Robert Jan van Pelt (born 15 August 1955) is a Dutch author, architectural historian, professor at the University of Waterloo and a Holocaust scholar.

He was an expert witness in Deborah Lipstadt's successful defence in the civil libel suit brought against her by British author and Holocaust denier David Irving in 1996.

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.

[5] In the successful defence of Deborah Lipstadt during the Irving v Penguin Books Ltd case, van Pelt was one of the four Holocaust historians who served as expert witnesses,[7] and he defended the 770-page report[8] he produced during five days of cross-examination.

[7] 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.