ThoughtCrime: 04/04/96
History Denied as Publisher Buckles to Pressure
St. Martin's Press has canceled publication of British historian
David Irving's long-awaited biography
of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels due to growing criticism from several
Jewish groups. The American publisher had been standing up to the extreme pressure
and gave statements in March that Mr. Irvingís critics were using Nazi-like
tactics that would have pleased Hitler's propaganda chief. St. Martin's Press publisher Thomas Dunne issued the following
angry statement after receiving dozens of protests against his plans to
publish David Irving's Goebbels: Mastermind of the Third Reich in
May.
``A number of the calls we have received have expressed fury that we
would publish a book by 'a man like David Irving' and have
questioned
our moral right to do so. I can only say that Joseph Goebbels must be
laughing in hell. He, after all, was the man who loved nothing better
than burning books, threatening publishers, suppressing ideas and judging
the merits of ideas based not on their content but by their author's
racial, ethnic or political purity. That is indeed a sad irony.''
Though the campaign to ban the book had built for several weeks, St. Martins
editors had stood by their decision and insisted they found nothing wrong
with the way Irving wrote about Goebbels. Pressure however increased from Jewish writers and leaders finally
causing Thomas McCormack, the publisher's chief executive officer to give
in and reverse the company's earlier statements.
"Do we wish we knew back then what we know now? Yes, My feeling was
that this is at base an effectively anti-Semitic book, an insidious
piece of Goebbels-like propaganda and we should have nothing to do with
it."
McCormack said that St. Martin's originally defended the book because he
felt its critics were using heavy-handed tactics to quash a book they had
not read. From his home in London, Irving told the Daily News
an "organized and orchestrated campaign" had forced St. Martin's to cancel
publication. The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, which had repudiated
the book, was extremely pleased with St. Martin's decision. ADL Director
Abraham Foxman told the press, "I think they finally made the right decision."
The book has been published in England.
"Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death."
George Orwell
|