CNN programma over 'holocaust-ontkenning'

[Dr. Marc-Alexander Fluks]

 Zender:    CNN International (Europe/Asia)
 Programma: CNN & Time
 Datum:     17 januari 1999
 Tijdstip:  03:00, 10:00 en 18:00 uur MET

 In het programma een item waarin ondermeer centraal staat of er al-dan-niet
 Joden vergast zijn in Duitse concentratiekampen tijdens WO-II.

 Skepticus is David Irving, een befaamd Brits historicus, gespecialiseerd
 in WO-II; opponent is de Amerikaanse theologe Deborah Lipstadt, die door
 Irving voor de rechter is gedaagd in de UK. Het proces is afgelopen
 dinsdag begonnen en zal -naar verwacht- maanden gaan duren. Hieronder
 een persbericht van Associated Press over deze zaak.


 Bron:  Associated Press
 Datum: 11 januari 2000
 URL:   http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000111/wl/britain_holocaust_suit_1.html

 Holocaust Book Libel Trial Underway
 -----------------------------------

 LONDON (AP) - A book that claimed a historian distorted aspects of the
 Holocaust generated ``waves of hatred'' against him and threatened his
 livelihood, he told England's High Court on Tuesday.

 David Irving is suing Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books for libel over the
 1994 book ``Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory,''
 which claims he has denied that the Nazis used gas chambers to exterminate the
 Jews, holds extremist views and distorts history.

 Penguin and Lipstadt, who holds the Dorot Chair in Modern Jewish and Holocaust
 Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, deny any libel.

 Irving, 62, has outraged Jews by saying the Holocaust has been exaggerated and
 by challenging the number and manner of Jewish concentration camp deaths under
 Adolf Hitler's regime. He also claims Hitler knew nothing about the
 extermination of Europe's Jews until 1943.

 But Irving, who is representing himself, said in his opening statement Tuesday
 that he would show that ``far from being a Holocaust denier,'' he had
 repeatedly drawn attention to major aspects of the Holocaust.

 ``The word 'denier' is particularly evil, because no person in full command of
 his mental faculties, and with even the slightest understanding of what
 happened in World War II, can deny that the tragedy actually happened, however
 much we dissident historians may wish to quibble about the means, the scale,
 the dates,'' he said.

 Being branded a Holocaust denier, ``is a verbal Yellow Star,'' he said,
 referring to the symbol the Nazis forced Jews to wear.

 Irving, the author of ``Hitler's War'' and ``Goebbels: Mastermind of the Third
 Reich,'' said Lipstadt and her publisher were part of ``an organized
 international endeavor'' to destroy his career.

 He said he once earned more than $160,000 a year in royalties from his writing
 and had always looked on his books as his pension fund and a legacy for his
 four children.

 ``By virtue of the activities of the defendants ... I have since 1996 seen one
 fearful publisher after another falling away from me, declining to reprint my
 works, refusing to accept new commissions and turning their backs on me,''
 Irving said. ``Such is the nature of the odium that has been generated by the
 waves of hatred recklessly propagated against me by the defendants.''

 ``In short, my 'pension' has vanished,'' he added.

 Irving has addressed neo-Nazi groups in Austria and Germany, and in 1988
 testified in Toronto on behalf of Ernst Zundel, a Canadian on trial for
 denying the Holocaust occurred. In 1992, German authorities fined him for
 claiming British intelligence had spread the ``propaganda'' that the Germans
 were using gas chambers to kill millions of Jews and other so-called
 undesirables. He is banned from Germany, Canada and Australia.

 Under Britain's libel law, a claimant needs to prove that his reputation has
 been damaged. Truth is not necessarily a defense. The case, which is being
 heard without a jury, is expected to last 12 weeks.

 --------
 (c) 2000 The Associated Press

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