Readers, Icelanders look forward to the Christmas period. The releases of new books are indeed massive at the end of the year and novels, thrillers and other essays constitute a gift of choice to put under the tree. But the joy that usually accompanies this event has been undermined by the publication of a mysterious work: the Icelandic translation of The Twentieth Century Mystification (1976). The subtitle chosen by the author, the American Arthur R. Butz, gives an idea of the sulphurous content of the volume: “Why the alleged extermination of European Jews did not take place.” ”
Suffice to say that the arrival on the shelves of bookstores of a negationist book has aroused the excitement of Icelanders, some of whom were already worried about seeing extremist parties flourish in recent years. And an advertisement for the book published in Bókatídindi, a very popular book catalog on the island and distributed to every household, has contributed to fuel the controversy, as our colleagues from International mail, Sunday December 20.
“Holocaust denial must be made illegal”
Björn Jónsson, an unknown translator of the book who presents himself as a troll (slang term that defines an individual whose purpose is to generate controversy, ed.), Summarizes in Bókatídindi the thought expressed in The Twentieth Century Mystification : “But what about this ‘Holocaust’? Six million people brutally murdered in “gas chambers”, isn’t that a bit of a stretch? ”
Many Icelanders were strangled to see a book landed on the island that was banned in several countries, such as the United States, Germany and Canada. In fact, Icelandic law does not prohibit negationism. “The fact that it is possible to publish such a heinous book in Iceland shows that it is essential to increase the penalty incurred. Holocaust denial must be made illegal and deniers must receive the same punishment as racists, ”said political activist Gunnar Hjartarsson. International mail.
This unwanted guest on the shelves also raises the question of censorship in a country where “freedom of the press and freedom of expression constitute one of the cornerstones of publishing”, as explained by Heidar Ingi Svansson, president of the ‘Association of Icelandic Publishers, which publishes the famous catalog of books Bókatídindi. “We have never censored content in our annual catalog, and I do not remember ever having been faced with such a situation,” he explains. For Markús Thórhallsson, president of the Icelandic History Association, censorship is a much less powerful weapon than “knowledge”.
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