Holocaust Denier Appearing in City Hall?

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Holocaust denier David Irving is coming to Jackson Oct. 21.

by Adam Lynch
October 12, 2009

Holocaust refuter David Irving will appear in Jackson City Hall Oct. 21, according to attorney Richard Barrett, of Learned, Miss. Barrett, a self-avowed white separatist, sent out an e-mail this morning promising that Irving would appear in City Hall at 6 p.m. that day, in addition to the radio shows of Kim Wade, Charles Evers and Paul Gallo. City spokesman Chris Mims said today, though, the city has received a request to book Irving on that date, but has not yet confirmed a scheduling.

Evers said today that he will be out of town and has canceled Irving's appearance on his WMPR Radio 90.1 FM program. Wade, however, said he planned to feature Irving in a 5 p.m. appearance on his conservative WJNT 1180 AM radio show.

"He has an opinion, just like anybody else. We confirmed Irving's appearance last week. Barrett had called me, and I said, 'Come on.' Racists vote just like people in prison vote. I'm calling out to let people talk," said Wade, who stopped short of agreeing with Irving that the Nazi extermination of millions of Jews did not happen.

"Show them pictures of the Holocaust, and they treat it like some conspiracy people treat the moon shot; they say it was staged and this, that and the other, but it makes for good radio," Wade added.

Gallo could not immediately be reached for a response regarding Irving's 7 a.m. planned appearance on his SuperTalk 97.3 FM radio show on Oct. 21.

Irving is a British writer who specializes in the accounts of World War II in books including "The Destruction of Dresden," "Churchill's War" and "Hitler's War." Critics complain that his writing tends to disconnect Nazi leader Adolf Hitler from any knowledge of the institutionalized destruction of Jews by Nazis—a revisionist account disputed by historic record.

Irving has also said that piles of starved Jewish internment camp cadavers, featured in period photographs, as caused by Allied bombing of Germany, which decimated sanitation systems. Irving also claims that Jewish slaughter likely happened at the hands of low-rank soldiers without the knowledge of their German superiors.

Irving's opinions have made him unpopular in some European countries, where denying the Holocaust is a crime. Austrian police grabbed Irving and locked him away for 11 months in 2006, having charged him with "glorifying and identifying with the German Nazi Party," a crime under Austria's Verbotsgesetz law.

Stuart Rockoff, director of the history department of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, in Jackson, said museum staff was aware of Irving's tour.

"We're all abuzz about him this morning," Rockoff said. "We know Irving is mounting a big tour of America, going all around the country. He's coming from Pittsburgh, to Ohio, Nashville, Houston, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Jacksonville, Orlando. He's all over the place this month."

Rockoff referred the Jackson Free Press to Beth Israel Rabbi Valerie Cohen, for comment upon Irving's message, but she could not immediately be reached for comment. Rockoff did confirm his belief, however, in the extermination of countless Jews at the hands of the Nazi Party of Germany during and in the years leading up to World War II.

"You could ask for yourself, but unfortunately, Jackson recently lost its last Holocaust survivor, a man named Gilbert Metz," Rockoff said.

Barrett is an attorney, originally from New Jersey, who rails against the desegregationist work of "communists" during the Civil Rights Era and seeks out publicity by glorifying controversial figures. He has called Mississippi "the most anti-communist state." In past years, he drew local ire by trying to bring former Klansman Edgar Ray Killen to the Mississippi State Fair in order to collect signatures supporting him. Killen was since convicted for his role in the murders of Ben Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Neshoba County in 1964, and is expected to die in prison.

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