David Irving

David John Cawdell Irving (born March 24, 1938) describes himself as a self-taught historian who, from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, was a leading British author on World War II with works such as Hitler?s War and The Destruction of Dresden. Irving is also one of the most accomplished and successful proponents of Holocaust denial. In the mid-1980s, he started openly associating with neo-Nazi and extremist groups, and his reputation began to wane. In the late 1990s, he sued the prominent Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt for having listed him as a Holocaust denier in her book Denying the Holocaust. After a much publicized trial, Irving lost the case and was found to be a Holocaust denier by the court.

Revisionist

In 1977, Irving released his most notorious book, Hitler?s War, the first of his two-part biography on Adolf Hitler. In it, Irving tried to describe the war from ?Hitler?s point of view.? He painted a favorable picture of Hitler, portraying him as a rational, intelligent politician, whose only goal was to increase Germany?s prosperity and influence on the continent. Irving faulted the Allied leaders, most notably Churchill, for the eventual escalation of war. However, the most controversial claim of the book was that Hitler had no knowledge of the Holocaust. Instead, while not yet denying its existence, Irving claimed that Heinrich Himmler and his deputy Reinhard Heydrich were its originators and architects. Still, in a later review of Irving?s Goebbels - Mastermind of the "Third Reich" in The Daily Telegraph, British historian Sir John Keegan stated that Irving ?knows more than anyone alive about the German side of the Second World War,? and that Hitler?s War was ?indispensable to anyone seeking to understand the war in the round.? However, although he praised Irving?s ability to research, Keegan also criticized Irving?s distortions and considered certain of his ideas ?perverse.?

Related Topics:
1977 - Adolf Hitler - Churchill - The Holocaust - Heinrich Himmler - Reinhard Heydrich - The Daily Telegraph - British - John Keegan

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A year later, in 1978, Irving released The War Path, the companion volume to Hitler?s War, covering events leading up to the war and written from a similar point of view. Most serious historians picked the book apart, noting some of its numerous inaccuracies and misrepresentations, yet it sold well. However, with its publication, the prevalent view of Irving moved from that of a controversial historian to a Nazi sympathizer and far-right propagandist.

Related Topics:
1978 - Nazi - Propagandist

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Just months after the initial release of Hitler?s War in 1977, Irving published The Trail of the Fox, a revisionist biography of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. In it, Irving attacked the members of the July 20 Plot to assassinate Hitler, branding them ?traitors,? ?cowards? and ?manipulators,? and uncritically presented Hitler and his government?s subsequent revenge against the plotters, of whom Rommel was also a victim. Irving challenged the popular notion that Rommel was one of the leaders of the rebellion; he claimed that Rommel stayed loyal to Hitler until the end and that the real blame for his forced suicide lay with Rommel?s associates, whom Irving accused of scheming against Rommel so they could save their own lives. Historians viewed the book as revisionist nonsense, but, as with most Irving books up to that point, it did well commercially, ending up as Irving?s best selling book ever.

Related Topics:
Field Marshal - Erwin Rommel - July 20 Plot

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In the 1980s, Irving started writing about topics other than Nazi Germany, as he researched his three-part biography of Churchill, but with far less success. In 1981, he released two books. The first was The War Between the Generals, in which Irving offered a tabloid-esque account of the Allied High Command, detailing the alleged infighting between the various generals and presenting saucy rumours about their private lives. The second book was Uprising!, about the 1956 revolt in Hungary, which Irving mischaracterized as ?primarily an anti-Jewish uprising,? because he believed the communist regime was controlled by Jews. Both books were panned in the reviews and subsequently sold poorly, and wound up enforcing the public impression that Irving was not just a historian of Nazism, but a Nazi historian. Christopher Hitchens, the British journalist, later summarized many views of Irving with the comment, ?David Irving is not just a Fascist historian. He is also a great historian of Fascism.? Indeed, Irving himself had, as long ago as 1959, described himself as a ?mild Fascist.? In 1983, Irving was one of the first, and certainly the first well-known historian to proclaim that the Hitler Diaries were, in fact, forgeries. Irving was also one of the last to declare that the diaries might be authentic.

Related Topics:
1980s - 1981 - Tabloid - 1956 revolt in Hungary - Jew - Communist - Christopher Hitchens - Hitler Diaries

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By the mid-1980s, Irving had not had a successful book in years, and was behind schedule in writing his upcoming first volume of his Churchill series, the research for which had put a financial strain on him. By the time he finished the manuscript in 1985, his reputation was so diminished that no serious publisher was willing to print his works, so it wasn?t until 1987 that the book was published as Churchill?s War by Veritas Publications, a far-right wing Australian publishing house. While Irving claimed he wanted to do for Churchill what he did for Hitler in Hitler?s War, in reality the book was an attempt at character assassination.

Related Topics:
1985 - 1987 - Australia

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In it, Irving accused Churchill of being a debauched alcoholic, a coward, and a corrupt warmonger servile to the interests of ?international Jewry.? Irving also accused him of ?selling out the British Empire? and ?turning Britain against its natural ally, Germany.? The book sold poorly to the general public and historians by now ignored him. The reviewers noted that Irving?s once-praised writing style had deteriorated, and said that, for the most part, it was an incomprehensible and tedious propaganda piece that read as though it had come straight out of Goebbels? propaganda ministry. However, along with Hitler?s War, Churchill?s War became a favourite in the neo-Nazi and far-right communities; while in the former he exonerated the beloved Führer, in the latter he viciously attacked his hated enemy, Winston Churchill, the man who had stood up to Hitler.

Related Topics:
British Empire - Goebbels - Neo-Nazi

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In 1989, he published his biography of Hermann Göring, in which he highlighted the more ?positive? features of the Nazi Reichsmarschall, although Irving did not openly endorse him. Irving tended to ignore Göring?s role in the Holocaust and his theft of art treasures, and instead gave a wealth of information about Göring?s jovial personality and brighter aspects, such as his outlawing of vivisection and promotion of reforestation. Irving also misrepresented various incidents and documents as proof that Göring disapproved of the persecution of Jews and other Nazi crimes.

Related Topics:
1989 - Hermann Göring - Reichsmarschall - Vivisection

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