Williamson to "Review the Evidence," Tell Historians if Holocaust Actually Happened

Bishop Richard Williamson, the Holocaust-denying Catholic crackpot whose excommunication was recently reversed by the Vatican, tells Der Spiegel that he has ordered a book by former French "revisionist" Jean-Claude Pressac, who later recanted his gas chamber denials, and will "review the historical evidence once again."

It is amusing to think of a nutter like Williamson "reviewing" historical data on the Holocaust, a subject that has been covered in great depth by historians like Christopher Browning, Saul Friedlander, Raul Hilberg, and Hans Mommsen, all of whom are slightly more qualified to render judgement on the subject. Last week, as the Williamson controversy began to envelope Pope Benedict, I took a look at the website of Hitlerphilic historian David Irving, who, unsurprisingly, wrote in favor of Williamson, adding that the recently recommunicated bishop had attended a garden party at his London Wolfshanze. Irving posted a photo of Williamson chatting with guests (presumably about his hobby of measuring Jewish skulls), which appears to have been removed from the site. Too late for Williamson, though—Irving confirmed that he was a personal friend in an interview with the Catholic newspaper The Tablet. So it seems clear that this isn't some passive denier of the Holocaust, influenced by a "Loose Change"-like YouTube video, but rather a committed revisionist who is chummy with Irving, the Obersturmbannführer of the fake historians.

A bad week for anti-Semites in England, it seems. According to this account in the Evening Standard, a Foreign Office employee was arrested after a meldown at his local gym, during which he unloaded on the "fucking Israelis" and "fucking Jews." Hardly surprising that such a person works in the Foreign Office, but it serves as a reminder that, in England, if one is a boorish, racist oaf, one can wind up in prison on a "hate crimes" offense.

Also, in the course of collecting links for this post, I came across a story of Danish schools banning Jewish students (via The Atlantic, but also discussed in this column from Spiked Online's Frank Furedi) and Ian Buruma on the persistance of anti-Jewish attitudes in Asia.  Enjoy.