David Irving In Moscow

British historian David Irving presented startling new facts and insights about Joseph Goebbels, based in large part on his headline-making research in Moscow archives of the Third Reich propaganda chief's long-hidden personal diaries.

Irving Views Goebbel's Diary

At the last IHR Conference, Irving explained how he was able to gain access to the diaries, which were recorded on fragile glass plates. Having in the meantime carefully evaluated this priceless historical material, Irving related new findings and insights from this and other sources to present a fuller and more rounded portrait of Hitler's propaganda chief, and of the internal life of the Third Reich.

Goebbels Was An Anti-Semite

Irving said, Goebbels' animosity against the Jews, which was more severe than Hitler's, reached its full intensity only after, and in response to, the Jewish wartime propaganda campaign against Germany.

Irving discredited the propaganda image of him as a profligate womanizer. In fact, Irving related, Goebbels' sexual experiences were quite limited.

Ingrid Weckert Said Jews Were Behind It

Speaking about the notorious Kristallnacht outburst of anti-Jewish violence in Germany on November 9, 1938, Irving pointedly took issue with the thesis of German revisionist historian Ingrid Weckert, who addressed the Sixth, 1985 IHR Conference. (On that occasion, Weckert presented evidence to suggest that Goebbels had no advance knowledge of the Kristallnacht outburst, and that the violence may have been incited by anti-German agents provocateurs. Weckert's thesis is detailed in her book Flashpoint, published by the IHR.)

Nazi Brutality

In fact, said Irving, the evidence shows that Goebbels played the crucial role in inciting the anti-Jewish "Crystal Night" violence.

This disagreement between Irving and Weckert -- which Irving referred to as "a revisionist revising a revisionist" -- is precisely the kind of thoughtful disputation among revisionist scholars (including IHR conference speakers) that points up the intellectual vitality and integrity of the Institute for Historical Review.