With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

David Irving says there were never gas chambers at Auschwitz

British historian David Irving, who was jailed for questioning the Holocaust in a book published in Austria, said Friday that the Auschwitz death camp was a tourist attraction, and added that there was no proof that it ever had gas chambers.

Irving, whose comments during an interview with Italy's Sky TG24 News were immediately picked up by Italian news agencies, said there was no doubt the Nazis killed millions of Jews, but said the killings did not take place at Auschwitz.

"At Auschwitz they did not have gas chambers, or at least there is no proof that I am satisfied with," Irving told the news channel's program, "Controcorrente." Irving spoke in English, but his comments were translated by a voiceover.

Irving was sentenced in February 2006 to three years under a 1992 Austrian law that applies to "whoever denies, grossly plays down, approves or tries to excuse" the Nazi genocide or other Nazi crimes against humanity in a print publication, broadcast or other media.
Read entire article at AP