IN THE NEWS
Yesterday, my daughter and I spent a few hours talking with a Holocaust survivor. Among other hair-raising stories, she told us how she met in Auschwitz the doctor who delivered her into this world. The doctor was working on Mengele's "research" staff, and he recognized her immediately. (They lived in the same German city long enough for the doctor to have known her as a young woman.) Because of their personal connection, he protected her for a time by pretending to do research on her. That didn't save her ultimately from the other Nazi doctors, unfortunately.
What can I say about this encounter? Words fail me, except to say, we all have to do our part to prevent anything like Nazism from ever staining the world again. The first step, of course, is to treat the historical details of the Holocaust with the seriousness and diligence that they deserve.
In other words, you don't play stupid games around the issue, the way C-SPAN may be in its coverage of the Deborah Lipstadt/David Irving trial. Lipstadt, as you may already know, is an historian who demolished Holocaust denier David Irving's whitewash of top Nazi officials. Irving, the author of several error-filled books on WWII, once said that more people died in Ted Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than in the "alleged" gas chambers in Auschwitz.
Irving, who rubs shoulders frequently with other Holocaust deniers, was arrogant and reckless enough to sue Lipstadt for libel. The British court that adjudicated the case not only ruled in favor of Lipstadt, but the judge delivered one of the most blistering denunciations of Irving on record.
There is no "balance" required here. We don't demand "balance" for the Flat Earth Society when Nova broadcasts a program on astronomy. C-SPAN can interview Lipstadt, period, and be done with it. Try explaining to the Auschwitz survivors how the man who denies they were experimented on, beaten, starved, and gassed deserves equal time.
Comments