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[AL1874]

I got told though that the Polish people sometimes deny any knowledge of the Holocaust and think Auschwitz is in fact fiction... and once I'd spoken to the Polish students they told me the same.

It is against German law to deny the holocaust,

I have spoken to Germans about this and how much they actually knew, and in this area (rural farming/ lightly populated / Luftwaffe air bases ) it was not common knowledge until late on in the war, then stories began getting told, and most people found it as hard as ourselves to believe / comprehend that they could have committed such acts.

I will be going to one of the Holocaust sites during my time here, probably Dachau.

I will be also going to Flanders and have done the "Bridge too far" Arnhem visits as they are only an hour away from were I live.

It is strange that I can feel more for people who died 60 years ago than people who have only just passed on?  

As I said it may be because the recent tragedies are half a world away and the history I received at school comes to life in the place names on road signs or maps as I drive through the Netherlands / Belgium / Germany (I can't remember the battle for Wankem or Titz ever being mentioned right enough).

[measdale]

I know it's against German Law, but these Polish people deny it, and see it as a joke.

It's against Polish law as well, as it happens (and Belgium, France, Romania, Czech Rep, etc.), which in itself is one of the worst hypocrisies of the west.

The fact many Poles treat it as a joke shows that such laws are largely irrelevant.

It's also just a part of a whole worrying attitude in most of the former communist countries, where a lot of people seem to be deliberately trying to be dickheads.

[measdale]

I can't think how such a law could be enforced?  Can it be?  What is the penalty for breaking the law?  What type of proof is required to determine that the law has been broken?

It's mainly used to prosecute people who make statements in public (ie. on record), including media figures, academics, journalists and authors, etc. Mainly it's in Germany and Austria that they're most enforced.
A few years ago, a number of European countries (including France, Austria and Germany) tried to incorporate it into EU law. Thankfully it was blocked by the UK and others.

[measdale]

Out of interest, why are you against it? Free speech?

Definitely.
It's the same issue as muslims trying to get laws passed saying no-one should portray the prophet. How can we defend "the freedom of the press" and "free speech" when we have a law like that?
(The remnants of blasphemy legislation should be scrapped as well! )

Modern Western civilisation is based on open debate and dialectic, in order to discover truth.
As soon as you start censoring people, fencing off subjects as somehow not appropriate for discussion, you cripple that process.
It's only a tiny shift from censorship to fatwah.

[Yamor]

I'm not specially pro holocaust denial legislation, but i can see another side - there are definitely some things which should not be, and are not, allowed, like racist views. The question is only where to draw the line, and these countries believe this falls within that boundary.

[Yamor]

When i say racist views aren't allowed, i don't mean thinking them, i mean expressing them in a public way, which is all that is illegal with holocaust denial.

[Yamor]

Nope, i don't think so. It shouldn't be legal for someone to publicly say racist views. It incites, and influences, besides for majorly degrading and hurting the people abused.