It's been a couple of years since disgraced historian and Holocaust-denier David Irving hit town. You may recall the ruckus raised by anti-fascist protesters at Jerry's Restaurant in Phoenix in 2009, where Irving spoke before a small crowd of neo-Nazis and assorted kooks.
The manager at Jerry's recently informed me that neither Irving nor Jesse Curnow, Arizona coordinator for the neo-Nazi Nationalist Coalition, which played host to Irving last time around, are welcome back. She explained Curnow had reserved a room two years ago, telling the diner the event was for "Libertarians," a classic tactic for Nazis trying to fly under the radar.
She also told me Jerry's has no truck with neo-Nazis.
So where will Irving and his band of misfits land ce soir? Difficult to know as you have to pony up $40 for a ticket to find out, according to Irving's Web site, which reads:
On Thursday evening at 7pm, April 21th, David Irving speaks at a private location in Phoenix. The topic is "The Life and Death of Heinrich Himmler, Hitler's lieutenant. 44 years in 44 minutes". The talk will be followed by a question and answer session.
After you have registered, please print your confirmation. It is your ticket and your receipt. You will be notified by email of the precise venue, a few days ahead of the date of the function.
As Irving will be vetting the names of those who buy a ticket, there's no point in me trying to purchase one. But should anyone out there give it a try and learn the location, get in touch with me via my e-mail: [email protected], or phone me at 602-229-8426.
Irving has questioned Hitler's responsibility for the killings of Jews, has argued that 6 million Jews were not killed during the Shoah, and has denied the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Take this passage from an English judge's ruling in Irving's failed lawsuit against American academic Deborah Lipstadt, PhD, author of Denying the Holocaust:
"Even so, it appears to me to be incontrovertible that Irving qualifies as a Holocaust denier. Not only has he denied the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz and asserted that no Jew was gassed there, he has done so on frequent occasions and sometimes in the most offensive terms. By way of examples, I cite his story of the Jew climbing into a mobile telephone box-cum-gas chamber; his claim that more people died in the back of Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz; his dismissal of the eye-witnesses en masse as liars or as suffering from a mental problem; his reference to an Association of Auschwitz Survivors and Other Liars or "ASSHOLS" and the question he asked of Mrs Altman how much money she had made from her tattoo. I reject as being untrue the claim made by Irving in his evidence that in his denial of the existence of any gas chambers at Auschwitz, he was referring solely to the gas chamber constructed by the Poles after the war for the benefit of visitors to the site or, as Irving put it, as a "tourist attraction". In this connection I refer to paragraph 9.13 above. Even if Irving had referred to gas chamber in the singular, it would not have been apparent that he was speaking of the reconstructed gas chamber at the camp."
Irving's also been jailed in Austria for Holocaust-denial. You can read the sordid history of his literary career, here.
Of course, I don't believe Irving should be jailed for his erroneous assertions. But I do think his events should be protested vigorously, yet peacefully.
Last time around, Irving's Valkyrie-like aide-de-camp Jaenelle Antas made quite an impression on all and sundry. Apparently, my outing of her as Irving's gal Friday was a watershed moment in her life.
She and Irving had a falling out, but she has her own blog at alternativeright.com, and, recently wrote a little essay about my profound influence on her, entitled, "Make Lemonade."
I can't deny that she's intelligent, though her ideas are totally bent, as you can see for yourself when you check out her blog.
Will Irving have another stunning example of Aryan arm-candy with him at this evening's event? That alone might be worth finding out where he's speaking. How does this creepy old geezer brainwash these chicks, I wonder?
