The former vice-president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Michel Friedman, has filed charges against extreme-rightist Horst Mahler, who greeted him with “Heil Hitler” at the beginning of an interview during which he denied the Holocaust.

“Heil Hitler, Mr Friedman!,” said former lawyer Horst Mahler, according to a press release issued by the German edition of the American magazine Vanity Fair.

Friedman, a journalist and lawyer, interviewed Mahler for the trendy magazine about his roots as a founding member of the extreme-left Red Army Faction (RAF) on the occasion of the 30 years of the bloody “German autumn,” during which the terrorist group traumatized Germany.

Mahler, who is known for his provocative attitude and has been convicted several times for inciting to hatred, has turned to the other extreme of the political chessboard.

“During the interview which lasted two hours, Mahler denied the Holocaust,” Vanity Fair said. The interview in German was published last Thursday and is online.

“The systematic extermination of Jews in Auschwitz is a lie,” 71-year-old Mahler said.

He called Adolf Hitler “the savior of the German people,” but “not only of the German people.”

He said he recognizes the “German laws of the Reich,” according to Vanity Fair.

Michel Friedman filed a charge against Mahler.

Both denial of the Holocaust and Hitlerian salute in public are punished by German law.

In May 2004, Mahler was sentenced to a 7,800 euro penalty for defending the September 11 terrorist attacks.

(Source: Vanity Fair / EJP Press)