France's Le Pen Angry at Father for Defending 'gas Chamber' Comment

Tensions between French National Front leader Marine Le Pen and her father Jean-Marie worsened on Thursday as the 86-year-old founder of the far-right party defended having described Nazi gas chambers as a "detail of history". In a television interview, Jean-Marie Le Pen defended a 1996 comment that gas chambers used to kill Jews in the Holocaust were "merely a detail in the history of World War Two", a remark for which he was convicted of inciting racial hatred and fined. While other FN officials have been stripped of their party membership for racism, there has been no move to bar Jean-Marie Le Pen from a party of which he still holds the title of honorary president.