Denial Page #2

GLORIA (V.O.)

Everyone, it’s my pleasure to

introduce the holder of the Dorot

Chair in Jewish and Holocaust

studies at Emory University, and

author of Denying the Holocaust:

the Growing Assault on Truth and

Memory, Deborah Lipstadt.

The sound of applause. It’s DAVID IRVING outside.

16 INT. AUDITORIUM. DAY 16

DEBORAH is at the microphone, well into her speech.

DEBORAH:

We have to accept there’ll be many

reasons why people may be deniers.

When you look closely, they often

have some agenda which they don’t

own up to. In any field, denial may

just be a pick to undo the lock and

open the door to something else.

A girl MEG, 18, in the audience puts up her hand.

DEBORAH (CONT’D)

Yes?

MEG:

Somebody told me you don’t debate

with people who say the Holocaust

didn’t happen.

DEBORAH:

I don’t, it’s true. Like I don’t

talk to people who say Elvis is

alive.

There is laughter. The SECOND MAN deep in the audience looks

across to the FIRST MAN who is working the camera.

MEG:

Talking to people you don’t agree

with, that’s democracy, isn’t it?

It’s supposed to be a free country.

(MORE)

Full Blue Script // December 4th 2015 6.

MEG (CONT'D)

They’ve an opinion. So have you.

It’s cowardly not to talk to them.

DEBORAH:

You calling me a coward?

MEG:

Well...

Everyone is amused.

DEBORAH:

Let me tell you, I don’t see it

that way. You can have opinions

about the Holocaust. You can argue

about why it happened and how it

happened. But what I won’t do is

meet with anyone - anyone - who

says it didn’t happen. The

Holocaust happened. It happened.

That isn’t opinion. That’s fact. I

won’t debate fact. That way madness

lies.

At the back, DAVID IRVING slips in the door, unobserved. He

goes and sits. The SECOND MAN holds up his hand.

DEBORAH (CONT’D)

Yes?

SECOND MAN (AMERICAN)

In your book, why do you

continually denigrate the work of

David Irving? He’s a scholar, he’s

a fluent German speaker, he’s

discovered all sorts of primary

sources no-one else knew about...

DEBORAH:

To be honest, I don’t think I do

denigrate him. I just don’t think

about him that much. He’s not

important.

This last statement has been seen through the first MAN’S

video camera, and now the image whip-pans to the back of the

hall where IRVING is standing, hand raised.

IRVING:

Professor Lipstadt, I am right in

believing you are not a historian,

you are a professor of religion?

DEBORAH:

Well that isn’t quite the case. I

am a historian, a historian of

religion.

Full Blue Script // December 4th 2015 77.

IRVING:

Let me reveal something to you,

Professor. I am that David Irving

about whom you have been so rude.

People turn, amazed. DEBORAH, too, is taken aback.

IRVING (CONT’D)

Yes, I am he. And it puzzles me why

you think yourself qualified to

attack me, given that I have thirty

years’ experience in the archives,

and my books have been published by

some of the greatest publishing

houses in the world - Viking Press,

William Morrow, E.P. Dutton. I have

to conclude the reason you don’t

engage with people you disagree

with is because you can’t. And you

might learn some facts - facts,

Miss Lipstadt, which don’t suit

your opinions. Well? Well?

DEBORAH is seen through the viewfinder of the camera, in

grainy black and white, flustered, not knowing to react.

DEBORAH:

No. I won’t. I’ve said this. I

won’t debate. Not with deniers.

DEBORAH looks urgently across to GLORIA.

IRVING:

Today I’ve heard you telling lies

to students. You want gullible

students to believe that there are

mounds of documents which prove a

Holocaust. You even said that

Hitler ordered it. Well I’ve got a

thousand dollars here in my pocket,

and I’m happy to give that thousand

dollars to anyone - anyone - who

can show me a document which proves

that Hitler ordered the killing of

the Jews. A thousand dollars! Here

it is! A thousand!

IRVING is holding the money above his head. DEBORAH has gone

into panicked consultation with GLORIA, who has got up. A

couple of people have shouted at IRVING to sit down, but most

STUDENTS are enjoying him.

Full Blue Script // December 4th 2015 88.

IRVING (CONT’D)DEBORAH

Why don’t you tell the I’m sorry, but I’m going to

students who pays for you to have to put an end to this...

write your books, who I’m going to have to ask you

finances all these expensive to sit down... I’m not

trips you make round the willing to do this, I really

world? Let them know that, do have to ask you to be

why don’t you? You talk about quiet...

documents, I have a document

here. It’s an aerial

photograph of Auschwitz...

IRVING (CONT’D)

Professor Lipstadt not only won’t

debate, she calls security to stop

me debating.

DEBORAH has been forced to shout to make herself heard. He’s

reached into his shopping bag. People are running back and

forth, and an armed SECURITY MAN is approaching IRVING to

take his arm.

IRVING (CONT’D)

All right. But if anyone wants,

I’ll be signing my books after the

event. They’re free. Please, come

and get one.

IRVING sits down, still hissing and waving dollar bills. ‘A

thousand dollars! A thousand!” The SECURITY MAN backs off.

DEBORAH stands alone at the microphone. Silence at last.

DEBORAH:

Thank you. So.

17 INT. AUDITORIUM. DAY 17

The meeting is over. DEBORAH is sitting at the table with a

pile of books. No-one near. She looks across to where IRVING

has a line of admiring STUDENTS for whom he’s chattily

signing free books. The MAN with the video is disappearing

from the hall. An older woman, SHIRA picks up a book.

SHIRA:

I think you’re right. I think

you’re right not to speak to him.

DEBORAH:

Sure. Great tactic, isn’t it?

Worked brilliantly.

18 EXT. CAR. DAY 18

IRVING’s car speeds up on the on-ramp to I75 with signs to

Alabama and Florida. Whoosh of car by.

Full Blue Script // December 4th 2015 9.

19 INT. CAR. DAY 19

IRVING and the other MEN drive away, in high spirits. In the

back the MAN has the video camera, and hands it to IRVING. In

the eyepiece it plays back film of IRVING speaking

triumphantly over DEBORAH. Then IRVING freezes the image of

DEBORAH, flustered, floundering, lost for a response.

IRVING:

Perfect.

20 INT. AUDITORIUM. DAY 20

DEBORAH is thoughtful. She takes out her cellphone and starts

to dial.

21 INT. SEMINAR ROOM. EMORY. DAY 21

RACHEL BLOCH, 60s, frail, with a cane is standing in front of

40 casually dressed students - all backgrounds. DEBORAH is at

the side, mesmerized.

RACHEL:

I was fifteen years old when I

arrived at Auschwitz. That’s why I

was spared. I was young and strong.

There was soot in the air. You

could smell it. It smelled like

nothing on earth.

For a moment, she can’t go on. DEBORAH watches her. An image

flashes suddenly into her head.

Rate this script:2.0 / 1 vote