Irving pleads guilty and backtracks on Holocaust denial
By Philippe Naughton and agencies in Vienna
In handcuffs, David Irving holds his notorious book "Hitler’s War" in which he claimed the Nazi leader had no knowledge of the "Final Solution" (EPA/Guenter R Artinger)
::nobreak::
David Irving, the revisionist historian, pleaded guilty today to criminal charges of denying the Holocaust and conceded that he had been mistaken when he claimed that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz.
But, in comments to reporters and in testimony before a Viennese court, the British writer denied that he had ever written a book specifically about the Holocaust and said that after revision of his own views he now accepted that million of Jews were indeed murdered in Nazi death camps.
"I am not a Holocaust denier. My views have changed," he said. "History is a constantly growing tree: the more you learn, the more documents are available, the more you learn, and I have learned a lot since 1989.
"Yes, there were gas chambers," Mr Irving added. "Millions of Jews died, there is no question. I don’t know the figures. I’m not an expert on the Holocaust."
Mr Irving faces a maximum sentence of ten years in jail under Austria's 1946 Banning Law which makes it an offence to publicly diminish, deny or justify the Holocaust. He has been held without bail since November on charges stemming from two speeches he made to Austrian rightwingers in 1989.
Six years after a High Court libel trial which demolished his reputation as a historical researcher, the case has once again made Mr Irving a cause célèbre among European neo-Nazis. His lawyer says that he received 300 pieces of fanmail a week during his incarceration and the Vienna courthouse was under high security to head off neo-Nazi protests.
The 67-year-old arrived at the courthouse in the same blue pinstripe suit he wore to the High Court trial and, despite being in handcuffs, clutching a copy of his notorious 1977 book, Hitler's War, which claimed that the German leader had no knowledge of the "Final Solution".
During his three months in prison awaiting trial he has been working on his memoirs, under the working title Irving's War.
Once in the dock, and with his guilty plea out of the way, Mr Irving addressed the court in German "I made a mistake when I said there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz," he said.
But he insisted that he never wrote a book about the Holocaust, which he called "just a fragment of my area of interest." "In no way did I deny the killings of millions of people by the Nazis," Mr Irving testified.
Mr Irving has been in custody since his arrest on November 11 at a motorway service station on charges stemming from two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 in which he was accused of denying the Nazis’ extermination of six million Jews. The state attorney’s office said the 1989 remarks were "a dangerous violation of freedom of speech".
The trial comes amid fierce debate over freedom of expression in Europe after the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that has triggered violent demonstrations in the Islamic world.
Although Austria's Banning Law is often applied - charges were brought against 724 people in 2004 - it rarely produces a prison term, and many Austrians fear that Mr Irving could become a far-right martyr if he is jailed.
In 2000, Mr Irving sued an American Holocaust scholar, Deborah Lipstadt, for libel in the High Court in London, but lost. Mr Justice Gray, the judge in that case, ruled that Mr Irving was indeed "an active Holocaust denier ... anti-Semitic and racist".
Richard J Evans, the Cambridge history professor whose forensic demolition of Mr Irving's research was key to that defeat, also criticised Austria's decision to charge Mr Irving, which he said risked making him a martyr to freedom of speech.
"I think the media circus that we see in operation now, with hundreds of reporters and TV and radio crews crowding around the courtroom, shows how counter-productive it all is," Professor Evans told Times Online.
"Irving was virtually forgotten before this trial came up and it's simply drawing unjustified attention to a discredited figure."
Roger Boyes of The Times, who was at the Vienna court today, said that Mr Irving entered the courtroom "with a swagger" but was soon put under pressure by relentless cross-questioning from the chief judge, who forced him to apologise for pretty much every view he had expressed over the past 20 years.
Boyes added: "It's becoming like a free speech seminar. You've got al-Jazeera here, you've got Jyllands-Posten, all the people affected by the cartoon war. Everyone one is asking why it's taboo to attack the Holocaust but not to attack the Prophet Muhammad.
"But the case is being fought on the detail of what he said, testing whether he's really retreating, whether his apologies are really worth anything, whether we can believe in Irving's remorse."
The verdict in the case is expected later today, although under Austrian law Mr Irving's guilty plea does not guarantee a conviction.
Mr Irving’s lawyer, Elmar Kresbach, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that there were many reasons to give the historian "a certain leniency in sentencing".
"His lecture happened 17 years ago. He is an English citizen, he doesn’t live in Austria, (he is) 68-years-old. He is a historian who is well known. He is not really dangerous, especially in Austria."
Asked if Mr Irving had revised his opinion on the Holocaust and the existence of the gas chambers, Mr Kresbach replied: "Yes. That is correct. He seems to have revised his former opinions and he told me why: because he found new evidence, new documents, confirming the Holocaust and the mass murder of Jews and other people during the Second World War."
The only way for Mr Irving to secure a light sentence would be for him to convince the eight-strong jury that he had indeed changed his spots and was no longer an active Holocaust denier. If he does manage to escape with a suspended sentence, he would then be free to travel to a "scientific" congress on the Holocaust in Iran to which he has been invited.
By Philippe Naughton and agencies in Vienna
In handcuffs, David Irving holds his notorious book "Hitler’s War" in which he claimed the Nazi leader had no knowledge of the "Final Solution" (EPA/Guenter R Artinger)
::nobreak::
David Irving, the revisionist historian, pleaded guilty today to criminal charges of denying the Holocaust and conceded that he had been mistaken when he claimed that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz.
But, in comments to reporters and in testimony before a Viennese court, the British writer denied that he had ever written a book specifically about the Holocaust and said that after revision of his own views he now accepted that million of Jews were indeed murdered in Nazi death camps.
"I am not a Holocaust denier. My views have changed," he said. "History is a constantly growing tree: the more you learn, the more documents are available, the more you learn, and I have learned a lot since 1989.
"Yes, there were gas chambers," Mr Irving added. "Millions of Jews died, there is no question. I don’t know the figures. I’m not an expert on the Holocaust."
Mr Irving faces a maximum sentence of ten years in jail under Austria's 1946 Banning Law which makes it an offence to publicly diminish, deny or justify the Holocaust. He has been held without bail since November on charges stemming from two speeches he made to Austrian rightwingers in 1989.
Six years after a High Court libel trial which demolished his reputation as a historical researcher, the case has once again made Mr Irving a cause célèbre among European neo-Nazis. His lawyer says that he received 300 pieces of fanmail a week during his incarceration and the Vienna courthouse was under high security to head off neo-Nazi protests.
The 67-year-old arrived at the courthouse in the same blue pinstripe suit he wore to the High Court trial and, despite being in handcuffs, clutching a copy of his notorious 1977 book, Hitler's War, which claimed that the German leader had no knowledge of the "Final Solution".
During his three months in prison awaiting trial he has been working on his memoirs, under the working title Irving's War.
Once in the dock, and with his guilty plea out of the way, Mr Irving addressed the court in German "I made a mistake when I said there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz," he said.
But he insisted that he never wrote a book about the Holocaust, which he called "just a fragment of my area of interest." "In no way did I deny the killings of millions of people by the Nazis," Mr Irving testified.
Mr Irving has been in custody since his arrest on November 11 at a motorway service station on charges stemming from two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 in which he was accused of denying the Nazis’ extermination of six million Jews. The state attorney’s office said the 1989 remarks were "a dangerous violation of freedom of speech".
The trial comes amid fierce debate over freedom of expression in Europe after the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that has triggered violent demonstrations in the Islamic world.
Although Austria's Banning Law is often applied - charges were brought against 724 people in 2004 - it rarely produces a prison term, and many Austrians fear that Mr Irving could become a far-right martyr if he is jailed.
In 2000, Mr Irving sued an American Holocaust scholar, Deborah Lipstadt, for libel in the High Court in London, but lost. Mr Justice Gray, the judge in that case, ruled that Mr Irving was indeed "an active Holocaust denier ... anti-Semitic and racist".
Richard J Evans, the Cambridge history professor whose forensic demolition of Mr Irving's research was key to that defeat, also criticised Austria's decision to charge Mr Irving, which he said risked making him a martyr to freedom of speech.
"I think the media circus that we see in operation now, with hundreds of reporters and TV and radio crews crowding around the courtroom, shows how counter-productive it all is," Professor Evans told Times Online.
"Irving was virtually forgotten before this trial came up and it's simply drawing unjustified attention to a discredited figure."
Roger Boyes of The Times, who was at the Vienna court today, said that Mr Irving entered the courtroom "with a swagger" but was soon put under pressure by relentless cross-questioning from the chief judge, who forced him to apologise for pretty much every view he had expressed over the past 20 years.
Boyes added: "It's becoming like a free speech seminar. You've got al-Jazeera here, you've got Jyllands-Posten, all the people affected by the cartoon war. Everyone one is asking why it's taboo to attack the Holocaust but not to attack the Prophet Muhammad.
"But the case is being fought on the detail of what he said, testing whether he's really retreating, whether his apologies are really worth anything, whether we can believe in Irving's remorse."
The verdict in the case is expected later today, although under Austrian law Mr Irving's guilty plea does not guarantee a conviction.
Mr Irving’s lawyer, Elmar Kresbach, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that there were many reasons to give the historian "a certain leniency in sentencing".
"His lecture happened 17 years ago. He is an English citizen, he doesn’t live in Austria, (he is) 68-years-old. He is a historian who is well known. He is not really dangerous, especially in Austria."
Asked if Mr Irving had revised his opinion on the Holocaust and the existence of the gas chambers, Mr Kresbach replied: "Yes. That is correct. He seems to have revised his former opinions and he told me why: because he found new evidence, new documents, confirming the Holocaust and the mass murder of Jews and other people during the Second World War."
The only way for Mr Irving to secure a light sentence would be for him to convince the eight-strong jury that he had indeed changed his spots and was no longer an active Holocaust denier. If he does manage to escape with a suspended sentence, he would then be free to travel to a "scientific" congress on the Holocaust in Iran to which he has been invited.
It) deals very severely with those who deny this myth but does not do anything to those who deny God, religion, and the prophet." 
*shivers*