Three years!
Now I am in two minds about this. On one hand holocaust denial is incredibly, incredibly offensive. It flies in the face of what are, literally, miles of information and documentation about it and from first-hand accounts from thousands, if not millions, of people. It says to people who have experienced the most physical and mental tortures they have experienced 'I don't believe You!' That kind of behaviour, and in such a high profile, highly offensive off-hand manner in the way Irving has done, deserves some kind of punishment.
On the other hand, what concerns me is that this might make a martyr out of him, and he hasn't even caused (In the strict sense) incitment to violence.
However, all of that said, do I feel sorry for him? Well I pity him for the fact that he has ended up holding certain beliefs and mixing with such people, but sympathy for his current predicament! Not a jot. I don't feel sorry for him at all. He went into Austria illegally, he should have known the laws about Holocaust denial there (and I am convinced he did), and he now faces the consequences.
And three years in an Austrian jail is nothing, compared to the horrors millions suffered which he has said in the past 'Did not happen!' and which he now prefers to call a tragedy, as opposed to a Holocaust!
2 comments:
I agree one shouldn't feel any sympathy for him, and indeed one can't help feeling a little satisfaction, but...
I'm not convinced he's done anything worthy of actual punishment. As you say he hasn't actually incited anything; though his work does form part of, and tries to legitimate, a far-right racial agenda.
Without incitement, or other contingent factors (professional position etc.) should holding unpleasant beliefs and/or being offensive be a crime (There is/was an openly racist professor at Sussex University. After complaints his position was considered. Some very interesting debates, and a number of meetings later it was decided he should keep his job, largely because it didn't affect his carrying out his duties. I think on the whole they were probably right, odious though this guy was.)
That said, Germany and Austria have these laws for a good reason, and he was certainly aware of them. These laws should not be geographically extended though IMHO.
Well I think what just about clinches it for me is your last paragraph, Moody
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