Meditation 463
There is a rationale for the Austrian law
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by David Marjanović
Austria’s law that has led to the condemnation of Irving is easily and commonly misunderstood. What is forbidden is not to deny the Holocaust. What is forbidden is “to make National Socialism appear harmless”.
The idea is that you simply can’t be so ignorant as to really believe the Holocaust never happened. If you claim so anyway, the constitution considers it proven that you have an evil agenda — namely, to seize power and immediately abolish the very freedom of opinion you claim to defend.
In short, the law defends liberal democracy.
This is also the most important reason why it is not forbidden to deny the mind-boggling crimes of Stalin and Mao: Even communists as a whole have never occurred in dangerous numbers in Austria. National Socialists have.