Prison sentence for 'Holocaust denier' David Irving

In his column, Hans Rauscher says that those who argue that neo-Nazis are also entitled to freedom of speech are "mostly people who haven't had much to do with them. (...) The popular argument that 'crimes of opinion' can't be punished is unfounded. 'Holocaust deniers' like David Irving have no 'opinion'. They know – or they can if they want to – that these terrible crimes were committed and how they were committed. But they want to deny them, trivialise them and make them politically acceptable. That's the crucial point. Those who constantly play down the crimes of National Socialism and go to great trouble to find arguments to support their theories want to see it reinstalled as a political alternative. This is nothing less than the reactivation of National Socialism."

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