Irving v Penguin Books & Lipstadt

David Irving sued Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt for libel in 2000. He spent thirty-two days in open court defending his historical writing against six expert reports. He lost. This site is the full record.

On 11 April 2000, Mr Justice Gray found for the defendants. 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". The Court of Appeal refused permission to appeal on 20 July 2001.

Approved judgment · 11 April 2000 · §13.167

Read one exchange The 'baby Aryan' ditty Fifteen lines from day 14. Rampton hands Irving the rhyme he wrote for his nine-month-old daughter. Gray cites it in the judgment. Start with the expert case Evans on Irving's method The principal report on how Irving handles evidence — 1,367 paragraphs. Long. Of all the witnesses, Evans was the one Irving couldn't shake.

JGMr Justice Graypresiding judge DIMr Irvingclaimant, in person RRMr Rampton QClead defence counsel RERichard EvansIrving's method RPRobert Jan van PeltAuschwitz CBChristopher Browningthe Final Solution PLPeter LongerichHitler & the killings HFHajo FunkeIrving's network

Most people who arrive here have heard a specific claim — about Auschwitz, about Hitler, about the death toll, about the judgment itself. Each card below pairs one such claim with the part of the trial that took it on. Everything else — reports, judgment, appeal, witnesses, closing, exhibits — is under the Documents tab.

Some courtroom exchanges stand on their own — fifteen to fifty lines that show, in a small space, what the trial was actually about. These are the moments it turns on. Click any card to read the full exchange.

The trial settled Irving's case. It didn't settle Holocaust denial. The postscript tracks what happened next — the historians' books, Irving's 2006 conviction in Vienna, the Denial film, the HDOT project, and how the case is cited today.