ThoughtCrime: 03/22/96
Germany Maintains Ban of Irving
A German court has upheld the order which bars best-selling British historian
David Irving from entering
the country because of his views on the holocaust.
In a move to limit free expression and free inquiry, the German
government issued the ban in November 1993. At the time, Mr. Irving tried
to visit Munich to speak about the history of the Second World War. Munich
officials said that Irving had played down the significance of the holocaust
and therefore was a threat to German security. His lawyer argued in court
Thursday that the ban was unjustified. The court did not immediately publish its reasons for upholding
the ban. Irving had previously been fined in Germany for stating that the
building in Auschwitz that has been portrayed for decades to tourists as
an extermination gas chamber is a phony reconstruction. Since Irving's assertion,
Auschwitz museum curator, Franciszak Piper has admitted on camera that
the alleged "gas chamber" is indeed a post-war reconstruction. Piper was
not allowed to speak in Irving's defense. Open debate on the holocaust story
is a crime under German law.
"Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death."
George Orwell
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