Germany Maintains Ban of Irving

A German court has upheld the order which bars best-selling British historian David Irving from entering the country because of his views on the holocaust.

In a move to limit free expression and free inquiry, the German government issued the ban in November 1993. At the time, Mr. Irving tried to visit Munich to speak about the history of the Second World War. Munich officials said that Irving had played down the significance of the holocaust and therefore was a threat to German security. His lawyer argued in court Thursday that the ban was unjustified.

The court did not immediately publish its reasons for upholding the ban. Irving had previously been fined in Germany for stating that the building in Auschwitz that has been portrayed for decades to tourists as an extermination gas chamber is a phony reconstruction. Since Irving's assertion, Auschwitz museum curator, Franciszak Piper has admitted on camera that the alleged “gas chamber” is indeed a post-war reconstruction. Piper was not allowed to speak in Irving's defense. Open debate on the holocaust story is a crime under German law.