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[verbatim trial transcripts]
London, March 1, 2000
BRITAIN
Irving ‘was an ally of neo-Nazis’
BY MICHAEL HORSNELL
DAVID IRVING used Germany as a
“playground” for his right-wing extremism, the High Court was told yesterday.
For ten years, until he was banned from Germany in 1993, the court was told, the historian was in a political alliance with the German People’s Union, an anti-Semitic party. The allegations were made by Hajo
Funke, a professor at the Free University of Berlin, who compiled a 137-page report on Mr Irving’s alleged extremist connections for the hearing.
He said: “Mr Irving committed himself wholeheartedly to the cause of revisionism, and thus neo-Nazism, in
Germany.”
Professor Funke added: “By denying the Holocaust, he wilfully and persistently violated the criminal law in
Germany.”
He was giving evidence in the libel action that Mr Irving has brought against Deborah Lipstadt, an American academic, and Penguin Books, her publishers. Mr Irving, 62, is suing both for damages for saying that he is a Holocaust denier who has twisted history.
The hearing continues.
March 1, 2000
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