Just in: Vienna university suspends professor for gas-chamber denial

Just in: Vienna university suspends professor for gas-chamber denial

main

norman lebrecht

February 02, 2012

The Vienna University for Economics has suspended populist Professor Franz Hörmann with immediate effect for denying the Holocaust and saying he knew nothing about gas chambers. Report here.

 

Hörmann says he has been misunderstood.

Comments

  • Garth Winter says:

    I’ve never really seen the point of holocaust-denial being a criminal offence: all deniers do is make themselves look extremely foolish, especially given that the Nazis, meticulous record-keepers, were at pains to record just about everything in the finest detail themselves. Of course, if a Professor publicly draws attention to his own idiocy, it’s hardly surprising if he finds himself out of a job.

  • Petros Linardos says:

    Sounds like the professor got the least he deserved. I am curious to know what exactly he said in public. The recent articles in the Austrian media do not quote him verbatim.

  • This article in the studi.Kurier.at covers some of Hörmann’s views:

    http://studi.kurier.at/news/2407-wu-suspendiert-occupy-professor.php

    The article notes that he is a founding member of the “Human Way” party (which proposes radical economic reforms, including the elimination of interest and a conditionless, basic income for all people.) The party’s website uses terms such as “Money-Jewdom” and the “anacrhonistic Jewish leadership” of the US government.

    Regarding the Holocaust, studi.Kurier.at quotes him: “The question of genocide during the time of National Socialism is not definitively settled, because there has been no objective and ideologically free discussion.” He adds that is has “no opinion” about the existence of gas chambers. He recently defended his views by saying he cannot be certain the Holocaust happened because he is not a historian, and because he was not alive at the time.

  • Dave Catleugh says:

    Serves him right, for having an opinion about the Holocaust, especially in Austria which, as the birthplace of Adolf Hitler, is bound to be sensitive about such things.

  • MOST READ TODAY: