Belgium: De Morgen endorses Holocaust denial

Via Joods Actueel:

Philosopher Etienne Vermeersch recently said that there is no reason to criminalize Holocaust-denial and that it should be allowed as part of free speech.

Flemish paper De Morgen took up the challenge and interviewed one of Belgium's most famous Holocaust-deniers - Siegfried Verbeke.


After all, how can people decide for themselves whether to criminalize Holocaust-denial if they've never heard anybody denying the Holocaust?

Journalist De Coninck let Verbeke spew his vile hatred and lies.  At most he poses questions, but he lets Verbeke have the last word.   This is even worse than the annotated version of Mein Kampf that's been published in Germany recently.  At least there you have somebody explaining why Hitler was wrong.

De Coninck presents Verbeke as a sick man and a victim.  The poor man had to sit in jail next to drug-dealers and murderers.  Does anybody enjoy having him in jail, he asks.

Putting aside the question of whether denying the Holocaust should be a crime, it is extremely serious when a major paper encourages such lies and presents Holocaust-deniers as the victims in this story.

De Coninck asks how can anybody be angry at such a man.  How indeed.  Maybe if De Coninck would have interviewed a Holocaust survivor or even just a regular Jew, he could have seen firsthand how you can get angry when somebody claims that Jews are just making up their own genocide.

But, of course, Belgian journalists are more concerned about the rights of Holocaust-deniers.

Both Verbeke and De Morgen were reported to the proper authorities.