Denial

I don't understand the recent move to deny that the Holocaust happened. It's not like people denying the moon landing. Can anyone explain to me that rationale? Below is an article about a man recently put in jail for his book denying the Holocaust.

Holocaust denier: prosecutors Last Updated Tue, 21 Feb 2006 11:54:03 EST CBC NewsAustrian prosecutors want British historian David Irving to spend more time in prison, saying his three-year sentence for denying the Holocaust is too lenient. Irving could have been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty on Monday to charges of denying the Holocaust. Under Austrian law, it is a crime to publicly diminish, deny or justify the Holocaust. Convicted holocaust denier David Irving carries his book Hitler's War arrives at court in Vienna on Monday. (AP Photo/Hans Punz) "The public prosecutor believes the ruling was too lenient in light of a possible sentence of up to 10 years and Irving's special importance to right-wing radicals," said Walter Geyer, spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in Vienna. Irving, 68, told the court on Monday he was wrong in contending there were no Nazi gas chambers during the Second World War. Irving, who has written close to 30 books, was arrested in November 1989 after he denied in speeches in Austria that the Nazis killed six million Jews. He had contended most of the Jews who died during the war succumbed to diseases such as typhus. Austria's Justice Ministry says there were 158 convictions between 1999 and 2004. Copyright ©2006 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - All Rights Reserved