Hungarian Auschwitz denier ordered to study Holocaust

BUDAPEST, Hungary — A Hungarian prosecutor has ordered a man to read up on the Holocaust after he shared a picture on social media depicting Auschwitz as an imaginary fun camp.

The 33-year-old, from Gyongyos east of Budapest, must visit a Holocaust museum and read a well-known history book on the period, the chief prosecutor in Heves county said in a statement Tuesday.

The picture, made by an unknown person, showed the entrance to the former death camp in Poland with the sign “Auschwitzland, the world’s largest fairytale camp!” and was seen by around 4,000 people.

To avoid criminal charges, the man must also convince supervisors over a two-year period that he is unlikely to repeat the act, the prosecutor said.

In February 2010, the Hungarian parliament made denying the genocide committed by the Nazi regime a crime punishable by a maximum three-year prison sentence.

Suspending jail sentences or the pressing of criminal charges on condition of fulfilling certain tasks is common in Hungary since a reform of the country’s criminal code in 2012.