German Court Fines Bishop Williamson 12,000 Euros for Denying Holocaust

German Court Fines Bishop Williamson 12,000 Euros for Denying Holocaust

www.spiegel.de

A German court has fined British bishop Richard Williamson €12,000 ($17,800) for denying the Holocaust in an interview he gave to Swedish television last year that caused outrage around the world.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I find this strange. Why does he only get such a small fine for the outrage he caused. Much less known holocaust deniers get much higher penalties. Like Dirk Zimmermann, a German guy who turned himself voluntarily in because he openly doubts the holocaust. He got nine months jail without probation.
www.youtube.com...

www.spiegel.de
(visit the link for the full news article)

Why is anyone charged by denying the holocaust? Its just expressing an opinion.. I dont see anyone being charged because he dont believes we really went to the moon.

Why is denying the holocaust related right away with anti-semitism? He just doesnt believe an historical fact that he did not observe. Same could be said about many many things in history that are contested.

reply to post by Picao84


Your NOT ALLOWED to say anything against the JEWS PERIOD.

You can voice an opinion against Blacks, Whites, Yellows,Reds, Rich, Poor, Americans, Russians, English, Conservative, Labour, Liberals, Democrats but not agianst the JEWS.

They own the banks, most major business leaders are Jewish, the majority of Jewish are good people they simply want to live their lives same as us, but unfortunately theyre are those of EVERY denomination of Man that feel threatened , even fearful of other trains of thought, You can have an opinion PROVIDING it does not offend anyone else, you can have an opinion PROVIDING you KEEP it to yourself. thats why its called 'Having an opinion, not GIVING an opinion'.
Yes the holocaust happened, but I don't see the freemasons or gays that were apparently ( according to a documentary I saw recently )also persecuted during the second world war and who also died in the camps , bleating on on about it or trying to press charges , they just get on with living their lives.

What the Jewish community that got offended SHOULD have said " Your a silly man, it happened, there were hundreds of thousands of lost lives, its all documented, maybe you should show some consideration and keep your beliefs to yourself?"
That at least would have put them in a better more enlightened position, to forgive but not forget is more godly and divine than throwing tantrums every time someone says something you don't like, walk away and leave them to their small opinions.

[edit on 27/10/09 by DataWraith]

reply to post by DataWraith


I know that. This was an answer to the OP that asked why this guy ONLY had that penalty.
By the way, i like your The/Teh conspiracy theory on your signature. It drives me insane too

reply to post by Picao84


Probably because a Bishop has funding from a church or community whereas Mr Billy NoMates has no money and therefore to show an example has to go to prison, you can't take his cash , so you can take his life and waste his time by teaching him a lesson.

And besides I'm of teh mind that Money talks and S**T walks.

He probably bought his 'penance'.

[edit on 27/10/09 by DataWraith]

Thought police at work. You'd think that your own thoughts and expressing them would be a basic human right. It's not relevant whether he is right or wrong or downright evil. It's his right, or at least should be.

I dare someone to try and fine me for believing that the numbers are skewed about the holocaust.

BTW, as someone pointed out earlier, my kind was killed also during this time.

I have always ignored threads about this.

Here are some things I don't get.

How can someone deny it?

Being in the USA, are we so indoctrinated with everything that there is another answer?

I could have sworn we have seen the pictures that were taken back then.

Here is a question I have not seen. If it was millions, were there lots of empty houses left over after the war? I know we bombed the crap out of Germany, maybe it did not get noticed because there were not too many left.

I don't know. I'll stick with what I was taught, unless someone can provide better math for this.

reply to post by PsykoOps


Thought Police.
I guess we better get used to more of that with the way the world is going.

This is just downright wrong.

reply to post by Nutter


Id say the numbers are pretty accurate, all of them. NAZI documentation was impeccable, they kept great records. 6 million Jews (give or take a few) were killed, but so where thousands of gays, handicapped, Romani, Portugese. While Millions of Pols, and Russians were slaughtered whole sale.

Its the emphasis that is placed on specific groups that remains ridiculous.

Originally posted by Regenstorm

German Court Fines Bishop Williamson 12,000 Euros for Denying Holocaust

www.spiegel.de

A German court has fined British bishop Richard Williamson €12,000 ($17,800) for denying the Holocaust in an interview he gave to Swedish television last year that caused outrage around the world.

(visit the link for the full news article)

disgusting...thought police are everywhere....

reply to post by j2000


Much of Europe was leveled. The rebuild took decades. Many of the people that were shipped to camps were previously placed in squalor/ghetto living conditions.

Hard to do a family to household head count when many of the NAZI regimes "undesirables" were living 4 families to an apartment. Not to mention the massive displacement of citizens during the bombing campaigns.

The only safe place to hide during allied bombing runs in places like Cologne France were the NAZI weapons and war factories owned by US business firms like Du Pont and General Motors. Allied pilots had specific instructions not to hit those factories despite the tanks and munitions and fuel they rolled out for Axis forces.

12000 euros will be a drop in the ocean for this Bishop the vatican will propably pay it for him. Did he actually say the Holocaust did not happen or was it the numbers of people killed that he was disputing!

There is no doubt inmy mind the Pope or his cronies has something to do with the leanency of his conviction.

[edit on 27-10-2009 by Laurauk]

And there goes Free Speech............Oh well it was good while it lasted.

reply to post by Laurauk


According to another article published by the same source as the OP:

The British-born bishop has long been a known denier of the Holocaust and as recently as last Wednesday told Swedish television, "I believe there were no gas chambers." He also said that 300,000 Jews died in Nazi concentration camps -- far lower than the 6 million generally accepted by historians.

Emphasis mine.
Source


An interesting interview with the Bishop can be found here



The biggest issue I see in this whole song and dance is, the Bishop made his commentson Swedish Television. What jurisdiction does Germany have over the man if his comments were made in another country?

reply to post by Picao84

Why is anyone charged by denying the holocaust? Its just expressing an opinion..

Because in Germany, it's illegal to deny the holocaust. That is why he was charged. I don't agree with it, but that's the way it is.

The thing that I think is funny is that he didn't even deny the holocaust in Germany; but in Sweden. If Germany is going to start doing this, which is wrong anyway, are they going start handing out fines to all the people in the rest of the world that deny the holocaust?

reply to post by InSpiteOf

The only safe place to hide during allied bombing runs in places like Cologne France were the NAZI weapons and war factories owned by US business firms like Du Pont and General Motors. Allied pilots had specific instructions not to hit those factories despite the tanks and munitions and fuel they rolled out for Axis forces.

Cologne (Köln) is in Germany. It was part of France during the 1800s for a little while, but became part of Prussia (bascially northern Germany) before World War One.

I wouldn't go quite as far as to say that being in Cologne was safe during the war. It was bombarded pretty badly.

reply to post by octotom


The Germans really need to come to terms with their past. Fining people and sending them to jail because of their opinion is just wrong. They need to get over their national guilt and confront the past by talking about it openly.

What does putting someone in jail that questions the holocaust accomplish?

reply to post by Erasurehead


I completely agree; imprisoning and fining people for having an opinion, no matter how silly or hurtful it may be, accomplishes nothing. Then again, I can't really say how a German feels since I'm American. I can imagine though that, as the older wartime generation passes on, the German people will be able to better come to grips, deal with, and confront the past as they will have been removed from it by quite a number of years.