Letters to David Irving on this Website


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Ingrid N, aged twelve, is troubled by what she is being told at school and elsewhere about the Holocaust.

typewriter

What is true?

MY CLASS is studying World War Two, but like you I do not believe all the stories about this.

Where is the evidence? Bones from the gas chambers, etc.? Millions apparently were killed, so where are the bones -- they don't rot.

I am only twelve and have not yet read Hitler's War, but am hoping to, one day. So I hope one day, more people share this view.

Ingrid N

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David Irving, July 2003David Irving comments:

THAT was a very thought-provoking letter. I want you to be very, very careful about what you do, say, and write about these things -- the world is full of evil people, who will upset and harass you for the rest of your life if they suspect that you are thinking for yourself and not believing all that they tell you. So it is often necessary to keep to yourself the things you find out and believe.

It is almost like having the "wrong" religion in the Middle Ages. If you had the religion that was wrong for the region you lived in, they burnt you at the stake. There is not much stake-burning going on right now (although quite a few people are being burnt alive for living in the "wrong" country, like Iraq) but there is a lot of witch-hunting.

People who make the mistakes of not only thinking for themselves but telling others what conclusions they have reached, even academics and famous authors, find themselves pilloried, excoriated and mercilessly hounded. It is a tough call, and one only you can decide: run with the hounds, or hunt with the pack.

So here are some general rules to start with:

1. Begin with a "clean sheet."

2. Pick and choose most carefully what you are even going to read or look at on television. A lot of it is vasura, garbage, crap, call it what you will, created through carelessness or vested interests. Remember, tiny vestiges of everything you see or read will cling to your brain for the rest of your life, like fluff, and you want to have only the cleanest stuff, right?

3. Keep asking yourself questions about what you are seeing or being told: Is it probable? Is somebody gaining something by telling you this? And does the "collar" match the "cuffs"? -- do the words that the voice from the loudspeaker is telling you actually match the movie or picture that is on the screen, or is the picture just being used in a phony way to authenticate the tendentious story that the voice is telling you?

4. Watch out for weasel-words like regime or terrorist. They are loaded and used only by propaganda agencies. "The Blair government." "The Blair regime" -- see what I mean? Or: "Israeli airmen killed a Hamas terrorist with a missile attack on his car" and "Israeli terrorists murdered a Hamas official …" It is the same incident, but the language used flavours the report, and is a hint to the viewer or reader as to who are the good guys and who are the bad.

5. Watch the lighting used for interviews. Favoured subjects get soft focus and bland lighting, and the camera angle is different from subjects who are to be rubbished: the lighting is harsh and comes from below, the man looks like Frankenstein and so on.

6. Remember too that in most countries like the USA the big television channels only do live-interviews with people mostly selected from a pre-approved list, frequently people of one sort or religion, who can be guaranteed not to upset the apple-cart.

In short, I am asking you to become a doubter. Don't believe everything they are telling you, until you have checked it out for yourself, and decided "they" are worthy of your trust. Ask questions, but in a subtle way. Above all, keep your real thoughts to yourself, except in the most trusted circles.

 

 © Focal Point 2003 David Irving