actually if you are referring to how he admitted that his statement about the gas chambers at Auschwitz being non-existent, he did that like three years ago BEFORE his arrest. For the most part this guys goes around saying that more died of typhus than execution.
I couldn't remember exactly so I went and looked it up again. Another article on Yahoo
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060220/wl_nm/austria_irving_dc_4) does say he started making this denial some time ago but I was referring to him making it after he was arrested, it just sounded like he was backpedaling.
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/13920994.htm?source=rss&channel=inquirer_nation
"Posted on Tue, Feb. 21, 2006
Holocaust denier is sentenced to 3 years in prison in Austria
By Matthew Schofield
Inquirer Foreign Staff
VIENNA, Austria - British historian David Irving was sentenced to three years in prison yesterday on charges that he denied the Holocaust,
just hours after admitting he had been wrong to doubt the systematic murder of millions of Jews.
To supporters, and even some critics, the other crime on trial was the oppression of free speech.
"The way the law is written, I didn't have any other choice but to plead guilty," Irving said. He had faced as much as 10 years in prison.
Irving, 67, heads to prison for statements he made during a lecture in Austria in 1989, when he said that the gas chambers of Auschwitz were a fairy tale. In addition, he is known for having said that the number of Jews murdered by Nazis was greatly exaggerated, that most Jews died of diseases during World War II, and that until 1943, Adolf Hitler had never heard of the Holocaust.
At least nine European countries, as well as Israel, have national laws that make it a crime to deny or diminish the reality of the Holocaust.
Before and during court yesterday, Irving acknowledged he had been wrong. He said that "history is a constantly growing tree" and that documents he had studied since 1989, especially the files of Adolf Eichmann (often called the architect of the Holocaust), had made it clear to him that "millions of Jews were murdered."
Irving was the author of more than 20 books before becoming known as one of the world's foremost anti-Semitic researchers.
He once famously sued American historian Deborah Lipstadt for libel after she wrote that he was a Holocaust denier.
He lost that case; the judge called him an "anti-Semite and racist" who twisted history, and the legal fees of 2 million pounds ($3.2 million) broke him.
Still, Lipstadt told the BBC yesterday that although Irving was a poor historian, censorship did not work.
"He should be released to return to London and the sound of one hand clapping," Lipstadt said.
Irving's attorney sought leniency for his client based on pity.
"This lecture took place 17 years ago...," Elmar Kresbach said. "He is not really dangerous, especially not to Austria."
Others around Europe do not share that opinion. Prosecutor Michael Klackl said Irving's research tried to convince others that the worst crime in world history never happened.
While Irving is considered the most prominent Holocaust denier, in Mannheim, Germany, Ernst Zuendel, a Canadian, is into the third week of his trial. Zuendel, 66, who has the support of neo-**** groups, is also accused of denying the Holocaust and of inciting racial hatred. He faces up to five years in prison.
Deidre Berger, managing director of the American Jewish Committee office in Berlin, which tracks anti-Semitism, said it was important not to underestimate the seriousness of these crimes.
"They should not merely be dismissed as idiots," she said. "They're dangerous men."
Irving, in particular, "has led a life that is all about denying the Holocaust," she said. "These are important trials, especially at a time when anti-Semitism in Europe and around the world is on the rise again."
Rob Boudewijn, a European-issues expert for the Dutch research center Clingendael Institute, said that while it might be difficult for Americans to understand, many Europeans did believe that free speech ended with Holocaust denial.
"Denying the Holocaust is denying our history," Boudewijn said, "and the pain of that time and the fear that it could happen again is too much here."
The Irving Case
The charges to which British historian David Irving pleaded guilty grew out of two 1989 speeches he gave in Austria disputing the existence of gas chambers at **** concentration camps.
Irving, who has writtenthat Hitler was unaware of the camps until 1943, has said, among other things: "I don't see any reason to be tasteful about Auschwitz. It's baloney, it's a legend.... There are so many Auschwitz
survivors going around; in fact the number increases as the years go
past, which is biologically very odd to say the least."
The Austrian lawmaking it a crime to deny the Holocaust was enacted in 1992 as an amendment to the "NS-Verbotsgesetz," a 1947 sweeping ban on **** activities.
Irving was charged under Section 3H of the law, which threatens a prison term of up to 10 years for "whoever denies, grossly plays down, approves or tries to excuse the National Socialist genocide or other National Socialist crimes against humanity in a print publication, in broadcast or other media."
The law also forbids the formation of
any neo-**** party, with a sentence of 10 to 20 years for those convicted of founding or organizing such a group.
From 1999 to 2004, there were 158 convictions under the law, the Justice Ministry said, citing its most recent figures. Most convictions stemmed
from Section 3H offenses.
SOURCES: Associated Press;
www.nizkor.org"