British historian David Irving, who was jailed for questioning the Holocaust in a book published in Austria, said recently that the Auschwitz death camp was a tourist attraction, and added that there was no proof that it ever had gas chambers.
Irving, whose comments during an interview with Italy's Sky TG24 News were immediately picked up by Italian news agencies, said there was no doubt the Nazis killed millions of Jews, but said the killings did not take place at Auschwitz.
"At Auschwitz they did not have gas chambers, or at least there is no proof that I am satisfied with," Irving told the news channel's program, "controcorrente." Irving spoke in English, but his comments were translated by a voiceover.
Irving was sentenced in February 2006 to three years under a 1992 Austrian law that applies to "whoever denies, grossly plays down, approves or tries to excuse" the Nazi genocide or other Nazi crimes against humanity in a print publication, broadcast or other media.
He was released last month after Vienna's highest court granted his appeal and converted two-thirds of his
three-year sentence into probation. He has been indefinitely banned from Austria. The Italian government will propose legislation this week making it a crime to deny the Holocaust.