A Belgian man who publishes pamphlets denying the Holocaust took place told a court here last week he does not believe that printing and disseminating such literature constitutes racial discrimination.
Siegfried Verbeke, who was brought to court by four Dutch human rights groups demanding he stop these activities, told the court Oct. 29 that it is not illegal to publish this kind of material.
He also rejected the right of a Dutch judge to rule on something published in Belgium, although he said that a lot of people in the Netherlands are among those who receive his material.
The case is believed to be the first such suit to cross national borders. It is enabled by a European Community regulation permitting a resident of one E.C. member state to sue a resident of another.
Verbeke spoke in his own defense, saying he could not find a lawyer willing to defend him.
He admitted he had disseminated some 100,000 packs of his propaganda within the last three years, much of it in Holland. The material was sent to both Jews and non-Jews.
Verbeke challenged the parties who brought him to court to show proof that 6 million Jews really died in the Holocaust and that it actually happened to the extent reported by historians and survivors.
The suit was brought by two Dutch Jewish groups, B’nai B’rith and the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, and by two Dutch human rights organizations, the Anne Frank Foundation and the National Bureau on Combatting Racism.
Another party in the case summoned to court is L. van den Bossche, who is identified in the pamphlets as the responsible publisher. His lawyer said van den Bossche is totally innocent of the charges and that his client did not even know his name had appeared in the pamphlets.
Verbeke called this untrue. The court was to investigate the matter.
Robert Kierk, representing the defendants, said that freedom of expression reaches its limits when it harms other. He said the circulation of this type of material should be forbidden.
Kierk said that although Verbeke denies being a neo-Nazi, his aim is clear. He charged that Verbeke is part of an international movement that tries to down play the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust.
Kierk said that by denying the reality of the Holocaust, this movement tries to remove the black mark from Nazism and rehabilitate it as an acceptable political and ideological movement.
A verdict is expected sometime this month.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
