A Dutch court has ordered a Belgian publisher to stop disseminating pamphlets in the Netherlands alleging the Holocaust never took place.
The court said the fact of the Nazi slaughter of the Jews required no further proof, and ordered Siegfried Verbeke to cease distributing the hate literature or pay a $17,000 fine for each pamphlet sent out.
Verbeke challenged his opponents to prove that 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust after being sued by four human rights groups: B’nai B’rith, the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, the Anne Frank Foundation and the National Bureau on Combatting Racism.
It is believed to be the first cross-border suit, enabled by a European Community regulation permitting a resident of one E.C. member state to sue a resident of another.
Verbeke said he would appeal the sentence to cease distribution of material published by his Belgium-based Society for Free Historical Research.
Thousands of copies of his pamphlets, titled “American Expert Destroys the Gas- Chamber Legend” and “The Six Million Holocaust,” have been mailed to Dutch citizens.
The pamphlets claim that the Jews have perpetrated the Holocaust as a hoax in order to reap continual financial benefits. They also claim the Anne Frank diary is a falsification.
Ronnie Naftaniel, the director of the Center for Information, said Belgium should take the next step to prevent the spread of material denying the Holocaust took place.
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