France – Antsemitic Remarks by Jean-Marie Le Pen

On 28th November 2005, the leader of the radical right-wing party in France, Jean Marie Le Pen, said in an interview with the BBC that the gas chambers were "only a detail in the history of the Second World War". He went on to say: "None of the leaders, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin or DeGaul ever mentioned the gas chambers in their memoirs". In 1987, LePen declared for the first time over RTL radio that the gas chambers were only a detail of the Second World War. The courts ordered him to pay a fine of 183,200 euros. Anti-racist organizations are planning to sue Le Pen for his remarks. (JTA, EJP)