Can you believe that "historians" are trying to deny that such an event ever occured?? This guy was getting 300 letters a week because of his anti-Jewish stand. Makes me sick!
Holacaust Denier Gets 3 Years In Prison In Austria!
by minimus 45 Replies latest jw friends
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Kenneson
It is sickening, but there are more and more of them. Don't know if jailing them will put an end to it. It only makes them martyrs. The best defense is education. For a heated debate on the topic, go to
http://talkback.lancasteronline.com/index.php?showtopic=24306
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katiekitten
He went to speak to a far right group of students. He clearly had found his adoring group of adoring and ill educated neo-nazis.
He was travelling in a country where there was a law against denying the holocaust. I think he was hoping to get a sentence in order to mayty himself.
Hes in the same boat, in my book, as Gary Glitter shagging underage girls in a country that has a death sentence for shagging underage girls. DUH!
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nicolaou
Okay, I'm going out on a limb here but should the guy actually be jailed for this? Like most people I find his views offensive and can only imagine the insult felt by many but we were here only a week or so ago claiming our right to free speech in the face of Islamic insult against those Danish cartoons.
Freedom of speech people. It means you're going to hear things you don't like.
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Elsewhere
I find it quite ironic that those who deny the holocaust would love nothing more than to commit their own holocaust against the Jews.
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z
Holocaust denier Irving going to jail
British historian David Irving sentenced to three years in prison in Austria for denying Holocaust; earlier, Irving pleaded guilty to the charges but insisted he now acknowledges killing of Jews
Associated Press
Right-wing British historian David Irving was sentenced to three years in prison in Austria on Monday for denying the Holocaust, which is illegal in in the country.
Irving, who pleaded guilty and insisted during his one-day trial that he had a change of heart and now acknowledged the Nazis' World War II slaughter of 6 million Jews, faced up to 10 years behind bars for the offense.
Earlier, Irving pleaded guilty to criminal charges of denying the Holocaust and conceded he erred in contending there were no Nazi gas chambers at Auschwitz as his trial opened Monday in Vienna.
Irving, 67, told reporters he now acknowledges that the Nazis systematically slaughtered Jews during World War II.
"History is like a constantly changing tree," he said as an eight-member jury and a panel of three judges prepared to hear charges that could put him behind bars for up to 10 years.
Irving, handcuffed and wearing a navy blue suit, arrived at the court carrying a copy of one of his most controversial books -- "Hitler's War," which challenges the extent of the Holocaust.
"I made a mistake when I said there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz," Irving told the court, speaking in German. But he insisted he never wrote a book about the Holocaust, which he called "just a fragment of my area of interest."
"In no way did I deny the killings of millions of people by the Nazis," Irving testified. Earlier, he told journalists he considered it "ridiculous" that he was standing trial for remarks made 17 years ago.
He has been in custody since his arrest in November on charges stemming from two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 in which he was accused of denying the Nazis' extermination of 6 million Jews.
An eight-member jury and a panel of three judges will hear the proceedings, which officials said could produce a verdict as early as Monday.
His trial opens amid fresh – and fierce – debate over freedom of expression in Europe, where the printing and reprinting of unflattering cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad has triggered violent protests worldwide.
Irving had tried to win his provisional release on Euro 20,000 (USD 24,000) bail, but a Vienna court refused, saying it considered him a flight risk.
His lawyer, Elmar Kresbach, said last month the controversial Third Reich historian was getting up to 300 pieces of fan mail a week from supporters around the world, and that while in detention he was writing his memoirs under the working title, "Irving's War."
Irving was arrested November 11 in the southern Austrian province of Styria on a warrant issued in 1989. He was charged under a federal law that makes it a crime to publicly diminish, deny or justify the Holocaust.
'Hitler knew little about Holocaust'
Within two weeks of his arrest, Irving asserted through his lawyer that he now acknowledges the existence of Nazi-era gas chambers.
In the past, however, he has claimed that Adolf Hitler knew little if anything about the Holocaust, and has been quoted as saying there was "not one shred of evidence" the Nazis carried out their "Final Solution" to exterminate the Jewish population on such a massive scale.
Vienna's national court, where the trial is being held, ordered the balcony gallery closed to prevent projectiles from being thrown down at the bench, the newspaper Die Presse reported Sunday.
It quoted officials as saying they were bracing for Irving's supporters to give him the Nazi salute or shout out pro-Hitler slogans during the trial, which will continue into Tuesday if a verdict is not forthcoming on Monday.
Irving is the author of nearly 30 books, including "Hitler's War," which challenges the extent of the Holocaust, and has contended most of those who died at concentration camps such as Auschwitz succumbed to diseases such as typhus rather than execution.
In 2000, Irving sued American Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt for libel in a British court, but lost. The presiding judge in that case, Charles Gray, wrote that Irving was "an active Holocaust denier ... anti-Semitic and racist."Irving has had numerous run-ins with the law over the years.
In 1992, a judge in Germany fined him the equivalent of USD 6,000 for publicly insisting the Nazi gas chambers at Auschwitz were a hoax. -
Abaddon
This isn't about freedom of speech. This is about freedom to deceive. If a plumber or doctor can go to jail for deception, why not another person making himself available in a professional capacity based upon his knowledge?
Millions of Jews were killed in an industrial process planned from the early days of WWII, if not before. Fact.
Irving, having been branded a holocaust revisionist, anti-Semite and racist by the Courts in the UK (in a case HE took to Court, LOL), now gets his come-uppance for spreading Holocaust denial, i.e. spreading lies. How fricking wonderful!
Three years... nice start to retirement for him (he's 69).
He tried to get off it by admitting he was mistaken and now he accepts there were gas chambers and that millions of Jews died. Court wasn't convinced. I saw him on the steps of the Court today on TV. He was holding his book (Hitler's War) so you could see its front cover. Nice, very commercialy aware...
He claimed he wasn't a Holocaust expert - this has never stopped him acting like he was one. He also (when asked if he agreed the Holocaust HAD happened) said "I don't like brand names". By this he really damned himself.
On one hand he is saying 'Oh, yes, it happened' (to try and get off), whilst out of his mouth come the language used in the tired accusations that Zionists, Jews, whoever, whatever, have used the Holocaust like a commerical brand, as a money makiing scheme - the accusations any stinking neo-Nazi/Nazi apologist will make if you give them enough time... a liar, lying to avoid punishment for lying, tripping over his own lies by using the same words used to describe the Holocaust by other liars whilst saying "Oooo, sorry Judge, I know better now". What a loser.
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glitter
Denying the Holocaust is pretty idiotic, but I don't agree with doing so being *illegal* - it just smacks of Austria feeling guilty.
Unless he was actually inciting others to commit crimes against Jewish people or others - then he was just expressing an incorrect and distasteful opinion, and it's ridiculous that the penalty for that is 10 years and that he got 3 years.
All this coverage of the prosecution is just free publicity for Holocaust deniers - I wonder how many Austrians (and other nationalities) looked into the anti-Holocaust "evidence" due to all this. -
nicolaou
Abbadon
I don't disagree with your assessment of this guy, in fact I agree with you that he got his "come-uppance for spreading Holocaust denial, i.e. spreading lies." My only question is to whether he should be defined as a criminal for expressing his views - as offensive as they are.
The Watchtower preach that 6 billion men, women and children will soon be rightly killed by god, a view I have come to regard as offensive in the extreme but do I think that Watchtower leaders should be jailed .. for publishing . . their . . views . . worldwide...?
Hang on, I need to think this over.....
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theinfamousone
its funny, i actually sat through a lecture by a holocaust denier.... he spoke for an hour about how the holocaust did not happen... i was one of the 14 ppl who actually sat through the whole thing, most walked out, i think there were over 300 people to start... at the end, i calmly stood up, walked to the mic and simply said... have u never walked through aushwitz? when the man said no, i said then you have no right to say there was no holocaust you piece of shit... i got a standing ovation...
the infamous one