- Hardcover: 464 pages
- Publisher: Indiana University Press; UNKNOWN edition (1 Jan 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0253340160
- ISBN-13: 978-0253340160
- Product Dimensions: 26.2 x 18.8 x 4.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 232,644 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"The Irving case has done for the new century what the Nuremberg tribunals or the Eichmann trial did for earlier generations." --The Daily Telegraph " ... offers an invaluable review of the information available between 1942 and 1947 about the genocide at Auschwitz-Bikenau."--Jewish Chronicle, 29 November 2002 "... the core of the book offers an invaluable review of the information available between 1942 and 1947 about the genocide at Auschwitz-Birkenau."--Jewish Chronicle, 29 November 2002
Product Description
From January to April 2000, a high-profile libel case brought by the British historian David Irving against Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt, charging that Lipstadt's book, "Denying the Holocaust" (1993) falsely labelled him a Holocaust denier, was tried in the British High Court. In the proceedings, the question about the evidence for Auschwitz as a death camp played a central role; Irving had based his alleged denial of the Holocaust in part on a report written in 1988 by an American execution specialist, Fred Leuchter, that claimed that there was no evidence for homicidal gas chambers in Auschwitz. As an element of the defence, in 1998 Penguin and Lipstadt engaged Robert Jan van Pelt to prepare for the court an expert report presenting the evidence for our knowledge that Auschwitz had been an extermination camp where up to one million Jews were killed, mainly in gas chambers.Employing painstaking historical scholarship, van Pelt submitted an exhaustive forensic report, which he successfully defended in cross-examination in court. In his verdict in favour of the defendants, Mr. Justice Charles Grey concluded that "no objective, fair-minded historian would have serious cause to doubt that there were gas chambers at Auschwitz and that they were operated on a substantial scale to kill hundreds of thousands of Jews.""The Case for Auschwitz" analyses why Auschwitz has become central to Holocaust denial and how it became a focus in the Irving-Lipstadt trial. It presents the compelling evidence contained in the original expert report and details the way this evidence played out at the trial. Unique in its comprehensive assessment of the historical evidence for Auschwitz and devastating in its demolition of the arguments of Holocaust deniers against Auschwitz, van Pelt's book is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the Holocaust and for those who seek to combat Holocaust denial.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
I don't see any reason to be tasteful about Auschwitz. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
I don't see any reason to be tasteful about Auschwitz. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Van Pelt presented expert evidence in Mr David Irving's libel fiasco , a defeat which revisionists have attempted to distance themselves from but one which was absolutely fatal to their cause and the alledged evidence they place so much confidence in.
Van Pelt describes the nature of the camp its building and structure within the context of the Irving libel action , the claims made by Irving and other revisionist "scholars" , he explains why their claims cannot be sustained .
He demolishes their claims and reveals the flaws and distortions on which the revisionist case has been built,whilst in parallel he describes how the gas chambers how they were built and operated , their evolution and how they were in turn were destroyed.
Van Pelt does this with cold hard evidence based fact - no guess work no pseudo science in the pages of this book he dismantles the revisions claims one by one and exposes them to the critical examination which they so often they avoid.
The science is touched on through the experts called to refute Leuchter and Rudolf, the latter Irving withdrew rather than see Germar Rudolf's findings exposed for what they are.
To date he has never given a satifsfactory reason for doing so, this alone is worthy of note.
If you are at a loss as to what to read on Auschwitz Birkenau in the light of the complex claims made by "revisionist scholars" this book will assist you in making sense of the genocidal process - if you require an answer to the arguements of Butz , Irving , Faurission , Leuchter, Rudolf , Ball et al. this book puts their theories and ideas to the sword.
Well illustrated with photographs and diagrams from archival sources he explores how mass murder was accomplished and how it has been lied about.
This book does make the case for Auschwitz , having read it you are entitled to ask why there is such a need to distort history to support the denial of a well documented genocide and why individuals when having been proven to be utterly wrong that they continue telling the same lies over and over again.
An excellent book which should not be overlooked when answers are being sought.
Van Pelt describes the nature of the camp its building and structure within the context of the Irving libel action , the claims made by Irving and other revisionist "scholars" , he explains why their claims cannot be sustained .
He demolishes their claims and reveals the flaws and distortions on which the revisionist case has been built,whilst in parallel he describes how the gas chambers how they were built and operated , their evolution and how they were in turn were destroyed.
Van Pelt does this with cold hard evidence based fact - no guess work no pseudo science in the pages of this book he dismantles the revisions claims one by one and exposes them to the critical examination which they so often they avoid.
The science is touched on through the experts called to refute Leuchter and Rudolf, the latter Irving withdrew rather than see Germar Rudolf's findings exposed for what they are.
To date he has never given a satifsfactory reason for doing so, this alone is worthy of note.
If you are at a loss as to what to read on Auschwitz Birkenau in the light of the complex claims made by "revisionist scholars" this book will assist you in making sense of the genocidal process - if you require an answer to the arguements of Butz , Irving , Faurission , Leuchter, Rudolf , Ball et al. this book puts their theories and ideas to the sword.
Well illustrated with photographs and diagrams from archival sources he explores how mass murder was accomplished and how it has been lied about.
This book does make the case for Auschwitz , having read it you are entitled to ask why there is such a need to distort history to support the denial of a well documented genocide and why individuals when having been proven to be utterly wrong that they continue telling the same lies over and over again.
An excellent book which should not be overlooked when answers are being sought.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
18 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Well worth the money
22 April 2004
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Shermer and Grobman's _Denying History_ whetted, but did not completely satisfy, my appetite to learn more about the historical evidence for the Holocaust, so I bought and read van Pelt's book. I know that in this book van Pelt covers only a portion of the information that was in his reports for the Irving trial, but it was certainly enough to convince me that Judge Gray's verdict was the proper one. This book covers a lot of technical information that would possibly be hard to digest or be boring if it were presented by another author, but van Pelt writes very well, and I had trouble setting his book down. The author comes across as a very reasonable figure who is able to resist the urge to over-rely on either sentimentality or sarcasm. Perhaps I will need to read something else to internalize the horror that was the Holocaust, but I don't need to read anything else to see that it really did happen.
Finally, let me say that I was unprepared for what a big, handsomely bound, handsomely typeset book this would be. (I know that talking about the attractiveness of a book about the Holocaust is probably as bad as Jerry Seinfeld making out during "Schindler's List", but I figured that there might be some other bibliophiles out there who care about such things.)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
A most excellent study.
27 Sep 2011
Format:Hardcover
One of the most comprehensive studies of the gassing and cremation operations at Auschwitz-Birkenau. In clear, non-hysterical p[rose, it presents the case based on evidence that has been meticulously considered, weighed, and analyzed. Packed with photos, diagrams, and charts, the book further solidifies the evidence FOR the fact that Birkenau and its four crematoria served as a killing center; they truly didn't function as bakeries, as one revisionist has posited. Along with forensic evidence gathered at various sites in Poland and Russia (i.e., the mass graves at Belzec), one wonders why people continue to insist that this didn't happen. Sure, it's mind-boggling... but the fact is that millions of people disappeared into these places. I don't think they could all have been shipped further east, or we'd be hearing from many of the children as adults now that the Soviet Union has fallen... Also addressed are the false credentials of many Holocaust deniers, and the lies and outright ignorance perpetrated in the drive to establishing their claims.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Essential Reading
9 Jan 2007
Format:Hardcover
You would like to think that one of the central historical events of the 20th century would be beyond dispute, but nevertheless some manage to deny the holocaust.
In 2000, Holocaust denier David Irving sued Deborah Lipstadt and her publishers Penguin Books in the High Court for libel, and Robert Jan van Pelt was called as an expert witness for the defence. Essentially, his task was to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the court that the facts related by Lipstadt in [i]Denying the Holocaust[/i] were, to the best of current knowledge, true.
This book relates how van Pelt came to be called upon for this role, his researches and preparation for the trial, followed through with the story of how the trial itself went; from opening statements to Irving's eventual defeat.
On the way, the available evidence is thoroughly examined and assembled into a coherent narrative of the appalling events at the Auschwitz death camp. Arguments and evidence presented by Holocaust deniers is dissected, and their errors exposed in clear, logical prose.
This book is not cheap, but thorough and densely packed it is nonetheless good value.
In 2000, Holocaust denier David Irving sued Deborah Lipstadt and her publishers Penguin Books in the High Court for libel, and Robert Jan van Pelt was called as an expert witness for the defence. Essentially, his task was to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the court that the facts related by Lipstadt in [i]Denying the Holocaust[/i] were, to the best of current knowledge, true.
This book relates how van Pelt came to be called upon for this role, his researches and preparation for the trial, followed through with the story of how the trial itself went; from opening statements to Irving's eventual defeat.
On the way, the available evidence is thoroughly examined and assembled into a coherent narrative of the appalling events at the Auschwitz death camp. Arguments and evidence presented by Holocaust deniers is dissected, and their errors exposed in clear, logical prose.
This book is not cheap, but thorough and densely packed it is nonetheless good value.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Law
- Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Wales
- Books > History > Cultural History > London
- Books > History > Europe > Holocaust
- Books > Religion & Spirituality > Judaism
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
