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Bishop convicted for denying Holocaust

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They should gas and bury him, then deny that too. The punishment for these crimes should be as ironic as possible.

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They should gas and bury him, then deny that too.

Needn't go to that extreme. Spending one winter night on a wooden plank, wearing a thin prisoner's uniform, in one of the old concentration camps ought to be sufficient to change his mind.

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1) You shouldn't be fined for having an opinion even if it's uninformed or just plain incorrect, but I guess I'm just an American and I have concerns about a little thing called the Freedom of Speech.

2) Jews were not the only ones gassed, but they continue to get all the sympathy. How about Gypsies? Homosexuals? Dark skinned people? Disabled people? They were gassed, as well. Also, Jews often betrayed each other to avoid going to camps, ratting each other out, but Jews probably deny that.

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"The Holocaust never happened. Its all a lie." = denial of the Holocaust.

"I don't believe Jews were killed in gas chambers" = questioning the official story.

It appears both are illegal in Germany. The more things change the more things remain the same. I think the Nazis also had a problem with people questioning the official story, no?

Of course, I don't see any quotes from the man in this article so I don't know exactly what was said....yet. Besides, he did not say it IN Germany did he? I guess the German justice system does not accept where Germany's borders lie, again, just like the Nazis.

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Very good points, MistWizard.

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Why I do applaud Germany's effort to prevent nutcases from denying history (Japan could learn from this), why are Germans prosecuting a British citizen for something the he said in Britain? Do they have jurisdiction over British citizens because they are all part of EU. This seems very strange to me.

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Well, I was wrong about one thing: He did say what he said in Germany. The interviewers were from Sweden but the inteview was in Germany. So I take back my second Nazi comment but the first still stands. If we could not question history then the ancient city of Troy would still be believed to be a myth. I don't deny the Holocaust but I don't think the official version is 100 percent correct either.

Lancestar2010 you bring up some good points too. But I don't think Jews collectively deny anything. They just don't bring up the collaborators off the cuff.

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Don't worry. In about 30 years, when Europe is majority Islamic/minority, it will be belief in the holocaust that will be a crime. Persecuting those who question some of the details of the holocaust sets a precedent that endangers all freedom of thought and speech in Europe. Which is why the American system is so superior.

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It is the sign of a totalitarian state to punish someone for having an opinion.

The best defense to offensive speech is MORE speech, not less. Punish the guy by ridiculing him, socially ostracizing him, proving his views to be idiotic. Silencing him with the coercive power of the government only gives his views power, and makes them attractive. It gives the conspiracy believers and nutcases ammunition: "see, he must be right, or the government wouldn't go after him".

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"Denying the Holocaust is a criminal offense in Germany."

I don't know if it's right to have it as a criminal offense, much as my gut tells me it should be, but I definitely agree with the guy being barred from his order -- having a priest preaching hate is simply wrong.

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The bishop is a disgusting nutcase, but criminalizing speech is the greater danger here.

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100% agree with DS. But then again maybe Germany Government knows its people best, especially skin heads."The Law of the Land" is simply applied here.

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What do you get for denying child molestation? You get promoted to pope.

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But he is a man of God, so he must be right.

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First of all, this case is a crime against freedom of expression and freedom of thought. The ONLY historical event that it is illegal to ask to have scientifically studied, using modern science and processes not available in 1945, without fear of prosecution. I thought we did away with the burning of books and ideas. What's next, burning people?

What is sacred both to modern Catholicism and the "traditional Catholic" SSPX order to which he belongs, is the gas chamber idol of Auschwitz, about which Pope Pius XII, in the whole of his long reign as pontiff, expressed not one single word, most likely because he knew, through Vatican intelligence, that the Germans did not operate any such monstrosity. The Auschwitz death books contain the death certificates of some 69,000 individuals, of whom about 30,000 were listed as Jews. The first plaque that was on display at the Auschwitz camp from 1948 until 1989 said "4 million" victims. The second and current plaque currently on display at Auschwitz has a dramatically reduced number of victims, now only 1.5 million. A casual reduction in the number of deaths by some 2.5 million. Deaths at Auschwitz drop by a whopping 2.5 million, but 6,000,000 are still widely believed to have died there without a shred of scientific evidence. It has grown into lore without any scientific foundation. None.

Don't get me wrong. Even ONE person dead in ANY of these camps is one too many. It's still a crime against the dignity of humanity. But, surely, in the age of DNA and forensic analysis we can have an accurate, scientific accounting and a naming, once and for all, of every single individual who died in these awful places. The Germans are an exacting people and kept meticulous records, still safe in the former Soviet archives. The victims' memory deserves it, as does the truth itself. Enough of the anti-intellectual screaming of "anti-Semitic (a misnomer) holocaust denier (another misnomer)!" The Semites are the Palestinians, and nobody is denying anything. They just want factually credible answers. Time for cool heads to prevail and to lay this awful mess to a dignified rest, once and for all. One has to ask who benefits by the lack of clarity on this, and the over-emotional hype. Cui bono?

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I don't think anyone really knows the actual death toll during the Holocaust or any war. Both sides will give an approximate exaggerated tallies without any real evidence to show. Perhaps both sides don't want the truth to be known.

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ultraconservative British Bishop Richard Williamson

Is he a German immigrant, or a Nazi sympathizer?

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In 30 years, he'll be a hero in Europe.

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