Denial (II) (2016)

Rachel Weisz: Deborah Lipstadt

Photos 

Quotes 

• Deborah Lipstadt : Now, some people are saying that the result of this trial will threaten free speech. I don't accept that. I'm not attacking free speech. On the contrary, I've been defending it against someone who wanted to abuse it. Freedom of speech means you can say whatever you want. What you can't do is lie, and then expect not to be held accountable for it. Not all opinions are equal. And some things happened, just like we say they do. Slavery happened, the Black Death happened. The Earth is round, the ice caps are melting, and Elvis is not alive.

• Deborah Lipstadt : What did you think, Anthony?

  Anthony Julius : What did I think? I thought it was the most boring morning we've had in court so far.

  Deborah Lipstadt : My God, you love to be contrary.

  Anthony Julius : Well, the man's an anti-Semite and a racist. It's like having shit on your shoe. You wipe it off. You don't study it.

• Sir Charles Gray : Yes, this is a question I have to ask you, Mr. Rampton.

  Richard Rampton : Yes, by all means, my lord.

  Sir Charles Gray : My question is this: If somebody is antisemitic, antisemitic and extremist, he is perfectly capable of being honestly antisemitic, yes? He's holding those views and expressing those views because they are indeed his views.

  Richard Rampton : Well, yes.

  Sir Charles Gray : And so it seems to me, if it comes down to it, that the antisemitism is a completely separate allegation and has precious little bearing on your broader charge that he has manipulated the data?

  Richard Rampton : No, no, my lord. The whole endeavor of the defense has been to prove that the two are connected.

  Sir Charles Gray : But he might believe what he is saying. That is the point. That is why it is so important.

  Richard Rampton : My lord, if we know that Mr. Irving is an anti-Semite, and if we know there is no historical justification for Holocaust denial, then surely it is no great stretch to see that the two are connected.

  Sir Charles Gray : Yes. Thank you. Carry on.

  Deborah Lipstadt : What the fuck just happened? Anthony, what just happened?

• [first lines] 

  David Irving : [in a video speaking to a sympathetic audience]  I don't see any reason to be tasteful about Auschwitz. I say to you quite tastelessly that more women died on the back seat of Senator Edward Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber at Auschwitz.

  [audience laughing and applauding] 

  Deborah Lipstadt : Holocaust denial rests on four basic assertions. Number 1: That there was never any systematic or organized attempt by the Nazis to kill all of Europe's Jews. Number 2: That the numbers are far fewer than five or six million. Number 3: That there were no gas chambers or specially built extermination facilities. Number 4: That the Holocaust is therefore a myth invented by Jews to get themselves financial compensation and to further the fortunes of the State of Israel. War, the deniers say, is a bloody business. There's nothing special about the Jews, they're not unique in their suffering. They're just everyday casualties of war. What's the fuss?

  Deborah Lipstadt : Okay, and here's another question, how do we know the Holocaust happened? Seriously. I'm asking. How do we prove it? Photographic evidence? Not one person in this room or outside it has ever seen a photograph of a Jew inside a gas chamber. You know why? Because the Germans made sure that none were ever taken. So how do we know? How do we *know* that so many were murdered? So what's the proof? Where's the proof? How strong is it?

• Deborah Lipstadt : Do you have any idea how hard it is to hand over your conscience to somebody else?

• [last lines] 

  David Irving : [on TV]  I think if you look at the judgment closely, you'll see there are all sorts of things there in my favor.

  Network Reporter 2 : [on TV]  You're not seriously suggesting that this judgment supports you?

  David Irving : [on TV]  Well, plainly I ran rings round the defense. My only regret is I didn't use a mallet of sufficient caliber to ram my case into the thick skull of the judge.

  Network Reporter 2 : [on TV]  Mr. Irving, what people want to know is whether, on the basis of this judgment, you will now stop denying the Holocaust.

  David Irving : [on TV]  Me? Stop? Good Lord, no. Despite the fact that the judge says, 'It appears to me... '

  Deborah Lipstadt : [answering the phone call]  Hello?

  Anthony Julius : Deborah? He seems to be saying he won.

  Deborah Lipstadt : I know. He used to be a Holocaust denier, and now he's a verdict denier.

  David Irving : [on TV]  The fact that she didn't even dare to appear tells you everything you need to know about Miss Lipstadt.

  Deborah Lipstadt : Let's just turn him off.

  David Irving : [on TV]  I don't think her Brooklyn accent would have endeared her to the court.

  Deborah Lipstadt : It's Queens.

• Anthony Julius : Mr. Irving. He wants to be the brilliant maverick, the provocateur who comes along and reinvents the Second World War. But he also wants respect, the respect of his colleagues in the club. England's a club, Deborah, and he wants to join.

  Deborah Lipstadt : But he's an anti-Semite.

  Anthony Julius : You'd be amazed how many military historians see that as just a detail. They see him as a serious historian who happens to see things from Hitler's point of view.

  Deborah Lipstadt : Yeah, but it's not a detail. You know, I think it's at the center of everything he thinks and does. He's a liar and a falsifier of history.