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Wednesday, December 27, 2006  Why
was David Irving let out of jail?
By EFRAIM ZUROFF Anyone who doubted the wisdom of
releasing British anti-Semite David Irving
from an Austrian jail and converting the remaining
two years of his original sentence for Holocaust
denial to probation did not have to wait very long
for proof that last week's decision by a judge in
Vienna, coming in the immediate aftermath of the
"denial festival" in Teheran, was at best
hopelessly naïve, and at worst
outrageous. For within hours of his arrival in Britain after
being expelled from Austria, Irving was up to his
old tricks. For starters, he made it unequivocally
clear that he had absolutely no remorse for the
views he expressed in the past, which were the
basis for his arrest in Austria in November
2005. This is particularly interesting,
because at the time, while he was awaiting trial
for denying the Holocaust, he specifically told
the court that he had changed his original views
and, in fact, the chairman of the Austrian
Supreme Court panel which released him last week
cited the "impeccable conversion" Irving had
undergone to accept the reality of the Holocaust
as one of the main reasons for his decision.  According
to Judge Ernest Maurer, right, there was no
danger that Irving would commit the same offense
again. Perhaps the eminent jurist meant that he
would not be doing so in Austria (since he was to
be expelled from the country). But Irving, being
the "true believer" he is, could not pass up the
golden opportunity to express his hateful views for
a world audience anxious to assess the impact of
his jail sentence.
And thus he repeated his denial mantra to the
effect that Hitler had nothing to do with the
genocide of the Jews and that the number of
Holocaust victims was exaggerated - the very claims
which led to his conviction last year in Austria
and clearly constitute Holocaust denial. To be on the safe side, Irving combined these
revisionist notions with the assertion that "the
Holocaust" had taken place, although he was clearly
referring to his version of the events, which
unlike those described by "conformist" historians,
had not been distorted as a result of Jewish
pressure. 
IF ANYTHING, Irving's other comments at his press
conference clearly show the inseparable link
between Holocaust denial and contemporary
anti-Semitism, and demonstrate why the decision to
release him was so unfortunate.
Although he claimed that he likes to think that
he is not anti-Semitic, he immediately followed
this denial by proving the exact opposite,
asserting that "Mel Gibson was right" -- a
reference to the actor's anti-Semitic drunken
rantings to the effect that Jews were responsible
for all the wars in the world. "Why have [the Jews] been so
hated for the last 3,000 years, that there has
been pogrom after pogrom in country after
country. It's the one question they have been
shy of," Irving added. Under these circumstances, one can only wonder
why he was released. The answer to that question
lies in the identity of the judge, whose
benevolence toward Irving seems ostensibly
inexplicable. Yet Judge Ernest Maurer's sympathies
for Jörg Haider's extreme right-wing
political party were common knowledge in Austria.
In fact, although not officially a member of the
party, Maurer was chosen to represent the Freedom
Party on the board of governors of the Austrian
Broadcasting Corporation. His appointment, therefore, ensured a positive
result for the British Holocaust denier. 
IN FACT, anyone acquainted with the abysmal record
of the Austrian judiciary in dealing with Holocaust
perpetrators will not be surprised by these
developments. Thus on the very next day after
Irving's release, I was informed by the Austrian
Embassy in Tel Aviv that Austria has officially
refused a Croatian request for the extradition of
an Ustasha Nazi war criminal named Milivoj
Asner, who served as police chief of the city
of Pozega and orchestrated the persecution and
deportation to concentration camps, where they were
murdered, of hundreds of Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies.
Asner escaped to Klagenfurt, where he currently
resides at Paulitschgasse 8 following his exposure
in Croatia in the framework of the Wiesenthal
Center's "Operation: Last Chance" project in late
June 2004.
As hard as this may be to believe given the
prominent role played by Austrians in the
implementation of the Final Solution, there has not
been a successful prosecution of an Austrian
Holocaust perpetrator in more than three
decades. In the Irving case as well, the onus for last
week's debacle lies squarely on the Austrians, who
have again demonstrated their almost total
inability to deal effectively with either Nazi war
criminals or prominent Holocaust deniers.  One
would have hoped for a far better result in the
wake of the recent conference in Teheran and the
widespread condemnations, but what is obvious to
practically the entire civilized world will not
necessarily be taken for granted, it seems, in
Vienna.
The writer is
Israel director of the Simon Wiesenthal
Center.  Donate
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