Holocaust-denier David Irving Is reportedly charging £2,000 for private tours of concentration camps
Notorious Holocaust-denier David Irving is reportedly charging £2,000 per person for a tour of concentration camps.
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post earlier this month, Mr Irving claimed that he was giving tours to thirteen people at camps and execution sites in Latvia and Poland. He advertises his tours with a title “The Real History Tour of the Wolf’s Lair”, and states underneath: “Don’t miss this lifetime adventure! Make up your own mind about the truth.” In his tours, Mr Irving’s groups visit Hitler’s headquarters, where Mr Irving apparently claims that the Nazi dictator was not aware of the Holocaust.
When asked if his denial tours might fuel antisemitism, an unapologetic Mr Irving replied to his interviewer: “The Jews should ask, Why us? It is not for me to ask that question. Maybe it’s how they have acted over the thousands of years. Maybe it is all our fault. Our Riga tour includes the NKVD [Soviet Interior Ministry] headquarters, and the Skirotawa train station, where Jews also played a role.”
When asked who his paying clients are, Mr Irving claimed that two were judges and three were lawyers, with the group including Russians, Britons, Americans and one from each of France, Sweden, New Zealand and Canada.
British-born Mr Irving was previously incarcerated for thirteen months in Austria for violating its Holocaust-denial laws. He is banned from Austria, Germany and Italy where Holocaust denial is illegal and he is also banned from Canada.
Mr Irving, who was discredited as a historian at a defamation trial in 2000, said during a far-right forum in 2017 that Auschwitz is “small beer” and now “like Disneyland”.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “David Irving is a disgraced historian whose views on the Holocaust are a deep insult to Jews worldwide and to the truth. That he reportedly seeks to profit from his notoriety and peddling of untruths is disturbing and unacceptable. Mr Irving has earned his reputation as a pariah, and should be treated as such by his would-be patrons and others who have the misfortune of encountering him.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism has been monitoring and acting against the threat from the far-right for years and continues to support the authorities following suit.
