-Holocaust-denying British historian David Irving accused Polish authorities of turning Auschwitz into a "Disney-style" tourist site, as he defended his own trip to a Nazi death camp.
Irving, who was jailed in Austria in 2006 for denying the Holocaust, told the Daily Mail newspaper that Poland had turned the camp at Auschwitz into a "money-making machine" complete with fake watchtowers.
"I have been a historian for 40 years, I know a fake when I see it, when you look at old photographs of Auschwitz, those towers aren't on the photographs,' he told the paper, adding the camp had a "Disney" atmosphere.
Irving spoke out after criticism over a week-long guided tour of Nazi sites he is leading to Poland from September 21-29. Irving plans to lead a guided Nazi occupation history tour, costing about 2,000 Euros per person for those who participate.
He was responding to claims that his tours were "tasteless," saying that it was the Polish government that was being tasteless by promoting Auschwitz as a tourist attraction.
The tour is about to include a visit to the Treblinka death camp, the Warsaw Ghetto and the Warsaw Pawiak prison, as well as Hitler's and SS commander Himmler's respective headquarters.
In the brochure published on his Focal Point Publications website, Irving said it was an "unforgettable journey" and a chance to see real history.
"Forget the phoney allures, mass-tourism and 'reconstructions' of modern-day Auschwitz -- the erstwhile slave-labour camp turned into a tourist attraction, complete with hot-dog vendors and souvenir stands," he wrote.
Irving told the Daily Mail that the trip -- which costs 2,650 dollars (2,000 euros) excluding flights -- was so popular he had to turn people away, and he was planning to repeat the journey every two years.
The Polish Embassy in London confirmed media reports of Irving’s plan. An embassy spokesman reported that both British and Polish secret services will monitor Irving’s movements but authorities cannot legally prevent him from entering Poland. He will be traveling with regular American and British tourists.
Linda Paterson, chief executive of Yad Vashem in Britain considered Irving's presence at the concentration camps “inappropriate and confrontational”.
Irving rejected the label of "Holocaust denier".
"There is no question that the Nazis killed millions of people in these camps. When people call me a Holocaust denier I get quite hot under the collar," he told the newspaper.
The historian was sentenced in 2006 by an Austrian court to three years in jail for denying the Holocaust, but he was released and deported to Britain after serving only one year.
The charges stemmed from two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 where he said most of those who died at Nazi concentration camps were not executed, but instead succumbed to diseases like typhus.