Robert Jan van Pelt (born 15 August 1955) is a Dutch author, architectural historian, professor at the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates ...

and a

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

scholar. One of the world's leading experts on Auschwitz, he regularly speaks on Holocaust related topics, through which he has come to address

Holocaust denial Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: ...

. He was an expert witness in

Deborah Lipstadt Deborah Esther Lipstadt (born March 18, 1947) is an American historian, best known as author of the books '' Denying the Holocaust'' (1993), ''History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier'' (2005), ''The Eichmann Trial'' (2011), and ...

's successful defence in the civil libel suit brought against her by British author and Holocaust denier

David Irving David John Cawdell Irving (born 24 March 1938) is an English author and Holocaust denier who has written on the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany. His works include '' The Destruction of Dresden'' (1 ...

in 1996.

Early life and career

Van Pelt was born in Haarlem to a secular Jewish family. At Leiden University, van Pelt obtained an undergraduate degree in art history and classical archaeology, a graduate degree in architectural history, and a PhD in the history of ideas. While pursuing his studies, he worked as an architectural historian, involved with the restoration of

Noordeinde Palace Noordeinde Palace ( nl, Paleis Noordeinde, ) is one of the three official palaces of the Dutch royal family. Located in The Hague in the province of South Holland, it has been used as the official workplace of King Willem-Alexander since 2013. ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

Career

Teaching

He joined the University of Waterloo in 1987 and has taught courses pertaining to the cultural history of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

and Enlightenment periods, the 19th century, and also participates in topics including urban history and film history. He is currently Professor of Cultural History in the university's architectural faculty.

Holocaust research

Van Pelt's Holocaust studies began while he was studying the

Temple of Solomon Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (, , ), was the Temple in Jerusalem between the 10th century BC and . According to the Hebrew Bible, it was commissioned by Solomon in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited by the ...

under Renaissance scholar

Frances Yates Dame Frances Amelia Yates (28 November 1899 – 29 September 1981) was an English historian of the Renaissance, who wrote books on esoteric history. After attaining an MA in French at University College London, she began to publish her resear ...

as part of his doctorate. He has stated that he was stunned when he first entered the Auschwitz architectural archive, commenting that the place allows one to imagine what the place looked like during the war and holds a "tactile reality" as to how the camp was built, and that here, he found his mission. His pursuit of Auschwitz as a point for architectural study arose when he nominated one of the crematoria and gas chamber complexes at Auschwitz-II Birkenau to be included in the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

architecture classes canon, a decision which he says was controversial among academics there. Van Pelt has also appeared in

Errol Morris Errol Mark Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of its subjects. In 2003, his documentary film '' The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamar ...

's '' Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.'', a documentary film about Fred Leuchter where he comments on and criticises Leuchter's methods and findings that constituted Leuchter's report for the defense of

Ernst Zündel Ernst Christof Friedrich Zündel (; 24 April 1939 – 5 August 2017) was a German neo-Nazi publisher and pamphleteer of Holocaust denial literature.

. In the film, van Pelt offers the analogy that the Nazis were the first Holocaust deniers, because through the obscure euphemisms and terminology they used in reference to their homicidal equipment, they attempted to deny to themselves what they were doing. In the successful defence of Deborah Lipstadt during the ''

Irving v Penguin Books Ltd ''David Irving v Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt'' is a case in English law against American historian Deborah Lipstadt and her British publisher Penguin Books, filed in the High Court of Justice by the British author David Irving in 1996, ...

'' case, van Pelt was one of the four Holocaust historians who served as expert witnesses, and he defended the 770-page report he produced during five days of cross-examination. His involvement in the trial was included in the 2016 film ''

Denial Denial, in ordinary English usage, has at least three meanings: asserting that any particular statement or allegation is not true (which might be accurate or inaccurate); the refusal of a request; and asserting that a true statement is not true. ...

'', in which he was played by British actor

Mark Gatiss Mark Gatiss (; born 17 October 1966) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer and novelist. His work includes writing for and acting in the television series ''Doctor Who'', ''Sherlock (TV series), Sherlock'', and ''Dracu ...

. Also in 2016, his research into the architecture of Auschwitz was presented in the exhibition Architecture as Evidence at the Venice Biennale and the

Canadian Centre for Architecture The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA; french: Centre Canadien d'Architecture) is a museum of architecture and research centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 1920, rue Baile (1920, Baile Street), between rue Fort (Fort Street ...

Writing

Van Pelt has written five books and co-authored two with

Debórah Dwork Debórah Dwork is an American historian, specializing in the history of the Holocaust. She is the Founding Director of the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and formerly served as the Rose Professor of Holocaust History at Clark ...

. He has also contributed chapters to twenty books, and has published more than thirty articles. In addition, he has served as an advisor on films and has also contributed in both the physical and dramatical reconstructions in Laurence Rees' '' Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution''' television documentary. He wrote the introduction to the first English-language edition of David Koker's diary.

Awards

Van Pelt's awards include University of Waterloo Outstanding Professor 2005, the

National Jewish Book Award The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature.Spiro Kostof Spiro Konstantine Kostof (7 May 1936, Istanbul – 7 December 1991, Berkeley) was a Turkish-born American leading architectural historian, and educator. He was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His books continue to be widely ...

Award (1997) from the Society of Architectural Historians. He was a 1994-95 fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and was a 2002-04 fellow of the University of Waterloo's faculty of environmental studies.

Works

Books * ''Architectural Principles in the Age of Historicism'' (1993) * ''Auschwitz, 1270 to the Present'' (1996) * ''Holocaust: a History'' (2004) * ''Flight from the Reich: Refugee Jews, 1933-1946'' (2012) * ''Lodz and Getto Litzmannstadt: promised land and croaking hole of Europe'' (2015) * ''The Case for Auschwitz: Evidence from the Irving Trial'' (2016) * ''Auschwitz: Not Long Ago. Not Far Away'' (2020)

In media

He is portrayed by the actor

in the movie

from 2016, a dramatisation of the Irving v Penguin Books Ltd case.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pelt, Robert-Jan van 1955 births Living people 20th-century Dutch historians University of Waterloo faculty Writers from Haarlem Dutch expatriates in Canada Leiden University alumni Historians of the Holocaust 21st-century Dutch historians