21/07/2002

The Commissioner of Human Rights,
Directorate of Human Rights,
Council of Europe,
F-67075 Strassbourg Cedex

Dear Sir,

I have enclosed copies of two complaints concerning human rights violations.

As a person of Danish nationality I feel much injured, that the EU wants all members to have the same legislation of what should be regarded the legal truth of the holocaust.

One must never forget that Denmark was a victim itself of Nazi-Germany. No Danes participated in the Holocaust neither as victims nor perpetrators. Hitler said several times that National Socialism knows only Germany and is not meant for export. During the elections in 1939 and 1943 98 per cent of the Danish electorate voted for the ordinary democratic parties and only two per cent voted for the "Danish" Nazi-party, and those who did so were regarded despicable undanish traitors. The German occupation was regarded a threat to the Danish sovereignty and Danish national identity. The whole Danish history is one long struggle to preserve Danish national independence and dignity from the southern neighbours. Much of the widespread present Danish aversion against the EU is rooted in these circumstances. Had the southern neighbours been small and harmless countries like Holland, Luxembourg and Ireland I think that Denmark never would have had the four exemptions from the Maastrict Treaty, and the Euro would have been the currency in Denmark today. Furthermore in Denmark democracy and modern nationalism came together. Those who wrote the first modern democratic Danish constitution called themselves national liberals and were both enthusiastic democrats and nationalists. These two things fit naturally together in Denmark. Therefore people in Denmark were not able to and are still not able to identify themselves with alien concepts such as nazism and fascism. Therefore it is insulting to the Danish national identity to be forced by the EU to have the same laws as Germany in matters of the Second World War. It is against section fifteen of the Human Rights Declarations (everyone has a right to a nationality). Another thing is that these kind of laws also violate the human rights declaration section 19 concerning free speech.

To say that all of Europe has a responsibility for what the Germans did during WW2 or that other European nations could have acted like the Germans is outrageous. It is like accusing all Europeans for being potential mass murderers and it would be similar to accuse all men of being potential serial killers of women just because Jack the Ripper and Boston Strangler were so, and do the British people have a special responsibility for women killing just because Jack the Ripper was British? No, what the Germans did to the Jews is entirely a matter between the Jews and the Germans and there should be no legislation in other countries about these events. The only thing Danes, Englishmen, Portuguese, Irishmen and so on can learn from the holocaust is how the Germans are when they are worst.

I do not owe the Jews and Germans anything, and I feel free to choose whether I want to believe in the holocaust or not. I can even choose to forget these outlandish events all together.

I look much forward to your reply and comments to my letter and two enclosures.

Yours Faithfully,

Ole Kreiberg,
Christian Xs Alle 19, 2mf
DK-2800 Lyngby
Denmark


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