AUSTRIA: The jailed British historian David Irving insisted yesterday that he still rejects the idea that Adolf Hitler oversaw an organised programme to exterminate Jewish people in Europe.
Irving was sentenced to three years in jail in Austria last week for Holocaust denial, and prosecutors are seeking an increase in his prison term to 10 years.
During his trial, he acknowledged that he had been wrong to previously deny that gas chambers were operated by the Nazis to kill Jews at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
But in a BBC interview from his jail cell, he insisted yesterday he still believed the numbers gassed at Auschwitz were relatively small.
The large buildings in the camp identified as gas chambers by the vast majority of historians were not used for that purpose, though other smaller ones were, he maintained.
"Given the ruthless efficiency of the Germans, if there was an extermination programme to kill all the Jews, how come so many survived?" asked Irving.
Asked whether he believed that there was an organised programme to exterminate the Jews in Europe, overseen by Hitler, he responded: "No. That is absolutely wrong and nobody can justify that. Adolf Hitler's own involvement in it has a big question mark behind it."