Irving v Penguin Books & Lipstadt
David Irving sued Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt for libel in 1996 after Lipstadt described him as a Holocaust denier who distorted historical evidence. The 32-day trial began on January 11, 2000. Irving represented himself; Richard Rampton QC represented the defendants.
Mr Justice Gray found for the defendants on April 11, 2000. He ruled that Irving had “persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence”, that he was “an active Holocaust denier”, and that he was “anti-semitic and racist” (approved judgment, ¶13.167). The Court of Appeal refused permission to appeal on July 20, 2001.
The defendants didn’t prove every charge. Gray wasn’t satisfied that Irving suppressed Frau Schultz-Dubois’s account (judgment ¶13.25), and he found that Irving’s introductory comment on Hitler’s May 26, 1944 speech didn’t misrepresent Hitler’s words (judgment ¶13.47).
The Moments page is the starting point for short analysis of the trial. It pairs thirteen courtroom exchanges with Gray’s findings and lists the nineteen criticisms selected by the defence, with Gray’s ruling on each. Evans’s full expert evidence is also available.
Gray dated Irving’s change to 1988
-
Irving began his career as an author and wrote more than 30 books. Gray noted that established publishers carried his work and that his archival research had received favorable reviews. Judgment, ¶¶1.4–1.5.
-
The first edition of Hitler’s War placed responsibility for the mass murder of the Jews on German and SS officials while arguing that Hitler wasn’t directly involved. Evans reproduced the book’s introduction in his expert report. Evans report, §3.3(b).
-
Irving testified for Ernst Zündel in Toronto in 1988 and accepted the Leuchter Report. Gray found that Irving’s position changed at that point; the 1991 edition of Hitler’s War removed most references to extermination that had appeared in 1977. Judgment, ¶8.6.
-
The British edition of Deborah Lipstadt’s Denying the Holocaust appeared from Penguin in 1994. Irving’s 1996 libel action challenged its descriptions of his methods and his Holocaust denial. Court of Appeal, ¶1.
-
The 32-day trial opened on January 11. On April 11, Gray ruled for the defendants and set out his findings about Irving’s treatment of historical evidence. Judgment, ¶13.167.
Trial details
| Court | Queen’s Bench Division, Royal Courts of Justice (Courts 37 and 73) |
| Trial | January 11 to March 15, 2000; 32 sitting days |
| Judgment | April 11, 2000, for the defendants |
| Appeal | Permission refused July 20, 2001 |
| Parties | David Irving, claimant, in person. Penguin Books Ltd and Deborah E. Lipstadt, defendants, represented by Richard Rampton QC. |
| Experts | Christopher Browning, Richard Evans, Hajo Funke, Peter Longerich (two reports), Robert Jan van Pelt, all for the defence. All 20 profiles |
| Transcript | 49,980 turns and about 1.25 million words from the Holocaust Denial on Trial TEI files at Emory University. The text keeps HDOT’s words and punctuation. About the text |
The trial, day by day
Every turn on every day has a stable citation anchor, such as day-14.html#L0860. Download all 32 days (PDF · 3,218 pages · 11.6 MB).
Exchanges cited in the judgment
Thirteen short transcript passages are paired with the parts of Gray’s judgment that address the same evidence, followed by the nineteen charged instances of distortion with Gray’s ruling on each.
- Irving omitted the words that changed Bruns’s account. Day 3, L0734–L0737; judgment ¶13.24.
- Irving promoted the Leuchter Report before checking its history. Day 7, L0852–L0930; judgment ¶¶7.79–7.89.
- Irving conceded that Judge Biddle never wrote “bloody liar”. Day 8, L0089–L0142; judgment ¶13.49.
- Irving made four roof openings a test of the Auschwitz evidence. Day 11, L0947–L0958; judgment ¶13.83.
- Irving cut the sentence saying Hitler “at least knew”. Day 12, L1510–L1534; judgment ¶13.48.
- Funfack denied first-hand knowledge of the Dresden toll. Day 13, L0943–L1010; judgment ¶¶13.119–13.121.
- Gray called Irving’s rhyme for his daughter “undeniably racist”. Day 14, L0855–L0890; judgment ¶13.106.
- Evans showed that Irving moved Hitler’s answer to Horthy by a day. Day 19, L0498–L0520; judgment ¶¶13.42–13.44.
- Evans stood by “a tissue of inventions” on Kristallnacht. Day 21, L0691–L0733; judgment ¶¶13.14–13.18.
- A quotation misdated by a week supported Irving’s argument that Goebbels hid the killings. Day 23, L0531–L0539; judgment ¶¶13.37–13.38.
- Irving accepted that Hitler and Himmler discussed and agreed on killing Jews “as partisans”. Day 25, L0715–L0742; judgment ¶6.56 and ¶¶13.57–13.58.
- Irving’s Wolff notes left out millions killed and gassing. Day 26, L0093–L0179; judgment ¶¶6.137–6.139.
- Irving’s diary named the National Alliance. Day 29, L0381–L0406; judgment ¶10.24 and ¶13.114.
Closing submissions
Closing arguments were delivered on days 30 to 32. The defendants’ written closing statement and Irving’s “Political Self-Portrait” are reproduced in full in the closing submissions section.
After the verdict
The appeal ruling, costs, bankruptcy, and Irving’s separate Austrian prosecution are covered in the postscript.
Contemporary newspaper coverage
The British Newspaper Archive catalog contains 144 articles on 124 newspaper pages from 2000: 92 JPEG clippings and 27 full-page PDFs. A short reading list comes first.