In many modern European countries, Holocaust denial is a criminal act. It is part of the criminalization system under the laws on the prohibition of neo-Nazism and National Socialism that exist in some countries, primarily those that suffered from the ideology and practice of National Socialist regimes during the Second World War.
Features
Holocaust denial has already been prosecuted in a number of states under the existing criminal codes, but some countries have adopted special laws that prohibit the denial of the Nazi genocide. As a rule, the punishment for this crime is a large fine and imprisonment. In some countries, the term can be quite long, for example, in Romania, Austria and the Czech Republic, you can get up to ten years in prison for denying the Holocaust.
This prohibition is most often applied in the continental system of law, in which, unlike Anglo-Saxon, freedom of speech is much more limited. For example, there are laws prohibiting incitement to hatred of various groups of people.
In most countries of Eastern Europe in which such a law exists, Holocaust denial is associated with the prohibition of denial of crime and other totalitarian regimes, among which the communist one is mentioned. Most often, in addition to criminal prosecution, the accused are subjected to social obstruction. They are dismissed from work, expelled from educational institutions, deprived of scientific ranks and awards. There are even cases of physical violence against deniers - in fact, this is lynching, the destruction of their property.
Background
Holocaust denial and criminal liability was first mentioned in Germany in the 80s. In that country, neo-Nazi movements intensified, and as a result, in the fall of 1982, the Criminal Code was amended accordingly. Criminal prosecution for denying the Holocaust appeared, the defendants were threatened with imprisonment for up to three years or a fine. Moreover, any public denial, whitewashing or expression of solidarity and support for the national socialist regime was punished.
Despite the fact that the amendments were introduced in the 82nd, real changes occurred only in the early 90's, when the famous case of Gunther Dekert took place. In November 1992, a German court sentenced for the first time using the Holocaust Denial Act. Dekert was sentenced to one year in prison and fined 100,000 marks for the aggregate of crimes, including inciting ethnic hatred, insulting the memory of the dead, incitement to racial hatred. Great resonance was caused by the fact that his statements were anti-Semitic and openly provocative. The result was the adoption of a law to overcome the consequences of crimes, according to which the maximum sentence under these articles was increased to 5 years.
The situation in Israel
In Israel, responsibility for Holocaust denial was introduced in 1986. The term of imprisonment for this crime here is still up to 5 years. At the same time, three key enforcement restrictions were established in the bill itself. The legislator established that in this case, historical research or historical doubt, which aims at the trial in what happened, is not considered a crime, even if it is carried out from a position different from generally accepted. The main thing is that there should be no goal of protecting Nazi criminals and expressing solidarity with them.
Also in Israel, it was separately prescribed that the representatives of the media that cover this issue are protected from criminal liability under this law. But only if everything is described honestly and not biased, without expressing solidarity and sympathy for either side. Moreover, it will not be easy to accuse under this article, since only the Attorney General has the right to send an indictment.
Over time, similar laws and amendments to the Criminal Code began to be adopted in other countries.
Where does the law apply?
Currently, a list of countries where Holocaust denial is punishable is known. These include Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Germany, Israel, Canada, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Romania, Slovenia France, Czech Republic and Switzerland. Moreover, Holocaust denial in the United States is not punishable. By local legal standards, free expression of views by citizens is permitted by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. Interestingly, in recent years, some European countries have begun to adopt it. In 2011, this position on this issue was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Spain, and denial is not prohibited in some Scandinavian countries, in particular in Norway and Denmark.
High-profile cases
Often, Holocaust denial trials are held with increased public and media attention. For example, in France, the famous politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, who adheres to nationalist views, appeared before the court. In 2008, he was fined 1.2 million francs for noting in a public statement that gas chambers were just one of the episodes of World War II. The court also sentenced him to three months in prison for correcting the role of the Gestapo in the Holocaust, but considered that the punishment could be conditional.
In 1998, several criminal cases were initiated on these grounds in several European countries. The French philosopher and writer Roger Garaudy was then convicted. The court concluded that in his book, Fundamental Myths of Israeli Politics, he denies Nazi crimes against Jews.
And the Swiss publicist Jürgen Graf was forced to leave the country in order to avoid being imprisoned for a series of his works in which he denies the generally accepted concept of the Holocaust. The court sentenced him to 15 months in prison. The count managed to leave Switzerland for Belarus, and then to Russia, where he currently works as a translator. At the same time, his scandalous book entitled "The Holocaust Myth" is banned in our country.
Among the high-profile cases, the verdict to the British writer David Irving, the author of books with an unconventional look at the history of World War II, denying the Holocaust, is not the least. In Austria, he was sentenced to three years in prison, spent 13 months in prison, after which the court replaced the remaining term with a suspended sentence and deported him from the country.
In 2006, a French court sentenced German chemist Germar Rudolph, a gas chamber investigator, to 2.5 years in prison. French writer Robert Faurisson, who spoke in Tehran with a report on the Holocaust Survey: A Global Vision, received three months in prison, saying that the Germans did not have a single gas chamber, and millions of tourists in Auschwitz witness mass falsification.
In 2007, the German revisionist Ernst Zündel received five years in prison for publishing on the Internet, in which he denied the Holocaust. In conclusion, spent the full term. In 2009, the German radical Horst Mahler was sentenced to five years without the possibility of parole. In the same year, an Austrian writer and journalist Gerd Honzik was sentenced by a jury to five years in prison for denying the Holocaust and propaganda of Nazism. During the process, he was called one of the ideological leaders of modern European neo-Nazis.
English bishop Richard Williamson was fined € 12,000 in Germany for his Holocaust stance in an interview with Swedish journalists.
Russian practice
This practice came to Russia from the West. Among the factors that contributed to its spread, there is massive anti-Semitism, undermining public confidence in official historiography, and low awareness of citizens. At the same time, the memory of the Great Patriotic War, which is being cultivated by the authorities in every possible way, as well as the negative attitude towards Nazism, remains the main deterrent.
Moreover, unlike most Western countries in Russia, the Holocaust denial appeared only after years of silence of these Nazi crimes during the Soviet Union. Since 2003, this topic has been included in the draft state educational standard, is considered mandatory for mention in all history textbooks.
In the USSR, there were separate publications and monographs on the genocide of Jews. At the same time, the Holocaust deliberately remained silent for ideological reasons. It is believed that the main reason for this was state anti-Semitism. At the same time, some researchers insist that the Holocaust in the Soviet Union was still recognized: often this period was passed over in silence, as if taking it from history, not claiming that the Nazis did not commit crimes against Jews.
This practice also existed in the territory of post-Soviet Russia. This was due to a weak civil society and imperfect legislation, a long struggle against Zionism and anti-Semitism, as well as the lack of a Holocaust theme in official education, the spread and popularity of nationalist ideologies.
The attitude of the authorities
Naturally, the authorities play a large role in criminalizing this phenomenon. In the fall of 2009, the Russian Federation officially condemned the attempts to deny the Holocaust made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This was one of the first cases when the authorities officially, publicly and unequivocally spoke out on this topic, without becoming silent about it, as they did in the days of the Soviet Union.
Once again, President Vladimir Putin addressed this issue at the end of 2012, when he attended the opening ceremony of the Jewish Center and the Museum of Tolerance. The head of state noted that any attempts to deny the Holocaust, to reconsider the role of Russia in the victory over fascism, must be strictly suppressed. Two years later, Vladimir Putin emphasized that denying the facts of persecution of Jews by the Nazis is a criminal practice.
At the beginning of 2015, a joint official statement was made by public and state figures, in which they called for bringing to the strictest responsibility all those who make such statements, deny or justify the activities of the Nazis.
Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
Modern researchers on this issue note that the penetration of the ideas of Holocaust denial in Russia at first did not meet with any opposition from the authorities, but there was no interest. In 2007, a survey was conducted among deputies of the State Duma, which clearly demonstrated their rejection of the introduction of a special rule in criminal law, which would criminalize this crime. This position was almost unanimous. The parliamentarians then emphasized that the problem should be put on a par with the denial of all, without exception, crimes committed by the Nazis.
But shortly afterwards, legislative initiatives on this issue began to appear. These bills were repeatedly submitted to the State Duma, and they dealt with both the Holocaust and the ban on the denial of other crimes committed by the Nazis. Finally, in the spring of 2009, a bill appeared containing specific amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. A supplement appeared in a specific article on Holocaust denial. Its number in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is 354. It provides for criminal liability for attempts to rehabilitate Nazism. Moreover, they include the denial of crimes by the National Socialists, the approval of their activities, committed publicly. In an explanatory note, the developers of the bill explained that there should be a corresponding article on Holocaust denial, these acts are subject to mandatory criminalization. Initially, the bill collected a large number of negative reviews, as a result, it was not adopted until 2014.
At the same time, in 2013, a larger bill appeared that called for preventing the rehabilitation of Nazism, including the ban on Holocaust denial in Russia. The article, which was supposed to provide liability for this crime, remained unchanged.
In 2014, a revised version of the 2009 bill was introduced into the federal parliament. He, in particular, provided for criminal liability for the public denial of historical facts that were established by the verdict of the International Military Tribunal. In the spring of 2014, the bill was adopted by the State Duma, in May it entered into force. According to article 354 of the Criminal Code, Holocaust denial is punishable up to five years in prison.
After the adoption of these amendments in the Criminal Code in Russia, some popular publications of world-famous deniers of Nazi crimes were banned. In particular, the book "The Holocaust Myth" was recognized as extremist. It was separately noted that any public actions related to the rehabilitation of Nazi criminals may be perceived by the court as incitement to hatred or enmity.
First thing
In 2017, it became known about the initiation of the first criminal case in Russia due to Holocaust denial. Roman Yushkov, a public figure from Perm, became his defendant. The attention of law enforcement agencies was attracted by the statements of the suspect on the social network, in which he denied information about the Holocaust of the Jews during the Second World War. The case was opened immediately under several articles of the Russian Criminal Code due to signs of incitement of hostility or hatred, the rehabilitation of Nazism.
The Regional Center for Combating Extremism searched the place of Yushkov’s work at the local human rights center, as well as at the suspect’s place of residence. As a result, several system units of laptops and computers, as well as other digital storage media, were seized from his home and office.
Presumably, Roman Yushkov was taken for denying the Holocaust after he posted a link to material on the Russkiy Mir website that urged Jews to return money for fraud, hinting that there was no Holocaust during World War II. The suspect posted links in several communities on the social networks Facebook and VKontakte. And he accompanied these links with comments in which he approved the content of this material.
After the initiation of the criminal case, Yushkov said that this was a blatant fact of a violation of freedom of speech. Moreover, in Perm itself, he has long been known as a very scandalous activist. For example, he was previously convicted of a journalistic text in which he expressed concern about the Central Asian and Caucasian expansion in Russia. Then he was sentenced to a fine of 200,000 rubles, and also banned from teaching for two years.
Sentence
As it became known in September 2018, the jury by a majority vote recognized Yushkov not guilty under the article "Rehabilitation of Nazism." The interlocutors concluded that there was no corpus delicti in the actions of the Perm blogger. At the same time, Yushkov’s defense also insisted on the fact that the article itself, for the distribution of which he was tried, was not recognized by extremist materials. At the same time, the assessors found the accused guilty of humiliating human dignity on a national basis for another text of his.