http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/02/21/historian_gets
prison_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.
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