http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/02/21/historian_getsprison_for_denying_the_holocaust/
Historian
gets prison for denying the Holocaust
Concedes to Vienna court he
was wrong
By Matthew Schofield, Knight Ridder | February 21,
2006
VIENNA -- British historian David Irving was
sentenced yesterday to three years in prison on charges that he
denied the Holocaust -- hours after he conceded that he had been
wrong to doubt the systematic murder of millions of
Jews.
''The way the law is written, I didn't have any other
choice but to plead guilty," Irving said. He had faced as many as 10
years in prison on the charges.
Irving, 67, was convicted for
statements he made during a lecture in Austria in 1989, when he said
the gas chambers of Auschwitz were a fairy tale. He also is known
for having said that the number of Jews killed by Nazis was
exaggerated greatly, that
most Jews died of
diseases during World War II, and that until 1943 Adolf
Hitler had never heard of the Holocaust.
At least nine
European countries, as well as Israel, have national laws that make
it a crime to deny or diminish the reality of the
Holocaust.
Before and during court on yesterday, Irving
acknowledged that he had been wrong. He said that ''history is a
constantly growing tree" and that documents he had studied since
1989 -- especially the files of Adolf Eichmann, who is often called
the architect of the Holocaust -- had made it clear to him that
''millions of Jews were murdered."
Irving was the author of
more than 20 books before becoming known as one of the world's
foremost anti-Semitic researchers. He once sued American historian
Deborah Lipstadt for libel after she wrote that he was a Holocaust
denier. He lost that case; the judge called him an anti-Semite and a
racist
who twisted
history, and the legal fees of 2 million pounds, or
about $3.5 million, broke him. Still, Lipstadt told the BBC
yesterday that although Irving is a poor historian, censorship
doesn't work.
''He should be released to return to London and
the sound of one hand clapping," she said.
Irving's attorney
sought leniency for his client, who will turn 68 on March
24.
''This lecture took place 17 years ago," Elmar Kresbach
said. ''He is an English citizen. He doesn't live in Austria and he
is 68 years old. He is not really dangerous, especially not to
Austria."
But prosecutor Michael Klackl said Irving's
research tried to convince others that the worst crime in world
history never happened.
While Irving is considered the most
prominent Holocaust denier, Canadian historian Ernst Zuendel, 66, is
into the third week of his trial in Mannheim, Germany. He is accused
of denying the Holocaust and inciting racial hatred.
During
Zuendel's trial, neo-Nazis have applauded him loudly, called the
judge ''Roland Freisler" after the Nazi judge who sentenced Hitler's
opponents to death, and have sung the banned first verse of the
German national anthem.
Zuendel faces as long as five years
in prison for allegedly promoting neo-Nazi materials and revisionist
Holocaust theories in his books.
Deidre Berger, managing
director of the American Jewish Committee office in Berlin, which
tracks anti-Semitism, said it is important not to underestimate the
seriousness of the cases.
''They should not merely be
dismissed as idiots," she said. ''They're dangerous
men."
Irving, in particular, ''has led a life that is all
about denying the Holocaust," she said. ''These are important
trials, especially at a time when anti-Semitism in Europe and around
the world is on the rise again."
Rob Boudewijn, a specialist
on European issues for the Dutch research center Clingendael
Institute, said that while it may be difficult for Americans to
understand, many Europeans believe that free-speech protections
should not apply to Holocaust denial.
''Denying the Holocaust
is denying our history," he said.
© Copyright 2005 The New
York Times
Company
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