "myth." They say Irving is a denier and that Lipstadt can win the trial.

Given these issues, would you advise Lipstadt to seek an out-of-court settlement or go to trial? And suppose that, for whatever reason, Lipstadt does go to trial. How would you demonstrate that the Holocaust occurred and that Irving and other deniers are wrong? What evidence will you bring to bear that will convince a judge that the Holocaust is not a "myth", as deniers argue, but an established historical fact?

Your assignment asks you to offer advice in your role as an expert consultant to Lipstadt. You will be writing a short, two-part advisory summary to Lipstadt’s legal team about strategy and historical evidence.

1. First you will be writing about a page of legal strategy. Should you allow Lipstadt to stand trial or should she settle out-of-court? Explain your recommendation.

2. Next you will be writing three to five pages about Auschwitz, the largest and best known of the Nazi death camps, and whether the Holocaust actually happened. The second part of the assignment asks you to examine Irving's specific assertion that there were no gas chambers used for exterminating Jews or others at Auschwitz. Evaluate this argument based on evidence from your reading of Denying History and the relevant sections of The World Must Know. Which specific lines of evidence will you recommend to refute Irving's claim? What about the evidence from the Leuchter Report? What evidence will you use to count for the existence of extermination gas chambers at Auschwitz?

Your essay should be in the form of a advisory memorandum to Lipstadt’s British lawyer, Anthony Julius (who was also Princess Diana’s divorce lawyer). It can be between 4 and 7 pages in length, typewritten and double-spaced please. It may be longer or shorter as needed, but be sure to answer both sets of questions. You must use material from Denying History and The World Must Know in your papers. You should also consult the Holocaust denial site on the Internet at <www.codoh.com> and the Nizkor Project, which is dedicated to rebutting the deniers; their website is <www.nizkor.com >. For reporting on the Lipstadt trial, consult <www.holocaustdenial.com>

This assignment counts for 25% of your final grade and is due in my office in Hale 466 no later than 2:30pm on February 11th. Good luck. For general grading criteria, see the attached pages on "HOW TO EARN A GOOD GRADE…"

Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman's Denying History, and the relevant sections of Michael Berenbaum's The World Must Know.

OPTIONAL READING: (available on Reserve in Norlin)

D. D. Guttenplan The Holocaust on Trial. W.W. Norton and Company (2001).

Richard J. Evans Lying About Hitler. Basic Books (2001).