Novelist Rolf Hochhuth under fire for praising David Irving

German writer Rolf Hochhuth has been strongly criticized for defending the British historian and Holocaust denier David Irving. Hochhuth, who once revealed the Nazi past of a leading German politician and wrote a novel ("Der Stellvertreter") in 1963 about the failings of the Vatican during World War II, said in a newspaper interview that when judged on his books, Irving was an honorable man. He also was a "fabulous pioneer of contemporary history". Paul Spiegel, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, attacked Hochhuth: "By defending Irving, Hochhuth implicitly shares the latter's views and thus denies the Holocaust himself", and said that it was another attempt to make anti-Semitism acceptable in Germany. The author countered and said that Spiegel's comments were "extraordinarily indecent" and lamented that Spiegel had not even bothered to call him before launching his attack, "although my number has been in the phone directory of Berlin for the last 15 years."