Irving plans UK comeback
Convicted Holocaust denier announces plans in Guardian interview to launch tour of British cities, publish series of new books
Irving plans to speak in Halifax and Birmingham as well as at several undisclosed universities as part of his comeback. He was also scheduled to speak in Coventry last Friday – but the event was disrupted by protesters.
"I have kept a low profile for several months because I have had to sort out where to live and to address my financial situation," he said, "But now I am ready to start again."
In 2002, Irving was declared bankrupt following an unsuccessful libel suit over claims he was a Holocaust denier, but according to the interview, he has recently begun renting a 10-bedroom house near Windsor.
Irving told The Guardian that his beliefs regarding the Holocaust had not changed at all, and that they had in fact crystallized over the years. In the books he plans to publish, Irving blames Jews for the “events”, as he called them, in which millions perished.
In the interview, the descredited historian said that Jews were responsible for what happened in the Second World War, and blamed the "Jewish problem" for most of this century’s wars. "The Jews are the architects of their own misfortune,” he said.
'Blame Himmler, not Hitler'
Despite his conviction, Irving claimed he was a serious academic, and said he was in possession of a document, that showed only 2.4 million Jews were killed in Poland during the Second World War, and that the Auschwitz gas chambers never existed. He said he was 80% sure the document was genuine.He also claimed Auschwitz was “not the center of the killing operations”. "It has only become a focus because it is the site that is best preserved. Much of what is shown the tourists there is faked postwar - watchtowers, even the famous gas chamber," Irving said.
Irving pointed out that he did believe over 2.5 million Jews were killed in 1942-43.
“I do accept that the Nazis quite definitely, that Heinrich Himmler, organized and directed a program, a clandestine program, for the liquidation of European Jews,” Irving said.
However, he added that Adolf Hitler was "completely in the dark" about the program.
ADL: Irving’s comments reek of anti-Semitism
The Anti-Defamation League said in response to the interview, "We are dismayed—though not surprised—that Irving has once again reared his ugly head. His pervasive dishonesty and recklessness as a historian, as well as his bigtory, is well documented and so it is highly unlikely that he will ever regain credibility among legitimate scholars.
"Unfortunately, however, his new speaking tour will continue to attract and inspire Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites. Irving still denies that there were gas chambers at Auschwitz and remains a Holocaust denier.
"All he is doing now is playing with numbers, which is a classic Holocaust denier ploy. He still maintains his adulation of Hitler, insulating him from the genocide of European Jews during World War II despite Hitler’s well-known and thoroughly documented anti-Jewish incitement.
"Irving’s comment as reported in the Guardian that Jews are somehow the root cause of most of the wars of the past 100 years reeks of anti-Semitism. That comment alone demolishes any pretence he can summon to denying he is an anti-Semite or to being an objective historian," said Deborah M. Lauter, the ADL's National Civil Rights director.
A spokesman for the British Jewish Representative Council said that Irving’s conviction as a Holocaust denier proved he could not be taken seriously as a historian.
“He’s free to speak in this country, within legal guidelines, but can he be considered a respectable man? A man of reputation?” the spokesman asked.
