5 May 2014 5:00pm - 7:00pm SG1, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road (CRASSH)

Description

Please join the Leverhulme-funded Conspiracy & Democracy research project when Professor Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University, will speak about ‘Holocaust Denial: A Flat Earth Theory or a Clear and Present Danger?’

Holocaust denial, the attempt to deny that the Third Reich engaged in the annihilation of approximately six million Jews, has been depicted as a serious threat to historical truth. Others have dismissed it as the equivalent of the theory that the earth is flat, i.e. absurd, illogical, and unworthy of serious consideration. In this presentation Professor Lipstadt will explore these two contradictory perspectives on Holocaust denial.  In addition, she will explore the difference between “hardcore” or traditional Holocaust denial and the more recent phenomenon of “soft core” denial.

The event will be followed by a wine reception.

Speaker

Deborah E. Lipstadt is the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University. In 1996, David Irving sued Professor Lipstadt and her publisher, Penguin Books, for libel for calling him a Holocaust denier and right wing extremist. Professor Sir Richard J. Evans served as an expert witness for the defence, and Professor Lipstadt was exonerated: Irving was found at court to be a Holocaust denier, a racist, and an anti-Semite. His subsequent appeals of the judgement were rejected.

Professor Lipstadt's book about the trial, 'History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier'  (Ecco/Harper Collins, 2006), won the National Jewish Book Award and is currently in production as a film with Participant Pictures and the BBC. She was appointed by Presidents Clinton and Obama to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, advised Secretary of State Madeline Albright on matter of religious freedom and US foreign policy, has served as an historical consultant on numerous US governmental Holocaust memorial initiatives and acted as an advisor on the issue, and directs the website HDOT [Holocaust Denial on Trial, www.hdot.org which archives the testimony and  evidence from her trial and contains answers to claims made by deniers.

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