Holocaust Denier Irving is released on probation.

[weaktwos]

David Irving has been released after serving three years in prison.

This is interesting. The man only spoke and wrote about denying the Holocaust. He denied the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz. He later said he was "mistaken". How can you be "mistaken" about that? Let's deny that there ever was a World War II while we're at it, eh? In 1992, Austria passed a law that anyone publicly denying the holocaust was going to jail.

Part of me doesn't like this, I mean, I don't want anyone to be jailed about speaking freely.

Does the exception hinge on this not being a matter of opinion but an outright lie?

But why-O- why are you denying such an event, David? Surely there are better things for a historian to do?

I need to do more research on this because I am quite curious as to how this could happen. Certainly tales from the holocaust pervaded our understanding. There is footage, photos, first person accounts, books like the Diary of Anne Frank, the trials. How could a hoax like this be perpetrated. Where did all those Jewish folks go? What the hell do you think you're doing, denying that it ever happened, David?

Comments

[ariedana.livejournal.com]

If you're interested in researching Holocaust denial, here's a great place to start:

http://www.nizkor.org/

It's a volunteer effort to respond to Holocaust denial, document who and what the deniers are saying, and archive evidence that proves the Holocaust did happen. I actually found this place 10 years ago when I saw an exhibit they did at the National Museum, and their efforts have been amazing.

If you want to see the work of one of the most prolific Holocaust survivors, look for Zundelsite. Zundel himself used to live in east Tennessee, but he was arrested and deported back to Germany to be tried under their laws, which are extremely strict.

You won't find anyone who believes in freedom of speech more than I. However, in some of those countries the subject of the Holocaust is still highly pressurized. I don't blame them at all for restricting the subject.

[weaktwos.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the cool link!

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

I can't get behind making speech illegal, lies or not. There are slander and libel laws, of course, but those are specific cases. And the classic that free speech doesn't permit you to make threats or cry 'Fire!' in a crowded theater, etc. All we need is the religious right to make it illegal to deny the existence of god - or just *their* god.

But David is hardly alone - there are a lot of holocaust deniers out there. I don't get it either, but some of them are loonies and some are quite serious scholars. They handle the facts in different ways - many just claim there never were that many Jews to start with and the claims of disappearances, etc, are false claims created by the International Jewish Conspiracy to make them more sympathetic, etc.

It seems that every tragedy brings out conspiracy loonies - 9/11 was a government plot, the Holocaust never happened, JFK was killed by a Mafia/CIA hit team, etc. (OK, so I'm personally not convinced, at all, that JFK was a one-man job. I just had to throw that in there.)

[weaktwos.livejournal.com]

I'm dubious on the notion of them being "serious scholars". However, I will find time to investigate that further. The only reason I can see that they are banning holocaust denial in places like Germany and Austria is that the little fascist socialists are waiting for a reason to unite again, and they want to quash such communication.