Author: Yu Shi
Did the Nazis carry out a genocidal holocaust against the Jews?
Did Hitler ever give such an order?
In the eyes of the vast majority of people, the answer to such a question should be unquestionable, or even no need to question.
But if a historian asks such a question and can provide evidence, will people believe him and then begin to suspect the Holocaust?
This is the story told by the movie Denial (formerly known as Denis), based on true events.
At the beginning of the film, in 1993, deborah Lipstadt, a Jewish professor at Emory University in Atlanta, gave a lecture to the students, and when she mentioned the Holocaust, she asked the students: Is there any evidence to prove it?
Students speak in disbelief about the photo. However, it is well known that the Nazis never left even half a photograph of the execution site of the concentration camp.
This is also an important basis for the British historian David Irving, who specializes in Hitler, and his fans to claim that the Holocaust did not exist.
To that end, Deborah wrote a book called Denying the Holocaust. The book denounces the fallacies in Owen's work and calls him a denier.
At the book launch, Owen came uninvited, had a fierce verbal conflict with Deborah, and was finally unceremoniously invited out by her.
Two years later, Owen sued Deborah and Penguin Press for defamation, saying Holocaust Denial damaged his reputation and ruined his career.
Deborah hired Anthony, a lawyer who had represented Princess Diana in a divorce case, to think that she had a chance to win, but she did not expect that British law is different from that of the United States: the burden of proof in the United States is on the plaintiff, while in the United Kingdom it is the opposite. This means that Deborah, as the defendant, must prove that Owen's writings are full of deliberate lies.
Deborah was frustrated by more than that: For example, Anthony would not defend her in court, they introduced her to a barrister, Rampton, and the initial contact with the barrister made her feel that he did not have much respect for the Jewish victims; for example, the legal team did not allow her to testify; for example, when she turned to the British Jewish community for legal fees, they suggested that she settle out of court to avoid Irving's further eyeballs...
The good news: The team of lawyers cleverly exploited Owen's pride to agree that the case would be decided by only one judge, not by a jury. This avoids owen's clever influence and manipulation of the unprofessional public.
Of course, the key remains, and always will be – to speak with facts.
To this end, Deborah and Lampton made a special trip to the site of Auschwitz, in a desolate and desolate world, where they listened to another expert's details of the gas chambers.
During the trial, Owen tried to distort the evidence provided by experts to deny the existence of gas chambers, saying that there were no ventilation holes in the roof, and that his clamor for "no holes, no holocaust" immediately dominated the front pages of various media outlets, while Deborah was humiliated by neo-Nazis outside the courtroom.
She was approached by concentration camp survivors, hoping to appear as a witness, but Anthony adamantly refused. Confronted with an enraged Deborah, he showed her how Owen had humiliated survivors in similar cases, again emphasizing the strategy of the legal team: they wanted to focus on Owen and prove that his remarks were lies, rather than the public attention on him in court.
During the lengthy trial, Barrister Lampton personally visited Deborah, explained his goals to her, and won her trust.
In court, Lampton demonstrated that what Owen claimed was fundamentally absurd by skillfully interrogating Owen and inviting a number of highly respected scholars to provide academic materials, as well as citing records in his personal diary to prove that the root cause was that he was an anti-Semite and racist.
But just when Deborah was confident that she would win, presiding judge Gary raised a question that left her completely confused about the situation.
Lampton: As a historian, he even falsified.
GUR: He could be an honest anti-Semite, right? He expresses these views because this is indeed his point of view, right?
Lampton: Yes.
GURION: Well, the falsification of his historical facts is an independent question, and anti-Semitism is another independent question.
Lampton: It took us a long time to talk about the connection between the two.
Gurry: Maybe he really believes what he says? Then it's not what you think he's lying about. That's the key.
At this time, Deborah, who had almost collapsed, couldn't help but turn her head and ask Anthony: What is going on?
Fortunately, Judge Gary finally accepted Deborah's definition of Denier, and also accepted the defense of Deborah's team of lawyers, believing that Owen followed his inner "beliefs" rather than facts when telling history, and that he denied the Holocaust and deceived the public, so he sentenced the defendant Deborah to win.
Subsequently, Deborah attended a press conference held for her by Penguin Press. Asked if she agreed with free speech, she said:
"Free speech means that you can say whatever you want to say. But you can't lie and then expect not to pay for those lies. Not all opinions are equal, and some things happen, like we all know they happen. Slavery is real, the Black Death is real, the earth is round, the ice is melting, and Elvis presley is no longer in the world. ”
It would be terrifying if a rigorous historian were to face a court trial because of an inadvertent error; but inadvertent mistakes and freedom of speech are not at all the same thing as deliberate distortion of the truth and racism.
Referring to an analogy made by barrister Lampton in court:
"Like a restaurant waiter who always gets the change wrong, if he's honest, then we can foresee that this mistake sometimes benefits the customer, sometimes to his own advantage." But Mr Owen was the dishonest man. All his mistakes are only good for himself. It doesn't matter how much of his anti-Semitism was in his defense of Hitler, and vice versa. Whether or not they are linked, it is clear to us that these have allowed him to use his reputation as a serious historian to help restore Hitler's false reputation and viciously spread anti-Semitism. ”
Throughout the movie, in addition to those wonderful words and swords, I was impressed by these scenes:
In winter, in the thick fog of Auschwitz, experts invited by Deborah and Lampton guided them to the ruins of the gas chambers, reminding them: "Under your feet is the roof of the time." This is a holy place, please be careful. In the distance, the rows of concentration camps were silent, and the neat and quiet buildings seemed to let me hear the traces of those innocent lives.
A Holocaust survivor asks Deborah to allow her to testify in court, and Deborah agrees, but Anthony refuses. After winning the case, Deborah had tears in her eyes and said, "Your voices are heard, all suffering is heard." ”
(Starring Rachel Vichy with deborah prototype)
Judge Gurry announced deborah's victory, withdrew from the courtroom, and people gradually left the courtroom, Irving probably wanted to show the demeanor of losing and not losing, walked over to Lampton, held out his right hand to shake each other, but the barrister ignored it and walked away.
This is the film of five years ago, and now that I re-watch it, the biggest feeling is still: academic freedom, freedom of speech, necessary, but not borderless. There is a fundamental difference between questioning and distorting the facts.
Finally, let's talk about the real Professor Owen.
Owen's father, John Irving, was a former Officer in the Royal Navy. During World War II, owen the elder served on the corvette EDS Edinburgh. On 30 April 1942, EDINBURGH, along with 17 other warships, was escorting 13 merchant ships back to Britain. Passing through the Arctic Ocean, this large contingent was attacked by German destroyers and submarines. EDINBURGH was badly damaged, abandoned for repairs, and was eventually sunk by a British naval torpedo. Old Owen survived the accident, but since then, his relationship with his wife and children has been much worse than before, and there has been little communication.
If the old Owen could tell his son Little Owen more personal experience before he died, the later Professor Owen might not have shouted for Hitler; if the old Owen knew that his own son had tried to whitewash the Nazis, would he have jumped out of the grave in anger?
(Image from the Internet, copyright belongs to the original author)