27 April, 2006
An Austrian politician has pleaded not guilty to charges that he denied the existence of gas chambers in Nazi concentration camps. In an interview last year on Austrian television, John Gudenus, a former member of the upper house of Austria's parliament, the Bundesrat, had said the existence of gas chambers ought to be “seriously debated.” Later, he clarified that “there were gas chambers, though not in the Third Reich but in Poland.” Austrian law forbids denial or questioning of the Holocaust. Gudenus’ lawyer argued that his client did not deny that gas chambers existed, but simply said the issue of their presence between 1933 and 1938 should be examined. “I am not at all unsure about gas chambers in the Greater German Reich,” Gudenus said in his defense, according a report by the Austrian news agency APA. “Concerning gas chambers in the Third Reich, I would still like to express some uncertainty.” The state attorney has rejected the argument. Gudenus faces a jail sentence of up to ten years.
