ThoughtCrime: 04/20/96
Abbe Pierre Condemned for Support of Revisionist
Abbe Pierre, a Roman Catholic priest known for championing France's poor
and homeless was condemned for supporting the author of a book that presents
revisionist arguments which cast doubt on more traditional beliefs about
the holocaust.
Abbe Pierre, 83, is regularly shown by opinion polls to be the
most popular person in France. He has been called the French "Mother Theresa."
The recent controversy came when Pierre defended his long-time friend, Roger
Garaudy as an "honest man.'' Garaudy has been the target of an investigation
for having written a book about Israel, The Founding Myths of Israeli
Policy.
The "anti-racist" group MRAP was angered by Abbe Pierre's support
for Garaudy. MRAP had planned to take Garaudy to court on charges of holding
revisionist views regarding the holocaust story.
Garaudy, who was a concentration camp inmate himself, expressed
his opinion on French TF1 television by explaining that the Nazis committed
"massacres'' or "pogroms'' of Jews but it was an exaggeration to call the
killings a ``Holocaust'' or "genocide.''
During the Second World War, Abbe Pierre helped many Jews escape
from France to neutral Switzerland. He recently explained that Hitler's
crimes may have been exaggerated by passions about Nazi abominations after
the end of the war. He pointed out that for many years, a plaque at the
Auschwitz concentration camp commemorated the deaths of four million people,
even though the figure now accepted is approximately one million.
Pierre told the daily, Le Monde:
``Even though I don't contest the overall figure of six million Jewish
victims, my abomination would be the same faced with a million. At this
level of horror, mathematics don't count.''
Abbe Pierre has long shamed politicians of all sides into action. He is
known for his soft voice, dishevelled white beard, simple dress, his beret
and sturdy work shoes. Pierre spent most of his life aiding society's outcasts.
Today it is that same society which has chosen to outcast Abbe
Pierre.
Adapted from: REUTER 4-20-96
"Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death."
George Orwell
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