Polish politician, publicist, and opposition activist Krzysztof Maciej Wyszkowski on Saturday tweeted, “Is Irving even nearly as anti-Polish as Bennett?”
The angry comment followed Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz’s statement on Friday that British Holocaust denier David Irving would probably not be able to enter Poland due to the fact that his opinions are unacceptable under Polish law.
“Not that anyone would consider denying the Holocaust as a reasonable thing, or praiseworthy,” Wyszkowski argued. “However, it is indeed interesting that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can react quickly and sharply in the matter of proclaiming unreasonable opinions, and can avoid doing it in the case of permanent misrepresentation of history against the Polish disadvantaged by people like Naftali Bennett or Israeli Katz.”
Czy Irving jest choćby w przybliżeniu tak antypolski jak Bennett?
Czaputowicz podkreślił, że “idee oraz opinie” prezentowane przez Irvinga są niedopuszczalne z punktu widzenia polskiego prawa.https://t.co/MoYmYK3tTY— @KWyszkowski (@KWyszkowski)
Education and Diaspora Minister Naftali Bennett appealed to the Polish authorities to ban Irving’s entry on a planned nine-day trip around Poland in September.
Czaputowicz announced that since the “ideas and opinions” presented by Irving are unacceptable from the point of view of Polish law, “Therefore, this person, if he wishes to come to present such opinions, will not be accepted in Poland.”
Such will be the decision of our government, we have already taken some steps in this matter “, the FM said.
English author and Holocaust denier David Irving has argued that Adolf Hitler did not know of the extermination of the Jews or, if he did, opposed it. Starting in 1988, Irving began openly espousing Holocaust denial. In the early 1990s, Irving was a frequent speaker at neo-Nazi rallies in Germany. In January 1990, Irving gave a speech in Moers, Germany, where he asserted that only 30,000 people died at Auschwitz between 1940–45, all of natural causes.
Irving has often expressed his belief in the theory of a sinister Jewish conspiracy ruling the world, and that the belief in the reality of Holocaust was manufactured. In 1992, Irving argued “the Jews are very foolish not to abandon the gas chamber theory while they still have time,” and predicted “a new wave of anti-Semitism” in reaction to the Jews’ “exploitation of the Holocaust myth.”
In 1996, Irving filed a libel suit against Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books for publishing Denying the Holocaust, in which Lipstadt called Irving a Holocaust denier, falsifier, and bigot, and said that he manipulated and distorted real documents.
Irving lost the case, and was ordered to pay all of Penguin’s trial costs, estimated at £2 million ($3.2 million).