Flutterby™! : History of a Delusion

An interesting piece from the Independent: a long interview with David Irving, the pro-Hitler historian, and the state of his delusions as he retreats into old age. There is a lot of dicussion about what one does about people like Irving, and he has already spent time in an Austrian prison for Holocaust denial. It seems all this has done is polish his marytr status. Maybe if he had been left free, penetrating interviews like this would have shown better just how pathetic and pathological he actually is.

The strangest part is when the interviewer brings up Irving's eldest daughter, Josephine. She was severely mentally ill, and ended up killing herself after a life of appaling suffering. Irving loved her very much, and is forced to admit that Hitler's minions would have executed her without question, and that there is no way Irving can wiggle out of Hitler's responsibility for the crime. The ashes of his daughter is an apt metaphoir for the ashes that his philosophies have left him with.