The Holocaust on Trial (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

D.D. Guttenplan's The Holocaust on Trial is a thorough account of a landmark trial in the ongoing controversy over Holocaust denial. In 1977, the publication of Hitler's War by the British historian David Irving caused a stir with its sweeping revisionist claims about the Holocaust. According to Irving, Hitler did not command the murder of millions of European Jews; in fact, he was barely aware that the Holocaust had happened. In 1994, American historian Deborah Lipstadt refuted Irving's findings in Denying the Holocaust. In 2000, Irving sued Lipstadt for libel--in England, where there is no analog to the First Amendment, and libel laws strongly favor plaintiffs. The ensuing trial raised questions about how "history is judged, as well as made." As a journalist, Guttenplan is particularly skilled at drawing sharp character sketches. (For instance, Irving's swaggering success as a wunderkind historian is epitomized by his fancy Mayfair flat and his Rolls Royce.) The author's talent for character sketches shapes his larger perspective on the trial as well. In this book's conclusion, Guttenplan notes the massive number of empirical facts cited as evidence on both sides of the argument, and rues the lack of "witnesses, memories, testimony," which, he argues, is another central and necessary aspect of historical truth. --Michael Joseph Gross

From Publishers Weekly

Like Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, born of her New Yorker essays, Guttenplan's book springs from his Atlantic Monthly articles. In 1996, British military historian David Irvingauthor of WWII studies, biographer of Hitler, Himmler and Goebbelssued American scholar Deborah Lipstadt for her book Denying the Holocaust, which labeled Irving an extremist liar and "one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial." Guttenplan, contributing editor at the Nation, makes the complex case navigable, from issues of the historian's craft to British libel law (which, unlike American libel law, favors plaintiffs). Although Irving, Lipstadt and Judge Charles Gray unambiguously stated that history was not on trial, everyone else saw otherwise. Lipstadt's British publisher Penguin incurred considerable expense for the legal defense for its author, who also had problematic Anti-Defamation League supporters; Irving received assistance from neo-Nazi acquaintances and from reputable historians (John Keegan) and iconoclastic journalists (Christopher Hitchens). Guttenplan's fine journalistic style proves equal to the subject's gravity. Readers not familiar with the intricacies of Holocaust historiography or British libel laws may flounder at times, but Guttenplan fluidly guides readers through most of the rough spots. In his hands, Irving is infinitely more interesting than the sympathetic Lipstadt, perhaps for the same reason that Dante's Inferno engrosses more than his Paradise. Guttenplan only touches on deeper epistemological, historiographical and philosophical issues, but maybe these are for historians and philosophers. Although we know the trial's outcome, the book creates delicious courtroom-thriller tension. Most important, it expertly introduces a crucial trial of our time. Four b&w photos. Agent, Andrew Wylie. (May 21)Forecast: Norton has planned an author tour to New York and Washington, D.C., where the combination of Irving's notoriety and Guttenplan's readable treatment will stir up a great deal of interest and debate.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (May 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393020444
• ISBN-13: 978-0393020441
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #134,212 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Informative journalistic account, but unsatisfying., May 5, 2001

By	R. B. Bernstein "R. B. Bernstein, Adjunct Pro... (Brooklyn, New York USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

IRVING v. PENGUIN and LIPSTADT (2000) was a remarkable law suit, pitting Holocaust denier David Irving against the noted scholar Deborah Lipstadt (author of DENYING THE TRUTH) and her publisher. Under the British law of libel, Irving could force Lipstadt and Penguin to prove the truth of their claims that he was a Holocaust denier who distorted history in the service of his racist agenda, instead of a respected historian who dared to take a revisionist view of Hitler's responsibility -- or lack of responsibility -- for the Holocaust.

The story that D.D. Guttenplan tells is often informative and occasionally riveting, but unfortunately it does little more than what you'd get from a thorough journalistic account of the case, which is what this book originally was. Guttenplan does not do an adequate job of assessing the phenomenon of Holocaust denial -- or of the laws that several European nations and Canada have passed making Holocaust denial a crime. He is usually good on the cut-and-thrust of the trial, but, having actually read Judge Charles Gray's mammoth and devastating opinion, I wish that Guttenplan either had given more room to analyzing it or had reprinted it as an appendix for the reader.

In sum, there are other, better books on the phenomenon of Holocaust denial, and I regret that this book was not better.

-- R.B. Bernstein, Adjunct Professor of Law, New York Law School

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The Holocaust On Trial"--The Imperative of Truth, May 17, 2001

By	Lawrence Friedman (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

D.D. Guttenplan's "The Holocaust On Trial" is an insightful and well-written account of the David Irving--Deborah Lipstadt libel case. The story of the trial would be reason enough to buy the book--this is one of the best descriptions of a real-life legal proceeding that I have ever read. Guttenplan has a good reporter's ability to bring the setting and personalities to life so that the inherent drama of the trial holds the reader's interest throughout.

But of course, this was no ordinary trial. Irving is the author of several books about World War II that some reputable historians have praised. He has long argued that while some "atrocities" were inflicted on Europe's Jews (as they were also visited upon Germans), Hitler did not order any genocide of Jews and Jews were not systematically gassed at Auschwitz. When American scholar Deboral Lipstadt called Irving "one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial," Irving sued Lipstadt for libel in England, where libel plaintiffs enjoy many advantages. Lipstadt and her publisher were forced to spend millions of dollars in a high-risk effort to prove that Irving was a liar and not just a historian with controversial views.

It is here that "The Holocaust On Trial" becomes much more than another good book about an interesting lawsuit with intriguing characters. As Guttenplan explains so well, the trial raised profound questions about the meaning of history and the ways in which the Holocaust has been remembered and understood as well as the ways in which it has been misrepresented and exploited.

It is a remarkable accomplishment that Guttenplan has compelling and thoughtful insights into the Holocaust-- a subject that on the one the one hand is so enormous and profound as to defy representation, and on the other hand has been so written about, depicted and analyzed that one picks up another book wondering if anything new can be said.

"The Holocaust On Trial" meets that exacting test on many levels--as a chronicle of a compelling courtroom drama, but more importantly as a meditation on the enduring impact the Holocaust has had on our culture. I was particularly impressed by Guttenplan's sense of the humanity of the Jewish victims of the genocide and his ability to make the reader appreciate them as human beings rather than abstractions.

We honor the victims of the Holocaust above all by remembering what happened with unsparing honesty. "The Holocaust On Trial" eloquently demonstrates that this difficult goal is a moral imperative. It is a valuable contribution to the literature of the Holocaust and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in historical truth and the sacrifices that are sometimes required in the service of that truth.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Basic over view of the trial....., October 1, 2005

By	lordhoot "lordhoot" (Anchorage, Alaska USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

D.D. Guttenplan's book on the David Irving's lawsuit against Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt proves to be a well written account of this trial where Irving lost his reputation as a respected military historian and gained a new one as an racist, anti-Semitic and a neo-Nazi. This is one major trade-off for any one individual. Mr. Guttenplan's book of the trial provides a clear and easy to followed account of the trial through its many issues and personalities.

However, where Mr. Guttenplan goes wrong in this book was when he insert his own personal opinions on books and issues that were discussed and argued over during the trial. To be real, we readers are not interested in Mr. Guttenplan's opinions on these matter although he inserted it anyway. This colored the writing of the trial. This proves to be an contradiction to the general theme of the book where the author does his best to sound "neutral" when reaccounting the trial.

It would also help if Mr. Guttenplan included some photos of the main characters of this trial as well as some diagrams of some of the areas of dispute. (Like Irving's claims that gas chambers were actually "air raid shelters"....!!??!)

Overall, not a bad book but it could have been better.