Don't Cry for Me, Argentina: A Holocaust Denier Gets His Comeuppance (sort of)

He might've regained entry into the Catholic Church, but he's being kicked out of Argentina.

The Argentine government is giving Bishop Richard Williamson 10 days to hightail it out of their country, where he has been living (hiding) at a secluded seminary. Pope Benedict XVI sparked an international row after reinstating the bishop, who denies the mass gassing of Jews during the Holocaust.

From the Argentine Minister of the Interior:

“Williamson has had public notoriety following his anti-Semitic statements to Swedish media in which he questioned whether Jewish people were victims of the Holocaust. For these reasons, along with the strong condemnation from the Argentine government of how statements like these harm Argentine society, the Jewish community, and all of humanity by trying to deny a historic truth, the national government has decided to demand that the Bishop leave the country or be expelled.”

Maybe there is a small amount of justice in this life, after all.

Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel recently joined the chorus criticizing the Pope's decision:

“What does the pope think we feel when he did that? That a man who is a bishop and Holocaust denier -- and today of course the most vulgar aspect of anti-Semitism is Holocaust denial -- and for the pope to go that far and do what he did, knowing what he knows, is disturbing,” Wiesel said by telephone from New York.

In other news of Holocaust denial --- or perhaps more accurately, avoidance of admitting responsibility --- France's highest court finally recognized the role of the Vichy government in deporting Jews to Nazi camps in the east, and called for “solemn recognition of the state’s responsibility and of collective prejudice suffered.” Better late than never.