British historian David Irving, who was jailed in Austria for denying the Holocaust, said on Tuesday he was in Poland to lead a tour of World War II sites, including the former Treblinka death camp.
Holocaust survivors and anti-racism groups have slammed Irving’s plans, even calling on Polish authorities to ban his tour, which is also scheduled to visit the former local headquarters of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
However, in the Polish capital Warsaw on Tuesday, Irving said he planned to remain in the country until next Wednesday.
“I am now in Warsaw and I am not at liberty to discuss my itinerary, as I am sure you understand, for security reasons,” he said in an interview.
“I will be in Poland for the next nine days,” Irving said, adding he was “surprised” that the outcry against the event had “come so late.”
In a brochure published on his Focal Point Publications Web site, Irving calls the tour an “unforgettable journey” and a chance to see “real history.”
It includes a visit to the former Treblinka death camp, in eastern Poland, where more than 800,000 people, mostly Jews, were murdered.
A trip to Hitler’s “Wolf’s Lair” headquarters at Ketrzyn in north-eastern Poland and to the base of SS commander Heinrich Himmler were also on the itinerary, Irving said, adding he was an “Adolph [sic] Hitler expert.”
He refused to confirm how many people had signed up, but said the trip — which costs US$2,650 excluding flights — was so popular he had to turn people away and that he planned similar tours every two years.
“We have guests from France, Belgium, Australia, England and the US and Germany. We have a lot of people, sufficient to make it full, we can’t take any more, but in two year’s time we’ll probably have twice as many,” he said.
Irving said he had no plans to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Oswiecim, southern Poland, saying it has “become too much of a tourist location, too many hotels, hot dog stands, too many fake items on the site.”
Auschwitz museum officials said on Tuesday that Irving had no right to lead a group on the grounds of the World War II Nazi death camp where some 1.1 million people, mostly European Jews, perished.
Only guides licensed by the museum could lead groups there, officials at the museum in Oscwiecim said.
Irving, the author of Hitler’s War, a book that attempts to minimize both Nazi atrocities and Hitler’s responsibility for them, has rejected the label of “Holocaust denier.”
“If they read my books, they know I am not a Holocaust denier,” he said.
However, the historian was sentenced in 2006 by an Austrian court to three years in jail for denying the Holocaust and later released and deported to Britain after serving only one year.
Polish Nazi and communist-era war crimes prosecutors at the Warsaw-based Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) said on Tuesday they were “monitoring” Irving’s movements and were prepared to “take legal action” should he publicly deny the Holocaust.
“We are aware of Mr Irving’s activities, where he is, what he is doing and what he is saying,” IPN prosecutor Marcin Golebiewicz told local media on Tuesday, adding that the IPN was also probing Irving’s book for any statements denying the Holocaust.
At the epicenter of Hitler’s plan of genocide against European Jews during World War II, Poland has enacted strict laws against both Holocaust denial and the public propagation of anti-Semitism or fascism.
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