Irving v Penguin Books & Lipstadtcase 1996‑I‑1113 · QBD
profile
RE

Professor Richard John Evans

Expert witness

Professor Sir Richard John Evans (born 1947), Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge. Defence expert. His ~740-paragraph report addresses Irving’s historiography across 18 specific case studies and is the principal expert document in the trial.

Where they spoke

DayDateTurnsFirst lineChapters spoken in
Day 18 10 Feb 546 L0166 Richard Evans sworn — defence's most damaging historian witnessEvans's use of Irving's diariesIrving's racism + photos of his racially-diverse staffArchive access + 'international Jewish conspiracy' lineAfternoon — Evans's report methodologyIrving's new-document discoveries + David Abraham comparison
Day 19 14 Feb 689 L0032 Evans on the definition of Holocaust denialIrving's alleged links to antisemites + Hitler's adjutantsThe Hitler diaries detour + the Hamburg/Rumanian-Jews photographContinued document-by-document examinationAfternoon session
Day 20 15 Feb 665 L0087 Procedural opening — Evans day 3Auschwitz authenticity + Irving's 1986 Australia press-conference quoteAllied propaganda — Churchill's 1943 'we have no evidence' minuteAnne Frank diary authenticityHöss memoirs + Irving's Leuchter-preface 'swindled' framingIrving's antisemitism defenceAfternoon — Kristallnacht discussion with EvansIrving's relationship with prominent Holocaust deniers'Straightening out' the IHR + selective Bruns readingSydnor on Irving's admiration of HitlerHofmann's role in Hitler's 1924 trial
Day 21 16 Feb 806 L0005 Procedural opening — Evans day 4Bruckner adjutant statementColonel Nicolaus von Below — Hitler's Luftwaffe adjutantOther nationwide programmes against Jews in GermanyEberstein telegram + the chain of Kristallnacht ordersGoebbels Old Town Hall speech as evidence Hitler initiated KristallnachtWitness schedulingUlrich von Hassell diary + Hess's appeal to HitlerHitler intervening on behalf of the Jewish populationHimmler-Heydrich 30 November 1941 phone log
Day 22 17 Feb 759 L0007 Procedural opening — Evans day 5 (final day of cross-exam)Insufficient source references in Irving's workIngrid Weckert + Reichskristallnacht death-tollThe Riga shootings — number killedProcedural concerns + Evans's scholarship critiqueAfternoon — completion of Evans cross-examinationClose + setup for next sequence
Day 23 21 Feb 900 L0071 Evans recalled — Weckert credibility + Goebbels diaryGoebbels–Hitler relationship + 'pushing at an open door'Hitler's 25 January 1942 Table Talk — 'pulling teeth'Secrecy in the Third Reich + Horthy 16-17 April 1943 meetingAfternoon — the Engel diaryChrista Schroeder + the 1991 'Warsaw uprising' editRome October 1943 — deportation of the JewsRibbentrop's knowledge + Rampton re-examines EvansEvans re-examined by Rampton