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Norwegian lawmaker: No evidence of Holocaust

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Members of a Norwegian lawmaker's own party have called for his resignation after he publicly denied the Holocaust.

Labor Party lawmaker Anders Mathisen reportedly told the Finnmarken newspaper that the Holocaust never happened and challenged readers to prove him wrong.

“There is no evidence the gas chambers or mass graves existed," he told the newspaper, according to reports. "Even reputable Holocaust historians have admitted it cannot be established.”

Mathisen reportedly has spent months researching World War II concentration camps and is advocating changing history books, according to the Coordination Forum for Countering Anti-Semitism. He also published his reported his "findings" on his Facebook page.

Mathisen reportedly has accused Holocaust survivors of exaggerating their stories. He also said that the public has been brainwashed into believing in the Holocaust by films such as "Schindler's List," according to the forum.

The lawmaker has refused to resign from the party.

"Holocaust survivors are aghast at the morally repugnant comments of a Norwegian member of Parliament," Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, said in a statement. "They are an insult to the memory of all victims of Nazi brutality, Jew and non-Jew."

 


Steinberg called for Mathisen's expulsion from political office and removal from the Labor Party.

"It was not until the 1990s that Norway began to confront its collaboration with the deportation of Jews and the plunder of their property during the Nazi occupation," the statement concluded. "The manner in which they deal with MP Mathisen is a test of whether those historical lessons were learned."

http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?ID=213159&R=R1

Oslo - A Norwegian Labour Party Sami MP has caused outrage within his own ranks by denying that the Holocaust ever happened. Fellow politicians are calling for the resignation of Anders Mathisen, who is advocating changing history books after apparently spending months researching WWII concentration camps.

“There is no evidence the gas chambers or mass graves existed. Even reputable Holocaust historians have admitted it cannot be established,” Mathisen told the Finnmarken newspaper, while challenging readers to prove that his views are inaccurate.

“Raul Hilberg, the world’s most renowned Holocaust scholar, spent his entire life working at telling people the Holocaust took place,” he continued. “However, when asked at [the Holocaust denier] Ernst Zundel’s trial in Canada in 1985 if he could prove this, he admitted this was not possible. Even those who examine the gas chambers cannot find any trace gas was used.”

Nordlys newspaper also carried quotes from the MP, who accused Holocaust survivors of exaggerating their accounts of what happened. “I have read a book containing statements from those who were there, and the stories they come with are just not true,” he claimed.

Mathisen showed no remorse for his comments on his Facebook page, writing that he is proud to call himself an anti-Semite if it means “not accepting lies and nonsense”. In addition, he has separately claimed that the public has been brainwashed into the believing in the Holocaust by films like Schindler's List.

Labour Party Secretary Raymond Johansen denounced his colleague’s comments. “I am shocked and appalled by Anders Mathisen’s statements about the Holocaust,” he said in an email to The Foreigner. “This is Nazi-inspired nonsense and extremely disrespectful to the victims of the Holocaust. This is far from our values,” he added.

Mathisen has refused to resign from the Labour Party but has been told that, as he hasn’t paid his party dues since last year, he is no longer officially a member and that reinstatement will not be possible.

http://www.vosizneias.com/79185/2011/03/21/oslo-norwegian-lawmaker-den...

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Submitted by andie531 on Tue, 2011-03-22 02:24