Gerald Fredrick Töben
Encyclopedia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n citizen and founder and former director of the Adelaide Institute
Adelaide Institute
Established in 1994, the Adelaide Institute was formed from the former Truth Mission that was established in 1994 by Dr. Gerald Fredrick Töben. The Adelaide Institute is a Holocaust denial group in Australia and is considered to be anti-Semitic by the Australian government's human rights...
. He is the author of numerous works on education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
and history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, although he is best known for his Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
. Töben claims he cannot deny that which never happened. He calls himself a "Holocaust questioner," and has been accused of antisemitism.
Töben was tried for "offending the memory of the dead" in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1999, for his Holocaust-denial activity there, for which he served seven months in prison. The matter was appealed and the appeal court sent the matter back for a re-trial, which is still being prepared by Judge Meinerzhagen at Mannheim, the judge who in 2005 sentenced Ernst Zündel to five years prison. In April 2009, Töben was found guilty of contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
for breaching a court order to refrain from publishing material which"questions the 6 million deaths, existence of homicidal gas chambers at Auschwitz, "vilifies Jewish people". He appealed against the sentence, but on 13 August 2009 The Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia rejected his appeal, and he started his 3 month jail sentence, one week in maximum security-punishment block - at Yatala Labour Prison, then Cadel Training Centre, which is a low security prison farm. After his release on 12 November 2009 he began writing a book which the Director of Adelaide Institute, Mr Peter Hartung, launched on 7 August 2010, titled 'ARBEIT MACHT FREI: impertinent incarceration'.
Biography
Gerald Fredrick Töben studied philosophy at Heidelberg/Stuttgart/Tübingen universities, and completed a Doctor of PhilosophyDoctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
degree under Prof Max Bense at the University of Stuttgart
University of Stuttgart
The University of Stuttgart is a university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized in 10 faculties....
in 1977. He subsequently taught at various secondary schools and tertiary colleges in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Germany, Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
and Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
. In 1984 he was involved in a decade-long litigation case with the Victorian Department of Education and won .
From 1983 to 1993 he was Director of Toben International Pty. Ltd. Import-Export.
In 1994 he established the privately run Adelaide Institute
Adelaide Institute
Established in 1994, the Adelaide Institute was formed from the former Truth Mission that was established in 1994 by Dr. Gerald Fredrick Töben. The Adelaide Institute is a Holocaust denial group in Australia and is considered to be anti-Semitic by the Australian government's human rights...
.. On 13 May 2009 he relinquished the Directorship of Adelaide Institute to Mr Peter Hartung.
In 1999 he was imprisoned for nine months at Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
Prison for breaching Germany's Holocaust Law, Section 130, that prohibits anyone from "defaming the dead".
Töben and his associates at the Adelaide Institute have denied "being Holocaust deniers" in interviews conducted by Australian media, claiming they cannot deny that which never happened.
In 2002, a judge of the Federal Court of Australia
Federal Court of Australia
The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law , along with some summary criminal matters. Cases are heard at first instance by single Judges...
found that Töben's website "vilified Jewish people", and ordered Töben to remove offensive material from his site.Töben wiped the site and began again. The court did not enforce an order made earlier by a commissioner of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
The Australian Human Rights Commission is a national human rights institution, a statutory body funded by, but operating independently of, the Australian Government. It has the responsibility for investigating alleged infringements under Australia’s anti-discrimination legislation...
that he "issue a written apology to the president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry".
In 2005 in an interview with Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian state television he indicated that it was his belief that "Israel is founded on the Holocaust lie." In 2006 Töben attended the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust
International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust
The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust was a two-day conference that opened on December 11, 2006, in Tehran, Iran. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the conference sought "neither to deny nor prove the Holocaust.....
in Iran.
2008 extradition attempt
In 2008, the German federalGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
authorities attempted unsuccessfully to extradite Töben from the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
under a European Arrest Warrant
European Arrest Warrant
The European Arrest Warrant is an arrest warrant valid throughout all member states of the European Union . Once issued by a member state, it requires the receiving member state to arrest and transfer a criminal suspect or sentenced person to the issuing state so that the person can be put on...
for allegedly publishing "antisemitic and / or revisionist" material on his website, which he writes from his home in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and is a crime that does not exist in Britain. The European Arrest Warrant had three boxes ticked: racism, xenophobia and cybercrime, which did not fulfill British legal requirements and so the EAW was judged to be deficient . On 1 October 2008, Töben was detained at Heathrow Airport while flying from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
. In Westminster Magistrates' Court
City of Westminster Magistrates' Court
The City of Westminster Magistrates' Court was a magistrates' court located at 70 Horseferry Road, in the City of Westminster, London. It was originally called Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court, after Horseferry Road where it was sited,. However, it was renamed in July 2006 following the closure...
the next day, he objected to the terms of the warrant, claiming that he was protected by the terms of the Schengen agreement
Schengen Agreement
The Schengen Agreement is a treaty signed on 14 June 1985 near the town of Schengen in Luxembourg, between five of the ten member states of the European Economic Community. It was supplemented by the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement 5 years later...
and said that his political and historical views had motivated the German authorities' decision to issue the warrant. He instructed Kevin Lowry-Mullins to represent him in the Extradition proceedings issued by the German Government.
The arrest warrant was dismissed by Westminster Magistrates' Court
City of Westminster Magistrates' Court
The City of Westminster Magistrates' Court was a magistrates' court located at 70 Horseferry Road, in the City of Westminster, London. It was originally called Horseferry Road Magistrates' Court, after Horseferry Road where it was sited,. However, it was renamed in July 2006 following the closure...
on 29 October 2008, with the judge stating that the details it contained were "sparse". According to Ben Watson, Töben's Barrister instructed by extradition solicitor Kevin Lowry-Mullins, the court was unable to decide whether the warrant was valid because it did not specify whether any part of the crime took part in the United Kingdom and there was not sufficient information about the nature of Töben's alleged crime. The warrant spoke of "worldwide internet publications" but for it to be valid, it would have been necessary for the German authorities to have shown that the offence not only took place in Germany but that it did not take place in the United Kingdom. Töben was offered bail, pending an appeal by the German prosecuting authorities to the High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
. Strict conditions were set, including limitations on Töben's communication and travel and he was able to raise the £100,000 surety
Surety
A surety or guarantee, in finance, is a promise by one party to assume responsibility for the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults...
required - 3 individuals offered to post bail, but an Executive Order released him from prison.
The German authorities later withdrew their appeal, after the Crown Prosecution Service
Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...
advised them that in the light of further information they had provided about the location of the alleged offence, it would not have been possible to satisfy the courts that the offence was extraditable. This is because under common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
it is not an offence to express an opinion, as is the case in countries where Holocaust denial is criminalized. The German authorities later stated their intention to attempt to extradite Töben from other jurisdictions in the future.
The case caused some controversy in the United Kingdom, with the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
' home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne expressing concerns that the extradition would amount to an infringement on the freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
.
Views on the Holocaust
Töben rejects what he calls the "official conspiracy theory" that Germans systematically exterminated European Jewry. Töben has stated that he considers the Holocaust to be a lie ostensibly perpetuated by "the Holocaust Racketeers, the corpse peddlers and the ShoahShoah
Shoah may refer to:*The Holocaust*Shoah , documentary directed by Claude Lanzmann * A Shoah Foundation...
Business Merchants"; he has further asserted that "the current U.S. government is influenced by world Zionist considerations to retain the survival of the European colonial, apartheid, Zionist, racist entity of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
."
See also
- Holocaust denialHolocaust denialHolocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
- Genocide denialGenocide denialGenocide denial occurs when an act of genocide is met with attempts to deny the occurrence and minimize the scale or death toll. The most well-known type is Holocaust denial, but its definition can extend to any genocide that has been minimized or met with excessive skepticism.Where there is near...
- Historical RevisionismHistorical revisionismIn historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...
- Antisemitism
- John BennettJohn Tuson BennettJohn Tucson Bennett is a solicitor and president of the Australian Civil Liberties Union, who is most notable for being a leader in the Holocaust denial movement in Australia....
- Willis CartoWillis CartoWillis Allison Carto is a longtime figure on the American far right. He describes himself as Jeffersonian and populist, but is primarily known for his promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial.-Influences on Carto:...
- Robert FaurissonRobert FaurissonRobert Faurisson is a French academic who is a Holocaust denier. Faurisson generated much controversy with a number of articles, published in the Journal of Historical Review and elsewhere, as well as various letters he has sent to French newspapers , which deny various aspects of the Holocaust,...
- Paul RassinierPaul RassinierPaul Rassinier was a French pacifist, political activist, and author. He was also an anti-Nazi French Resistance fighter, and a prisoner of the German concentration camps at Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora. A journalist and editor, he wrote hundreds of articles on political and economic subjects...
- Germar RudolfGermar RudolfGermar Rudolf is a German chemist and Holocaust denier.-Background:Rudolf was born in Limburg an der Lahn, Hesse. After finishing secondary education in 1983 in Remscheid, Rudolf studied chemistry in Bonn, completing his studies in 1989. As a student, he joined A.V. Tuisconia Königsberg zu Bonn...
- Jürgen GrafJürgen GrafJürgen Graf is a Swiss Holocaust denier and researcher. He studied philology at the University of Basel studying French, English, and Scandinavian languages and spent several years working as a school teacher at a prestigious private school. He is fluent in 15 languages...
- Peter HartungPeter HartungPeter Hartung is the director of the Holocaust denial organization Adelaide Institute having previously been a successful businessman and political adviser...
- Carlo MattognoCarlo MattognoCarlo Mattogno is an Italian Holocaust denier.He is the author of numerous books and monographs, several of which have been published in the Journal of Historical Review....