I believe that credible proof exists to point to the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz and do not concur with any of the findings of Third Reich revisionists. However, history has always been, and should remain, an open field. Our past throws up many contentious issues that we are free to debate. Why should the Holocaust be any different?

NEIL WILSON
Liverpool

Sir, Holocaust denial is not just an expression of eccentric opinion, nor does it represent an attempt to apply overly rigorous criticism to the testing of truth claims.

Holocaust denial presupposes that, after 1945, the Jews systematically fabricated material and documentary evidence and groomed fake “survivors” as false witnesses. It accuses them of procuring the arraignment of innocent Germans on trumped-up charges for non-existent crimes, and then of milking the Gentile nations for all the money and sympathy they could. It reinforces the stereotype of Jews as powerful, merciless and conspiratorial.

Holocaust denial is inseparable from the defamation of the Jews as a people, and of individual Holocaust survivors, for the purpose — or at least with the tendency — of making National Socialism an acceptable political alternative once again.

MICHAEL PETEK
Brighton

Sir, In 1957 Austria granted amnesties for all non-lethal Nazi war crimes carried out by its citizens. From then on, those who had beaten, imprisoned, abused and tortured Jews were immune from prosecution. Yet in 2006 it has sentenced an old foreigner to three years’ in jail for falsehoods uttered 17 years ago.

Have the Austrians got their priorities right?

DEREK BLOOM
London SW3

Sir, The Nazis’ slaughter of six million Jews will remain in the world’s memory as an appalling crime. As a Muslim, I salute the fallen martyrs. Free speech creates an environment that nurtures understanding and mutual respect, which is why attmepts by David Irving or President Ahmadinejad of Iran to minimise the Holocaust must be condemned.

But what is the purpose of jailing Irving for things said 17 years ago and over which he has since changed his mind? Why not arrange a trip for him to visit the gas chambers at Auschwitz or to deliver lectures on the documents that helped him change his ideas?

DR MUNJED FARID AL QUTOB
London NW2

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