Atyn Boersma, writes from the Netherlands on Sunday, September 7, 2003 with several points

About the basis of the Lipstadt trial

SEVERAL years ago I read Deborah Lipstadt‘s book [Denying the Holocaust]. Since Sept 11, 2001 I have immersed myself in the history of the Palestinian – Zionist conflict, and discovered I had been “had” by Zionist propaganda for decades.

After reading John Charmley‘s book on Winston Churchill, End of Glory, where he proves beyond reasonable doubt that Churchill accomplished nothing in World War Two but the end of the British empire and the substitution of Joseph Stalin for Adolf Hitler as dictator over Eastern Europe, and having read Charmley’s statement on the South African Jew [Sir Henry Strakosch] who prevented the forced sale of Chartwell, I decided I wanted to know what the alleged “holocaust denier” had to say.

I began with Churchill’s War, and then read Hitler’s War. I must tell you that in my opinion you’re the best World War Two historian. Many things I never understood about the war have now been explained.

Books by you which I already have bought, but not yet read, are on the Luftwaffe, the Nuremberg trial and on Sikorski. I also read the latest book on Rudolf Hess (not yours), and indeed, one gets the impression that Churchill did everything he could to prevent the war ending too soon.

 AFTER reading your two above-mentioned books I reread Lipstadt, and indeed, Lipstadt is not very accurate with the truth.

The sentence ‘Irving always hovered on the edge of holocaust denial’ clearly is a lie. I do not know what you said or wrote on the matter except in the two mentioned books. And I do not comprehend the whole holocaust debate.

Some six million Jews disappeared in WW II from Europe. In my opinion it does not matter very much if this figure is for instance four million, or which percentage was killed by Zyklon B.

I just looked at your website, and to be frank — and this is the reason I’m writing — I missed a clear concise statement on what the issue is, between Lipstadt and you [see answer below]. In the mass of legal statements one loses track.

But strange sensitivities exist, I wrote to a US historian that your opinion is that Hitler did not intend not order the holocaust, and he replied ‘sounds like a denial to me’.

That Zionists exploit the holocaust for propaganda reasons is clear; what still puzzles me is why Ben Gurion in June 1944 did not want to take any action to prevent the killing of Hungary’s Jews.

You of course know about Reszö Kasztner‘s role, described in Ben Hecht‘s book Perfidy. But I wonder if the non-action by Ben Gurion in June 1944 had to do with the fact, described by Hödl, in Als Bettler in die Leopoldstadt,* that Hungarian Jews remained opposed to Zionism.

Atyn Boersma

Related files on this website:

 Radical’s Diary, on MI5 documents on Eichmann’s “Jews for trucks” offer | June 1944, the British interrogated Joel Brand on his mission | Brand accomplice summarises failure, Jul 12, 1944

* Klaus Hèodl: Als Bettler in die Leopoldstadt: galizische Juden auf dem Weg nach Wien (Bèohlaus zeitgeschichtliche Bibliothek, Bd. 27, Vienna, 1994)

David Irving comments:THANK you for that long and thoughtful letter. I went into the abortive Joel Brand / Reszö Kasztner deal (“trucks for Jews”) in some detail at my recent lecture in Cincinnati, on the basis of documents I surfaced from the Britisha archives (see “related files” above).

You will find a 500 word summary of the Lipstadt dispute (as required by UK rules of court) on my website. Have a look also at the cover page to our dossier on Deborah Lipstadt, which we are constantly updating.