Martyrdom & Resistance, May/June 2008

ID Transcript mare3405_01 "A OTVPn ESISTANC ;N 0892-1571 May/June 2008-lyyar/Sivan 5768 WOMEN OF VALOR THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM ANNUAL SPRING LUNCHEON THE UNDENIABLE TRUTH OF THE HOLOCAUST ILANAAPELKER, AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR YAD VASHEM Jewish community in New York, prepared her for the fight she was about to endure. With help from the Jewish community, her university, and the personal reputation, but the record of history itself; the record of the Holocaust. The trial, as Lipstadt says, was a This year's Annual Spring Luncheon had the dubious honor of welcoming Professor Deborah Lipstadt as our guest speaker. Professor Lipstadt is Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University in Atlanta. Her book Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory (Free Press/Macmillan, 1993) was the first full-length study of those who attempt to deny the Holocaust. One of the individuals in that study was David Irving, whom Lipstadt called ""one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial."" Irving's response to this claim was to file a libel suit against Professor Lipstadt which was the subject of her latest book and the topic of her speech at this year's luncheon. The book, History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving (Ecco/Harper Collins, 2005) is the story of the libel trial in London. In her remarks at Cipriani, Professor Lipstadt recounts her reaction to first learning of the libel suit. Thinking that it was nothing and would just go away on its own, almost brushing it off as insignificant by sticking it under a pile of other papers to be looked at later. Once the realization hit that this was a real case that meant she had to prove her findings (since British courts are very different than ones in the US) general public (Jews and non-Jews victory for history and historians. And she knew she had to fight Irving and alike), the one-and-half million dollars survivors heaped their praise on not just make the allegations go away, to mount her defense was raised and Lipstadt as being their heroine. She even though some told her to. Her the trial began. The outcome of the described that it was only after the early life, growing up in an active trial, she knew, would be not only her trial that she understood their meaning. That she had done something, had stood up against these false allegations. Where sixty years ago, so many people did nothing. At the end Holocaust Remembrance day observed around the world 2 of ner remarks, Lipstadt read various Beyond justice: The Auschwitz trial.... .. 4 passages from her book, letters that Britain's Holocaust shame: The voyage of the Exodus.... ...5 people from all over the world had Warsaw ghetto uprising leader speaks of struggle 6 written to her. Hunt on for Nazi doctor.. .......7 Qear Professor Lipstadt ComTtinW^^ "" """""" """"*""""** ""li° Y°U d° n0t kn0W me and We Wl"" ScT^mno^'^ec^ Pf^Xw^?l^^^^^ Oscar Schindler, from Holocaust hero to obscurity. 14 was k,lled In Auchwitz.lf David Irvmg Salute Hollywood ......16 nad won mY mother would have been a victim a second time! So too would everybody else who perished there. I loved my mother very much and have not seen her since April 14, 1939 IN THIS ISSUE Jean Gluck, 2008 Annual Spring Luncheon Honoree, Eli Zborowski, Chairman (American Society for Yad Vashem), and Dr. Rochelle Cherry, 2008 Annual Spring Luncheon Honoree. when I was 14 years old. She was killed on October 23, 1944. Gratefully yours, Anne Bertolin (nee Hannelore Josias) {pg. 286} Professor Deborah Lipstadt spoke out against Holocaust denial when few knew what the meaning of those words were. She is an example to young scholars and deemed a heroine by those she vowed to fight for. But perhaps the strongest words to describer her are her own: ""I fought to defend myself, to preserve my belief in freedom of expression, and to defeat a man who lied about history and expressed deeply contemptuous views of Jews and other minorities."" {pg. 289} "