David Irving's ties to German neo-nazis (13 of 22)
Ken McVay
[Page 78]
5.4 OPC observations 1990.
5.4.1. The 1990 VSB reported that
The important British revisionist David 1rving (52), who spoke
at.the 10-3-90.DVU rally in Passau was not allowed to speak because
the town administration put a ban on the meeting. Nevertheless he
could express his opinions at meetings of right-wing extremists in
Munich, Dresden, Leipzig, Gera, Stuttgart, Weinheim/Bergstrasse,
and Oberhausen. The Minister for the Interior ordered a ban on his
entering the FRG. Irving was nevertheless not identified when he
entered.Germany, however, he distributes the Leuchter Report from
London.<315>
5.4.2. In state VSBs it was observed that at several meetings that year
Irving had stated the Holocaust was just a `propaganda lie'.<316> In
Munich he was quoted as having said that there `were never any gas
chambers in Auschwitz'.<317> Further `The British writer David Irving
also shared the conviction that the Holocaust is just a propaganda lie
put about by the allies of World War II.<318> 'Irving, in his books and
lectures puts forth
-----
<315> Verfassungsschutz-Bericht 1990, p. 120
<316> Verfassungsschutz-Bericht, Rheinland-Pfalz, 1990, p. 134.
<317> Ibid., p. 296
<318> Verfassungsschutz-Bericht, Niedersachsen, 1990, p. 27.
[Page 79]
vehement opinions of the so-called revisionism that claims the Holocaust
(gassing of deported Jews) did not occur.'<319>
5.5 1991: `the total catastrophe' and how Irving reacted.
5.5.1. Irving was in Germany at least seven times in 1991 12-27
February, 22-26 March. 7-14 May, 5-12 June, 23/24 [?]-31 June, 6-10
November, and December. Again important passages are missing in Irving's
diaries and attempts to reconstruct all of Irving's activities in the
year must remain inconclusive. The missing entries are 29 March-24 April
(25 April incomplete), 26-28 April, 30 April-6 May, 27 August-22
October, 4-5 November, 19-29 November, 31 November-22 January 1992.
5.5.2. Irving's February tour was mainly involved with seeking out NS
witnesses for an American television documentary. On 12 February slept
at Hoeffkes's grandparents' home and recorded his forthcoming DVU Passau
speech `just in case I am arrested first.'<320> On 13 February Irving
held a `sparsely attended' press conference in Frankfurt.<321> On 16
February Irving spoke at Passau (see above) and on 20 February he had
dinner with Althans in Munich.<322>
5.5.3. In March Irving was again invited to speak at the second
revisionist conference in Munich. On 22 March Irving met Althans 'at his
office' in Munich and had dinner with W. R Hess.<323>
5.5.4. On 23 March the revisionist campaign in Germany was meant to
reach a new high point with a planned `international revisionist
congress' in Munich, organised under the title `International Annual
Meeting of Critical Contemporaries' ['Intemationaler Jahrestagung
kritischer Zeitgenossen']. This second revisionist conference was
organised by Althans (and his AV™), Zuendel, Reinhold Rade, and Stephan
Niemannn. <324>
-----
<319> Verfassungsschutz-Bericht, Baden-WOrttemberg, 1990, pp. 85f.
<320> Diary entry, 12 February 1991. See also diary entry, 23 March
1991: `At the hotel Hoeffkes had now arrived with 500 prints of my
Passau speech and a box of tapes ....'
<321> Diary entry, 13 February 1991.
<322> Diary entry, 20 February 1991.
<323> Diary entry, 20 March 1991; diary entry, 22 March 1991.
<324> Fromm, pp. 19-20; A document ['Kreisverwaltungsreferat
Hauptabteilung 1/11, Bespechung am 15.03.1991, p.1] listed Althans and
Niemann as organisers ['Veranstalter'] and Rade simply as 'Kreisrat der
REP'. See Drahtzieher im braunen Netz, p. 22. 'I trust that Althans has
contacted you in regard to the now-on-again Great European Revisionist
Congress in Munich on 23 March 1991. You are of course, to be one of the
star speakers [...] Major media like the leftist TAZ and Spiegel-TV have
already expressed a keen interest in the event.' Ernst Zuendel to
Irving, 16 February 1991.
[Page 80]
Irving, who would seemed to have been still concerned about his public
persona, wrote to reassure Frey 'As far as the 23.3. is concerned, the
theme of my talk is "Churchill in World War II". I therefore expect no
difficulties from the authorities.'<325>
5.5.5. Althans had hired the hall of the German Museum in Munich that
could hold 2.400 people. That the congress did not take place as planned
was due only to the determination of the museum administration. A ban
[`Veranstaltungsverbot'] by the local district administration
[Kreisverwaltungsamt] was overturned by the administrative court
[Verwaltungsgericht], but the museum held firm despite the threat of
claims for compensation. On the evening before the congress the higher
administrative court [Oberverwaltungsgericht] decided in favour of the
museum because of `wilful deceit' [`arglistiger Taeuschung'] by Althans
who had booked the hall under a false title. The revisionists were
nevertheless allowed to hold a vigil [`Mahnwache'] in front of the
museum.
5.5.6. In the filmed record of the protest Althans announced that David
Irving, Mark Weber, Ahmed Rami, Wilhelm Staeglich, Fred Leuchter,
Dietlieb Felderer, Nancy Lang, Jerome Brennter, Ernst-Otto Remer, and
Mrs. Rost von Tonningen were to have spoken. The speakers at the
improvised protest meeting included Irving, Althans, Rost von Tonningen,
Ahmed Rami, Henri Rocques, Wilhelm Staeglich, Dietlieb Felderer,
Christian Worch (responsible for "security"), Raimund Bachmann, and
Pedro Varela who conveyed the greetings of Leon DeGrelle.<326> The
Bavarian VSB claimed that Meinolf Schoenborn was also present.<327>
Zuendel was unable to speak as he had been arrested the evening
before.<328>
-----
<325> 'Was dem 23.3. angeht, so ist das Thema meines Vortrags
"Churchill in den II. Weltkrieg: Pearl Harbour." Ich erwarte mithin
keine Schwierigkeiten seitens der Behoerden.' Irving to Dr. Gerhard
Frey, 1 March 1991.
<326> See videocassette 201, 'Der Leuchter-Kongress - Teil 2,' listed
as 'ca. 1993. The titles attribute the film to Zuendel's 'Samisdat'.
<327> Verfassungsschutz-Bericht, Bavaria, 1991, p. 83.
<328> Drahtzieher im braunen Netz, pp. 21-22. 'Meeting with Althans at
his office. News almost im[ ]mediately that Ernst Zuendel is in Germany,
from Canada, indeed has been arrested by police on old (January)
warrents re "libelling the dead." So that puts him away for some weeks
if not months, and may have disastrous effects on his case in Canada
(not showing up for bail). What an idiot.' Diary entry, 22 March 1991.
[Page 81]
5.5.7. Irving recorded the fiasco in his diary, no longer willing to
incur arrest after his experience at the first conference.
Althans arrives around 9:30 a.m., and after discussion I agree we
speakers should go to the hall steps to meet the press; but not to
make speeches. At the steps..., I speak with Seipl, police
commander; her [Sic] confirms that people will be allowed to speak
only on the Vertragskuendigung, [cancelled contract] nothing else.
This again showed Althans lied to us -he doesn't care if we get
arrested. I consequently speak only two minutes, telling the crowd
(around 400 hardy soulds [Sic] braving the blustery weather) that I
am not allowed to speak.<329>
5.5.8. The next day Irving attended a press conference given by Althans
in Munich, but `no press'<330>
5.5.9. On the 25 March Irving attended `a new press conference by
Althans (who was missing!) and Leuchter, who read out his report
endlessly. Further shambles.'>331> The same day Irving met `local NPD
agent' Renate Werlberger to arrange details of a meeting for 12
May.<332>
5.5.10. The period April to May is impossible to reconstruct with any
degree of certainty. It is worthy of note that Michael Kuehnen died of
AIDS, 25 April 1991.<333>
5.5.11. In May Irving returned to Germany. On 10 May Irving spoke in
Rothenburg to the GfP on `the future of the German people between
England and Russia' [`Die Zukunft d. dt. Volkes zwischen Englaendern u.
Russen.'<334> On 11 May Irving spoke in Munich to the Rudolf Hess
Society [`Rudolf-Hess-Gesellschaft'] on the fiftieth anniversary of
Hess's flight to England.<334> `Frl. Fath (R[udolf]H[ess]'s secretary)
was in the audience which
-----
<329> Diary entry, 23 March 1991.
<330> Diary entry, 24 March 1991.
<331> Diary entry, 25 March 1991.
<332> Diary entry, 24 March 1991, diary entry, 25 March 1991
<333> Mecklenburg, p. 950.
<334> GfP to Irving, 22 March 1991; GfP to Irving, 26 March 1991;
lrving to Dr. Gerd Sudholt, 1 April 1991; GfP
to Irving, 3 April 1991; GfP to Irving, 25 April 1991; diary entry, 10
May 1991.
<335> Vottrag von David Irving am 11. Mai 1991 in Munchen zum 50.
Jahrestag des Fluges von Rudolf Hep nach Grossbritannien,' n.d., 18pp.
[Page 82]
made it so much better.'<336>
5.5.12. On 12 May Irving talked to the Munich NPD.3" The meeting was
organised with Frau Werlberger, `a local NPD agent'. '38 According to
later court documents the meeting had been advertised under the rubric,
The famous contemporary historian, under the topic "Germany's
future in the shadow of political extortion", will for the first
time give his opinion "if the Germans and their European neighbours
can still afford to tolerate contemporary history as a political
instrument of extortion".<339>
5.5.13. The NPD was informed that the meeting could only go ahead if
they took the responsibility that Irving only speak about the
persecution of the Jews in the Third Reich as far as he did not deny
it.<340> Hence Werlberger wrote to Irving `We have only the request
that you avoid mention .of the. word "Auschwitz", in your own interest
and in the interests of the party which is bound by the present
conditions.'<341> Just how far Irving complied with the request is
evident from a (incomplete) recording of the meeting. Referring to
legends that he may not mention, Irving proclaimed,..`In three, four
years at the latest these legends will no longer hold water. The legend
will be over and then the tables will be turned, then the whole
[drowned out in applause]'<342> Few in his audience can have had any
doubt as to which `legends' Irving was referring to.
5.5.14. On 14 May Irving had breakfast with Reinhard Rade. Althans was
due to have joined them but didn't.<343>
-----
<336> Diary entry, 11 May 1991.
<337> NPD-BV Oberbeyern, `Einaldung: David Irving kommt nach Muenchen,'
n.d.; Renate Werlberger to Irving, 30 March 1991; Renate Werlberger to
Irving, 17 May 1991.
<338> Diary entry, 24 March 1991; diary entry, 25 March 1991.
<339> Der bekannte revisionistische Historiker wird unter dem Thema
"Deutschlands Zukunft im Schatten politischer Erpressung" erstmalig zu
der Frage, "ob sich die Deutschen and ihre europaeischen Nachbarn
weiterhin leisten koennen, die Zeitgeschichte als politisches
Erpressungsinstrument zu dulden", Stellung nehmen!'.' Quoted in
'VollzuCP des Auslaendergesetzes (AUSIG) Ausweisung aus der
Bundesrepublik Deutschland, n.d.', p. 9.
<340> Ibid.
<341> 'Wir haben lediglich die Bitte, dass Sie im eigenen Interesse and
auch im Interesse unserer Partei, die den hiesigen Verhaeltnissen
unterliegt, die Erwaehnung des Wortes "Auschwitz" vermeiden.'Renate
Werlberger to Irving, 30 March 1991. The speech was recorded. See Diary
entry, 12 May 1991.
<342> Audiocassette 158, 'David Irving speaks to NPD audience in
Munich', 12 May 1991.
<343> Diary entry, 14 May 1991.
[Page 83]
5.5.15. On 5 June Irving attended a function of the Danubia student
fraternity [Studentenschaft] in Munich.<344> The following day Irving
met Althans.<345> On 7 June Irving dinned with Althans, Susie Toepler
(Reinhard Rade's fiancee), and other guests at Althans's house. The
company later went on to a beer hall where they met Ursula Worsch.<346>
On 8 June Irving signed books at Althorns' AVO bookshop in Herzog-
Heinrich-Strasse in Munich. Irving recorded in his diary, `It is an
impressive effort by Althans (though Susie [Toepler] told me later that
Reinhard Rade has financed it and is the title holder, as Althans's
creditworthiness is not much at present). About 150 to 200 people came
during the time I was there, including familiar faces."<347> On 10 June
Irving met the Worschs in Munich and spent the day with Toepler and
Rade.<348>
5.5.16. Intestine quarrels were slowly brewing between Althans and
Philipp, crippling lrving's planned July - August tour. On 1 July 1991.
Althorns faxed Irving `Two pages of hysteria', announcing the collapse
of the forthcoming July / August tour.<349>
...now it's come to this. The total catastrophe. The speeches of
25.07 to 17.08 will not take place. I have to give up.
I can picture you now foaming with rage. And I am very scared that
we will fall out again over this.[...]
You yourself know what kind of a position I have been in since the
Leuchter Congress. Now it's got worse.<350>
5.5.17. Althans complained that he was plagued by the bailiffs, his
phone had been cut off, and that trips to the former east Germany
required time and money, neither of which he had. A banned meeting had
been broken up with truncheons. The bookshop had become subject to
numerous attacks making it necessary to guard it. Comrades, like
-----
<344> Diary entry, 5 June 1991. "s
<345> Diary entry, 6 June 1991.
<346> Diary entry, 7 June 1991..
<347> Diary entry, 8 July 1991
<348> Diary entry, 9 [mislabled 8'"] July 1991.
<349> Diary entry, 3 July 1991.
<350> `...nun ist es soweit. Die totale Katastrophe. Oder anders
gesagt: es ist aus. Die Vortraege vom 25.07. bis zum 17.08. finden nicht
statt. Ich muss aufgeben./ Ich sehe geradezu, wie Sie vor Wut
aufschaeumen. Und ich habe grosse Angst, dass wir uns an dieser Sache
verkrachen.[ ...]/ Sie wissen ja selber, in was fuer einer Situation ich
nach dem Leuchterkongress bin. Das hat sich nun noch zugespitzt.' Ewald
Althans to Irving, 1 July 1991.
[Page 84]
Harder [Ulrich?] were proving incapable of acting responsibly or
autonomously. Worst of all, Philipp was conducting a whispering campaign
against him.
Thus for example K[arl] P[hilipp] has managed to incite Gen.[eral]
Remer and presumably G.[erd] Honsik against me. They in turn have
managed to stir things up more with their naive innocence (you know
how much I value Remer and Honsik).<352>
5.5.18. Since February Althans had been on trial in Stuttgart and was
threatened with a long imprisonment.
Perhaps one would have got somewhere if we had been at the meeting.
There were a lot of people there upon whose supportive assistance I
could have hoped. But Karl Philipp, who knew that you were coming
because I was stupid enough to register you as a guest as required,
lied to you that I wanted to use you to break up the event. You
believed him and cancelled with me. So Philipp could tell people
Althans is a liar, even David Irving doesn't like him and therefore
dosen't come to the conference. And, as expected, I alone received
no invitation.<352>
5.5.19. This passage presumably relates to a meeting that had taken
place between Irving and Althans in Munich on 11 June. `[Althans] Also
suggests I come to Munich two days June 28 for a confrontation with Karl
Philipp and Faurisson at Nuremberg. What the ---?'<335>
5.5.20. This in turn is with certainty related to the NF's intention,
announced at its national congress on 6 April, to also hold a
revisionist campaign in June (originally in Roding in Cham, Bavaria)
under the slogan `Down with the Holocaust' [`Schlup mit dem Holocaust'].
The list of those who were to speak was almost identical to that in
-----
<351> 'So zum Beispiel hat KP es geschaM Gen. Remer and mutmasslich
auch G. Honsik gegen mich aufzuhetzen. Diese wiederum schafften es
mittels ihrer naiven Gutglaeubigkeit and ihres guten Rufes (Sie wissen,
wie sehr ich Remer and Honsik schaetze), die Stimmung weiter zu
schueren.' Ibid.
<352> 'Eventuell haette man noch etwas erreicht, wenn wir auf der
Tagung dabei gewesen waeren. Dort waren viele Leute anwesend, auf deren
unterstuetzenden Beistand ich hatte hoffen koennen. Aber Karl Philipp,
der wusste dass Sie kommen, weil ich so bloed war, Sie als Gast
ordnungsgemaess anzumelden, log Ihnen vor, ich wolle mittels Ihnen die
Veranstaltung sprengen. Sie glaubten ihm and sagten mir ab. So wieder
koennte KP bei den Leuten erzaehlen, Althans ist ein Luegner, auch David
Irving mag ihn nicht and kommt deshalb nicht mit zur Tagung. Und - wie
erwartet, bekam ich alleine auch keine Einladung.' Ibid. See also Ernst
Zuendel to Irving, 4 July 199L'...Meinhof Schoenborn, the guy whose
29.6.91 meeting you were to attend with Ewald [Althans], but didn't
because of Philipps' gossip, so I am told.
<353> Diary entry, 11 June 1991.
[Page 85]
Munich.<354> The Bavarian VSB for 1991 recorded the intention to hold
the same congress. Speakers were to have been NF leader Meinolf
Schoenborn, Faurisson. Remer, Staeglich, and Philipp. The conference was
banned. Despite the ban 150 people gathered in Roding, only to be
cleared out of the meeting rooms by police. Some 150 NF supporters
fought with police, leading to two arrests and hurt policemen and neo-
Nazis. An later attempt to hold the congress in the evening led to 38
arrests.<355>
5.5.21. Karl Phillip wrote to Irving on 4 July boasting about the
meeting in Cham where he had successfully held a meeting for Dr.
Schaller and Faurisson despite a concerted police effort to break up the
meeting.
That was a masterpiece by Meinolf Schoenbom and his people. We
should take it in mind to do something with him in late Autumn. He
is really a soldier and everything goes off with military
discipline and according to military organisation. He has almost
400 young people around him who follow his commands.<356>
5.5.22. The nuances of the dispute are unclear, but the conclusions are
inescapable. Irving was no mere hired speaker to the neo-Nazis or in the
revisionist movement, but had the political weight to support or
undermine political positions and alliances within both scenes.<357>
That Philipp, who had now known and worked with Irving for almost two
years, should try and impress Irving with tales of his own
conspiratorial skills and Schoenborn's violent antics, speaks for
Irving's tastes.
5.5.23. Irving promptly sent a circular to Karl Hoeffkes and Philipp
asking if they, or anyone they knew, could fill in at such short notice
and organise anything. Irving was willing to agree on `a topic
acceptable to the authorities' [`ein den Behoerden genehmes-Thema
-----
<354> Drahtzieher im braunen Netz, pp. 23-24.
<355> Verfassungschutz Bericht, Bayern, pp. 83-4.
<356> `Das war die Meisterleistung von Meinolf Schoenborn and seine
Leute. Wir sollten ins Auge fassen, im Spaetherbst eine Sache mit ihm
durchzufuehren. Er ist eben ein Soldat and alles laeuft mit
militaerischer Diziplin and nach milit. Organisatorischen
Gesichtspunkten ab. Er hat fast 400 Junge Leute um sich, die seinen
Anordnungen Folge leisten.' Karl Phillip to Irving, 4 July 1991.
<357> Two years later Irving showed the same influence in discussions
about Althans. `On Althans: confidentially, one of his lieutenants was
here this weekend, is taking charge of my book stocks, though he says
Althans helped himself to stacks of them. A. also has strange habits
with funds donated to the organisation, says my source. I have suggested
that they hold a Generalmitgliederversammlung [general members'meeting]
and decide what to do with A., who is damaging the Bewegung [movement]
by his antics and his close contacts to the media.' Irving to Ernst
Zuendel, 7 October 1993.
[Page 86]
vereinbaren'].<358> Irving likewise wrote to Zuendel.
I am of course alarmed, sorry, and annoyed. It is unprofessional to
say the least of Althans. We have been planning this four week tour
of Mitteldeutschland [central Germany] since Leuchtercongess
[Leuchter congress]. For him to abandon it giving me three weeks'
notice is unhelpful. I have ordered a thousand books, etc. I am now
left hanging around like a spare prick at a wedding! The only items
that survive are Hamburg (which I arranged, after he failed to
contact Ulrich Harder for weeks); Bonn, and (weeks later)
Wunsiedel. I doubt personally that Wunsiedel will come off this
year, but one must be an optimist.
What can we do? Do you have any independent people there, anybody
in the major cities who could set up isolated events for me on the
lines of Stuttgart last September, which was a brilliant success?
Needless to say, I have the utmost faith in you. You are a
professional. You know the law in both Canada and Germany, and keep
within it, so far as I can judge. [...]
I do of course-appreciate the serious personal problems.
Althans.is.facing. which must be a serious disappointment for him.
Sometimes we have to hang strong. Those times are now. I am
very sorry that we are losing Mittledeutschland [central German]
like this.<359>
--
The Nizkor Project - An electronic Holocaust educational resource
David Irving, Holocaust denial, and his connections to Right-Wing
Extremists and Neo-Nazism in Germany:
http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/f/funke.hajo/irving-v-lipstadt