Simon Wiesenthal Center Statement on David Irving Sentence

February 20, 2006

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER STATEMENT ON DAVID IRVING SENTENCE

The Simon Wiesenthal Center commended the Austrian government for its commitment to fighting Holocaust denial by sentencing British historian David Irving to three years in prison on charges of denying the Holocaust. The sentencing makes the Austrian court the second judicial system in a democracy to convict Irving on this charge.

 “Today’s sentencing confirms David Irving as a bigot and an antisemite and also serves a direct challenge to the Iranian regime’s embrace of Holocaust denial,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center.

 “While Irving’s rants would not have led to legal action in the United States, it is important that we recognize and respect Austria’s commitment to fighting Holocaust denial, the most odious form of hatred, as part of its historic responsibility to its Nazi past,” Rabbi Cooper concluded.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, and the Council of Europe.

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, or visit  www.wiesenthal.com.