Holocaust Denier David Irving Pleads Guilty, Recants
David Irving has plead guilty to the charge of Holocaust denial and has softened his stance, perhaps to gain the leniency of the courts:
“I’m not a Holocaust denier,” Irving told reporters. “Obviously, I’ve changed my views.” History, he said, “is a constantly growing tree — the more you know, the more documents become available, the more you learn, and I have learned a lot since 1989.” He has since acknowledged the existence of the gas chambers. “Millions of Jews died, there is no question. Ii don’t know the figure. I’m not an expert on the Holocaust.”
Full story.
[Update] Via the comments: Deborah Lipstadt defends Irving, says “no one stands to benefit from the throwing of this guy into prison.”
Great. We got him to recant by jailing him. Wow. What a huge victory. Surely this will silence all the Enemies of the Elders forever.
The laws weren’t put into place to silence Holocaust deniers but, rather, to ensure that the type of hate speech which led to the establishment of the Reich wouldn’t be given a platform in countries such as Austria and Germany. Just my interpretation.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060220.IRVING20/TPStory/TPInternational/
“If you had told me, a few months ago, that I would be demanding David Irving’s release one day, I would have called you insane,” Ms. Lipstadt told the German magazine Der Spiegel this week.
But she is defending him. “I’m against censorship — no one stands to benefit from the throwing of this guy into prison.”
But Kelsey, he recanted – whether facing prison or not. He’s spent a lifetime denying the Holocaust, defending its criminals and attempting to cleanse Hitler’s image. suddenly, for the sake of avoiding prison, he is willing to forego a lifetime’s work? Unlikely…unless he’s known all along that he was selling lies.
I don’t think Lipstadt is right about him getting new fans. He already has plenty of fans and nobody except for them cares if he rots in prison. This happens to be one time where justice is served, even if free speech isn’t. By the way, it is up to every society to police itself and perhaps the Austirans and Germans have good reason to seek an end to speech that attacks the truth of the Holocaust. That is their decision to make, not for us here in the US where free speech got us…virtually no press coverage about the Holocaust as it was happening.
TM, you said,
“unless he’s known all along that he was selling lies.”
Of course he has always known. In my reading of the leaders of these movements, specifically in the White Supremacist Movements, with which he is associated, the internal message is not one of Holocaust Denial, but motivating their members to ask why people hate Jews so much, and to fight what they perceive as Jewish propoganda and manipulation through Holocaustism among other things. It’s really a stealth pro-genocide movement, out to raise the Jewish question generally by ostensibly questioning the scope of the previous Final Solution.
Certainly they believe the numbers are exaggerated, but that isn’t their motivation for making such a fuss.
One of their points is to illuminate Jewish control of the media. By recanting at this time — over free speech with the Persian Holocaust cartoons, he may be doing something quite clever, and “proving” Jewish control through his public contrition.
Do not take these guys at their word. The goal is not just a debate about Holocaust denial. It is about a renewed call for genocide.
I hope they put him in a cell with a 450-pound Jew named Bubba.
init good ol’ bubba will sort him out.
while i can see deborahs argument about free speach which is valid, my grandparents shouldnt have to be told what they went through didnt actually happen. therefore im more than happy he’s been penned up.