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עמוד:50
be expressed , they denied , either in the name of the different peoples or in the name of Marxist-Leninist principles , the uniqueness of the Holocaust of the Jews . Although denial was widespread over a tremendous area , its influence was not the same everywhere , nor did it play a similar role in every location . The largest number of publications , from a statistical perspective , appeared in Germany , where denial is just one dimension of the extreme ultranationalism that seeks to turn Germany into a model of the “ persecuted innocent . ” Arguments of this sort , however , pertain only to a defined and very limited milieu , even in Germany itself . The most prominent group of deniers outside Germany , one that feeds the entire worldwide campaign , is centered in California , and since 1978 has published the Journal of Historical Review . This group is intimately linked to the Liberty Lobby , an extreme-right , anti-Jewish and anti-Black organization in the United States . However , it has no influence on academics . In contrast to media reports that appear in the United States , Britain , and Germany , the members of this group are not occupied with “ revisionist ” theses , as if these were serious points of view . Such discussions occurred only in countries in which groups from the political center adopted the theses of denial , either in the name of freedom or that of the truth . This was the case mainly in Australia ( the John Bennett affair , named after the former secretary of the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties ) , and in France ( the Faurisson affair , named after a professor at the University of Lyon who was tried and convicted for claiming , in Le Monde , the nonexistence of the gas chambers ) . In 1990 a law was enacted in France that forbade Holocaust denial . The law is regarded by many as unnecessary and absurd , since it seems to give the deniers an aura of martyrdom . It is also undoubtedly responsible , to some extent , for the success of the book by Roger Garaudy , a philosopher who became an avowed Stalinist before gradually turning into a radical Muslim . Holocaust deniers are rife on the Internet . Serge Thion , a researcher who was dismissed at the end of 2000 from his position at the French National Centre for Scientific Research , is especially active on the Internet . In Canada , Ernst Zündel , who emigrated there in 1958 from Germany , founded Samisdat Publishers , which specializes in the publication of racist , anti-Semitic , and Holocaust denial books . Robert Faurisson and David Irving testified as experts at his trial that was held in 1988 . Interestingly , after he was found guilty , the conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada , on the grounds that the law prohibiting the dissemination of false information was vaguely formulated , and could also curb legitimate forms of speech . A legal action that ended differently was the libel suit that David Irving filed in London in the late 1990 s against Prof . Deborah Lipstadt , following publication of her book that condemned Holocaust denial . His suit was denied , and the trial , which for a while brought the topic back onto the public agenda , proved once again the ability of the academic and judicial systems to successfully fight Holocaust denial . By the beginning of the twenty-first century , thirteen countries had enacted special laws relating to anti-Semitism , and in four ( France , Belgium , Germany , and Austria ) there is explicit legislation against Holocaust denial . Most of these laws were passed in the last decade of the twentieth century . An important factor in this legislative momentum was the process of globalization and the creation of large communities of labor immigrants which , on the one hand , generated antagonism among certain parts of European society , and , on the other , drove the need for legislation on issues such as multiculturalism and racism . All the major Jewish organizations can be said to be involved in the fight against Holocaust denial , particularly the World Jewish Congress , the Anti-Defamation League , the American Jewish Committee , and the Simon Wiesenthal Center . Among non-Jewish organizations , special mention should be made of the International Holocaust
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