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Hello and welcome to the history hour with me Max Pearson the past brought to life by those who were there this week frontline filming on the 1st day of the 2nd World War at 5 o'clock in the morning one heard the sudden bubble server head this was the 1st time I had heard anything like that so this was my birth to swim to film and war also many years after the 2nd World War the court case the put the history of the Holocaust on trial this man who has said such outrageous things about the Holocaust that he would be suing me it just seemed like theater of the absurd Plus the world's 1st all female peacekeeping force and the man who stood up to the Mafia in Sicily and paid with his life and when I don't feel I'm you know if I give in I would be giving up my dignity as an independent business myself if everyone followed my example the extension ist would be destroyed that's all coming up but 1st we'll get a bulletin of today's world news. Live from N.P.R. News in Washington I'm door rom the storm that struck the Virgin Islands the Bahamas and North Carolina is now in Canada it knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses Sunday it's now weakened somewhat and is heading east northeast roughly up the St Lawrence River back in the Bahamas planes and cruise ships are trying to help people get out of the Abaco Islands hit by Dorian when it was still a hurricane Karl Smith as a spokesman for the Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency he says about 3500 people have a mode a nice hour but it's strictly voluntary some shelters are available several safe place faces have been identified to clear areas for temporary housing so we're putting in place the country housing and we will update the public on what they are Officials say at least $43.00 people died in the Bahamas and that death toll could rise because there are hundreds of people still listed as missing the U.S. Coast Guard says 4 crew members are still missing after a cargo ship rolled on its side and caught fire just off the Georgia coast early Sunday morning rescuers pulled 20 people from the vessel before being stopped by smoke and fire from member station in Atlanta Sam Whitehead reports Coast Guard officials say the 656 foot vehicle carrier golden ray began tilting to its side in St Simon sound near the port of Brunswick soon after its departure now they're working to stabilize the ship before continuing rescue efforts Captain John Reed is commander of Coast Guard sector Charleston comes out of recession and said in terms of the rest of the receding. We were going to find the best option to continue our rescue efforts for those who are members who read on the Coast Guard officials say the vessel is no longer smoking but they can't tell if there's still any fire on board they also say there's. No active threat of pollution the cause of the incident is still under investigation for N.P.R. News I'm Sam WHITEHEAD In Atlanta San Francisco is offering to buy Pacific Gas and Electric a little grit in the city for 2 and a half $1000000000.00 from member station K.Q.E.D. Sonya Hudson reports P.G. And E. Filed for reorganization in January as it faced mounting liability from wild fire started by its equipment city attorney Dennis Herrera says San Franciscans would get safer and more affordable power from a city owned utility there has been a lack of investment in infrastructure over the course of the last decade by P.J. Me and was motivated I think primarily by pursuit of profit P.G. And E. Said in the statement it does not believe the city's offer is in the best interests of its customers and stakeholders but it will remain open to communication on the issue For N.P.R. News I'm Sonja Hudson in San Francisco This is N.P.R. News. Voters went to the polls in Moscow Sunday to elect a city council the contest attracted international attention earlier this summer because of several protests some of the largest in Moscow in recent history protesters were objecting that authorities had kept opposition and independent candidates from being on the ballot police violently broke up 2 of the demonstrations beatings of the participants and arresting thousands most of them were released but a few were sent to prison for rioting preliminary results from the election are expected Monday Nicaragua's the bishops are calling for a week of prayers for justice and peace in the troubled Central American country Maria Martin reports the U.N. And other organizations say violations of human rights continue unabated the Bishops Conference of me got I was started it's week of prayers for peace in the country on Sunday the campaign runs through next week when the guy was celebrates its independence a new U.N. Report says churches are among the targets of what it calls gross human rights violations under the government of the north they got the report says independent journalists are also persecuted just last week a group of businessmen a scorching independent journalist and even thought when you go to his home reported being attacked by government supporters or who knows home was also spray painted with their threats For N.P.R. News I'm ready I'm Martin and men's tennis Rafael Nidal won the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows New York yesterday he beat Russian Daniel Medved of the springs his Grand Slam career total to 19 I'm sure ROM N.P.R. News in Washington Support for N.P.R. Comes from N.P.R. Stations other contributors include the Joyce Foundation committed to advancing racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region learn more at Joyce F.D.M. Dot org and the N.E.A. Casey Foundation. Hello this is the history hour with Max Pearson coming up resistance to the power of the Sicilian Mafia in the 1990 S. From West Africa the world's 1st all female peacekeeping force will join the Apollo 11 astronauts in quarantine after their historic landing on the moon and the world's most famous Holocaust denial legal action and it's in the very earliest days of the 2nd World War that we begin this week at the start of September 19 13980 years ago German troops marched into Poland Britain France and their allies then declared war on Germany what happened over the following 6 years shaped the fortunes of the globe for the 2nd half of the 20th century in 2014 Vincent Daoud spoke to one of Britain's great cameraman Douglas Slocum who as a young man was in Poland and filmed the build up to World War 2. The Dutch advantage but I think that 1939 Germany newsreels were preparing the German people for the invasion of Poland. As tension in Europe rose Danzig a major port on the Baltic was an obvious crisis point its population was split between Poles and the Germans after the 1st World War The League of Nations had declared them sick today's good Danske a self-governing free city by the middle of 1939 foreigners who could were leaving fearing Nancy invasion a young press the talk referred from England did exactly the opposite Douglas Slocum but childer that I cared to be recorded figures for the B.B.C. Trying to remember things would help and here's Douglas Slocum that made his name shooting photo features for magazines like Perry match and life then he saw a headline in a London new. Paper Danzig danger point of Europe so I saw or thought I should back by bags for myself on the way in to Danzig and there as a photo journalist for myself why should the middle of the upset heart the head of Nazi intrigue all the chiller shops U.G. Daubed over the windows of eggs you don't meaning Jews Jesuits here the shops were attacked the Jews themselves were attacked a brown shirts marched up and down the streets information I remember the girl night there were a length huge clouds of Germans in the evenings with a big swastika flag in the back. They are going to marry them is right for speed as other people of mine come. In the summer of 1939 he arrived in a city where the Nats the party already dominated much of daily life I remember one occasion a civic Guard for instance on edge was it was huge banner I've never time in a photographic cold Liebl no doubt my fear since fun day you didn't fly account the beautiful month of day will be free of the Jews I imagined they were going to have a and election after I'd been there for about 3 weeks I was before Davie were so I thought it probably time to begin so by mid July 939 he was already back in Britain yet after only a few days a US documentary maker Herbert Klein contacted him to go back to dancing this time with more than just a stills camera he said he was making a film called Lights Out in your OP The script is be written every day by Hitler Chamberlain and those felt but he had nothing whatsoever. On perjured sure the knowledge says so would I be prepared to go back with the movie at 27 Douglas Slocum couldn't resist the chance to start a film career whatever the personal risk back in Danzig as August arrived he tried to keep in with both the Poles and the Germans the Polish or so it is they realize the Davis thing I did would be of great value to their cause so they had been helping me to get somewhere by film out that one evening I noticed the sky was weird and I went down to the square that contains the city called the to which they had this battle and it had the entire city called was on fire I was Philby there my hand held but just suddenly I felt a shaking on my shoulder and with 2 big kid stuff they had grabbed hold of me and did for the frog barge backwards out of the square and I was the 3rd in to the biggest up of the building after a night in the Gestapo jail Dr Slocum talked himself free but deciding it might be safer to quit dancing he moved 300 kilometers south to Warsaw and there's a leg up her because back in not able to smell the middle of all just. Obviously things are halting up here so obviously I should stay in Poland he then said I'll come and join you subject fast at 5 o'clock in the morning he one heard Assad Obama say the head and whistles Obama's 40 this was the 1st time I had heard anything like that so this was my baptism to fill and war I don't think anybody had fully understood the beating of the word blitzkrieg a chill that. Dr Slocum had assumed any new conflict would be like the 1st world war dominated by trench warfare but with the German army sweeping all before it at terrifying speed he and Kline realized they needed to get back to London with their film as soon as possible they drove back to Warsaw's main railway station we found hundreds of people with bundles of suitcases and died in the platforms we did manage to get onto a train which trundle through the died at the trade with cell stopping and starting their fatherly cable to a screeching halt with a barber the head as the barber started to drop bombs on the train but it of past once we jumped out of the windows of the trade Cordie under the train and now with a machine gun. Over fire and all of the length of the trail the world number of casualties were various says cell casualty is a 1st I've seen anything like this of a young girl she died while we were Philby her and we were bit shaken by that and we were in the bit of the charger side we did where we were except that with the we're going to a farmhouse there was a horse of a cloth there the horse people with a little full we gave to the woman one who heard that they sucked not a 3rd were able to take this horse and cart at the little foal and walked with our equipment for a couple of days then eventually came to our daughters will station there took us north Q We were there Slocum and Klein went to the British em. Asking diplomats to get their cans of film out by diplomatic bag to London they show he called do that that's just not Donald boy you know that surely they went to the French consulate told them the Shaw they said Of course they were the ones I should say who took ill filled disparaged it to make sure that it got through to London the men finally escaped by way of Stockholm the documentary lights out in Europe was released in 1940 Slocum and his movie camera soon made another trip this time to Amsterdam again he escaped the Germans by the skin of his teeth after the war he became an internationally respected cinematographer he shot classics such as the Lavender Hill Mob and the man in the white suit much later he was chosen by Steven Spielberg to be director of photography on the 1st 3 Indiana Jones movies in whose fantasies of marauding Nazis Douglas Slocum must have found a certain echo of reality Douglas died in 2016 Vincent down with the remarkable story of Douglas Slocum don't forget our website has got many many 1st hand recollections from the 2nd World War and there are quite a few film versions of those very personal stories for example this week's film focuses on the kindertransport the movement of mainly Jewish children from Germany and Austria in the run up to the war just search online for B.B.C. With this history films. Next we're delving into the murky world of the Italian mafia occasionally glamorized in Hollywood films the map here has its roots in 1900 centuries Sicily the money to be made from extortion protection rackets and other criminal activities meant that rival meth your families flourished and also for teach other in 1901 a Palermo businessman leave a grassy published an open letter in Sicily's main newspaper denouncing the mafia for consistent. They demanded extortion payments Grassi was hailed as a hero but his public refusal to pay was intolerable to the Mafia and a few months later he was murdered in person by one of the cause of Nostra top bosses liberal grass' defiance is credited with inspiring a new grassroots movement among businesses in Sicily that stands up to the maffia Simon wants a spoken to his daughter Alice Grassi in August 9911 of the most powerful crime families in Sicily the metal near gang sent a driver to follow libero grassy. The man. Stabbing companion one corner of it I tell him for a week to see if he went around by himself or if he had protection when we were sure that he always left his home alone Selvi no matter near decided to kill him the driver. Later turned informant This is the evidence he gave against salvia no matter me Melania media. Unity called Imagineer asked me to meet him near a news stand in the center of town he then told me to drive his car and we pulled up alongside liberal grasses vehicle Imagineer told me to keep the engine running and the right hand door open. When the target left the building maddening I got out of the car with a gun hidden in a newspaper went up to him and fired all the rounds then he got back in the car and we fled the scene. The killing of liberal grassy made from page news in in Philly and around the world cross he was murdered because he broke the code of silence surrounding the mafia by publicly refusing to pay what it called the print so or protection money. Deemed. My father was a man of few words but he didn't need many words to say what he thought. He had rather. English sense of fairness we say here rather than merely. This is liberal grass is daughter. In a better way going to City conference Siani he had a close making business with a 100 employees and they made men's pajamas in dressing gowns when the factory moved to the part of Palermo controlled by the modern ias in the 1980 S. He started receiving the extortion demands the demand started in typical Mafia fashion with a man calling himself Mr and so lonely the surveyor asking politely for a monthly contribution to security or to help out some friends going through hard times when the bro Grassi refused the intimidation began to be the matter of Dina we suffered a break in at the factory somebody stole the staff's wages and they kidnapped the guard dog getting out of the A Train and we get threatening phone calls even my mother got there and she was working at another company so they went to the effort of tracking her down to put pressure on her after years of harassment which also included a botched attempt to bomb the factory BE BROKE Rossi decided he'd had enough he wrote this open letter to one of the main local newspapers in January 991 dear extortionist I'd like to ask are on known extortionist to give up the threatening phone calls and the expense involved in acquiring fuses bombs and projectiles because we are not prepared to make contributions I built this factory with my own hands it is my life's work and I have no intention of closing we have said no to Mr NS alone a the surveyor and we will say no to all of those like him liberal Grassi and more did the rest of the family think about him going public like us of a man that funny get up at the earliest and the whole family will worried but we agreed with his decision. Going public could actually protect him that perhaps naively was Lee broke Rossi's plan he was hoping to start a movement in Poland more against the beat so which more than 50 percent of businesses were thought to be pain. He helped out the businessmen would come out in support but unfortunately none of. The head of the Palermo Business Association actually said he wasn't aware of any problem. And he was paying up although he didn't get any support from his colleagues liberal Grassi did attract the attention of the Italian press he was even invited to appear on national T.V. Kiddo they don't feel it when I don't tell them you're doing it or if I give in I would be giving up my dignity as an independent business model for I would be making my choices with the mafia if everyone followed my example the extension ist would be destroyed to do so the lawyers just bought. The. In August 991 when the men are near family driver began tracking LIBOR a grassy he noted that the unassuming 67 year old off to more simple sandals as if he were a Franciscan monk. Did your father think of himself as being a hero I saw them and they're not now absolutely not he considered himself a normal person he thought the normal thing was actually to run a business without intimidation from the math here in most countries that would be normal behavior does your father have any sort of personal security and so now I get a little bit. That he didn't have personal protection he only requested protection for the factory and the employees so a police car used to patrol it the matter near term was led by Francesco Maddow near his cell Vino personally conducting the execution a sign of its importance. So you know all of that for a loner I was in Barcelona my husband I called home in the evening and one of my good friends on set and set up with your brother and my brother said it has been an attack. And he is dead upon at the Took a good amount. So the king came as a complete surprise them. Of course and despite all of the maffia don't usually kill this wave we were expecting an attack on our business not on my father personally but the court evidence shows that he was actually killed by modern Years own son in order to set an example. On a hot head. My father had the quote unquote honor that Savino mother near pulled the trigger himself in 2006 the matter nears father and son were jailed for the killing of liberal Grassi we found out later from the evidence that the other Matthew families didn't agree because they thought it would be counterproductive and that other businessmen would refuse to pay and that's what happened after my father was killed people had to decide which side they were on gradually more and more businesses in Sicily have followed Libra grass' example and refused to pay off the Mafia a movement called. Ready goodbye protection money was started by a younger generation of Sicilians in 2004 we call them the pizza kids because at the time they were kids just out of university who wanted to open a bar one of them was threatened and they didn't have any way to pay so that evening they came up with a slogan that said lots of people who pay the peace so it's a people without dignity it would be so. They put the slogan on those cards for Jews for funeral notices the white ones with the black borders and they put the cards up all over the city so one morning Palermo World Cup to this anonymous protest a few days later we found out it was these kids and they later formed the ideal Pete so movement the movement now gives advice to businesses. Wishing to denounce them or fear as well as providing consumers with a list of companies that are Matthew free is going to ask when you're. They recognized my father as the forerunner of the N.T. Maffia movement in Palestine now there are 1000 businesses signed up that's not many for a city like Palermo but compared with 0 in 1901 but if it's a good result Alice grassy talking there to Simon Watts and remembering the killing of her father by the Sicilian Mafia Joining us now is one of the world's leading experts on the matter Federico voracity professor of criminology at the University of Oxford So has there been a good result in Sicily has the grassy letter and his death in any sense put paid to the math here well the grassy letter was extremely important and he's there shocked the country any 30 led to the creation of a deal P. Thought the author shown he's daughter talks to you about that you know interview so certainly that it's been a very important turning point yet however we can a faded Mafia has been defeated there now fortunately extortions few occur even in Palermo and not only that but since the 1900 other official figures who have raised their head above the parapet against the Mafia have suffered here is exactly exactly and they're coming to their free show date and there are some for younger people and I thought then leave here asking for extortion money in public they're more more 3730 even a foreign businesses especially Bangladeshi have been targeted by their extortion activities off because an afterthought Unfortunately the association of the organisation or the weak field they're going to go back through the history little bit further and explore the roots of the mafia Why did a system evolve particularly in Sicily that allowed gangs to families to exert such power well if you're. To go back to the beginning we must start in the 1830s to the 18th sixty's which is when a story answered boldly agreed that is when the organization emerges of any to merge at a time of must see economic transformation as there was the end of feudalism the beginning of a market economy a state that was unable to define and protect property rights a new property owners a demand for protection which was not the method by the state and emergence of these entity which was spread across half of the eyeing other trees which actually afforded some protection to the new property owners and so that's how it started in the 19th century and how strong is the use of Cillian Murphy and now as it passed a sort of a high watermark of it if so when was that I think it was not able now to enter the major drug trafficking or for mafia that Auxerre is the biggest money maker now they and their anger towards of the another part of the organization in Calabria is the major player in anything in the South when you open intercepting the tide with Colombia of cocaine this is it in my view is not be able to catch up it's always been weak and also there have been a massive oppression from the state many of the bosses are employees and so it is now weaker than it used to be but if you went to Sicily in the 1970s or eighties you would have to sort of understand that some of the money that you spent there was going to the maffia would that still be the case today well we should be this way that businesses would pay protection money and a bit so as a source code in Italian and so then part of that money you spend in a hot air let's say might end up in the coffers of the Mafia because they have to pay themselves these additional ducks and though well now there are new players in the game that are following gangs for instance Nigerian gangs in particular who are batting 0 fighting for. On the 30th when many of the bosses are in jail and so it's very hard for the organization to communicate to coordinate and to exercise there are even stories of my fields you couldn't pay for a car and then turn the car because the SO that is off that. Day Federico vote is a professor of criminology at the University of Oxford and just a quick reminder at the end of the week which has seen the death of Zimbabwe's former freedom fighter turned president you can find several 1st hand accounts of Zimbabwe's turbulent history under Robert Mugabe on our website just search for B.B.C. Witness history more from the history in just a moment. Distribution of the B.B.C. World Service in the US was made possible by American Public Media producer and distributor of award winning public radio content A.P.M. American Public Media with support from Raymond James offering personalized wealth management advice and capital markets expertise with a commitment to putting clients' financial needs 1st find out more at Raymond James dot com. My make a top priority coming up on the next ON POINT India revokes Kashmir special status Pakistan moves troops close to the Line of Control are the 2 nuclear powers again on the brink of war plus seeking solutions to a persistent problem in American education it's part one of our special series The 50 year fight what works to close the achievement gap that's coming up on the next one point from N.P.R. Between $9.11 every weekday after MORNING EDITION. Coming up in part 2 of the history our the American historian who took David Irving to court and proved he was a Holocaust denier for the Liberian civil war the world's 1st all female peacekeeping force and we go into quarantine with the Apollo 11 astronauts I got back from Zob from each one as they came out into the helicopter and that made my day that is the image that is the most important image to me 1st a news summary. B.B.C. News with Mick Kelly they all thought is in the Bahamas have insisted they acted as quickly as possible in response to last week's hurrican Dorrian the health minister Duane sands denied there's been any cover up of the number of deaths he said the priority was not body counts but finding missing people and providing food water and comfort to the injured at least 43 people are confirmed dead the Philippine Commission on Human Rights has launched an inquiry into the alleged abuse of activists by the government and its allies it examining reports of killings and in force disappearances the US Air Force has announced a review of its guidance on overnight accommodation for flight crews following revelations that some of been staying at one of President Trump's Scottish golf resorts a U.S. Congressional committee is investigating Mr Trump for a potential conflict of interest the British prime minister Boris Johnson is expected to ask parliament again today to approve a snap election which he hopes would give him a fresh mandate on BRICS it a similar attempt he made last week failed because the government couldn't get the required 2 thirds majority in parliament Hezbollah militants in Lebanon say they have brought down and captured an unmanned Israeli aircraft after across the border with Israel Israeli military gave a different account saying one of its drones fell inside southern Lebanon during routine operations and that no information could be taken from it the police chief in Indian administered Kashmir has said that a few 100 people are in detention there much lower than some reports have stated still back seen Singh said only a 5th of those picked up during security operations remained in police custody. And a new report by global health experts says the world could be free of malaria within a generation if the effort is properly funded research warns the rule acquire an extra $2000000000.00 a year B.B.C. News Welcome back to part 2 of the history with Max Pearson still to come the world's 1st women only peacekeeping force and the man whose job it was to make sure that the Apollo 11 astronauts had not brought alien bugs back to Earth. But before that a legal case that appeared to test the lengths to which history itself can be shaped by the historians who write it in 1906 the British author David Irving filed a libel suit against an American historian Professor Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher Penguin Books in her book Denying the Holocaust the growing assault on truth and memory Professor Lipstadt had argued that Irving was a Holocaust denier who had deliberately distorted historical fact he claimed this was defamation and she was trying to destroy his career and sued for libel Rebecca Caspi has been speaking to Deborah Lipstadt the high court has begun hearing a libel action brought by the controversial historian David Irving he said the academic Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books were part of organized attempts to destroy his career but Professor Lipstadt and her publishers have said they'll prove that Mr Irving has repeatedly denied the gas chambers were used by the Nazis to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe it was seen as a case that put history itself on trial on September the 5th 996 David Irving filed a libel suit against Professor Deborah Lipstadt amateur publisher Penguin Books in her book Denying the Holocaust the growing assault on truth and memory Professor Lipstadt had argued that Irving had deliberately distorted historical fact to support his own anti semitic agenda he said she was trying to destroy his professional reputation and sued her for libel when she 1st received the notice Deborah Lipstadt didn't believe it my secretary brought me an amp up it looks kind of official it came from England so I opened it up and I remember just sort of laughing that this is absolutely absurd that this man who has had such outrageous things about the Holocaust that he would be suing me it just seemed like theater of the absurd and I threw it on a pile of papers and went on with my day the Holocaust was the systematic murdering of Jews and other. In Europe under the Nazi regime of adult Hitler around $6000000.00 Jews were killed many of them in gas chambers of extermination camps survivors provided eyewitness testimony the Nazis kept meticulous notes some perpetrators even confessed to their part in the killings and yet within just a few decades of the war there were already attempts by some people to rewrite history to suggest the Holocaust wasn't so widespread and even that it didn't happen atoll Deborah Lipstadt 1st became aware of Holocaust denial when she was shown a book in the 1970 S. That claimed the story of the Holocaust was an elaborate hoax but I looked at it and I said Come on people don't believe this garbage the Holocaust is the best documentary genocide in the world I mean how could anybody take this seriously so what is Holocaust denial as you would frame it how would cause the Neiers argue that there was no plan to murder European Jewry that while some Jews may have died in the I emphasize the word died none were purposely killed as Jews that anything that was done to Jews that was untoward was not done with Hitler's imprimatur that there were no such thing as death camps that the idea of gas chambers is a complete myth so basically arguing that there was no plan to annihilate Europeans or the and that any claims to the contrary are a plan by Jews to get the world sympathy and to extract money from Germany in the High Court lawyers representing the author and publisher of a book about the Holocaust who described the writer David Irving as a liar and falsifier of history in English defamation law the burden of proof is on the defendant in this case Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books they assembled of 4 men. Double team of experienced lawyers supported by eminent historians from around the world who provided expert witness testimony David Irving stood alone representing himself in her book Professor Lipstadt accused David Irving of being one of the most dangerous spokes person for Holocaust denial far from it said Mr Irving new person in full command of his faculties could deny that the tragedy actually happened but calling someone a Holocaust denier was enough to turn them into a pariah an outcast it was a libel of the most grotesque and offensive nature against him so then you are in this position to what have to prove that the Holocaust actually happened we did not want this to become a did the Holocaust happened trial because you don't have trials you know did World War 2 happen did World War One happen we wanted to demonstrate to the Korg that everything I wrote about him was true so what we did is follow his footnotes back to the sources any time he said something about the Holocaust made some claim about the Holocaust and then said this document proves it we went back and looked at the original documents and they found in virtually every instance where they checked some sort of distortion misrepresentation putting someone there to media who wasn't there changing the sequence of events and if you change the sequence you can change the whole nature of the story in the way it's understood the distinguished military historian has told the Holocaust libel trial in London the views held by the author David Irving were perverse he said the author's belief that Hitler didn't know what was happening to the Jews until late in the 2nd World War defied common sense and so then you find yourself in a huge legal battle in a foreign land with a system you're not familiar with and he represents himself in court and you. You have to sit there and listen to it it was the hardest thing I ever did in my life 1st of all for me to keep silent in general is an unnatural act but this was the biggest moment of my life why was that decision made that you wouldn't testify in any way during the court hearings because I was being sued for what I wrote in my book and there was nothing I could add to that on the stand but it was difficult in the extreme but as we began to present our witnesses this is an 18 of his starry and I felt very gratified we felt a certain righteous indignation you'd walk into that courtroom there was a long corridor that you had to walk into to get into the court room and every day there would be holocaust survivors sitting there and one day I was going into the court room and this woman handed me a piece of paper and on it she had written the names of 15 people and they all had either the same list name or middle name and next to each name was a precise date of birth and then next to it was a column date of death and in certain cases the column was filled in certain cases it was just a question mark obviously it was her family list of her family and when someone gives you a list like that you don't just give it you know so I read each name carefully and then I handed it back to her and she got very indignant she said Me no no don't give it back to me this is my evidence if I could go into the witness box this would be my evidence so for that day and for the rest of the trial that list sat in front of me on the table in the court and I stopped worrying about was I getting my chance to speak or wasn't I getting my chance to speak I just would look at that list and I would bring it back to me and. I pulled the 11th 2000 the judge delivered his verdict concluding that Deborah Lipstadt had been justified in calling David Irving. A racist anti semite and a Holocaust denial and humiliating judgment the judge was to justice grazer he found the charge to be true and branded Mr Irving and who Semitic under racist Mr Justice Gray described him as a man with a political agenda who associated with neo nazis and who as a historian deliberately misinterpreted mistranslated and omitted historical documents it was amazing it felt like. Been the case and it felt like I could turn around that look at that woman in the hall and say to her I did what I was supposed to do. This trial really history fact evidence truth on trial it did it did this is a form of anti-Semitism it's a form of fake new lying about history repeating it often and so that people believe it no genocide ever begins with action every genocide begins with words. Professor Deborah Lipstadt was talking to Rebecca Caspi and on our website there's a photo which shows how much that legal victory over David Irving meant to her as she emerged triumphant from the High Court in London just search online for B.B.C. Witness history our next story involves women who put themselves on the front line in a potentially very dangerous situation and in so doing made history for themselves and for those who have followed in 2007 the United Nations deployed its 1st ever all female peacekeeping unit in the West African country of Liberia Joba giving has the story of that development and has been speaking to the Indian police chief Sima who led the force for the plane has just touched down and now marching behind the Indian flag 103 Indian peacekeepers all very smartly dressed in. Blue uniforms with blueberries and a media pack struggling to keep up with. These golden expedience they have what a nominal amount of service and they are cream. Is Liberian ladies they get motivated they get inspired and they come forward to join the regular bullets that was Sima don't dear of India's Central Reserve Police Force speaking to the B.B.C. In 2007 after arriving in Liberia it was still recovering from its 14 year civil war speaking to me this year from her home in Calcutta she still remembered clearly that 1st test when they were called out to deal with a mob on the streets of the Liberian capital Monrovia just the day after they derived most of the joints of the wall was am from the assembled already and the goods the were a big fire because they had just landed there what was the war and so we were all given that bastard This blows that how do you go about going into a violent group of people presumably men presumably bigger than you are and managing to deal with them to disperse them or deliberate you know all be had feel this kind of situation that they are not and feels already are deployed and not part of the deal when you say you want to quit what do you have to fight back and we had guns but viewed us ought to do the use of less lethal that there's another special equipment like we call it might be battle launches an oil well it's a multiplayer alone should tell me what I don't know that is launchers. Here get shot at the time it has the stunning. Even the look of that equipment is a big victory and he had this electronic The shock Bedouins also the riot was put down just a year earlier United Nations peacekeepers in Liberia had been accused of forcing goes to perform sexual favors in return for food the secretary general's special representative there Alan. Doss was happy to welcome an all female force we're delighted it is I think the 1st time that I'm female form police units which is a sort of his own Danbury type unit is being assigned to a U.N. Mission but that unit will join a group that have done tremendous work in crowd control riots you name it but according to Leslie Pruitt who has studied the peace keepers for her book The women in blue helmets it wasn't just a desire to head off scandal that had prompted the UN to bring in women peacekeepers actually the inspiration for it from what I can tell was for shorthand which inside the top cop at the UN at the time of the deployment Mark Kroeker he told me how he was partly personally inspired his daughter was a police officer People say the important work that she and other women police were doing and so he was taking some Indian government officials and alarmed about this history of women's policing in India it was 1st and he showed it in India night and seventy's where they had had all women units in their Central Reserve Police Force and they also had all women police stations and his predecessor carrying the E.U. Who had been the highest ranking female police officer in India had also been the top cop at the UN So they sort of work together and they were saying why don't you give this a try the women were all trained in unarmed combat and right to control and when they arrived in Liberia they were given duties which included searches night patrols and guarding the presidential palace at the personal request of Liberia's president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf They also found themselves faced with many many cases of rape and sexual violence in post-war Liberia Seoul actually besides Arctic we learned our jobs are no luggage for the woman. There was an added those part of us wants ability on nationally goes to instill a sense of confidence among the local bishop because the ball was the victims the young girls the jewelry So all in all what was the hardest part of the job for. Sima done to you and her team of police women actually in my own con began there were a lot of E. Mails with leftist small children behind then it was the 1st lot of money to keep them highly more did I used to make them talk to their old children over Internet dollars I.P.O. They be used to say that when still good as what it is I used to go digital Had I been. Used to give it up at SEMA to India and had tea made visits to Liberia's police academy they offered medical treatment to the local population and offered computer training training and a yoga classes inside that compound do you think women in Liberia will think well if I can do it maybe I should go and join the police Oh yes I think that's a fine point because it's important for us we need to stand up now and join our friends around award to say we were able to do it when we landed there the local Liberian national is they did have emailed him and then there are normal for normally polygonal So when the Saudis go away not on the Jordan would be going bald on still a gender example Arden's the girls got more to be good and then this not good bill coming forward because they had never seen no the girl was of police they absorb a tree and then a large dog sort of a big but can one contingent of police women even when they all rotated for several years really make a lasting difference Leslie Pruitt believes they can we can say there's a correlation with the introduction and often on Usenet and at pretty good civil increase in the number of women that got recruited into Liberia national police and Spain regularly attributes it to the presence of the offing our police unit and national by effectively and physically modeled women's ability to do policing and actually 16 now when they often are you know it was a leading light. For his president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in her commendation for them said our security service now has 17 percent when we are that are to you because it is not even one person a few years ago and when they want to emulate you in the way that you've served this country well you got to the end of the deployment let me take you back to getting on the plane for the last time how did you feel when you were leaving Liberia all I feel so isolated like the DOT have begun Blish my you know good job because the more men than I took the one big gen from India to Liberia I was just all being and and I bridge. I should bring this 120 offices and I do kind of in 1920 joining me on the list came back even find me that close by because as he landed it and I found that odd my 119 offices were hilly even own and the deputy inspector general senior the I was speaking to Joe McGinniss ring finally this week another nod towards the events of 50 years ago when humankind 1st landed on the moon in 1909 Armstrong and Aldrin got to the surface Collins went around the moon and then came back with them but what happened afterwards when the Apollo 11 crew returned to Earth they were immediately placed in quarantine for 3 weeks it was done to protect the earth from the dangers of possible lunar alien life Dr William Carpentier was the flight surgeon for the Apollo 11 mission and was placed in quarantine with the crew to monitor their health and check for any signs of alien life he's been talking to Alex lost about his memories of working with the Apollo program and about life in quarantine. For the goal that President Kennedy now suppose to send men to the moon and return them safely to the years by the end of the decade. And that's that return to Earth the hardest part of my job starting for a report. For when man 1st returned from the moon in July 969 mass it faced a unique problem the main problem was the remote possibility that there could be anything on the moon that could be brought back to Earth that could be harmful. By about. The probability that any life form could be on the moon was it credibly remote but you know that nobody could say it 0 so that's 5 sided that there would be a quarantine and they would be isolated Dr William or Bill compendia he was the flight surgeon Apollo 11 his job was the health of the astronauts by Korean post-flight on the moon mission that Joe took on a new dimension My job was to be with the crew well they were in quarantine and to do all the medical examinations that needed to be done to check for any possibility that there could be anything that was brought back that could be awful to the air and if you volunteered for this that you had to volunteer that if there was any sign anything then you'd be in Coron chain tell everything was worked out that I had a much higher probability of being hit by a truck on my way home from work much higher than than there would be anything on the moon. Was a young Canadian doctor specializing in aerospace medicine he joined NASA in 1965 a time when dogs his was still trying to work out what impact for a long space flight might have on the human body it was a very busy time but a very exciting time there was hardly a day that. You could learn something and I was able to work with are a lot of very bright people and so that I couldn't think of a better job to have them. The main mission was announced he was designated as the flight surgeon to the Apollo 11 crew Neil Armstrong Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins 5 days before blastoff on the 16th of July in 1969 Bill left to join the aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Hornet to await the crew's return he was on board the ship in the Pacific when Apollo 11 landed on the moon and was one of the few who didn't actually watch it live days later on the 24th of July the capsule began its reentry into the well held its breath. On it hold it over at. The command module and splash down in the Pacific Navy divers dropped in to stabilize the craft and Bill Cup Pente was on the lead recovery helicopter hovering overhead waiting to winch up the astronauts they had to go through the special procedures to satisfy the quarantine requirements the on the inside of the spacecraft that be decontaminated in the places where they were snatched for a ranch area and leave it there and around the kitchen of the command module with the decontaminant plants he had on there it was the decontamination swimmer he was dressed in and biological isolation so he passed in the suits to the the crew members inside the spacecraft they put on these special garments and then came out of the spacecraft into the life or out a neighbor on respirators also so they were breathing through respirators and the outside of that that the garments had to be decontaminated the 1st spammer has now started scrapping leader for not so highlights the isolations garments were $337.00 and then they were high stood up and that's were at that and the inside of a helicopter is very noisy and they were on respirators and the only thing we could do it was and signals as they came up into the helicopter one by one I got. From each one as they came out into the helicopter and that made my day that is the image that is the most important image to me as they returned safely to her . For the 1st few days the astronauts would be confined to a large sealed trailer instilled upon the carrier the Hornet men would live inside the mobile quarantine facility the 3 astronauts bill and then engineer John Harris Saki who had monitored the trail is pressured to make sure it remained sealed I didn't ask them anything except let's move because the president was on the aircraft carrier he was waiting to talk to them I had just procedures that I had to do there is no time to talk get out of their suits I had to get all of the you know swab samples from the top of their head to the bottom of their feet to send back to the literacy laboratory for analysis but point was to make sure that anything that was on the crew or in the spacecraft was there when they went up there was nothing new that could be discovered when they came back they come on module was also retrieved from the sea and then attached to the corn team trailer so Bill and Joan could take samples from M boat and secure material collected from the moon one of the things that I had to do is I had to be the 1st person into the spacecraft so that I could get swab samples all around the command module on the inside but I also had to get samples from the suits that the astronauts wore when they walked on the moon and so when I opened up the suit bags I got a cloud of lunar dust started hitting me almost like like talcum powder the lunar dust has a distinct smell it's sort of a combination of gunpowder where the ashes kind of smell we have provided them with a full sized bag of us all these they'll be able to take a shower and about they would care to do so and and well in fact that I mean the 1st not to fail again until after 8 days ngs. Being cooped up in that faith it didn't bother me there was plenty of things to do it was not a time for reminiscing at the same time to make sure that you got the job done and when we did have some spare time you know that they played bridge you know the respects to read the time went very quickly and Bill had stored a treat on board the quarantine trailer a bottle of martini after we got everything done and then the 1st day we had a break Can we had dinner John here a saki was appointed as chief cook I was appointed this cheap bartender. Make than it should have a very small market needs but did visit a chance to make a toast in the for the 1st time you could sort of sit back and think oh my gosh man landed on the moon and they returned safely to Earth the goal has been accomplished that deserves a toast. After a few days the ship docked in port in the trailer was then flown to Houston where those inside were transferred into a larger facility for the rest of the 3 weeks of quarantine the scientists found no space bugs so they were old finally released the astronauts went on a world tool and Bill went with them now in his eighty's he's working on a project compile and published for the 1st time the health data from the 1st decade of U.S. Manned space missions he still cherishes his memories and those pioneering days of space exploration Did you ever want to go to space yourself did I ever want to you bet I wanted to do it I do it now you bet I would but you look back and think What a great time to have been alive I think that I am probably definitely one of the luckiest people to have been born in the 20th century. Bill compendia in conversation. With Alex last and revealing some of the secrets of the quarantine capsule martini indeed that's it for this week's history art I hope you'll join us next time for more firsthand stories from those who were on hand as history was made until then this is max prison Thanks for listening from the police he studios at California Lutheran University this is listener supported K.C.A.L. You. I'm Peter O'Dowd when you meet a stranger how quickly you to pass judgement and his new book Best selling author Malcolm Gladwell says Your opinions are probably wrong because swagger into our confrontations with strangers with the confidence that we can make sense of them just is no evidence that we are good at that task talking to strangers next time on here and join us for 2 hours of N.P.R. News in the middle of the day it's here and now every Monday through Thursday morning starting at 11 on K.C.A.L. You it's 12 midnight. This is N.P.R. For the California coast 88.3 Casey.