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In Memoriam: Mabel Elsabe Narjes

A great fighter for historical truth, Mabel Elsabe Narjes, has passed on. Fluent in English and French, as well as a master stylist in her native German, she produced many superbly well-crafted and lucid translations of important historical works into German.

Frau Narjes was responsible for the translation of Prof. David Hoggan’s masterwork, Der Erzwungene Krieg. The 900-page study unleashed a great debate in Germany about the origins of the Second World War and is still the standard work on the war guilt question. She also translated Benjamin Colby’s 'Twas a Famous Victory and portions of Dr. Arthur Butz’s The Hoax of the Twentieth Century into German. Not long before her death, she translated The Spotlight newspaper reprint of “The Great Holocaust Debate” and was able to witness its enthusiastic reception in Germany.

She worked closely with many of the great historical pioneers of her age. She had the honor of introducing two of them — Paul Rassinier, a good friend, and the great American historian Harry Elmer Barnes — to each other personally in Europe.

She attended the 1980 convention of the Institute for Historical Review where she received well-deserved recognition of her years of devoted work. All those who met Frau Narjes were impressed by her sharp intellect and extraordinary spirit.

Following the catastrophic defeat of her nation in 1945, many embittered Germans passively tolerated the flood of lies and calumnies which characterized the historical “re-education” campaign imposed by the victorious powers. But not Mabel Narjes. From the early 1950s until her death in September, just before her 67th birthday, she remained a fanatic fighter against the falsifiers and manipulators of history. Linguistically at home in the three great languages of the continent, her work was a living expression of loyalty to both her native Germany and to European culture.

Mabel Narjes is dead. But she will live on in the hearts of those who honor her memory and in her inspired work among lovers of historical truth everywhere.

— Mark Weber
September 12, 1981