David Irving - Still divisive to the end

European Jews are split over the conviction of David Irving over his Holocaust Denial. An Austrian court has sentenced the British historian to 3 years imprisonment for denying the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz concentration camp during the last world war.

Briton Lord Greville Janner, chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust, is one who has been happy with Irving’s punishment. He said:

"It is the conviction and not the sentence that matters. It sends a clear message to the world that we must not tolerate the denial of the mass murders of the Holocaust. The Nazis tried to wipe out an entire people. They murdered every one of my family on the continent, except those who lived in Denmark. We must learn the lessons of the past to build a decent society for the future. Irving's conviction, especially in Austria which was a former Nazi country, is important and appropriate."

Lord Janner is the man who called young Prince Harry ‘evil’ for wearing a swastika arm band to a fancy dress ball

But other leading Jews have been troubled by the severity of the sentence for a man expressing his belief, distorting as those ideas have been. Irving hasn't advocated violence or any call to atttack Jews. They fear that sentencing him may make him an unnecessary martyr, when Irving ought to be treated with disdain and the contempt he more deserves than physical detention.