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ThoughtCrime: 04/25/96
 
French Investigate Garaudy for Holocaust Revisionism

   A French magistrate launched a probe into French historian, Roger Garaudy on allegations that he illegally questioned established beliefs about the holocaust. Garaudy commented that he had ``done nothing wrong'' in his work, The Founding Myths of Israeli Politics. This action is the latest in a string of persecutions perpetrated against established authors who raise questions about the orthodox holocaust story.
 
    Garaudy's volume,The Founding Myths is actually a broad discussion of the myths upon which contemporary Israeli policy is established. It is the section which deals with "The Holocaust Myth" which has most upset the French establishment and various special interest groups. Garaudy's arguments are a well-documented rendering of revisionist arguments over the past 50 years. He argues that it is an exaggeration to call the Nazi crimes ``genocide'' or a ``Holocaust.'' His documentation throws the traditional belief of six million Jewish deaths into doubt.
 
    Garaudy, who politically is associated with the Left, writes in his book, "There is no more effective indictment against Hitlerism than the establishment of the historical truth. It is to that truth we wanted to contribute with this work.
 
    Jacques Verges, Garaudy's lawyer, said that Garaudy had been placed under investigation by magistrate Herve Stephan. This process can lead to a trial but is short of a formal indictment. It is illegal in France to question orthodox beliefs about the holocaust.
 
    Pierre Guillaume, head of the Vielle Taupe publishers which printed Garaudy's work in December, has also been targeted by various hate groups who fear honest inquiry into the established beliefs about the holocaust.
 
    Legitimate questions may no longer be asked about the holocaust story in most of Europe without fear of persecution and imprisonment.