Jewish Scene
Spain arrests fugitive Austrian Holocaust denier
Reuters
Published: 24.08.07, 08:03
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22 Talkbacks for this article
1. Why are crazy people who deny the holocaust being arrested
Rivkah   (08.24.07)
instead of being commited into a mental hospital? They are obviously delusional and need psychiatric treatment.
2. spain has a virulently anti-Jewish, anti-Israel press
dante ,   uk   (08.24.07)
it is amazing that a country with such a vile and atrocious history of anti-semitism should unabashedly vilify Israel, often using anti-Jewish images that are indistinguishable from the worst that europe produced in the last century. it is staggering that university professors and students can sanctimoniously slander the Jews for largely imagined trespasses that are trivial when compared to the enormities of recent spanish history. oh, btw: you are so interested in the synthetic and novel nationalism of the "palestinians," what about the genuine and ancient nationalism of the basques, catalans, etc.?
3. now in jail, he will have time to
(08.24.07)
recall his early early childhood's memories about Hitler
4. Holocaust denier
Martin Aubut ,   Sherbrooke, Canada   (08.24.07)
Finally, instead sending him to jail, why don't try the drug who erase long term memory on him,,, and by the way, why not practice a lobotomy. No jail, no memory, no feeling. The complete mess kit ! Heil, verlierer !
5. How does this happen...
DR ,   Florida, USA   (08.24.07)
In a world with so much free information and so much open communication??? How do people still manage to stay a hundred years back? Europe needs to look at the way they educate people about history. Children in England are already forgetting that the Holocaust even happened...Crazy!!!
6. Global Warming Wackos Will Be Next In Jail
David ,   Marietta USA   (08.24.07)
Don't arrest thse bigots. Use them for sport and throw rotten tomatoes at them!
7. This is democratic?
Proud America ,   USA   (08.24.07)
However stupid it may be, how can you claim to be a Democracy and not allow freedom of speech? Who cares if the guy denied the holocaust?
8. #7
dana ,   nj   (08.24.07)
While I totally agreewith your overall point, democracy does not mean freedom of speech. In fact our first amendment was put in for thaty reason. Democracy means majority or mob rule. Hence if the majority wants to prohibit speech of the minority it would be democratic. Remember, Hamas , achmadenijad, and Hitler were democratically elected. Nevertheless it is stupid to imprison people for saying idiotic reprehnsible things.
9. Denial of Holocaust inAustria punishable by 15yrs sunbathing
on Costa in Spain ,   Alan SA   (08.24.07)
10. Free speech for evil people
Mordechai   (08.24.07)
This man is obviously evil and may G-d destroy him and his soul. But man should leave him alone. I am disgusted by what he says but for free speech to exist he must have the right to say it
11. ProudMoron
(08.24.07)
how about democratic Iraq ? not possible
12. What Secrets Does This Man Posses that He Must Be Silenced?
Mr. Knowitall ,   Frostbite Falls, MN   (08.24.07)
When ever I hear of people being arrested to silence their free expression of their own thoughts and beliefs, I wonder what those seeking to suppress our God given freedoms fear most, what one person might say, or that they might loose the ability to control what can or cannot be said. And to anyone who supports these sinister thought police, please resist the temptation to voice your opinion and voluntarily censor your own thoughts immediately, because while first they came for the Holocaust deniers and you did not object, soon they will be coming for you and by then it will probably be too late for anyone to object.
13. agree 7 and 12
usa ,   usa   (08.25.07)
freedom of speech allows for opinion, point of view-whether it be right or wrong.
14. To # 8..you are wrong...
Edith   (08.25.07)
You are absolutly all wrong...It means what it says...Free speech..and that's why Holocaust denial will never be a crime in the US The only thing that you can't do is yell 'Fire' in a movie theater...
15. Mr Knowitall
Martin Aubut ,   Sherbrooke, Canada   (08.25.07)
And when the President of Iran organize international assembly for denying the holocaust. Is that O.K. ? Is that O.K. if he uses scientists and philosophers for presenting fallacious arguments ? I recall you that Nazi did it. They used archeologists and other scientists for proving the superirity of the aryan race and for proving that the world was theirs.
16. To #58
FSM   (08.25.07)
To #58: "this guy wants an international committee setup"... The Holocaust is the single most proven historic fact in all of history. There's no way anyone could possibly REASONABLY doubt it. "he wants an educated and academic approach"... There has been discussion about the holocaust for 60+ years--academics from all around the world sorting through an immense database of information from the War. Much of the proof for all the atrocities of the Holocaust was recorded by the Nazis themselves. Then there are the eye witnesses and the people who lost loved ones to the labor camps, the gas chambers, and the fire pits. Then you ask a question like this. How ignorant can you be? Perhaps you are a member of the KKK? "why would discussion scare you to death if it is so sure that it happened!!!!! you guys defend freedom of thought and expression so vigirously when it suits your interests ONLY!"... It is clearly false to say that Freedom of expression covers all cases. Would it be ok to run up to someone and repeatedly call them a 'nigger' in America? What about repeatedly, openly asking an elderly woman whom you didn't know, lets say in a restaurant, the following questions: a) "Prove to me you don't have sex with your daughter!...Prove it!" b) "Prove to me you don't go around raping boys...Prove it!" c) "Prove to me your child died in the crematorium...Prove it!" Both questions (a) and (b) would cause the management in America to call the police. So what is different then when it comes to asking (c)? When you deny the Holocaust--which is tantamount to asking (c)--you are asking millions of people to prove to you that they lost their children, husbands, wives, and parents to the Nazi's, when it is the single most documented historical event in all of history. You are merely inciting and provoking the general public when you openly deny the holocaust. For this any government should arrest you.
17. Good. Nazis should be jailed
Gidi ,   Jerusalem, Israel   (08.25.07)
18. studying the holocaust without jews
usa ,   usa   (08.25.07)
should be allowed. jews get involved and it becomes so emotional. and i dont mean that in a bad way- how could it not be emotional to think that all of europe basically allowed a group to get rid of jews. it makes onw wonder..but a NON INVOVLED jury should be able to study it with distance and calrity.
19. Shame on Austria and Spain
Count Bleck ,   USA   (08.26.07)
Holocaust denial? People in Europe make incitements against major religions and they arrest and jail for years someone who says "The holocaust never happened". Shame on Europe.
20. #18
FSM   (08.26.07)
"studying the holocaust without jews should be allowed"... Perhaps you're ignorant of the Nuremberg Trials? All the judges on the Jury were non-Jews. The European Jews were just about extinct, and the ones who were left were just about dead. We know about much of what happened because the Nazis who were tried and convicted confessed AND WERE PROUD OF WHAT THEY DID! Perhaps you need to go to college.
21. Spanish Anti-Semitism
Lior ,   London   (08.27.07)
After a lifetime of travelling in Spain, I agree with Dante with regard to the levels of socially acceptable anti-Semitism now prevalent in modern Spain. It is also a fact that this anti-Semitism is undeniably linked to ingrained prejudice, deriving from Catholic-inspired discrimination. But it was not always so - even in the 1970s and 1980s. It is not, however, the root cause of modern, democratic Spain's present anti-Semitism. The dictator Franco, although not without an unblemished record, did in fact do much for the Jews during the rise of Nazism in Europe. During the entire war, especially after 1942, the Spanish borders were more or less kept open for Jewish refugees from Vichy France and Nazi-occupied territories in Europe. Franco's diplomats extended their diplomatic protection over Sephardic Jews in Hungary, Slovakia and the Balkans. Spain was a safe haven for all Jewish refugees and anti-Semitism was not official policy under the Franco regime. Many Jews lived peaceable lives well into the life of Franco's regime and there was free travel, after 1948, between Spain and Israel, a country Falangist Spain immediately recognized. Franco's regime, uniting Falangists and Catholic Carlists, kept much latent anti-Semitism at bay. Is it no wonder, now, that we see such a recrudescence of anti-Semitism under a democratic system which has been governed more by the left than the right since the return to democracy? Dante quotes the university professors, the students of the educated elite; and the media, using anti-Jewish images, as examples of it. It should come as no surprise to him or us that these people represent and typify absolutely the socialist constituency in Europe. They are the same source of anti-Semitism in Britain, France, Germany. How much more evidence do we need? It is staring us in the face at every turn. It is now the liberal left in Europe, with its accusations against Israel, that is now using the flagrant lies and the same propaganda as the extreme right did two generations ago against the Jews under the guise of what they call the legitimate criticism of Israel. American Democrat-voting Jews do not realize that the soft left in Europe is not instinctively pro-Israel and the Jews as is the Democrat Party in America. They should, in true Puritan style, shun these parties. And until we all realize that it is now from the left in Europe that the worst incidence of anti-Semitism since the 1930s is emanating, it will only get worse. The so-called democratic socialists in Europe are now Israel's and the Jews' worst enemy. Anti-Semitism is coming from the left, not the right. Wake up and smell the Marxist dialectic in the coffee, it stinks worse than Sweet 'n' Low.
22. When we gain power, we will arrest Abbas too
Feiglin Supporter ,   Kfar Sava   (08.28.07)
Arab Shoa deniers should be treated the same as Goyish ones!
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