His publishers were the most reputable in the world. He was damaging their interests, however. He had to be taken out, and his books silenced for ever.

Then they learned that he had just brought out a new edition of the book Hitler’s War, better than ever. And that Macmillan Ltd had signed a contract to publish his Goebbels biography as well.

We reproduce below the secret minutes of the meeting held behind closed doors in the headquarters of the Board of Deputies of British Jews on December 12, 1991. Item 6 is but a pale shadow of what was actually discussed. . .

Right: the document

16 January 1992 

EDUCATION & ACADEMIC SUB-COMMITTEE

Dear Colleague

The next meeting of the Education & Academic Sub-Committee will take place on:-

Monday 27th January 1992. at 3.30 pmin the Board's Committee Room, the 4th Floor, Woburn House.

The minutes of the last meeting are enclosed and I look forward to seeing you there.

With best wishes.

Yours sincerely

[R Gladstone, p.p.]

LAURIE ROSENBERG

Executive Director
Education Department

 

Enc

Under the auspices of The Board of Deputies of British Jews
Charity Commission No: 275399

Minutes of Meeting held on December 12, 1991. Errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation are as in original; words in […] were omitted from the original:

EDUCATION & ACADEMIC COMMITTEE

 

Mr Jeremy Coleman
Prof. S J Gould
Prof. Anthony Polonsky
Mr John Najman
Dr John P Fox

 

1. REPORT ON JOURNAL

1.1 A series of memoirs of survivors should be published: - possibly using Leicester University's in-house facilities but if this proves difficult, then it is possible that the Education Department at the Board could be utilised to provide print ready art work.

1.2 There were two books with Frank Cass at the moment.

Dr John Fox reported on the satisfactory state of play of the Journal. He had revised the 1st Edition Disk (7-8 weeks in 12 weeks): revised update from Finkelstone awaiting. Please note enclosure.

Dr Fox reported that very few changes had to be made to the first edition. It was agreed to ask Prof. Aubrey Newman to change his article to "Teaching the History of the Holocaust".

2.Mr Helfgott emphasised that it was necessary to obtain more commitment from teachers and academics [to] publish suitable, school based Holocaust Text Books.

It was agreed to approach Robert Wistrich. Prof. Gould agreed to help. Mr Helfgott will talk to Mr Rosenberg about attainment targets within the National Curriculum at both KS 3 &4.

3. LUNCH TIME TALKS: see enclosure. Bevis Marks Synagogue has been booked on the following dates for lunch-time lectures:- 12th February 1992, 26th February 1992, and the 11th March 1992. Dr Martin Gilbert will be approached about his lecture.

4. EVENING MEETINGS: It was agreed that Mr Helfgott would speak with Dr David Cesarani of the Wiener Library to invite him to give a lecture and ask if he had any further ideas.

5. COMMEMORATION OF ALLIED DECLARATION: 17TH December 1942: see enclosure. It was suggested to get a speaker who was in Parliament at the time eg. Quentin Hogg. It was agreed that Jeremy Coleman would make enquiries as to who would be available and suitable.

6. DAVID IRVING: Concern was voiced over the publication of the 2nd Edition of Hitler's War. There was debate over how to approach MacMillan publishers over Goebbels Diary. It was agreed await new[s] from Jeremy Coleman before deciding what course of action to take.

7. DATE OF NEXT MEETING: The date of the next meeting will either be the 27th or 30th January 1992. (To be advised).

Comments

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THIS AUTHENTIC document provides a rare glimpse of the London-based conspiracy to suppress free speech and research at work.

The Holocaust Educational Trust was established by the Hon. Greville Janner (now Lord Janner), Holocaust historian Martin Gilbert, and Fleet-street Solicitor Martin Paisner

“for the education of the public in contemporary history, and in particular education in the history of European Jewry in the period up to and including the Holocaust,”

in November 1987, a year after the All-Parliamentary War Crimes Group — with which it in fact shared a telephone number — was set up on November 24, 1986.

Although the law clearly requires the Trust to refrain from pursuing any purposes “which are not exclusively charitable,” in the terms of its deed, the H.E.T. has repeatedly violated this condition. On September 29, 1996 the Sunday Times reported that Labour Party support for a new Holocaust-denial law “follows an all-party campaign by the London based Holocaust Education Trust”, which seems hard to reconcile with the terms of its registration by the Charity Commission. The Charity Commissioners had to remind the H.E.T. at least once in late 1996 of the responsibilities imposed on them not to engage in activities of a political nature, and those regarding charitable expenditures.

The meeting described in the minutes reproduced above clearly violated the Trust. Bludgeoning publishers into silencing authors with world-wide reputations can not be called a “charitable” activity under any construction of the words.

This document was furnished to our Website by a disaffected member of the Board’s staff, horrified at the Nazi tactics they were proposing to use to crush opinions they opposed. More such documents are already in our possession as a result of libel and legal actions pursued by Mr Irving against the Board, Deborah Lipstadt, and Gitta Sereny, and against the governments of Canada and Australia. (These documents can for the most part not be released until they come into the public domain in a few months’ time.)

More people were present at the committee meeting than are listed at the head, e.g. Ben Helfgott, the odious chairman of the Board’s Yad Vashem Committee, who is quoted in para. 2.

Personalities mentioned:              [right: Jewish Chronicle 1989]

Laurie Rosenberg was executive director, Education Department.

Robert Wistrich, left, who was to be “approached,” was author of Hitler’s Apocalypse: Jews and the Nazi Legacy (Weidenfeld). Wistrich, who teaches at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, argues that Adolf Hitler had the annihilation of the Jews as his primary goal ever since 1919.

Ben Helfgott is chairman of the Yad Vashem Committee of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and a member of the Yad Vashem Educational and Academic Sub-Committees. Helfgott is the intellectual thug who in July 1992 led the intimidation of The Sunday Times into violating its signed contract with David Irving after they published the sensational Goebbels Diaries which he brought back from Moscow a few weeks after this “committee meeting”.

Wilting under their onslaught, Andrew Neil, editor in chief of the newspaper, agreed not to pay Mr Irving for the diaries (which the newspaper nonetheless published); the newspaper even agreed to run an immediate four-page supplement on The Holocaust, and to distribute it at its own expense to British schools on behalf of the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Dr John Fox, an expert on the SS police codes and colleague of US historian Richard Breitman, was editor of The British Journal of Holocaust Education, and lectures at Jews College, London. He has stated elsewhere his own recollection of this disgraceful meeting, about which he published a furious letter in the Daily Telegraph in 1996.

Dr (now Sir) Martin Gilbert, one of the trustees of the Holocaust Educational Trust, is the author of the latter volumes of the official Winston Churchill biography, and of diverse published studies on the Holocaust.

Dr David Cesarani is the loveable and distinguished director of the Wiener Library, the Jewish propaganda library established in London during W.W.II with British government funds (he wrote in The Guardian that passing similar laws for the suppression of free speech to those passed in Germany would “actually enhance” freedom of speech in the U.K.)

Professor Anthony Polonsky was one of those who bravely opposed the proposal to silence Mr Irving by these underhand methods.

Jeremy Coleman was Associate Director of the Holocaust Educational Trust, and represented that body on this committee; the para. 6 reference involving him is one more example of the political nature of the H.E.T. (notwithstanding that it is enjoined by its charitable-trust deed from engaging in any political activities).

The chairman of the Trust, the Hon. Greville Janner (now Lord Janner) was evidently not present. 

Our opinion

THIS MEETING was held in the main committee room of the Board of Deputies of British Jews at its heavily fortified headquarters in London. A few days after the meeting, a violent campaign of Nazi tactics designed to halt production of the new edition of Hitler’s War — first published by Hodder & Stoughton and The Viking Press, and republished by Macmillan and the world’s leading publishers –began. Throughout the British Midland cities principal bookstores found their plate glass windows smashed by thugs, and anonymous letters advised the managers to stop stocking Mr Irving’s Hitler’s War. Pressure was secretly applied to W H Smith Ltd, the main book distributors, not to handle the book. Book signings were cancelled. Mr Irving’s literary agents around the world became the target of poison pen letters. His publishers were the victims of an onslaught no less savage. Suddenly, printers refused to reprint Mr Irving’s books. Under pressure, Macmillan Ltd on July 6, 1992 issued secret orders to its production staff for the total destruction of all Mr Irving’s books, without informing him; the cost to themselves ran into hundreds of thousands of pounds –and his income from them halted. This document now shows which dark forces were behind the scandal. 

Now here’s a thought: D’you feel that the U.K. Charities Commission should be reminding the Holocaust Educational Trust of its responsibilities? Why not e-mail the Commissioners? First browse the commission’s Webpage, then review the law, then send a brief complaint to the Commission using this pre-addressed form:

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