I have just seen on the news that Mr Ahmedinajad of the Islamic Republic of Iran is hosting a conference on the Holocaust to discuss whether it really happened or not.
He says this is to test the West's convictions on the ideals of free speech.
Perhaps a western leader might like to host a conference on whether Islam was responsible for the enslavement of millions of people, the subjugation, conversion and slaying of hundreds of thousands from about AD640 onwards and the near extermination of a race in Turkey between 1905 and 1922.
Methinks the reponse might be somewhat different....
However, far better to let these clowns show their stupidity in public than muzzle them and increase their following. So, I find the law banning denial of the Holocaust as rediculous as this conference.
Always thunk a decapitation strike is a much more sensible means of solving international problems than invasion,look what good a single .303 round could have done in say 1930.
I watched an overwhelming movie a few years ago - Conspiracy, starring Kenneth Branagh. It is a real time depiction of the conference at Wannsee in 1942, when the Nazi middle management set up the Final Solution.
The characters are all normal military men and scientists, not monsters; some are actually likable in the beginning. In sort of a mob mentality moment they all agree to the cattle cars. Absolutely riveting.
It was on HBO in the states. Did it make it over to y'all?
Sure did Huck and I have to say having watched the DVD probably 4 times now it is one of the most compelling films I have seen about the Holocaust. Based on a transcript of that conference's minutes it is one of the most chilling indictments against the Nazi's I have ever seen.
These Holocaust deniers (like Irving) are a bloody nuisance. Stupid ignorant oafs everyone of them but if they are just ignored they won't go away. They will just continue telling their lies until more people believe them. And who knows in a 100 years time a lot more people will believe them.
No every time they stick their stupid empty anti-Semitic heads above the parapets their lies must be shot down. Lest we forget.
"Holocaust denial is a criminal act in Germany, Austria and some other countries"
Never quite got that. One is an idiot for not believing it happened. Way to much empirical evidence and first hand accounts. That said, free speech within reason is just that free speech.
Clearly this conference is an idea whose time has not yet come. Too many people lived through it and have relatives who died in it to deny that it happened.
However, I was not aware that it was "against the law" to deny that it occurred. God help the US if they find out that they have somehow missed passing that one here.
"Holocaust denial is a criminal act in Germany, Austria and some other countries"
Never quite got that. One is an idiot for not believing it happened. Way to much empirical evidence and first hand accounts. That said, free speech within reason is just that free speech.
For the first (and probably the last) time this century I agree with you. However, this is the way the Germans (and Austrians) are coming to terms with their past.
It will be very interesting to see if they bring in or allow Holocaust survivors to testify or present evidence to prove that the Holocaust did indeed happen.
Anybody from Israel going to be invited? I kind of doubt it.
I can't wait to see the UN's reaction on this matter. Like the old saying goes; "Who ya going to believe, me or your lying eyes?"
(And this guy may have control of a nuclear weapon. )
Frederick Toben - the retired Adelaide high school teacher who denies the Holocaust took place - has dismissed as "mere puffery" historical evidence proving mass killings of Jews by the Nazis' deadly Zyklon-B gas during a speech in Tehran last night.
In his presentation, obtained by The Australian and denounced as obscene anti-Semitism by Jewish leaders, Dr Toben called "claims made by 'Holocaust' believers" about the mass gassings and burnings a "physical impossibility". Dr Toben is an amateur historian who set up the Adelaide Institute in 1994 to pursue his cause. He spent seven months in a German prison in 1999 for inciting racism.
He is a keynote speaker at a two-day conference in Iran, at the invitation of the Iranian Government, which has drawn speakers from around the world including David Duke, a former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and French professor Robert Faurisson, who denies the existence of Nazi gas chambers.
Khaled Kasab Mahameed, a Palestinian lawyer invited to the conference, had hoped to challenge its Holocaust deniers but was denied a visa by Iranian authorities. No reason was given, but Mr Mahameed claims it may have been he has proclaimed his belief that the Holocaust did happen.....
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