In Argentina, the capture of SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann, chief architect and commander in charge of the Nazi death camps, his transportation to Israel, and videotape coverage of his trial in 1961, in an Israeli court, in Jerusalem, electrified the world. It is now fifty years later.

Long enough for most people alive today, not to be aware of it.

On Monday, Oct. 31, 2011, Deborah Lipstadt spoke at the Jewish Public Library in Montreal. Lipstadt, an American historian, is a courageous figure who was sued by David Irving, an English historian, for libel, in a London court. David Irving, also a historian, claimed that Deborah Lipstadt was “libelling” his work, his historical workbooks that deny the historical facts of the Holocaust.

After a three month trial, the Judge vindicated Deborah Lipstadt, calling Irving a “right-wing pro-Nazi polemicist,” and confirming the accusations of Lipstadt and Evans. 

This brief video captures the importance of Deborah Lipstadt’s work and her contribution to our time and place.