Holocaust denier gets three years

I think using it to gaol historians is counter-productive.

I find it disturbing when lies are referred to "interpretations" of history.

Steve (as 41oo) wrote:

I think using it to gaol historians is counter-productive.

It isn't used to gaol historians - I've never heard of such - but Holocaust deniers.
(Irving, btw, isn't an historian but an author of several best-selling books dealing with history topics. [He briefly studied physics at Imperial College London.])

Just before they gaoled him, didn't he say he made a mistake, and no longer denied the Holocaust?

Steve (as 41oo) wrote:

Just before they gaoled him, didn't he say he made a mistake, and no longer denied the Holocaust?

Correct - only to start it even worse again with a radio interview out of his prison cell the next day.

"Given the ruthless efficiency of the Germans, if there was an extermination programme to kill all the Jews, how come so many survived?" he said, in an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The fact that we allowed you to speak to reporters makes us complicit in this wicked crime and therefore guilty as you are. If you can please move over in your cell, the Austrian judiciary will be joining you for the duration of your sentence.

This whole thing is crazy. Irving is in gaol for "denying the Holocaust". But he said he did not now deny the Holocaust, he made a mistake 16 years ago when he first said it. However he pleaded guilty to having said it...a serious offense 3 years at least.

So off you go to gaol Mr Irving. You will find our Austrian penal system fair but firm, and we hope you will take time to reflect on what you have said. Is there anything you want?

Yes please, I would like to hold a press conference from my cell. Certainly.

Later...we understand that you have questioned the degree of the holocaust and Hitler's responsibility for it from your prison cell. The fact that we allowed you to speak to reporters makes us complicit in this wicked crime and therefore guilty as you are. If you can please move over in your cell, the Austrian judiciary will be joining you for the duration of your sentence.

Holocaust denial is lying. I've simply got no sympathy for that. None.

I have no sympathy for liars either. What is truth?

That interview from the cell - interesting point, Steve. However, holding him incommunicado wouldn't really be a solution either.

Steve (as 41oo) wrote:

The fact that we allowed you to speak to reporters makes us complicit in this wicked crime and therefore guilty as you are. If you can please move over in your cell, the Austrian judiciary will be joining you for the duration of your sentence.

Now come on: he isn't jailed yet but still on detention while awaiting trial: so he gets first class food from a restaurant, can keep his private clothes etc etc

He is spending 23 hours a day in solitary confinement at the start of his punishment, which Austrian prosecutors are seeking to extend to 10 years because of Irving's "special importance to rightwing radicals".

History is history, and politics is politics. I wouldn't assume that there are several historical truths, would you?

old europe wrote:

History is history, and politics is politics. I wouldn't assume that there are several historical truths, would you?

There are as many historical "truths" as there are historians INTERPRETING the evidence. We cant get to the absolute truth, even about things happening right now. We just make our best estimates and hope it all works out.

Quote:

He is spending 23 hours a day in solitary confinement at the start of his punishment, which Austrian prosecutors are seeking to extend to 10 years because of Irving's "special importance to rightwing radicals".

It's okay for a journalist to report such but nevertheless not true since both the prosecution as well as the defence appealed.

Besides, according to the Austrian media, he's still in pre-trial imprisonment, and gave another interview to the Austrian Press Agency APA a week ago, saying "there is absolute no proof an organised holocaust of the Jews". This interview was allowed by the judge as well.

Link to Standard of March 2, 2006, in German.

(The prof, I studied 'law of penal system' at, had taught before the same subject at Vienna university. According to him, both the German law and the Austrian were very similar: seems to me, he wasn't so wrong :wink: )