HE QUESTIONED HOLY DOGMA

Germany weighs arrest of 'Holocaust® bishop'

Germany may arrest Holocaust® bishop
Vatican and Jewish groups reject apology from Richard Williamson
By JEROME TAYLOR 
The Independent, London   Saturday, 28 February 2009

BERLIN — Germany is considering issuing an arrest warrant for
Bishop Richard Williamson over his controversial claim that no Jews
died in the [alleged] gas chambers during the Second World War.

The 69-year-old British-born bishop made the comments during an
interview with Swedish television last year at a seminary for the
ultra-orthodox Society of Saint Pius X in the Bavarian village of
Zaitzkoven, near Munich.

Under German law denial of the Holocaust® is illegal and an
investigation was launched by prosecutors after the interview was
broadcast last month.

Germany's Justice Minister, Brigitte Zypries, confirmed yesterday
that officials were considering issuing a European Union-wide arrest
warrant for Dr. Williamson, who flew into Britain earlier this week
after being expelled from the Argentine seminary where he had been
living for much of the past five years.

Could face extradition and imprisonment

Mrs. Zypries said that if an arrest warrant is issued, Britain would be
obligated to arrest the renegade cleric and extradite him to Germany
under a European set of guidelines introduced last year to toughen
up anti-racism and hate crime laws.

Although Britain has no specific laws against denying genocides,
in Germany Holocaust® denial is punishable with up to three years
in prison and because the comments were made in Germany,
Dr. Williamson may be liable for prosecution.

The news of the arrest warrant came as the controversial bishop's
attempted rehabilitation into the Catholic Church took a tumble
when the Vatican rejected an apology he made earlier this week.

After weeks of refusing an order from Rome to repent his Holocaust®
denial views "in an absolutely unequivocal and public way", he made
a carefully worded apology on Thursday evening on the SSPX website.

Vatican unsatisfied with apology         

In the statement, the bishop said his views on the Holocaust® were
that of a "non-historian ... formed 20 years ago on the basis of
evidence then available, and rarely expressed in public since."

He added: "To all souls that took honest scandal from what I said,
before God I apologize."

The Vatican's chief spokesperson, Father Frederico Lombardi, said
Dr. Williamson's apology "does not seem to respect the conditions"
for his re-admission to the church.

Jewish and Holocaust®-remembrance groups also rejected the
apology saying Dr Williamson had failed to fully renounce his belief
that the Holocaust® has been exaggerated by historians.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, the founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal
Center in Los Angeles, said: "The one thing he doesn't say, and
the main thing, is that the Holocaust® occurred ... You want to
make an apology, you have to affirm the Holocaust®."

Jews remain unforgiving

Karen Pollack, the chief executive of The Holocaust® Educational
Trust, also criticized the apology: "You don't need to be a historian
to recognize one of the most defining episodes of the 20th century,
where millions of Jews and others were brutally murdered by the
Nazis.

"Williamson may have acknowledged the offense he has caused
but the fact remains that he denied the Holocaust® — even
questioning the existence of gas chambers only a month ago.
Holocaust® denial is anti-Semitism under whatever guise."

Although the bishop belongs to a breakaway Catholic sect that is
not in full communion with the Catholic Church, the Vatican has
been deeply embarrassed by Williamson's views because it lifted
an excommunication order on the SSPX just days after his
Holocaust® denial interview was broadcast.