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[Related German language stories]

September 16, 2000

 

Irving's speech blocked by German city

MUNICH: The southern city of Passau said Friday it had blocked plans for the far-right German People's Union to show a video address from David Irving at its annual party rally because of the British historian's past attempts to play down the horrors of the Holocaust. The address by Irving -- part of a documentary on the Allied bombing of the eastern city of Dresden at the end of World War II -- was to have been projected Sept. 23 onto a giant screen in Passau's Nazi-era Nibelungenhalle conference center, a favorite venue for far-right gatherings.

Herbert Zillinger, a city official, said authorities have forbidden the showing of the video because of Irving's radical views on the Holocaust and his racial theories. Holocaust denial and incitement to racial hatred are illegal in Germany.

Irving is already banned from entering Germany. Party officials said they would challenge the decision in court. City authorities plan to organize a counter-demonstration, including poetry readings and cabaret, during the right-wing convention. A memorial ceremony at a monument erected to the victims of the Nazis is to be held the evening before the convention.

The pariah status of Irving, long contested as an apologist for Hitler, was strengthened in April when a British judge branded him an anti-Semite racist and ruled that an American scholar was justified in saying he denied the Holocaust.

He has also been criticized for his ties with Right-wing extremists who promote neo-Nazism. National and local politicians across Germany have vowed to step up the fight against the spread of right-wing ideology in the wake of a string of attacks on foreigners and minorities in recent months.

On Thursday, the federal government banned the German wing of an international skinhead organization called "Blood and Honour" for organising music concerts and distributing propaganda inciting violence and racial hatred.

The government is also gathering evidence to outlaw the hard-right National Democratic Party, which held its annual convention in Passau in May, sparking scuffles between delegates and protesters.

Courts have repeatedly thrown out attempts to prevent the party meeting in the town, which lies close to the Austrian border.

PASSAU 1984: David Irving approaches the stage, followed by DVU chairman Dr Gerhard Frey. Marxist rioters have tried for years to stop these assemblies. Photo provided by this website

Relevant links:

Deutsche Volksunion (DVU) http://www.dvu.net

Passau http://www.passau.de