History on Trial Quotes

“Hearing this, I was reminded of Hajo’s comment the previous summer. “People like David Irving do not throw firebombs. They throw the words that can cause others to throw those firebombs.”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“Freedom of speech includes the right to expose lies, as Lipstadt did. It does not grant immunity from criticism to bigots like Irving.”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“In an Internet age it is, at first glance, democratic to say that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. That is surely true. It is however a fatal step to then claim that all opinions are equal. Some opinions are backed by fact. Others are not. And those which are not backed by fact are worth considerably less than those which are.”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“Had David Irving been the defendant in a case seeking to censor his lies, and had he lost, it might be argued that the loss compromised principles of free speech. But Irving was the plaintiff here. It was he who was trying to censor Lipstadt’s truth by suing her for defamation.”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“British law stipulates that third parties who fund libel actions can be dunned for costs if the party they supported loses. The Observer obtained a copy of Irving’s list of 4,017 contributors, over half of whom lived in the United States. A former U-boat commander, currently “a tax avoidance specialist” living in Hawaii, had on one occasion asked Irving to meet him in Amsterdam where he handed him a paper bag with $50,000 in cash. Another supporter was a Floridian, who loaned Irving $45,000. Two contributors—one from”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“cannot be disproved. Therefore, in every generation they must be fought.”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“Since antisemitism and, for that matter, all forms of prejudice are impervious to reason, they”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“According to Irving a significant number of the members of this firm are “evidently Jewish.” Judge Sedley, he suggested, might be acting on his “religious instincts” more than the dictates of the law.”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“firm to which Sedley had belonged prior to being elevated to the bench had been founded by “a clandestine leader of the Communist Party.”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“I did not choose this fight. But now, as I look back, I am filled with gratitude. If someone had to be taken out of the line to fight this battle, I feel gratified to have been the one.”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“fought to defend myself, to preserve my belief in freedom of expression, and to defeat a man who lied about history and expressed deeply contemptuous views of Jews and other minorities.”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“love to lead, must cede control to someone else. I”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“was for a people who had been oppressed not to allow themselves to be beset with hatred for their oppressors. I would have to work to keep my anger toward Irving from evolving into hate. David Irving was not worth it. This was not the”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“To defeat your adversary and bury him is one thing. To dress him in a jester’s costume and have him perform for you is another, more crushing blow. He survives to give witness to his own powerlessness.”16 This is what both Chaplin and Brooks did to Hitler.”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“We began our visit at the archives. When we entered, the architectural plans for the crematoria were already spread out on the table. Some of these meticulous plans had been drawn by inmates, who, Robert Jan pointed out, signed them with their prison numbers, no names. All I could think of at that moment was Primo Levi’s observation about his time in Auschwitz, where a number was tattooed on his arm: “Only a man is worthy of a name.”6”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“When I received invitations to debate deniers, I consistently declined, explaining that while many things about the Holocaust are open to debate, the existence of the event is not.”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“The Soviet version of the Holocaust depicted the event as an assault by fascists on communists, not by Germans on Jews.”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“Even in countries where it was legally possible to pass laws outlawing Holocaust denial, I opposed such efforts. Those laws would render denial “forbidden fruit,” making it more—not less—alluring. In addition, I did not believe that courtrooms were the proper venue for historical inquiry. Deniers, I argued, should be stopped with reasoned inquiry, not with the blunt edge of the law. Courts, it seemed to me, dispensed justice by having parties present what they consider compelling evidence, such as physical proof and hard facts, to convince a jury or judge beyond a high standard of proof. Historians try to establish historical “truth” by objectively determining what happened.”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“And therein is a lesson that can be learned by all who fight the purveyors of hatred and lies. Though the battle against our opponents is exceptionally important, the opponents themselves are not. Their arguments make as much sense as flat-earth theory. However, in dramatic contrast to flat-earthers, they can cause tremendous pain and damage. Some of them use violence. Others, as Hajo Funke said in Berlin as we sat in the shadow of the Reichstag, use words that, in turn, encourage others to do harm. It was words that motivated those who blew up the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, dragged an African-American down a logging road to his death, tortured a young homosexual in Wyoming, stabbed a Jewish student to death on the streets of Crown Heights, blew up Israeli families about to celebrate the Passover Seder, and flew planes into the World Trade Center. We must conduct an unrelenting fight against those who encourage—directly or indirectly—others to do these things. But, even as we fight, we must not imbue our opponents with a primordial significance. We certainly must never attribute our existence to their attacks on us or let our battle against them become our raison d’etre. And as we fight them, we must dress them—or force them to dress themselves—in the jester’s costume. Ultimately, our victory comes when, even as we defeat them, we demonstrate not only how irrational, but how absolutely pathetic, they are.”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial

“Rampton suggested that one could derive a “fair picture of a man’s true attitudes and motives from what he says and from the kind of people he associates with and speaks to.”
― Deborah E. Lipstadt, Denial: Holocaust History on Trial