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Tuesday, February 10, 2004  [Danish original text] Holocaust denier to visit Denmark David Irving, the holocaust denier, is coming to Denmark this month to give a speech. "There are strong forces that keep his activities alive," says the head of the "Mosaic Faith Fellowship." by Lea Korsgaard Direkct telefonnummer: +45 33 47 28 69 On top is a picture of the Royal Danish Guards with everything one expects: Bearskin hats and sunny weather. Underneath, the English holocaust denier David Irving announces on his homepage that he is coming to Copenhagen on February 22 to deliver a speech. David Irving comments: WITHOUT mentioning names or stereotypes, isn't it extraordinary how it is always the same people who mobilise to prevent me from speaking to invited audiences, even in private?    People wonder why I have dubbed them the "traditional enemies" of free speech. They need look no further than articles like this.    Historians faced with this kind of terrorism have two choices: to lie down, to conform, and write whatever is demanded of them; or to abide by their conscience and write the truth as they find it.    Danish journalist Lea Korsgaard first tried to learn details of the function using a non-newspaper email address. As Sara Salzman of Devner could have told her, we have our sources; Lea is well known for what she is, and I do not encourage journalists to attend our functions.     My thanks to reader I Chartwell for this English translation. David Irving belongs to a little group of smooth-talking historians -- the so-called "revisionists" -- that frequently and publicly sputters that the destruction of the Jews during World War Two never took place. Entry barred For this same reason, David Irving is not allowed to visit Austria, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. And if he sets foot in Germany again, he'll have to pay a fine equivalent to 120,00 Danish Kroner [$20,000] -- a fine he was given after announcing in Germany: "Today we know that the gas chambers shown to tourists in Auschwitz are fake, having been built by Polish Communists after the war. " It's not forbidden to deny the Holocaust in Denmark, but David Irving still doesn't want to inform POLITIKEN who has invited him to the country. He also doesn't want to tell where he will hold his speech and what the topic will. He will only confirm via e-mail that it's true that he is coming to Copenhagen. That message was met with this comment by cultural sociologist and spokesperson for The Mosaic Faith Fellowship Jacques Blum: "Freedom of speech includes those one almost can't tolerate hearing. So I'm not outraged that David Irving is coming to Denmark. I am outraged that there are some who will listen to him. There are strong forces that keep his activities alive. Also in Denmark." Moderate Fascist David Irving, calls himself a "moderate fascist", and one has to search in extreme right wing circles for someone who knows anything about the February 22 arrangements. The Danish Organization for Free Historical Research -- which includes a former researcher from the University of Copenhagen -- is a group of people that admit to revisionism. They know who has invited David Irving to Copenhagen, but no one wants to name who it was. They will only admit that a group of "dedicated" people are behind the arrangement. One of the group's founders, Olde Kreiberg, explains that the group's members have been invited to meet with David Irving, and that the meeting will probably occur in a restaurant in Copenhaven. The organizers will hold the meeting place secret until the last moment "so no one will disturb the meeting" explains Olde Kreiberg. Helped by sponsors In 2000, David Irving sued the American author Deborah Lipstadt and her British publisher, Penguin Books for libel -- and lost with a bang. He was fined over 22 million Danish Kroner [$3.6 million] in court costs and is assumed to be relying on sponsors to keep his activities going. At least that's according to research assistant Torben Jorgensen from the Holocaust and Civilian Death Studies department at the Danish Institure for International Studies. Irving has placed a blinking Visa Card on his Homepage to encourage readers to donate $50. Torben Jorgensen estimates that the extreme right wing historians will only be a serious problem when young people cannot differentiate right from wrong, and what is historically false. For instance, the Danish Organization for Free Historical Research has designed their homepage to resemble the educational webpages from the Holocaust and Civilian Death Studies department. "The intention is to get young people to mistake our website with theirs" explains Torben Jorgensen. "One can study history in school without ever learning about World War Two. And the danger with this inadequate education is that it doesn't protect young people. Here we have an historical event where a group of people are working intensely to alter the facts. And the more ill-prepared young people are, the easier they will allow themselve to be misled.   David Irving dossier: "Global Vendetta" Our dossier on the origins of anti-Semitism Action Report: Mr Irving's last visit to Denmark

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