Now I am part of that generation who grew up just after the last world war, with the images of Pearl Harbour, Hiroshima, and the Holocaust, which were part of the backdrop which informed my thinking and understanding of that conflict.
It never occurred to me, that outside a small deluded minority, there would be people who denied the existence of the Holocaust or embraced antisemitic views, views which I naively believed had been extinguished in the ruins of Berlin.
But I was wrong, and in truth I suppose I am not surprised. Antisemitism has been around for thousands of years and it is now fashionable to look for conspiracy theories under every stone leading some to question the mass extermination of Jews, the Romany and any one the Nazis thought should die.
I long ago gave up on those who question the American space landings on the moon, the outlandish theories about the assassination of Dr King and J F Kennedy or that popular idea from the 1970s that all human achievement was the result of contact with aliens in the far distant past.
And of course, at the heart of all historical research should be a willingness to revisit events and interpretations of the past along with the perceived view of the achievements of the “great and the good”.
But Holocaust denial seems out of the box and raises serious questions about the motivation of some of those who deny it happened.
All of which has brought me back to Deborah Lipstadt’s books Denying the Holocaust and Antisemitism Here and Now.**
I followed the court case, when David Irving sued Ms. Lipstadt and Penguin books and will be rereading her latest book on anti-Semitism which will be an important contribution to our understanding.
*The Times newspaper, April 14, 2000 commenting on the outcome of the trial brought by David Irving against Ms. Lipstadt and Penguin books
** Denying the Holocaust 1993, and Antisemitism Here and Now, 2018
But I was wrong, and in truth I suppose I am not surprised. Antisemitism has been around for thousands of years and it is now fashionable to look for conspiracy theories under every stone leading some to question the mass extermination of Jews, the Romany and any one the Nazis thought should die.
I long ago gave up on those who question the American space landings on the moon, the outlandish theories about the assassination of Dr King and J F Kennedy or that popular idea from the 1970s that all human achievement was the result of contact with aliens in the far distant past.
And of course, at the heart of all historical research should be a willingness to revisit events and interpretations of the past along with the perceived view of the achievements of the “great and the good”.
All of which has brought me back to Deborah Lipstadt’s books Denying the Holocaust and Antisemitism Here and Now.**
I followed the court case, when David Irving sued Ms. Lipstadt and Penguin books and will be rereading her latest book on anti-Semitism which will be an important contribution to our understanding.
*The Times newspaper, April 14, 2000 commenting on the outcome of the trial brought by David Irving against Ms. Lipstadt and Penguin books
** Denying the Holocaust 1993, and Antisemitism Here and Now, 2018
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