Quote:

I wouldn't say that Irving's book on Dresden is the definitive one, but it should be remembered that it was published in 1963 and Irving, by his own admission, did not turn to "revisionist" history (i.e. Holocaust denying etc) until the late 1980s.

Irving's book on Dresden was his first in English. Reflecting on the repeated manipulations and distortions that it contained, I found it striking that Irving had massaged up the death toll from the Allied bombing raids in Dresden long before he began to argue that Hitler had been a friend of the Jews, and more than two decades before he started to deny the existence of gas chambers. Even as a young writer Irving seemed to have used his manipulations of the evidence on the bombing of Dresden to peddle what was then seen as a relatively 'soft' form of 'revisionism'.

Prof RJ Evans, "Telling Lies about Hitler", pp. 185

It would be wrong to think that Irving's early work is reliable because he did not become offensively pro-Nazi until later. Irving has always had a pro-German (pro-Nazi), anti-Churchill agenda. In my opinion, Irving's 'own admission' does not count for much.

Irving's work on Dresden is certainly significant, but not worthy of the acclaim it has received.

Well-quoted, Greenjacket. IMHO Evans' book is fascinating - it should be more widely-read.

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

I agree Martin, and besides taking Irving to pieces it also gives an interesting account of how historians use (and abuse) evidence.

[quote]Originally posted by Greenjacket:
It would be wrong to think that Irving's early work is reliable because he did not become offensively pro-Nazi until later. Irving has always had a pro-German (pro-Nazi), anti-Churchill agenda. In my opinion, Irving's 'own admission' does not count for much.

I would have nothing to do with Irving's pro-Nazi views, but it is wrong I think to suggest that all of his early writings are "unreliable".
His biography on Rommel stands comparison with the best, and although his book on Goring is not quite in the same class, it drew favourable comments from historians who wouldn't normally touch Irving with a barge-pole.

You're right - but this, I think, is the real tragedy of Irving.

He is a fantastic researcher, and a very good writer, and has ( or had ? ) much to offer the field of military history.

But, as Evans' book makes very clear, Irving has selected and distorted so many of his sources to fit with his various theses, throughout his career, that - how do you, as a reader without access to the original research material , know what is distorted and what is not ??

Which was really the main point of the 'Irving trial'.

( And before you ask, I have all his books in my collection - many of them signed editions... )

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

[quote]Originally posted by Greenjacket:
Irving's work on Dresden is certainly significant, but not worthy of the acclaim it has received.

The significance of Irving's Dresden book has little to do with its dubious literary merit or, as it was later proved, equally dubious calculations on the Dresden death tolls.
The book's 'achievement' was that it was the first English-language account of the Dresden bombing that raised very serious doubts about the morality of that particular raid by Bomber Command.

"In 1941 Himmler called in his gassing specialist, Christian Wirth, known as the Technocrat of Destruction , and ordered him to design and implement an extermination program with Chelmno as the pilot project.


WIRTH, Christian SS-Sturmbannführer SS-Number: 345 464
?/11/1885 - 29/05/1944

Inspector of all Aktion Reinhardt death camps and in charge of DAW (Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke) at Lublin Airfield.

BACKGROUND:
Born in Oberbalzheim, Württemberg. After leaving school he trained as a carpenter. Served in the army from 1905 until 1910. Policeman since 1910. During WWI in the army again, since 1917 in the military police. After WWI to Stuttgart Kripo, became a Kriminal Kommissar by 1939. NSDAP 1931, SA 1933, SS 1939.
In October 1939 to Grafeneck Euthanasia center. Then in Brandenburg, Hadamar and Hartheim.
In mid-1940, Wirth was appointed as a kind of roving director or inspector of all Euthanasia institutions throughout the Third Reich. At the Brandenburg Euthanasia center, he experimented in developing gas chambers for gassing the crippled and insane.

SERVICE AT BELZEC, SOBIBOR AND TREBLINKA:
After the official stop of the Euthanasia program (September 1941) he was ordered to join the staff of SS- und Polizeiführer im Distrikt Lublin Odilo Globocnik. The experience gained by Wirth in the Euthanasia institutions, his enthusiasm for National Socialism, as well as his innate cruelty were all put to use when he assumed command of Belzec and later was appointed inspector of the Aktion Reinhardt death camps. Not only was he the inspector of the death camps and, in this capacity, the actual commander, but also it was he who developed the entire system of the extermination machine in these camps. It was Wirth who introduced the regime of terror and death in the Aktion Reinhardt camps and influenced the daily life and sufferings of the Jewish prisoners there more than any other commander. Because of his cruelty he became known as "Christian the Terrible" by his subordinates. The killing system, as developed by Wirth, enabled the murder of tens of thousands of Jews every day in the three death camps under his jurisdiction.
Wirth according to Suchomel: "if only someone had had the courage to kill Christian Wirth - then Aktion Reinhardt would have collapsed. Berlin would not have found another man with such energy for evil and nastiness." (Tregenza, p.7)

FATE:
Wirth was posted to Trieste, Italy in September 1943 and commanded the SS-Einsatzkommando R, which was composed of former Aktion Reinhardt members. In May 1944 partisans killed Wirth near Trieste. His grave (no 716) is marked by a great cross in the German Military Cemetery at Costermano, near Verona, Italy.

http://www.deathcamps.org/sobibor/perpetrators.html

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