The Pacifica Forum was a discussion group in Eugene, Oregon , United States . It was hosted by retired University of Oregon professor Orval Etter until his death. It was criticized for promoting antisemitic views.
153-569: According to the group's founder, Orval Etter, the Pacifica Forum's purpose was to "provide information and points of view" on "war and peace, militarism and pacifism , violence and non-violence." The group was named the Pacifica Forum after a San Francisco -area supper club that had discussed similar issues. When it was founded in 1994, the Pacifica Forum had a generally left-wing orientation. However, in recent years it has also hosted right-wing speakers. Two regular members and presenters at
306-628: A Business Plot for a military coup, for which he had been suggested as leader; the matter was partially corroborated, but the real threat has been disputed. The Latin American expeditions ended with Franklin D. Roosevelt 's Good Neighbor policy of 1934. After World War II, there were major cutbacks, such that units responding early in the Korean War under United Nations authority (e.g. Task Force Smith ) were unprepared, resulting in catastrophic performance. When Harry S. Truman fired Douglas MacArthur ,
459-595: A Rolls-Royce car and enjoy an affluent lifestyle. In addition, Irving, despite being married, became increasingly open about his affairs with other women, all of which were detailed in his self-published diary. Irving's affairs caused his first marriage to end in divorce in 1981. In the 1980s, Irving started researching and writing about topics other than Nazi Germany, but with less success. He began his research on his three-part biography of Winston Churchill . After publication Irving's work on Churchill received at least one bad review from Professor David Cannadine (then of
612-513: A kosher butcher". In 1982, Irving described himself as an "untrained historian" and argued that his lack of academic qualifications did not mean that he could not be considered a historian. He listed Pliny the Elder and Tacitus as examples of historians without university training. In 1983, Stern , a weekly German news magazine, purchased 61 volumes of Hitler's supposed diaries for DM 9 million and published excerpts from them. Irving played
765-577: A white nationalist hate group by the SPLC in 2009. Valdas Anelauskas, a Lithuanian immigrant who describes himself as a white separatist , hosted a series of Pacifica Forum talks in 2006, 2008 and 2009. Another speaker, Jimmy Marr, described Martin Luther King Jr. as a "moral leper and communist dupe", and that the American Civil Rights Movement was funded by Jewish communists and
918-678: A 1986 speech in Australia Irving argued that photographs of Holocaust survivors and dead taken in early 1945 by Allied soldiers were proof that the Allies were responsible for the Holocaust, not the Germans. Irving claimed that the Holocaust was not the work of Nazi leaders, but rather of "nameless criminals", and claimed that "these men [who killed the Jews] acted on their own impulse, their own initiative, within
1071-599: A BBC1 television programme, he said that Hitler "became a statesman and then a soldier ... and the Jewish problem was a nuisance to him, an embarrassment." In 1983, Irving summarised his views about Hitler and the Jews when he said that "probably the biggest friend the Jews had in the Third Reich, certainly when the war broke out, was Adolf Hitler. He was the one who was doing everything he could to prevent things nasty happening to them." In
1224-399: A Holocaust-denial conference, which he refused on the grounds that his appearance there would damage his reputation. In a letter, Irving stated his reasons for his refusal as: "This is pure Realpolitik on my part. I am already dangerously exposed, and I cannot take the chance of being caught in flak meant for others!" Though Irving refused at this time to appear at conferences sponsored by
1377-701: A backlash against the Nazi period, and the Allied Control Council and later the Allied High Commission oversaw a program of attempted fundamental re-education of the German people at large in order to put a stop to German militarism once and for all. The Federal Republic of Germany today maintains a large, modern military and has one of the highest defence budgets in the world; at 1.3 percent of Germany's GDP, it is, in 2019, similar in cash terms to those of
1530-555: A commander in the Royal Navy . Their mother, Beryl Irving ( née Newington), was an illustrator and a writer of children's books. During World War II, Irving's father was an officer aboard the light cruiser HMS Edinburgh . On 30 April 1942, while escorting Convoy QP 11 in the Barents Sea , the ship was badly damaged by the German submarine U-456 . Two days later, the ship was attacked by
1683-461: A favourable light. David Irving and his twin brother Nicholas were born six months before the start of the undeclared German–Czechoslovak War , as Nazi Germany moved towards its opening of World War II . The family lived in Hutton , near Brentwood , Essex , England. They had a brother, John, and a sister, Jennifer. Their father, John James Cawdell Irving (1898–1967), was a career naval officer and
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#17328455217941836-617: A footnote." Irving was present at a memorial service for Hans-Ulrich Rudel in January 1983 after the latter's death, organised by the DVU and its leader Gerhard Frey , delivering a speech, and was given the Hans-Ulrich-Rudel-Award by Frey in June 1985. Irving was a frequent speaker for the DVU in the 1980s and the early 1990s, but the relationship ended in 1993 apparently because of concerns by
1989-476: A forgery, to which a reporter replied that he was also the last to call them genuine. By the mid-1980s, Irving had not had a successful book for some years and was behind schedule in writing the first volume of his Churchill series, the research for which had strained his finances. He finished the manuscript in 1985, and the book was published in 1987, as Churchill's War, The Struggle for Power . In 1989, Irving published his biography of Hermann Göring . Over
2142-705: A former Army psychologist during the Vietnam War , told the Intelligence Report that after the Anelauskas lectures, he spoke to Pacifica Forum attendees about the psychology of racism and its consequences, showing photos of lynchings and anti-Jewish Nazi propaganda posters. "Since Pacifica Forum is a public forum, Mariah and I had no objection to attendance by the self-described 'white separatists' and even entertained some hope of modifying their views," he emailed. "However, we could not allow them any control of programming in
2295-461: A forum with which our names were regularly associated. Orval declined to exclude their influence in programming decisions, and we thereupon formally dissociated ourselves." Its regular attendees respond that the forum is not a membership organization, and does not hold any positions itself. It offers a platform to all political views, including Zionism and anti-fascism . Orval Etter was an emeritus professor of planning, public policy, and management,
2448-476: A major role in exposing the Hitler Diaries as a hoax. In October 1982 Irving had purchased from the same source as Stern' s 1983 purchase, 800 pages of documents relating to Hitler, only to conclude that many of the documents were forgeries. Irving was amongst the first to identify the diaries as forgeries, and to draw media attention. He went so far as to crash the press conference held by Hugh Trevor-Roper at
2601-526: A musician, and a pacifist who was a conscientious objector during World War II . Etter died in 2013. Other than its meeting place, and having a retired professor as its founder, the group was not affiliated with the university. The group previously met in a room at the Erb Memorial Union at the University of Oregon (UO). In January 2010, it was moved by UO to the less centrally located Agate Hall at
2754-510: A potential friend in Irving and donated diaries and other material. Irving described his historical work to Rosenbaum as an act of "stone-cleaning" of Hitler, in which he cleared off the "slime" that he felt had been unjustly applied to Hitler's reputation. In 1969, during a visit to Germany, Irving met Robert Kempner , one of the American prosecutors at the Nuremberg trials . Irving asked Kempner if
2907-581: A report in the Eugene Weekly , the video shows one of the speakers pointing at a protester and shouting: "YOU are a Jew! A traitor Jew!". To the frustration of some Pacifica Forum members, Marr's Nazi views were embraced by Etter and set the tone for the group's programs, contributing to the exodus of former supporters of the Forum. On January 8, 2010, Pacifica Forum held a meeting entitled "Everything You Wanted to Know About Pacifica Forum but Were Afraid to Ask". Of
3060-632: A series of 37 articles on the Allied bombing campaign , Und Deutschlands Städte starben nicht ("And Germany's Cities Did Not Die"), for the German boulevard journal Neue Illustrierte . These were the basis for his first book, The Destruction of Dresden (1963), in which he examined the Allied bombing of Dresden in February 1945. By the 1960s, a debate about the morality of the carpet bombing of German cities and civilian population had already begun, especially in
3213-894: A significant element of the imperialist or expansionist ideologies of many nations throughout history. Notable ancient examples include the Assyrian Empire , the Greek city state of Sparta , the Roman Empire , the Aztec nation, and the Mongol Empire . Examples from modern times include the Ottoman Empire , the Kingdom of Prussia / German Empire / Third Reich , the British Empire , the Habsburg monarchy,
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#17328455217943366-525: A soldier". In a speech at that conference, Irving stated: "Isn't it right for Tel Aviv to claim now that David Irving is talking nonsense and of course Adolf Hitler must have known about what was going in Auschwitz and Treblinka, and then in the same breath to claim that, of course our beloved Mr. Begin didn't know what was going on in Sabra and Chatilla ". During the same speech, Irving proclaimed Hitler to be
3519-507: A stronger central government than had ever previously existed for the purpose of enabling the nation to pursue an imperial policy in the Pacific and in the Caribbean and economic militarism to support the development of the new industrial economy. This reform was the result of a conflict between Neo-Hamiltonian Republicans and Jeffersonian - Jacksonian Democrats over the proper administration of
3672-551: A substantial number of Jews the wrong way, you're anti-Semitic ... In that sense, I have to admit that the Forum and I, in particular, are anti-Semitic." Etter and the forum's regular attendees contested this claim and most of what has been published about them by the SPLC. They argued that the forum is an open discussion group that holds no positions. A report in the Oregon Daily Emerald stated that Etter did not consider himself antisemitic. Militarism Militarism
3825-543: A university policy allowing retired professors to host meetings on campus. In December 2009, speaker Jimmy Marr gave a presentation entitled: "National Socialist Movement: An Insider's View of America's Radical Right". During the presentation, Marr invited those in attendance to join him in giving the Sieg Heil salute. Marr also showed video footage from a National Socialist Movement demonstration in Phoenix, Arizona . According to
3978-520: Is also the ideological concept behind a shift in policies (since the death of Kim Il Sung in 1994) which emphasize the people's military over all other aspects of state and the interests of the military comes first before the masses (workers). In the pre-colonial era, the Filipino people had their own forces, divided between the islands which each had its own ruler. They were called Sandig ( Guards ), Kawal ( Knights ), and Tanod . They also served as
4131-448: Is an English author who has written on the military and political history of World War II , especially Nazi Germany . He was found to be a Holocaust denier in a UK court in 2000 as a result of a failed libel case. Irving's works include The Destruction of Dresden (1963), Hitler's War (1977), Churchill's War (1987) and Goebbels: Mastermind of the Third Reich (1996). In his works, he argued that Adolf Hitler did not know of
4284-652: Is at best casually journalistic and at worst quite exceptionally offensive. The text is littered with errors from beginning to end. In 1981, he published two books. The first was The War Between the Generals , in which Irving offered an account of the Allied High Command on the Western Front in 1944–45, detailing the heated conflicts Irving alleges occurred between the various generals of the various countries and presenting rumours about their private lives. The second book
4437-490: Is over". Irving took this as proof that Hitler ordered against the extermination of the Jews. He falsely claimed that "no other historians have quoted this document, possibly finding its content hard to reconcile with their obsessively held views" about Hitler's responsibility for the Holocaust. However, the interpretation of the document is not as simple as Irving made it out to be in his book. The memorandum has no date and no signature on it, although historians estimate that it
4590-469: Is regarded as one of the world’s most militarized places. In recent years, the Indian government has increased the military expenditure of the 1.4 million-strong military across all branches and embarked on a rapid modernization program. In parallel with 20th-century German militarism, Japanese militarism began with a series of events by which the military gained prominence in dictating Japan's affairs. This
4743-451: Is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the military and of the ideals of a professional military class and the "predominance of the armed forces in the administration or policy of the state" (see also: stratocracy and military junta ). Militarism has been
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4896-498: The Auschwitz concentration camp . Irving's reputation as a historian was further discredited in 2000, when, in the course of an unsuccessful libel case he filed against the American historian Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books , High Court Judge Charles Gray determined in his ruling that Irving willfully misrepresented historical evidence to promote Holocaust denial and whitewash
5049-478: The Carnival Times , a student rag mag of the University of London Carnival Committee, became controversial in 1959 when he added a "secret supplement" to the magazine. This supplement contained an article in which he called Hitler the "greatest unifying force Europe has known since Charlemagne ". Although Irving deflected criticism by characterising the Carnival Times as " satirical ", he also stated that "
5202-800: The Filipino-American War , the General Antonio Luna as a high-ranking general, he ordered a conscription to all citizens, a mandatory form of national service (at any war) for the increase the density and the manpower of the Philippine Army . During the World War II, the Philippines was one of the participants, as a member of Allied forces, the Philippines with the U.S. forces fought the Imperial Japanese Army (1942–1945), one of
5355-464: The Führer had told him that he could not marry because Germany was "his bride". Irving then claimed to have asked the naval adjutant when Hitler made that remark, and upon hearing that the date was 24 March 1938, Irving stated in response "Herr Admiral, at that moment I was being born". Irving used this alleged incident to argue that there was some sort of mystical connection between himself and Hitler. In
5508-480: The General War Commissariat . In order to bolster his power both in interior and foreign matters, so-called Soldatenkönig ("soldier king") Frederick William I of Prussia started his large-scale military reforms in 1713, thus beginning the country's tradition of a high military budget by increasing the annual military spending to 73% of the entire annual budget of Prussia. By the time of his death in 1740,
5661-473: The German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was a " preventive war " forced on Hitler to avert an impending Soviet attack. Irving also argued that Hitler had no knowledge of the Holocaust : while not denying its occurrence, he argued that SS leader Heinrich Himmler and his deputy Reinhard Heydrich were its originators and architects. Irving made much of the lack of any written order from Hitler ordering
5814-572: The Hamburg offices of Stern magazine on 25 April 1983 to denounce the diaries as a forgery and Trevor-Roper for endorsing the diaries as genuine. Irving's performance at the Stern press conference where he violently harangued Trevor-Roper until ejected by security led him to be featured prominently on the news: the next day, Irving appeared on the Today television show as a featured guest. Irving had concluded that
5967-465: The Institute for Historical Review , appeared at an event organized by the Pacifica Forum. Weber was billed by the group as "America's most prominent revisionist historian". The Weber event was promoted using a flyer that depicts a snake curled in the shape of a Star of David and the headline: "Free Speech versus Zionist power." The meeting was attended by an estimated 60 people. Orval Etter attended both
6120-749: The Marco Polo Bridge Incident outside Peking sparked the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). Japanese troops streamed into China , conquering Peking, Shanghai , and the national capital of Nanking ; the last conquest was followed by the Nanking Massacre . In 1940, Japan entered into an alliance with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy , two similarly militaristic states in Europe, and advanced out of China and into Southeast Asia. The following year, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor to prevent
6273-621: The Meiji Restoration , which restored the Emperor to power and began the Empire of Japan . It is exemplified by the 1882 Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors , which called for all members of the armed forces to have an absolute personal loyalty to the Emperor. In the 20th century (approximately in the 1920s), two factors contributed both to the power of the military and chaos within its ranks. One
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6426-541: The Memoirs of Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel in 1965 (edited by Walter Görlitz) and in 1967 published Accident: The Death of General Sikorski . In the latter book, Irving claimed that the plane crash which killed Polish government in exile leader General Władysław Sikorski in 1943 was really an assassination ordered by Winston Churchill , so as to enable Churchill to betray Poland to the Soviet Union . Irving's book inspired
6579-464: The Philippines , Puerto Rico , and Cuba ). The previous limit by legislation of 24,000 men was expanded to 60,000 regulars in the new army bill on 2 February 1901, with allowance at that time for expansion to 80,000 regulars by presidential discretion at times of national emergency. U.S. forces were again enlarged immensely for World War I. Officers such as George S. Patton were permanent captains at
6732-598: The Prussian Army had grown into a standing army of 83,000 men, one of the largest in Europe, at a time when the entire Prussian populace made up 2.5 million people. Prussian military writer Georg Henirich von Berenhorst would later write in hindsight that ever since the reign of the soldier king , Prussia always remained "not a country with an army, but an army with a country" (a quote often misattributed to Voltaire and Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau ). After Napoleon Bonaparte defeated Prussia in 1806, one of
6885-754: The Siege of Baler , the Battle of Imus , Battle of Kawit, Battle of Nueva Ecija, the victorious Battle of Alapan and the famous Twin Battles of Binakayan and Dalahican . During Independence , the President General Emilio Aguinaldo established the Magdalo , a faction separate from Katipunan , and he declared the revolutionary government in the constitution of the First Philippine Republic . During
7038-620: The Sino-Indian War in 1962, India dramatically expanded its military which helped India win the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 . India became the third Asian country in the world to possess nuclear weapons , culminating in the tests of 1998 . The Kashmiri insurgency and recent events including the Kargil War against Pakistan, assured that the Indian government remained committed to military expansion. The disputed Jammu and Kashmir region
7191-703: The Teutonic Order and its colonization of Prussia during the late Middle Ages, when mercenaries from the Holy Roman Empire were granted lands by the Order and gradually formed a new landed militarist Prussian nobility, from which the Junker nobility would later evolve. During the 17th-century reign of the "Great Elector" Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg , Brandenburg-Prussia increased its military to 40,000 men and began an effective military administration overseen by
7344-460: The Treaty of Versailles humiliated their militaristic culture. The Weimar years saw large-scale right-wing militarist and paramilitary mass organizations such as Der Stahlhelm as well as militias such as the Freikorps , which was banned in 1921. In the same year, the Reichswehr set up the Black Reichswehr , a secret reserve of trained soldiers networked within its units organised as "labour battalions" ( Arbeitskommandos ) to circumvent
7497-458: The USSR in an attempt to incite violence. Orval Etter and many other attendees strongly rejected this perspective. The group hosted right-wing intellectual Tomislav Sunic , former Croatian diplomat and author of Homo Americanus: Child Of The Post-Modern Age as a speaker in June 2008. David Irving was also a featured speaker during the same month, speaking on his imprisonment in Austria for Holocaust denial . In November 2007, Mark Weber of
7650-429: The United States of America , the First French Empire , the Zulu Kingdom , the Empire of Japan , the Italian Empire under Benito Mussolini , Israel , North Korea , and the Russian Empire / Soviet Union / Russia . The roots of German militarism can be found in 18th- and 19th-century Prussia and the subsequent unification of Germany under Prussian leadership. However, Hans Rosenberg sees its origin already in
7803-400: The University of London ): It has received almost no attention from historians or reviewers ... It is easy to see why ... full of excesses, inconsistencies and omissions ... seems completely unaware of recent work done on the subject ... It is not merely that the arguments in this book are so perversely tendentious and irresponsibly sensationalist. It is also that it is written in a tone which
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#17328455217947956-505: The extermination of Jews , or, if he did, he opposed it. Though Irving's negationist claims and views of German war crimes in World War II (and Hitler's responsibility for them) were never taken seriously by mainstream historians, he was once recognised for his knowledge of Nazi Germany and his ability to unearth new historical documents, which he held closely but stated were fully supportive of his conclusions. His 1964 book The Mare's Nest about Germany's V-weapons campaign of 1944–45
8109-436: The "annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe" if "Jewish financiers" started another world war, onto his wall. Following the failure of Focus, in September 1983, Irving for the first time attended a conference of the IHR. Van Pelt has argued that, with the failure of Irving's political career, he felt freer to associate with Holocaust deniers. At the conference, Irving did not deny the Holocaust, but did appear happy to share
8262-507: The "biggest friend the Jews had in the Third Reich". In the same speech, Irving stated that he operated in such a way as to bring himself maximum publicity. Irving stated that: "I have at home... a filing cabinet full of documents which I don't issue all at once. I keep them: I issue them a bit at a time. When I think my name hasn't been in the newspapers for several weeks, well, then I ring them up and I phone them and I say: 'What about this one, then? ' " A major theme of Irving's writings from
8415-414: The "official record of the Nuremberg Trials was falsified", and told him that he was planning to go to Washington, D.C., to compare the sound recordings of Luftwaffe Field-Marshal Erhard Milch 's March 1946 evidence with the subsequently published texts to find proof that evidence given at Nuremberg was "tampered with and manipulated". Upon his return to the United States, Kempner wrote to J. Edgar Hoover ,
8568-481: The "patriotic education" of the former Soviet Union. By the end of 2023, Vladimir Putin planned to spend almost 40% of public expenditures on defense and security. UK Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said that "the last time we saw these levels was at the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union." Militarism has a long history in Turkey . The Ottoman Empire lasted for centuries and always relied on its military might, but militarism
8721-503: The "trail of chaos" he had created at the Hamburg press conference and the attendant publicity it had brought him, and took pride in his humiliation of Trevor-Roper, whom Irving strongly disliked for his sloppy work, in not detecting the hoax, and past criticism of Irving's methods and conclusions. Irving also noted internal inconsistencies in the supposed Hitler diaries, such as a diary entry for 20 July 1944, which would have been unlikely given that Hitler's right hand had been badly burned by
8874-421: The 1980s was his belief that it had been a great blunder on the part of Britain to declare war on Germany in 1939, and that ever since then and as a result of that decision, Britain had slipped into an unstoppable decline. Irving also took the view that Hitler often tried to help the Jews of Europe. In a June 1992 interview with The Daily Telegraph , Irving claimed to have heard from Hitler's naval adjutant that
9027-405: The Allied bombing raids on Germany had made non-Germans to be antisemitic that: the Jews were the victims of a large number of rather run-of-the-mill criminal elements which exist in Central Europe. Not just Germans, but Austrians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, feeding on the endemic antisemitism of the era and encouraged by the brutalization which war brought about anyway. These people had seen
9180-440: The British Embassy in Berlin before 1939 with an introduction by the British historian Donald Cameron Watt . As a result of Irving's success with Dresden , members of Germany's extreme right wing assisted him in contacting surviving members of Hitler's inner circle. In an interview with the American journalist Ron Rosenbaum , Irving claimed to have developed sympathies towards them. Many ageing former mid- and high-ranked Nazis saw
9333-419: The Communist regime and had ignored the fact that Hungarian Communists who did have a Jewish background like Mátyás Rákosi and Ernő Gerő had totally repudiated Judaism and sometimes expressed antisemitic attitudes themselves. Critics such as Neal Ascherson and Kai Bird took issue with some of Irving's language that seemed to evoke antisemitic imagery, such as his remark that Rákosi possessed "the tact of
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#17328455217949486-435: The Dresden bombing. When it was later confirmed that the TB 47 used was a forgery, Irving published a letter to the editor in The Times on 7 July 1966 retracting his estimates, writing that he had "no interest in promoting or perpetuating false legends". In 1977, the real document TB 47 was located in Dresden by Götz Bergander. Despite acknowledging that the copy of "TB 47" he had used was inaccurate, Irving argued during
9639-453: The Fox, a biography of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel ; and a series in the Sunday Express describing the Royal Air Force 's famous Dam Busters raid. In 1975, in his introduction to Hitler und seine Feldherren , the German edition of Hitler's War , Irving attacked Anne Frank's diary as a forgery, claiming falsely that a New York court had ruled that the diary was really the work of American scriptwriter Meyer Levin "in collaboration with
9792-408: The German V-weapons programme and the Allied intelligence countermeasures against it – was widely praised when published and continues to be well regarded. Michael J. Neufeld of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum has described The Mare's Nest as "the most complete account on both Allied and German sides of the V-weapons campaign in the last two years of the war." Irving translated
9945-517: The German destroyers Hermann Schoemann , Z24 and Z25 , and now beyond recovery was abandoned and scuttled by a torpedo from HMS Foresight . Irving's father survived but severed all links with his wife and children after the incident. Irving described his childhood in an interview with the American writer Ron Rosenbaum as: "Unlike the Americans, we English suffered great deprivations ... we went through childhood with no toys. We had no kind of childhood at all. We were living on an island that
10098-432: The Holocaust-denying Institute for Historical Review (IHR), he did grant the institute the right to distribute his books in the United States. Robert Jan van Pelt suggests that the major reason for Irving wishing to keep his distance from Holocaust deniers in the early 1980s was his desire to found his own political party called Focus. In a footnote in the first edition of Hitler's War , Irving writes, "I cannot accept
10251-416: The Holocaust. Frost asked Irving whether or not he thought Hitler was evil, he replied, "He was as evil as Churchill , as evil as Roosevelt , as evil as Truman ". From 1988, Irving started to espouse Holocaust denial openly: he had previously not denied the Holocaust outright, and for this reason many Holocaust deniers were ambivalent about him. They admired Irving for the pro-Nazi slant in his work and
10404-405: The Holocaust; he offered to pay £1,000 to anyone who could find such an order. As of 2019 , his offer still stood. In Hitler's War , Irving quoted a 1942 memorandum by Hans Lammers , the Chief of the Reich Chancellery, to the Reich Justice Minister Franz Schlegelberger , saying: "the Führer has repeatedly pronounced that he wants the solution of the Jewish Question put off until after the war
10557-402: The Irving and Weber talks, and stated that both men are legitimate historians. According to the SPLC, Etter stated, "I admit that there were some bad things done to Jews during World War II, but I don't believe that everything they claim is truthful." Etter gave a series of talks in 2009 based on the research of John Tanton who criticized the organization for inaccuracy. The former president of
10710-437: The Jews who fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 were well supplied with weapons from Germany's allies. Sydnor pointed out that Hitler had received an SS report in November 1942 which contained a mention of 363,211 Russian Jews executed by the Einsatzgruppen between August and November 1942. Sydnor remarked that Irving's statement that the Einsatzgruppen were in charge in the death camps seems to indicate that he
10863-404: The Nazis, a view shared by many prominent historians. The English court found that Irving was an active Holocaust denier, antisemite and racist , who "for his own ideological reasons persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence". In addition, the court found that Irving's books had distorted the history of Hitler's role in the Holocaust to depict Hitler in
11016-565: The Pacifica Forum members to leave the building. In early 2010, a swastika was found spray-painted into the carpet of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans Queer Alliance in the basement of the Erb Memorial Union . A computer was also vandalized with black paint. It was speculated to be related to a recent discussion by the Pacifica Forum held about the meaning of the swastika. According to the SPLC, Orval Etter responded to accusations of antisemitism by stating: "If you rub
11169-670: The Treaty of Versailles' 100,000 man limit on the German army.; it was dissolved in 1923. Many members of the Freikorps and the Black Reichswehr went on to join the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary branch of the Nazi party. All of these were responsible for the political violence of so-called Feme murders and an overall atmosphere of lingering civil war during the Weimar period. During
11322-672: The United Kingdom , but his efforts to move into politics, which he regarded at the time as very important, failed due to fiscal problems. Irving told the Oxford Mail of having "links at a low level" with the National Front (NF). Irving described The Spotlight , the main journal of the Liberty Lobby , as "an excellent fortnightly paper". At the same time, Irving put a copy of Hitler's " Prophecy Speech " of 30 January 1939, promising
11475-673: The United Kingdom, France and Japan, at around US$ 50bn. The rise of militarism in India dates back to the British Raj with the establishment of several Indian independence movement organizations such as the Indian National Army led by Subhas Chandra Bose . The Indian National Army (INA) played a crucial role in pressuring the British Raj after it occupied the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with
11628-473: The United Kingdom. There was consequently considerable interest in Irving's book, which was illustrated with graphic pictures, and it became an international best-seller . In the first edition, Irving's estimates for deaths in Dresden were between 100,000 and 250,000 – notably higher than most previously published figures. These figures became widely accepted in many standard reference works. In later editions of
11781-472: The University of Oregon, David B. Frohnmayer , criticized the Pacifica Forum and stated that its views do not represent those of the university. The forum is the only group Frohnmayer has singled out in this way. It has also drawn criticism from the University of Oregon Hillel , a Jewish student group. The forum had access to campus facilities, despite attempts by local anti-hate campaigners to evict it, due to
11934-509: The Warsaw Pact, with the Soviet Army playing a key role. All this was lost with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Russia was greatly weakened in what Russia's second President Vladimir Putin called the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century. Nevertheless, under Putin's leadership , a resurgent modern Russia has maintained a tremendous amount of geopolitical influence in
12087-422: The Weimar era, mathematician and political writer Emil Julius Gumbel published in-depth analyses of the militarist paramilitary violence characterizing German public life as well as the state's lenient to sympathetic reaction to it if the violence was committed by the political right. Nazi Germany was a strongly militarist state; after its defeat in 1945, militarism in German culture was dramatically reduced as
12240-450: The alleged Hitler diaries were a forgery because they had come from the same dealer in Nazi memorabilia from whom Irving had purchased his collection in 1982. At the press conference in Hamburg, Irving said, "I know the collection from which these diaries come. It is an old collection, full of forgeries. I have some here". Irving was proud to have detected and denounced the hoax material and of
12393-570: The armed forces, and the military has become one of the largest in the world . Songun elevates the Korean People's Armed Forces within North Korea as an organization and as a state function, granting it the primary position in the North Korean government and society. The principle guides domestic policy and international interactions . It provides the framework of the government, designating
12546-464: The authenticity of the alleged Hitler diaries was that the fake diaries contain no reference to the Holocaust, thereby buttressing Irving's claim in Hitler's War that Hitler had no knowledge of it. Subsequently, Irving conformed when the diaries were declared a forgery by consensus. At a press conference held to withdraw his endorsement of the diaries, Irving proudly claimed that he was the first to call them
12699-447: The bomb planted in his headquarters by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg earlier that day. A week later on 2 May, Irving asserted that many of the diary documents appeared to be genuine: at the same press conference, Irving took the opportunity to promote his translation of the memoirs of Hitler's physician Theodor Morell . Robert Harris , in his book Selling Hitler , suggested that an additional reason for Irving's change of mind over
12852-451: The bombing raids begin. They'd lost probably women, wives and children in the bombing raids. And they wanted to take revenge on someone. So when Hitler ordered the expulsion, as he did – there's no doubt that Hitler ordered the expulsion measures – these people took it out on the person that they could. By the mid-1980s, Irving associated himself with the IHR, began giving lectures to groups such as
13005-589: The book over the next three decades, he gradually adjusted the figure downwards to 50,000–100,000. According to Richard J. Evans at the 2000 libel trial that Irving brought against Deborah Lipstadt , Irving based his estimates of the dead of Dresden on the word of one individual who provided no supporting documentation, used a document forged by the Nazis, and described one witness who was a urologist as Dresden's Deputy Chief Medical Officer. The doctor later complained about being misidentified by Irving, and further, that he,
13158-550: The catastrophic losses of the Convoy PQ 17 . Amid much publicity, Broome sued Irving for libel in October 1968, and in February 1970, after a 17-day-trial before London's High Court , Broome won. Irving was forced to pay £40,000 in damages, and the book was withdrawn from circulation. After PQ-17 , Irving largely shifted to writing biographies. In 1968, he published Breach of Security , an account of German reading of messages to and from
13311-442: The companion volume to Hitler's War which covered events leading up to the war and which was written from a similar point of view. Again, professional historians such as Donald Cameron Watt noted numerous inaccuracies and misrepresentations. Despite the criticism, the book sold well, as did all of Irving's books up to that date. The success of his books enabled Irving to buy a home in the prestigious Mayfair district of London, own
13464-463: The conditions of peace was that Prussia should reduce its army to no more than 42,000 men. Since the time of Frederick The Great , however, Prussia practiced the Kruemper System, formed by dismissing a number of trained men at regular intervals and replacing them with raw recruits, thereby passing a large number of men through the ranks. The officers of the army were drawn almost entirely from among
13617-644: The countries spawned from the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and modern Russia remains Eastern Europe's leading, if not dominant, power. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine , the Russian government increased their efforts to introduce "patriotic education" into schools. The Associated Press reported that some parents were shocked by the militaristic nature of the Kremlin-promoted Important Conversations lessons, with some comparing them to
13770-500: The director of the FBI , that Irving expressed many "anti-American and anti-Jewish statements". In 1971, Irving translated the memoirs of General Reinhard Gehlen , and in 1973 published The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe , a biography of Field Marshal Milch. He spent the remainder of the 1970s working on Hitler's War and The War Path , his two-part biography of Adolf Hitler; The Trail of
13923-682: The doctor, was only repeating rumours about the death toll. According to an investigation by Dresden City Council in 2008, casualties at Dresden were estimated as 22,700–25,000 dead. Irving had based his numbers on what purported to be Tagesbefehl 47 ("Daily Order 47", TB 47), a document promulgated by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels , and on claims made after the war by a former Dresden Nazi functionary, Hans Voigt , without verifying them against official sources available in Dresden. Irving's estimates and sources were first disputed by Walter Weidauer , Mayor of Dresden 1946–1958, in his own account of
14076-580: The edge of campus. In March 2010, the group was moved to the Baker Downtown Center, still part of the UO campus but located in downtown Eugene, with UO citing "declining attendance" as the reason for the move. The Pacifica Forum was described by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2010 as a "formerly left-wing discussion group that has increasingly embraced right-wing extremism." It was listed as
14229-488: The end of the American Civil War the national army fell into disrepair. Reforms based on various European states including Britain, Germany, and Switzerland were made so that it would become responsive to control from the central government, prepared for future conflicts, and develop refined command and support structures; these reforms led to the development of professional military thinkers and cadre. During this time
14382-467: The fact that he possessed a degree of mainstream credibility that they lacked, but were annoyed that he did not openly deny the Holocaust. In 1980, Lucy Dawidowicz noted that, although Hitler's War was strongly sympathetic to the Third Reich, because Irving argued that Hitler was unaware of the Holocaust as opposed to denying the Holocaust happened at all, his book was not part of the "anti-Semitic canon". In 1980, Irving received an invitation to speak at
14535-619: The fall of the German monarchy in the German Revolution of 1918–1919 , in spite of Allied attempts to crush German militarism by means of the Treaty of Versailles , as the Allies saw Prussian and German militarism as one of the major causes of the Great War. During the period of the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), the 1920 Kapp Putsch , an attempted coup d'état against the republican government,
14688-473: The far-right German Deutsche Volksunion (DVU), and publicly denied that the Nazis systematically exterminated Jews in gas chambers during World War II. Irving in his revised edition of Hitler's War in 1991 removed all mentions of "gas chambers" and the word "Holocaust". He defended the revisions by stating, "You won't find the Holocaust mentioned in one line, not even in a footnote, why should [you]. If something didn't happen, then you don't even dignify it with
14841-525: The fate of some Berlin Jews was mentioned. At 1.30 pm Himmler was instructed to tell Reinhard Heydrich that the Jews were not to be liquidated. Irving falsely claimed that Himmler telephoned SS General Oswald Pohl , the overall chief of the concentration camp system, with the order: "Jews are to stay where they are" (Himmler actually referred to "administrative leaders of the SS" needing to stay where they were). Irving argued that "No liquidation" ( Keine Liquidierung )
14994-517: The first year. He did not complete the course because of financial constraints. Irving later studied for two years toward a degree in Economics in the department of Political Economy at University College London . He again had to drop out due to lack of funds. During this period at university, he participated in a debate on Commonwealth immigration, seconding British Union of Fascists founder Sir Oswald Mosley . Irving's time as an editor of
15147-478: The formation of a European Union is interpreted as building a group of superior peoples, and the Jews have always viewed with suspicion the emergence of any 'master-race' (other than their own, of course)". Opponents also viewed a cartoon included in the supplement as racist and criticised another article in which Irving wrote that the British press was owned by Jews. Volunteers were later recruited to remove and destroy
15300-521: The forum made a very public disassociation in August 2007 [1] when it changed direction, publishing a guest opinion in the Eugene Register-Guard [2] that expressed mild criticism of having a neo-Nazi like Mark Weber as a lecturer along with extensive detailing of how the extremist slant would hurt the group's efforts to focus on the evils of Zionism . After hosting two Holocaust deniers , it
15453-527: The fundamental law of the country, replacing the rule of the Emperor with parliamentary government. With this event, the Empire of Japan officially came to an end and the modern State of Japan was founded. Sŏn'gun (often transliterated "songun"), North Korea 's "Military First" policy, regards military power as the highest priority of the country. This has escalated so much in the DPRK that one in five people serves in
15606-563: The general atmosphere of brutality created by the Second World War, in which of course Allied bombings played a part." In another 1986 speech, this time in Atlanta , Irving claimed that "historians have a blindness when it comes to the Holocaust because like Tay–Sachs disease it is a Jewish disease which causes blindness". In 1986, he told reporters in Brisbane, Australia, without explaining how
15759-400: The girl's father". In 1977 Irving published Hitler's War , the first of his two-part biography of Adolf Hitler . Irving's intention in Hitler's War was to clean away the "years of grime and discoloration from the facade of a silent and forbidding monument" to reveal the real Hitler, whose reputation Irving argued had been slandered by historians. In Hitler's War , Irving tried to "view
15912-601: The government is positive, especially during times of crisis, with many Venezuelans believing that the military opens democratic opportunities instead of blocking them. Much of the modern political movement behind the Fifth Republic of Venezuela , ruled by the Bolivarian government established by Hugo Chávez , was built on the following of Bolívar and such militaristic ideals. Notes Further reading David Irving David John Cawdell Irving (born 24 March 1938)
16065-432: The government to resign and installing a cabinet of technocrats and bureaucrats without dissolving the parliament. The third military coup took place on 12 September 1980 , which resulted in the dissolution of parliament and all political parties as well as imposition of a much more authoritarian constitution. There was another military intervention that was called a "post-modern coup" on 28 February 1997 which merely forced
16218-537: The government to resign, and finally an unsuccessful military coup attempt on 15 July 2016 . The constitutional referendums in 2010 and 2017 have changed the composition and role of the National Security Council, and placed the armed forces under the control of civilian government. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries political and military leaders reformed the US federal government to establish
16371-526: The help of Imperial Japan , but the movement lost momentum due to lack of support by the Indian National Congress , the Battle of Imphal , and Bose's sudden death. After India gained independence in 1947 , tensions with neighbouring Pakistan over the Kashmir dispute and other issues led the Indian government to emphasize military preparedness (see also the political integration of India ). After
16524-462: The highly controversial 1967 play Soldiers by his friend, the German playwright Rolf Hochhuth , where Hochhuth depicts Churchill ordering the assassination of General Sikorski. Also in 1967, Irving published two more works: The Virus House , an account of the German nuclear energy project for which Irving conducted many interviews, and The Destruction of Convoy PQ-17, in which he blamed British escort group commander Commander Jack Broome for
16677-484: The ideas of social Darwinism helped propel American overseas expansion in the Pacific and Caribbean. This required modifications for a more efficient central government due to the added administration requirements (see above). The enlargement of the U.S. Army for the Spanish–American War was considered essential to the occupation and control of the new territories acquired from Spain in its defeat ( Guam ,
16830-579: The intervention of the United States, which had banned oil sales to Japan in response to the Second Sino-Japanese War and the ensuing invasion of Indochina . In 1945, Japan surrendered to the United States, beginning the Occupation of Japan and the purging of all militarist influences from Japanese society and politics. In 1947, the new Constitution of Japan supplanted the Meiji Constitution as
16983-411: The killing of Jews. Historian Eberhard Jäckel wrote that Irving "only ever sees and collects what fits his story, and even now he will not let himself be dissuaded from understanding what he wants to by the phrase 'postponement of the Jewish question'." In June 1977, British television host David Frost aired a debate. During the debate, Irving argued that there was no evidence Hitler even knew about
17136-621: The killings of the Jews in the East. He claimed that Hitler even ordered a stop to the extermination of Jews in November 1941 (British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper noted that this admission blatantly contradicted Irving's claim that Hitler was ignorant about what was happening to Jews in Eastern Europe). On 30 November 1941 Heinrich Himmler went to the Wolf's Lair for a private conference with Hitler and during it
17289-439: The land-owning nobility . The result was that there was gradually built up a large class of professional officers on the one hand, and a much larger class, the rank and file of the army, on the other. These enlisted men had become conditioned to obey implicitly all the commands of the officers, creating a class -based culture of deference . This system led to several consequences. Since the officer class also furnished most of
17442-483: The late 1980s and 1990s that the death toll at Dresden was much higher than the accepted estimates: in several speeches during this period, he said that 100,000 or more people had been killed in the bombing of Dresden. In some of the speeches Irving also argued or implied that the raid was comparable to the Nazis' killing of Jews. In November 1963, Irving called the Metropolitan Police with suspicions he had been
17595-426: The liberator of Venezuela. For much of the 1800s, Venezuela was ruled by powerful, militarist leaders known as caudillos . Between 1892 and 1900 alone, six rebellions occurred and 437 military actions were taken to obtain control of Venezuela. With the military controlling Venezuela for much of its history, the country practiced a "military ethos ", with civilians today still believing that military intervention in
17748-518: The loss of some territory following the treaty of Brest-Litovsk , but much of it was quickly reconquered by the Soviet Union later on, including events such as the partition of Poland and reconquest of the Baltic states in the late 1930s and ‘40s. Soviet influence reached its peak after WWII in the Cold War era, during which the Soviet Union occupied virtually all of Eastern Europe in a military alliance known as
17901-466: The military as the "supreme repository of power". It also facilitates the militarization of non-military sectors by emphasizing the unity of the military and the people by spreading military culture among the masses. The North Korean government grants the Korean People's Army as the highest priority in the economy and in resource-allocation, and positions it as the model for society to emulate. Songun
18054-477: The military, and nationalism which is the "Citizens Military Training" (CMT) and "Reserve Officers Training Corps" (ROTC). But in 1986, when the constitution changed, this form of national service training program became non-compulsory but still part of the basic education. Russia has also had a long history of militarism continuing on to the present day driven by its desire to protect its western frontier which has no natural buffers between potential invaders from
18207-759: The military. In the 1930s, the Great Depression damaged Japan's economy and gave radical elements within the Japanese military the chance to realize their ambitions of conquering all of Asia. In 1931, the Kwantung Army (a Japanese military force stationed in Manchuria ) staged the Mukden Incident , which sparked the Invasion of Manchuria and its transformation into the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo . Six years later,
18360-536: The notable battles is the victorious Battle of Manila , which also called "The Liberation". During the 1970s the President Ferdinand Marcos declared P.D.1081 or martial law , which also made the Philippines a garrison state. By the Philippine Constabulary (PC) and Integrated National Police (INP), the high school or secondary and college education have a compulsory curriculum concerning
18513-470: The officials for the civil administration of the country, the interests of the army came to be considered as identical to the interests of the country as a whole. A second result was that the governing class desired to continue a system which gave them so much power over the common people, contributing to the continuing influence of the Junker noble classes. Militarism in Germany continued after World War I and
18666-495: The plotters, of which Rommel was also a victim. In particular, Irving accused Rommel's friend and Chief of Staff General Hans Speidel of framing Rommel in the attempted coup. The British historian David Pryce-Jones in a book review of The Trail of the Fox in the edition of 12 November 1977 of The New York Times Book Review accused Irving of taking everything Hitler had to say at face value. In 1978, Irving released The War Path ,
18819-681: The police and watchers on the land, coastlines and seas. In 1521, the Visayan king of Mactan Lapu-Lapu of Cebu , organized the first recorded military action against the Spanish colonizers, in the Battle of Mactan . In the 19th century during the Philippine Revolution , Andrés Bonifacio founded the Katipunan , a revolutionary organization against Spain at the Cry of Pugad Lawin . Some notable battles were
18972-473: The reliance on a relatively small number of volunteer fighters; heavy reliance on complex technologies; and the rationalization and expansion of government advertising and recruitment programs designed to promote military service. President Joe Biden signed a record $ 886 billion defense spending bill into law on December 22, 2023. Militarism in Venezuela follows the cult and myth of Simón Bolívar , known as
19125-672: The rest of continental Europe and her heartlands in European Russia. Ever since Peter the Great 's reforms, Russia became one of Europe's great powers in terms of political and military strength. Through the Imperial era, Russia continued on her quest for territorial expansion into Siberia, Caucasus and into Eastern Europe, eventually conquering the majority of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The end of imperial rule in 1917 meant
19278-406: The same year, he further declared about Hitler and the mass killing of Jews, "There is a whole chain of evidence from 1938 right through to October 1943, possibly even later, indicating that Hitler was completely in the dark about anything that may have been going on." Irving boasted that he had not been disproved. Irving in his first edition of Hitler's War in 1977 argued that Hitler was against
19431-446: The seventy-five people in attendance, about half were protesting the forum. The protest was organized in reaction to Marr's December speech. The forum's supporters responded that the group championed free speech and has nothing to do with Neo-Nazism. One UO student spoke to Valdas Anelauskas and claimed that statements he had made in the past had made her feel unsafe. Following these remarks, ASUO student body president Emma Kallaway asked
19584-425: The situation as far as possible through Hitler's eyes, from behind his desk". He portrayed Hitler as a rational, intelligent politician, whose only goal was to increase Germany's prosperity and influence on the continent, and who was constantly let down by incompetent or treasonous subordinates. Irving's book faulted the Allied leaders, especially Winston Churchill , for the eventual escalation of war, and argued that
19737-465: The stage with Robert Faurisson and Judge Wilhelm Stäglich , and claimed to be impressed with the pseudoscientific allegations of neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier Friedrich "Fritz" Berg that mass murder using diesel gas fumes at the Operation Reinhard death camps was impossible. At that conference, Irving repeated his claims that Hitler was ignorant of the Holocaust because he was "so busy being
19890-606: The start of the war and received temporary promotions to colonel. Between the first and second world wars, the US Marine Corps engaged in questionable activities in the Banana Wars in Latin America. Retired Major General Smedley Butler , who was at the time of his death the most decorated Marine, spoke strongly against what he considered to be trends toward fascism and militarism. Butler briefed Congress on what he described as
20043-422: The state and direction of its foreign policy. The conflict pitted proponents of professionalism, based on business management principles, against those favoring more local control in the hands of laymen and political appointees. The outcome of this struggle, including a more professional federal civil service and a strengthened presidency and executive branch, made a more expansionist foreign policy possible. After
20196-522: The supplements before the magazine's distribution. Irving has said that the criticism is "probably justifiable" and has described his motivation in producing the controversial secret issue of Carnival Times as being to prevent the Carnival from making a profit that would be passed on to a South African group which he considered a "subversive organisation". Irving tried to join the Royal Air Force but
20349-497: The tradition of civilian control held and MacArthur left without any hint of military coup. The Cold War resulted in serious permanent military buildups. Dwight D. Eisenhower , a retired top military commander elected as a civilian president, warned, as he was leaving office, of the development of a military–industrial complex . In the Cold War, there emerged many civilian academics and industrial researchers, such as Henry Kissinger and Herman Kahn , who had significant input into
20502-458: The use of military force. The complexities of nuclear strategy and the debates surrounding them helped produce a new group of 'defense intellectuals' and think tanks, such as the Rand Corporation (where Kahn, among others, worked). It has been argued that the United States has shifted to a state of neomilitarism since the end of the Vietnam War . This form of militarism is distinguished by
20655-483: The victim of a burglary by three men who had gained access to his Hornsey flat in London by claiming to be General Post Office engineers. Anti-fascist activist Gerry Gable was convicted in January 1964, along with Manny Carpel. They were fined £20 each. After the success of the Dresden book, Irving continued writing, including some works of negationist history , although his 1964 work The Mare's Nest – an account of
20808-474: The view ... [that] there exists no document signed by Hitler, Himmler or Heydrich speaking of the extermination of the Jews". In 1982, Irving temporarily stopped writing and made an attempt to unify all of the various far-right splinter groups in Britain into one party called Focus, in which he would play a leading role. Irving described himself as a "moderate fascist" and spoke of plans to become Prime Minister of
20961-407: The way Adolf Hitler was portrayed in the British media during the war. Irving asserted that his sceptical views about the Third Reich were rooted in his doubts about the cartoonist caricatures of Hitler and the other Nazi leaders published in the British wartime press. After completing A levels at Brentwood School , Irving studied for a physics degree at Imperial College London , leaving after
21114-555: The years, Irving's stance on the Holocaust has changed significantly. Since at least the 1970s, he has either questioned or denied Hitler's involvement in the Holocaust and whether or not the Nazis had a plan to exterminate the Jews of Europe. Irving always denied Hitler was antisemitic, even before he openly denied the Holocaust. Irving claimed Hitler only used antisemitism as a political platform, and that after he came to power in 1933 he lost interest in it, while Joseph Goebbels and other Nazis continued to espouse antisemitism. In 1977 on
21267-434: Was Uprising! , about the 1956 revolt in Hungary , which Irving characterised as "primarily an anti-Jewish uprising", supposedly because the Communist regime was itself controlled by Jews. Irving's depiction of Hungary's Communist regime as a Jewish dictatorship oppressing Gentiles sparked charges of antisemitism . In addition, there were complaints that Irving had grossly exaggerated the number of people of Jewish origin in
21420-413: Was "incontrovertible evidence" that Hitler ordered that no Jews were to be killed. However, although the telephone log is genuine, it provides no evidence that Hitler was involved at all, only that Himmler contacted Heydrich and there is no evidence that Hitler and Himmler were in contact before the phone call. This is an example of Irving's manipulation of documents since there was no general order to stop
21573-420: Was crowded with other people's armies". According to his brother, Nicholas, David has been a provocateur and prankster since his youth. Nicholas Irving has said that "David used to run toward bombed out houses shouting 'Heil Hitler! ' ", a statement which Irving denies. Irving went on to say to Rosenbaum that his negationist views about World War II dated to his childhood, particularly due to his objections to
21726-417: Was deemed to be medically unfit. After serving in 1959 as editor of the University of London Carnival Committee's journal, instead of doing national service , Irving left for West Germany, where he worked as a steelworker in a Thyssen AG steel works in the Ruhr area and learned the German language . He then moved to Spain, where he worked as a clerk at an air base. By 1962, Irving was engaged to write
21879-407: Was evident in 15th-century Japan's Sengoku period or Age of Warring States , where powerful samurai warlords ( daimyōs ) played a significant role in Japanese politics. Japan's militarism is deeply rooted in the ancient samurai tradition, centuries before Japan's modernization. Even though a militarist philosophy was intrinsic to the shogunates, a nationalist style of militarism developed after
22032-571: Was issued at some point between 1941 and 1942 by looking at the other documents where the memorandum is located. They have concluded that the memorandum was more than likely from late 1941 when Hitler was still advocating the expulsion of the Jews, rather than later when he advocated their extermination. Critical reaction to Hitler's War was generally negative. Reviewers took issue with Irving's factual claims as well as his conclusions. For example, American historian Charles W. Sydnor Jr. noted numerous errors, such as Irving's unreferenced statement that
22185-476: Was launched by disaffected members of the armed forces. After this event, some of the more radical militarists and nationalists were submerged in grief and despair into the NSDAP party of Adolf Hitler , while more moderate elements of militarism declined and remained affiliated with the German National People's Party (DNVP) instead. Throughout its entire 14-year existence, the Weimar Republic remained under threat of militaristic nationalism, as many Germans felt
22338-407: Was limited by their military roots. The leading reformers were all military men and, in keeping with the military tradition, all believed in the authority and the sacredness of the state. The public also believed in the military. It was the military, after all, who led the nation through the War of Liberation (1919–1923) and saved the motherland. The first military coup in the history of the republic
22491-427: Was listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). A 2008 report by the SPLC stated, "The number of people attending Pacifica Forum meetings is less than half what it was two years ago — and it's mostly a different crowd. Among those who left were Mariah Leung and Jack Dresser, who regularly made presentations on Israel and Palestine as well as on other topics related to war, peace and justice. Dresser,
22644-450: Was not a part of everyday life. Militarism was only introduced into daily life with the advent of modern institutions, particularly schools, which became part of the state apparatus when the Ottoman Empire was succeeded by a new nation state – the Republic of Turkey – in 1923. The founders of the republic were determined to break with the past and modernise the country. There was, however, an inherent contradiction in that their modernist vision
22797-506: Was not familiar with the history of the Holocaust, as the Einsatzgruppen were in fact mobile death squads who had nothing to do with the death camps. Months after the release of Hitler's War , Irving published The Trail of the Fox , a biography of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel . In it, Irving attacked the members of the 20 July Plot to assassinate Hitler, branding them "traitors", "cowards", and "manipulators", and uncritically presented Hitler and his government's subsequent revenge against
22950-411: Was not uncommon for radical junior officers to press their goals, to the extent of assassinating their seniors. In 1936, this phenomenon resulted in the February 26 Incident , in which junior officers attempted a coup d'état and killed leading members of the Japanese government. The rebellion enraged Emperor Hirohito and he ordered its suppression, which was successfully carried out by loyal members of
23103-420: Was on 27 May 1960 , which resulted in the hanging of PM Adnan Menderes and 2 ministers, and a new constitution was introduced, creating a Constitutional Court to vet the legislation passed by parliament, and a military-dominated National Security Council to oversee the government affairs similar to the politburo in the Soviet Union. The second military coup took place on 12 March 1971 , this time only forcing
23256-519: Was praised for its deep research but criticised for minimising Nazi slave labour programmes . By the late 1980s, Irving had placed himself outside the mainstream of the study of history, and had begun to turn from " 'soft-core' to 'hard-core' Holocaust denial", possibly influenced by the 1988 trial of Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel . That trial, and his reading of the pseudoscientific Leuchter report , led him to openly espouse Holocaust denial, specifically denying that Jews were murdered by gassing at
23409-422: Was the "Military Ministers to be Active-Duty Officers Law", which required the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) to agree to the Ministry of Army position in the Cabinet . This essentially gave the military veto power over the formation of any Cabinet in the ostensibly parliamentary country. Another factor was gekokujō , or institutionalized disobedience by junior officers. It
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