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Creator of Internet Auschwitz rave clip on trial in Holland

Updated: 22/May/2006 17:43

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THE HAGUE (EJP)--- A student who used images of the concentration camp at Auschwitz in a hoax publicity video for a techno rave will be prosecuted for discrimination, a prosecution spokeswoman said Monday.

The student, identified as the 23-year-old Dickie Thijssen by Dutch media, will appear before a magistrate Wednesday, Jechien de Graaf of the Rotterdam prosecutor's office said.

If convicted he faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a 4,500 euros fine.

Thijssen, who is living in the southwest of the country, apologised extensively on the internet for the offence caused by his video.

The clip, which was widely circulated on the Internet last year, purported to give details of a techno music festival called "Housewitz", a reference to techno "house" music.

Horrific pictures

It used images of the Auschwitz death camp in German-occupied Poland, turning the famous slogan above the main gate "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Shall Set You Free) into "Tanzen Macht Frei" (Dance Shall Set You Free).

The clip announced the DJ’s Michel der Heidi and Adolf Von Bauren with Sieg Heil, and spoke about “seven million party people, set their body’s on fire”, and said the dresscode was “skinny Jew”.

It also included many horrific pictures of the gas chambers with statements such as “hot showers, free of charge” and “train stops at party ground”.

1.1 million people were killed by the Nazis in Auschwitz-Birkenau during WWII, mostly European Jews.

The film says the dance party was due to take place in The Netherlands on May 4, the day on which the nation commemorates victims of war, but was in any event a hoax since no such party was ever planned or held.

The film was met with outrage by the Dutch justice ministry, the Auschwitz museum and the Polish foreign ministry.

The spokesman said at the time that the authorities would examine the film to “check if its content is discriminatory.”

In August last year, the Dutch Internet-regulating body decided to bring charges against the site that was putting out the video.

But the weblog geenstijl.nl refused to remove the clip with a so called ‘educational’ argument: “This clip shows how our educational system has failed.”