Deborah Lipstadt

Deborah Lipstadt 2015, address at a Shoah memorial event organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

Deborah Esther Lipstadt (born March 18, 1947 in Manhattan , New York ) is an American historian and Holocaust researcher.

Life

Deborah Lipstadt grew up in a Jewish family which, among other things, gave her a "strong awareness that one cannot remain silent about injustices". After studying in New York and teaching at universities in Los Angeles and Seattle , Lipstadt took over the chair as Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University in Atlanta (as of 2014) .

The researcher first became known in the North American academic community for her investigations into how the American media ignored knowledge of the annihilation of European Jewry during World War II ( Beyond Belief , 1986).

She received an unusually high level of international attention for scientific publications with her presentation of the history of Holocaust denial ( Denying the Holocaust , 1993; German: Betrifft: Denying des Holocaust , 1994), an annotated compilation of the lies and half-truths of internationally known Holocaust deniers, combined with a Careful and factually sound analysis and refutation of the arguments with which Holocaust denial as an international phenomenon first became the subject of a comprehensive academic monograph.

The Irving versus Lipstadt trial

Because of the clear statements made in this publication concerning him, the prominent British Holocaust denier David Irving demanded in November 1995 that the British publisher Lipstadts, Penguin Books , should withdraw the publication. When the publisher failed to comply with this request, Irving Lipstadt and the publisher sued the publisher in September 1996 in a London court for insult, defamation and damage to business. Under UK law, in such a proceeding it is not the plaintiff's responsibility to prove the accuracy of his allegations, but the burden of proof on the defendant's side. The publishing house and Lipstadt had to prove that the scientist had rightly described Irving as an admirer of Hitler, a jitter of history and a dangerous mouthpiece for the Holocaust deniers. With the verdict on April 11, 2000, the court dismissed Irving's complaint and found Lipstadt and her publishing house to be right on all essential points.

The process was in 2016 on an internationally successful American-British film production entitled denial (English title: Denial ). Rachel Weisz plays Deborah Lipstadt, Timothy Spall played David Irving.

Works (selection)

• The Zionist Career of Louis Lipsky. 1900-1921. New York 1982, ISBN 9780405140860 (thesis 1976)
• Beyond Belief. The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust, 1933-1945. New York 1986, ISBN 9780029191613 (other editions)
• Denying the Holocaust. The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. New York 1993, ISBN 9780029192351 (other editions). In German as:
  • Subject: Holocaust denial. With an introduction by Erwin Leiser , Rio-Verlag, Zurich 1994, ISBN 3907768108 . Simultaneously with the Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft , Darmstadt 1994. Later as a paperback under the title: Denial of the Holocaust. Right-wing extremism with method. With an introduction by Micha Brumlik , Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1996, ISBN 349960101X .
• History on Trial. My Day In Court With David Irving. New York 2005, ISBN 9780060593766
• The Eichmann Trial. Schocken, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-8052-4260-7 .
• The new anti-Semitism . From the English by Stephan Pauli. Berlin Verlag, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-8270-1340-8

Honors

• 2018: Carl von Ossietzky Prize for Contemporary History and Politics

literature

• Richard J. Evans : The Forger of History. Holocaust and Historical Truth in the David Irving Trial. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 2001, ISBN 3-593-36770-X .
• Peter Longerich : Auschwitz denial. The Irving versus Lipstadt trial before the London High Court. In: Klaus-Dietmar Henke (Ed.): Auschwitz. Six essays on happenings and visualizations. Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarian Research at the Technical University of Dresden, Reports and Studies 32, Dresden 2001, pp. 53–64 ( PDF at tu-dresden.de).
• Eva Menasse : The Holocaust in court. The David Irving Trial. Siedler, Berlin 2000, ISBN 978-3-88680-713-0 .

Web links

Commons : Deborah Lipstadt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Deborah Lipstadt in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature by and about Deborah Lipstadt in the bibliographic database WorldCat
• Deborah Lipstadt , short biography on the homepage of the religion faculty at Emory University
• Deborah Lipstadt , blog
• Complete grounds for judgment on the Irving vs. Lipstadt
• Jewish Women's Archive : Deborah Lipstadt (accessed August 29, 2017)

Remarks

1. ↑ Urs Bühler: The powerlessness and the power of silence . Interview, in: NZZ , April 22, 2017, p. 25
2. ^ Evans: Der Geschistorfälscher , Frankfurt / Main 2001, p. 20.
3. ^ Evans: Der Geschistorfälscher , Frankfurt / Main 2001, p. 47ff.
4. ^ Lipstadt: Subject: Denial of the Holocaust , Zurich 1994, p. 196f and p. 220.
5. ^ Evans: Der Geschistorfälscher , Frankfurt / Main 2001, p. 289ff. The publisher then billed Irving for litigation costs of £ 2 million, which Irving was unable to pay. Evans, p. 293 ff, cf. also Vicram Dodd: Failed libel action costs Irving his home , The Guardian , May 22, 2002, accessed October 14, 2014.
6. ↑ A comprehensive review of the trial, including defense materials and the full reasoning for the verdict, is available on the Holocaust Denial on Trial website ( TAM Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University ).
7. ↑ Oldenburg honors American Holocaust researcher. Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 9, 2018, accessed on August 26, 2020 .