In an era of fake news and alternative facts, a movie that deals with the fight for truth is more relevant than ever. According to Jewish historian Deborah Lipstadt, that is certainly the case with Denial.
The film, released this week, deals with Professor Lipstadt’s High Court battle against Holocaust denier David Irving, in which he was judged to have distorted historical facts to claim there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Speaking at London’s JW3 community centre this week, Prof Lipstadt described the case as a “metaphor for what’s going on in the world today”.
She said: “I don’t think any of us thought it would have the contemporary relevance that is has.
“The moment you start politicising fact you are in trouble and I think that’s what we’re saying in this film.”
Prof Lipstadt was joined by director Mick Jackson and actor Timothy Spall, who plays Irving, for a Q&A session following a preview screening on Monday night. Around 300 people attended, with organisers saying they could have sold out three times over.
Irving brought the case against Prof Lipstadt and publisher Penguin in 2000, claiming he was libelled in her book Denying the Holocaust. “To him I was the puppet of the entire international Jewish conspiracy,” said Prof Lipstadt.
Mr Spall said he had watched “a lot of footage” of Irving’s speeches, but his research had not involved meeting Irving or his supporters. “No one’s got in touch with me yet thank goodness,” he said. “I don’t think it would help anybody.”
Mr Jackson said Denial was “probably the simplest film I’ve made. The truth is simple: it’s yes or no. You have to listen to that voice and pull out anything that smells of movie magic.”
That said, he admitted that some scenes of Auschwitz were filmed not at the camp but in High Wycombe due to conservation regulations.
During the discussion, Prof Lipstadt recalled an extraordinary moment in the trial when Irving addressed the judge not as Your Honour but as “Mein Führer”.
She summed up her experience by saying she had taken on a bad guy, confronted him and won. “We stripped this man of any legitimacy,” she said.
