Let me start off by saying: Fuck David Irving and all he stands for. As one of the most prominent purveyors of misinformation about my historical field, I just wish he would go away or alternatively that my home country of Austria would have let him rot in jail longer.

Having gotten that out of the way let's talk about the Focus or alternatively the the Focus Group, as some biographies of Churchill call it. This alone is a good indication about this alleged group: It doesn't even have a consistent name. The only comprehensive account that exists about is a book by German emigrant who fled the Nazis Eugen Spier, which is literally called Focus: A Footnote in History and the name is program because whatever the Focus was, it certainly doesn't amount to more than an actual footnote in history.

Reading this account as well as several biographies of Churchill that mention this "group" in passing, the Focus was far from an organized group or some kind of conspiracy of "world Jewry" (whenever I hear that, I want to scream). What it was, was a number of people who opposed appeasement against Nazi Germany and who met for luncheons in order to discuss how British public opinion could be swayed against Fascism and Nazi Germany, especially in light of the British Union of Fascist's successes in attracting middle class and aristocratic supporters and the abdication crisis in relation to Wallis Simpson's and Edward's sympathies for Nazi Germany.

It had no formal structure, charter or employees and the name The Focus according to Spier was something they invented as a half-joke. Associated with it were a small number of people coming from the British establishment, some friends, some acquaintances, who had both left-wing opinions, like Wickham Steed, journalist, historian and former editor of the Times, and political opinions leaning to the right, like Violet Bonham Carter. Bonham Carter, who was one of Churchill's closest friends also introduced him to the other people who got together regularly like Robert Waley Cohen, an industrialist and Archibald Sinclair.

Best described as a low-key lobby effort, what united the people who gathered under the name The Focus was that they were ardent opponents of appeasement and of Nazi Germany. Churchill had – and here comes in the issue of Irving's misinformation – already in 1935 warned of the dangers of Hitler, albeit in a way that later allowed Irving to latch onto it and by omissions and leaving out context twist the historical facts.

What I mean is that in 1935 Churchill had written a long portrait of Hitler The Truth about Hitler in The Strand Magazine. Mostly consisting of condemnation and warning of Germany, the profile also included some faint praise – remember at the time while discriminatory measures against Jews and Communists had been in place in Germany, the Holocaust as in the genocide of people was still years away and Hitler looked to his contemporaries like a fascist dictator of the likes of Mussolini. Churchill wrote that the "corporal", the "former Austrian house-painter" had by 1935 "succeeded in restoring Germany to the most powerful position in Europe". "When Hitler began, Germany lay prostrate at the feet of the Allies", Churchill argued. "He may yet see the day when what is left of Europe will be prostrate at the feet of Germany", he issued as a warning. While allowing for the possibility that "success might mellow Hitler", he was staunch in warning of renewed German militarism and war and called the Nazi regime "an attack upon the historical basis of Christianity". This was btw. a warning he had issued less forcefully before in 1932 when Chruchill had written "From one end of Germany to the other an intense hatred of France unites the whole population. The enormous contingents of German youth growing to military manhood year by year are inspired by the fiercest sentiments, and the soul of Germany smoulders with dreams of a War of Liberation or Revenge. These ideas are restrained at the present moment only by physical impotence." (concerning Irving's allegation that Churchill had never spoken badly about Germany before 1936).

Irving does his typical shtick by taking the faint praise Churchill had mentioned in the article out of context and citing only that without the further condemnations of Germany. The simple fact is that Churchill had never been a fan of Hitler and had throughout the 30s seen the Nazis as a danger.

These sentiments were also what put him in touch with the people who called themselves The Focus. One of the most prominent conservatives who opposed appeasement and Nazi Germany Churchill saw an advantage in knowing a couple of upper class people from the left or liberal spectrum mostly that shared his view. In subsequent years, members of the Focus group sponsored a number of research papers concerning the danger emanating from Nazi Germany and individual members talked to people they knew in order to help fashion support for a hard line against Germany. This effort might have helped in some ways to create the united front of Torys and liberals that helped Churchill and others opposed to appeasement rise the ranks but if anything this was down to personal contacts of individual rather than a concerted effort.

While the aforementioned research papers were things that individuals that met under the name The Focus sponsored financially, there simply is no indication that they payed slush money to Churchill or any other politician. Reading Spier's account of what transpired, most of their activities consistent of meeting for lunch, reporting what steps they had taken within their personal circle of acquaintances and sometimes coordinating who they would talk to about opposing appeasement and Nazi Germany. Money is hardly ever mentioned at all.

So, in summary: Irving does what he does usually. He latches on to one historical tidbit, blows it out of proportion and de-contextualizes and thusly constructs his filthy Nazi lies. The Focus was a group of people including Churchill who opposed appeasement and Nazi Germany. Not even amounting to a social club, they met and exchanged thoughts on what they could do to oppose the threat of Germany they saw and the tide of fascism in Britain. There is no indication that they handed out money or even had to convince Churchill to be concerned by Germany. Far from being an arm of "world Jewry" or any such thing, they were what Spier aptly called "a footnote in history".

Sources:

• Eugen Spier: The Focus. A footnote in history.

• Paul Addison: Churchill on the Home Front, 1900–1955.

• Roy Jenkins: Churchill: A Biography.