Hitler and the Genesis of the ‘Final Solution’: An Assessment of David Irving’s Theses

Abstract

The English edition of David Irving’s Hitler book,¹ published in the spring of 1977, two years after the expurgated German edition,² has created a furore both in England and elsewhere. The British author, who gained a reputation as an enfant terrible with earlier publications on contemporary history,³ has propounded a thesis which is embarrassing even to some of his friends and admirers.⁴